Whatcom steering committee agrees to pilot work-group model, sets transparency and reporting rules

Steering committee co-chairs Heather (IPRTF co-chair) and Peter (IPRTF co-chair) and members agreed on Monday to pilot a shift toward smaller, goal-focused work groups for 2026 while keeping public transparency and committee oversight.

The committee embraced the work-group model used on the Behavioral Care Center (BCC) as a proven way to make progress, and discussed written procedures to ensure groups produce deliverables and report back. "If they are not gonna be, if that work is not gonna be done in those committees, then, we're gonna need work groups," Peter said, describing the proposal as a response to workload and the need for concrete outputs.

Why it matters: Steering members said work groups have yielded faster, more detailed recommendations than formal committees, but several members warned that moving discussions outside formal committee meetings reduces public visibility unless offset by clear reporting requirements.

Committee members proposed formal rules for any work group formed in 2026: a short charter aligned to one of the IPRTF's 10 goals, an identified lead responsible for driving the work, at least one IPRTF member present on the group, a defined timeline, and required minutes or summary reports to be delivered to the sponsoring committee and the IPRTF. "I put together a proposal for [the BCC work group] with really tight goals and expectations, and a process and a timeline," Peter said. "And then having one person, myself, responsible for driving that work group forward'that's part of the secret sauce."

Several members pressed for safeguards to preserve public engagement. Tasha (steering committee member) asked that proposals coming from work groups be reviewed publicly by the sponsoring committee before being forwarded to the county council. Jill (staff member) flagged a legal risk: the current draft of the legislative work-group proposal could be read to bypass IPRTF review and "trigger some OPMA issues," referring to the state Open Public Meetings Act. Jill asked that the language be adjusted so recommendations from work groups come to the IPRTF for public review before any action by the council or executive.

Members also focused on composition and inclusion. "It is critical that whenever we're doing a work group that we bring the right people to the table," Peter said, adding that the model's value depends on having a diversity of perspectives and subject-matter experts in the room. Tasha and others urged explicit attention to representational balance so that, for example, social-service-focused groups also include criminal-justice stakeholders when the topic intersects both domains.

Next steps: The steering committee asked staff to draft a short protocol template for work-group formation that includes membership questions, required deliverables, reporting cadence, and a linkage to JPOP (Justice Project Oversight and Planning) for public-engagement support. Several members volunteered to pilot a diversion-focused work group in 2026, citing diversion program capacity as central to planning the county's jail and behavioral care center sizes.