Vashon’s community council officially signaled its support for the proposed Thunderbird Treatment Center during its meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19.
The main event of the evening was a resolution for the council, a voting body that represents the interests of islanders to King County, to endorse the Seattle Indian Health Board’s efforts to bring the facility to Vashon.
The attending public (made up of more than 60 in-person attendees and roughly 150 Zoom participants) voted nearly unanimously to decide the matter in “good faith voting” — in other words, to trust that the attending public who did vote on the motion were all members of the community council.
But dune deSmet, a member of Friends of Thunderbird who raised the original motion, withdrew it just before the vote, telling the council that they did not want the matter to be a source of warring sides and consternation for the island.
“Our intent is to make visible the incredible support for the Thunderbird treatment center on Vashon … not to be divisive or polarizing in the community,” deSmet said. “We have a deep belief that Thunderbird treatment center will benefit our community.”
However, other attendees objected to deSmet’s attempt to withdraw the motion — one of whom, islander Jamie Wolf, said the motion was important and represented a way to “show up in celebration” with the Health Board and demonstrate support of the facility.
The council ultimately voted 97-26 in support of the motion, a resounding show of support for the treatment center. (deSmet and the Friends of Thunderbird voted in support of the motion because it came to a vote regardless.)
“We are grateful to the Vashon-Maury Community Council for their thoughtful decision to support the Seattle Indian Health Board’s efforts in opening the Thunderbird Treatment Center,” said Shelley Means (Ojibwe/Lakota), board member of the Seattle Indian Health Board and Vashon resident, in a statement.
The center will provide critical, culturally attuned care, Means said, and be a step toward healing and wellness in the community.
“We look forward to continuing working with the Vashon community and seeing the positive impact it will have on so many lives,” Means said.
The community council also voted 63-35 to formally request the King County council and executive to conduct a public meeting for islanders about zoning changes in the striking amendment released this summer for the county’s comprehensive plan update — a request which Vashon’s county council member Teresa Mosqueda accepted the next day.
“The request from the Vashon-Maury Community Council comes at a perfect time to clarify information, share how we are adjusting language based on further community engagement, and receive additional feedback,” Mosqueda wrote in an email.
The councilmember will host a virtual meeting from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8. Islanders can sign up for the meeting by visiting surveymonkey.com/r/vashon-meeting. Comments on the plan can always be submitted to Teresa.Mosqueda@kingcounty.gov.
Discussion over that motion was shorter. Supporters said it was an uncontroversial and open-minded invitation to the county to help the island understand a complicated planning process — especially given recent changes proposed to the plan in the county council’s striking amendments which would affect Vashon. Plus, they pointed out, county officials were free to decline, and there was no harm in asking.
Those who disagreed argued that residents have had plenty of time to ask and answer questions over the multi-year comprehensive plan process, and that county officials were likely to be too busy to accept the invitation.
The Beachcomber will publish an in-depth article about proposed changes to the comprehensive plan in next week’s edition, ahead of the community meeting with Mosqueda.
Islanders talk Thunderbird
In contrast to the August community council meeting — which saw passionate speeches and rounds of applause from islanders about the Thunderbird Treatment Center — last week’s meeting was a calmer, more detail-oriented affair, and by-and-large a show of support to the Seattle Indian Health Board.
Most speakers expressed enthusiasm and support for the facility. Several raised concerns about specifics like transportation, which the Health Board has publicly pledged to address.
“Vashon is an incredible place to live … and now we’re about to be part of a regional solution to an awful problem,” said Yve Susskind, a member of the Friends of Thunderbird group.
Susskind noted how drug and alcohol deaths have climbed in recent years in King County — and yet, at the same time, the number of beds for people with mental illness to recover has tumbled in that same time frame.
Thunderbird will treat addiction, which is itself a driver of medical emergencies, Susskind said. And she rejected claims that the Health Board would somehow “get away with doing something else” other than its stated plans to run a Community Residential Facility — which county officials have deemed an acceptable use of the property.
“This is a heavily regulated industry, and a heavily monitored industry,” Susskind said. “SIHB has been successfully providing community focused, culturally attuned care in the broader King County area for over 50 years. … As a community, we need to give them the respect and support that they deserve.”
Islander and attorney David Vogel shared his own story of a client who died recently because she couldn’t get into an inpatient treatment facility: “If Thunderbird had been available for her on this island two years ago, this person would still be alive,” Vogel said.
Islander and Vashon Loop co-owner and editor Andy Valencia said he wasn’t there to express an opinion on the facility, but rather expressed caution over the council formally taking a side on the issue.
“Once this organization becomes politically active, it’s hard to get back out of that,” he said. “It will stop being valuable as a community council, and will just be another political activism organization.”
Several speakers — both supportive and critical of the proposed facility — asked whether the island’s infrastructure of emergency response, transportation system, limited water and access to other services could support it, along with the challenges island businesses and organizations already face in getting consistent staffing.
“I’m passionate about this subject,” one speaker said. “I’ve got 38 years of sobriety this year. … I am with keeping the rural community rural. This facility does not belong on Vashon Island. … I believe there’s more services on I-5 — we need these kind of facilities on the bus system, where there’s a concentration of services, not Vashon Island. … I’m speaking against this facility and not against people with dependency.”
Islander Armen Yousoufian shared concerns over how beds at Thunderbird would be divvied up, and whether any beds would be set aside for local islanders — and whether the facility could operate on the existing amount of water shares currently allotted to the property.
“I’m a supporter of this business coming to Vashon, and I support its mission … and I’m evaluating it like any other big business that’s going to have an impact on the community,” said islander Rick Shrum. “What can we ask of this organization? … I just would love to have a conversation where all those pieces are on the table.”
Islander Lynn DeBar, a clinical psychologist and behavioral healthcare provider, gave a positive review of the Health Board.
“I wanted to say that the reputation of the Seattle Indian Health Board nationally is phenomenal,” DeBar said. “And I would also say for residential treatment centers, somewhere like Vashon is ideal. If you have an outpatient program, yes, you need to be close to services, but we have an environment here that is incredibly healing.”
Several speakers said Thunderbird represented a way for Vashon to demonstrate cooperation and trust with the Indigenous community — especially given the regional legacy of forced removal and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous people. (The Swift Water People were removed by the Washington Territorial Government during the Treaty War of 1845-55, and in 1865 the Seattle Board of Trustees approved an ordinance calling for the expulsion of all Native Americans from the region.)
“[Vashon is] a loving community, and I would hate to see us lose our values out of fear,” said islander David Warren. “To me, the people who will be in this facility, receiving treatment … are my brothers and sisters.”
Islander Shelley Means (Ojibwe/Lakota), who is a member of SIHB’s board of directors, spoke to the possibilities that Thunderbird could hold.
“I support this treatment center because I believe all people deserve help,” Means said. “All people deserve healing. Addiction is a sickness. … The SIHB has changed lives. … If you really want to understand the gift of traditional Indian medicine that is coming to Vashon Island: It’s about love, it’s about respect, it’s about relationships and being in a relationship with one another. And I just encourage you all to remain open to that beautiful possibility.”
“I see this (Thunderbird) as a tremendously beautiful opportunity,” Islander and educator Jamie Wolf said. “Putting signs in our front yard is one thing. This is actually an opportunity for us to stand up and say that we support Indigenous people in recovery, which was in large part caused by colonization, by white people, and trauma. … It’s our opportunity to stand up and say: Yes, we celebrate you coming here. We support you 100 percent. How can we help?”
Also on Sept. 19, the community council board:
• Introduced Ann Thorn as the newest member of the council’s board of directors. (The council voted unanimously to have her join the board.) Thorne, now retired, spent her career in developing defibrillators.
• Shared the results of a re-vote on Katy Ballard’s motion from the August meeting. The revote, held electronically to ensure its fairness, was 76 to 139 — the motion did not pass on the revote. (The motion also failed in its original vote.)
