Salish Current News Editor Sam Fletcher sits down with the recently elected Whatcom County Council District 3 representative in Nooksack.
Edited for clarity.
SC: Tell me about yourself, your history in Whatcom and your Dutch heritage.
JR: I was born and raised in Whatcom County. I’ve lived in rural Whatcom County most of my life. I grew up in Lynden with a very strong Fries family from the Netherlands. My grandfather, Simon Rienstra, came over with his family from Friesland. And then my father, Robert Rienstra, stayed in the Lynden area and grew up there. And then my mom moved to the United States when she was in her 20s.
Lynden is a phenomenal town, but it definitely is very steeped in cultural tradition, and I love that about it. And then I also think observing the difficulties of other parents, not really fitting in that was a unique kind of juxtaposition of, “oh, OK, this is an amazing, awesome town, and it’s also uncomfortable for some people to fit into.” I think there can be, especially growing up, this narrative around city versus county or Bellingham versus really acknowledging and understanding and growing up. There’s a wide variety of diversity throughout all of our cities and throughout all of our county, and leaning into that and enjoying it, and especially with a lot of our current work on the county finding ways to highlight and support and respect that gets us hopefully to a better place together.
SC: What kind of stories did you hear growing up about Whatcom County and how did they shape your own pathway?
JR: I don’t know, especially younger, if I was that politically in tune. It was something other people figured out, and I was just very involved in our local church group and I think that had its own kind of strong community support there. There’s a lot of small-town pride. And I think even now having lived in Nooksack for six years or so, the way that we show up and take care of one another is really impressive. One of the reasons that I did get more involved locally was after the 2021 flood and seeing we are incredibly strong. The organization of the community, when they come together and work on something, is phenomenal. Whatever I can do to encourage, support, strength and lean into that, I want to live in that space.
I work in health care and have for about 20 years. I worked for quite a while as a nursing assistant. I kind of like slowly changed through school. I got my (Licensed Practical Nurse) at (Bellingham Technical College), then got my (Registered Nurse) at BTC, then finally went back to (Western Washington University) and got my bachelor’s. And then finally, finally went back and got my nurse practitioners at Gonzaga. I think having those opportunities for development and personal growth, especially in career spaces, is really important. It definitely changed my entire life and allowed me to focus on interests and not just the day-to-day survival of paycheck to paycheck living, which I think a lot of us have or are currently facing still. And that also strengthens our team. So looking at how we can make sure those opportunities are presented to anybody and everybody who is able or wants to step into any sort of career advancement like that.
The work in health care I’ve been doing the last four or five years is around addressing the syndemic, a crossover of different disease processes, you have them at the same time, you have these compounding worsening outcomes. And so we have had this big campaign about eliminating the syndemics in Indian country. So, vulnerable populations who generally are more rural and farther away from health care who are facing a lot more of these compound issues on top of each other. The longer I’ve worked in that field, the more I’ve heard from other professionals and individuals about how we actually won’t ever be able to eliminate, we’ll only be able to mitigate the risk unless we have the systems and policies in place that support this work. That was another point of turning inward from state or national work to, how can I locally impact policies and systems to make sure that we’re having the best potential outcomes to our health care?
SC: It’s been just over a month since you took office. Has anything surprised you?
JR: The flood right before going into it was fairly, it wasn’t destabilizing, but I entered into it far more vulnerable just having gone through this massive crisis. My neighbors are still not living in their homes. It’s heartbreaking, and I was talking to a few people about it because I feel maybe a little bit more emotional than I was anticipating making some of these decisions. But it is because they’re so closely tied to the well-being of my next-door neighbors and people I care about, people I love and their families. And I hope that I don’t lose that ability to be really emotionally moved. Maybe I wasn’t planning to be choked up about some things, but I do really think that kindness and strength go hand in hand.
SC: One of the things that you are focused on is transparency. Can you elaborate on that and explain possible solutions?
JR: Some of it is just being really honest, right? I don’t have every answer. I don’t know every solution, but I am here. I care very deeply and I’m very committed to working with folks who are experts in this field and to push us forward to be making as much progress as quickly as we can. And I think it’s uncomfortable to state that you don’t know everything, right? But it is also true. And I think if we don’t feel comfortable asking questions that maybe make us acknowledge that vulnerability, then we’re missing some of that growth.
Council member (Jon) Scanlon and others have done these community meetings where they’re going to different parts of the county to meet with community members. And I would definitely encourage more folks to go.
SC: At a meeting earlier this month the council showed support for House Bill 2520 which provides the opportunity for authorities to meet in private during an emergency. Why is that different?
JR: I think that is to allow people to meet in emergent situations. That was a new bill to me. I definitely think the intention is important so that even when my home was flooded and folks were like, “Hey, can we come help?” I had to be really careful not to say, “Oh yes, all three of these people can come and show up in the same space in the same day.” I would certainly hope that it’s not used in a way to decrease transparency and that it could still very much be noticed to the public. But I believe the time frame on noticing open public meetings, there definitely could be a prohibitive impact there if there’s a crisis that needs to be addressed. I think it should be used very cautiously. I see its benefit, especially given our kind of rates and situations, but I think definitely not something to be abused.
SC: What are the largest issues the county faces right now?
JR: Affordability is massive. How can we make enough money to pay our bills and pay our rent or our mortgage and then sustainably continue to do that in our current kind of economy? And obviously that’s impacted at a much larger level than just county, but that is something that I’m seeing impact folks the most and then kind of in tandem with that I guess which I touched on a little bit is the importance of fighting isolation and not just physical right but leaning into being a community member, getting to know your neighbors. There’s a huge amount of safety in that, and I also think that’s where we can really gain strength and organize as a body of people and be able to get the most good done so they’re kind of on separate sides I guess, but I do see them impacting each other so fighting against a lot of the division that some of the fear brings up and leaning into, “how can I have compassion and care for and learn from someone who thinks really differently than me and then how can we together even in our massive differences work to fight the crisis that we’re facing?”
SC: I don’t expect you to fix affordability, but where do we go from here? You are in the process of reviewing (Urban Growth Areas), so that’s going to hopefully pave the way. What else can be done?
JR: There are a ton of tiny steps we can take while we also push for this larger affordability in housing. Especially within the cities, they’re looking at urban villages and little housing and creating more density, and I think that’s great. When we’re looking at planning and we’re looking at safety and viability of certain land use for decades, not just for the next 10 years, that plays into long-term affordability if we’re not continuing funding these multimillion-dollar crisis responses. And if folks are able to have a stable and growing investment versus continually dumping back into fixing their house up over and over again.
I think that there’s an opportunity with some of the economic development or the (Economic Development Investment) funds to also be looking at how can we also fund the repair of currently affordable housing? So not just always making new, but there are houses that are currently affordable for folks and can we take steps and measures to ensure that they’re able to keep those homes very safe, reliable, secure and functioning to maintain the affordable housing we do already have? I think the part of it I touched on earlier was looking at those opportunities for folks who are interested, so whether it’s apprenticeship programs or internships.
Again, these are all very small pieces, but I think when we are investing heavily in a lot of the different areas, allowing folks to have access to career training that would potentially put them in a place where they can be a bit more comfortably situated, while we’re looking at how we can be making the biggest impact and creating the most access to affordable housing, because I don’t think it can just be affordable, it has to be accessible as well, are two really big parts of it for me.
SC: The county council is supposedly nonpartisan, but it also now has a “progressive supermajority.” What does that mean?
JR: A lot of the items that we are voting on impact our community regardless of partisanship. I think we all are struggling with affordability. I think we all are looking for ways to feel safe and make sure our families are safe and taken care of, making sure that our homes are secure and safe, that we have access to food, healthcare and resources. And so I think there’s a variety of views on how we get there, but I would say the work that we do on whole is very of universal in impact. And yeah, I have heard some unique language and narrative around the majority.
Council member (Tyler) Byrd has been really generous with his time and talking to me, and we have very uniquely different positions on many things. But his opinion was even that if you look back at the voting records, the majority of votes are 7–0 or 6–1. And then certain things that were 4–3 were already going to pass at 4–3.
I don’t want to invalidate anyone’s fears because change can be scary. And I think especially if there’s a change in a particular seat where someone maybe who you felt represented you and then someone new, you’re not sure how they represent you, happens, I think that it’s fair to have curiosity and fear and uncertainty. But I would say to kind of lean in a little bit harder to look at what is it that’s really impacting us? How are we all fighting for that? And I think people will find over time that it is just another unique makeup of the council, as it has been for decades and decades, where there have been a unique buildup of backgrounds of folks who are on the council. Right now there’s a really unique group of folks with really varied backgrounds, and I really like that. I think there’s significant expertise that everybody brings to the table and that’s pretty exciting to me.
SC: Anything else you would like to say?
JR: It’s a significant honor. It’s incredibly humbling to be in this position, and I’m certainly not going to have everything done perfectly. I’ve tried to be open with folks. I’m here to do my absolute best to work on in earnest and to do everything I can.
I want this to be a very collaborative process as much as is possible. I think that’ll represent our community needs the best versus one ideology. Ultimately, the decisions I make, whether or not everyone supports them, I’m always happy to go back and kind of explain why I got there. And it will always be because, with the information I have in front of me at the time, that’s what is the safest and best choice for the people. The neighbors I have, the family I love, the community I love, but I anticipate it will be a massive growing experience as well and so I’m kind of asking inviting people to go on the journey with me I guess share their knowledge ask questions as well. Let’s learn more together and really lean into this.
— Sam Fletcher
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Planning commission, cities clash over urban growth,” Feb. 16, 2026
• “Flood response increases in Whatcom County,” Feb. 6, 2026
• “Council member proposes Nooksack adjudication settlement,” Jan. 15, 2026
• “‘Two-headed hydra’ worsens regional flooding ,” Dec. 19, 2025
• “Devastated after flooding, north Whatcom County moves into recovery mode,” Dec. 3, 2021