Clallam County, City of Sequim to withdraw from ICLEI
by Sue Forde
Citizen Review Online
October 19, 2011
Clallam County, WA – For “budgetary” reasons, both Clallam County and the City of Sequim have decided not to renew their payments to ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability (formerly International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), which conforms to the United Nations Agenda 21 and references it in its documents.
According to a report in the Sequim Gazette "Local ties to ICLEI fading" (10/19/2011), the people’s voice played a role in the decision to withdraw from ICLEI. Local citizens have recently appeared before the County Commissioners to protest the membership in the organization which promotes Agenda 21 and endorses the Earth Charter – both of which are in opposition to individual freedoms.
“Officials with the city and the county say they’ve listened to the complaints, but none were willing to say they played a part in their decision to let their ICLEI membership lapse,” the Gazette reported. County Administrator Jim Jones called the matter “trivial”, but stated “What’s not trivial is the right to free speech. The commissioners are rightly taking the people’s opinion into consideration.”
According to the Gazette’s article, County Commissioner Steve Tharinger (D) said he doesn’t “buy into” the notion that the U.N. is seeking to determine or influence county policy. And Jones called the idea of a “plot” to “take over the Constitution and the United States…It’s just a little ridiculous.”
According to the ICLEI website, “Our programs and projects promote participatory, long-term, strategic planning process that address local sustainability while protecting global common goods. This approach links local action to internationally agreed-upon goals and targets such as: Agenda 21. (1)
On August 30, 2011, Clallam County Republican Party Chairman Dick Pilling presented a Resolution to Withdraw from ICLEI passed unanimously by the local Republican Party.
The Concerned Citizens of Clallam County (FourC) has invited speakers to inform citizens about UN Agenda 21 and all that it entails, including the changing consumption patterns, achieving significant changes in the consumption patterns of industries, governments, households and individuals (2); promoting human settlement development, which promotes moving populations away from rural areas and into cities (3), and many other areas that adversely affects our sovereignty as a nation, and has no business in our county government. On September 26th, Clint Didier spoke about the effects of Agenda 21 on farming; and Sharon Hanek, a researcher on education and Agenda 21, will be speaking at the FourC meeting on Oct. 24th at the Boys and Girls Club in Sequim at 7 p.m.
ICLEI also endorses the Earth Charter (4) which incorporates such areas as "Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living;” "a global civil society”; a "shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community;” to "ensure a sustainable livelihood”; and "...moral and spiritual education for sustainable living."
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1 ICLEI Global – Our Themes – A worldwide movement of local governments (http://iclei.org/index.php?id=global-themes)
2 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Division for Sustainable Development – Changing Consumption Patterns http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_04.shtml
3 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Division for Sustainable Development – Promoting Sustainable Human Settlement Development
http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_07.shtml
(4) The Earth Charter Initative: Local Communities and Governments.