BELLINGHAM — The story of Isaac Lee Zamora echoed throughout a conversation with political candidates on the state’s laws on mental illness, programs and funding and how to reform them.

As state senators, representatives and candidates for open seats answered questions from the Whatcom and Skagit chapters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), they continually referred to the man suspected of killing six and injuring four in a string of violence ranging from Alger to Mount Vernon.

NAMI’s Skagit President Marti Wall and Whatcom NAMI President Benita Bowen moderated the forum at the St. Luke’s Community Health Education Center in Bellingham.

There were 50 audience members and 11 candidates or representatives present, including state representatives Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes, and Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, and 40th District senate hopefuls Kevin Ranker and Steve Van Luven.

Bowen and Wall asked each candidate what they would do to reform the involuntary commitment laws to match other states that have made it easier to commit those with mental illness.

“So much of what has happened with mental illness in the government has not led to very good results,” Bowen said. “We only need to think about what has happened in Alger to know that that is very true.”

Van Luven criticized the judicial system that required Zamora to find payment for his own mental health evaluation in a cocaine possession conviction in May.

Zamora was working with a community corrections officer in the three weeks before Sept. 2 to find and pay for a mental health evaluation. Van Luven felt the state should have had a stronger role in arranging and paying for the evaluation.

“This was a mentally ill person who had no job and he lived in the woods,” Van Luven said. “Guess who ought to be paying for that?”

He also argued that the definition of “imminent danger” needs to be redefined in the involuntary commitment laws. Patients with mental illness should be considered an “imminent danger” — within 24 hours — to themselves or others should be involuntarily held at a hospital. Van Luven said civil rights are important for the patient, but there are consequences to public safety.

“Let’s not forget about the civil rights of the six individuals who are dead,” Van Luven said. “Civil rights go two ways. I don’t want to give away my civil rights to someone who may kill me tomorrow.”

Van Luven’s opponent, Ranker, argued that front-end treatment could save money spent at prisons and emergency rooms. Ranker said that an early intervention program pays hundreds of dollars a day for treatment.

“Once those people are in the prison system, it’s in the thousands of dollars,” Ranker said. “In the long run we will save money as a state by fully funding mental health program.”

Quall proposed that mental health advocates associated with NAMI meet with a committee of legislatures to address the issue.

“What we need to do more of is for you to come and us to set up to interact and talk about this,” Quall said.

Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .