The Tacoma City Council met on August 20, 2024, at 5:00 PM in the Council Chambers. The meeting included adoption of consent agenda items, proclamations, recognition of Bruce Kendall, a presentation by Jobs 253 interns, public comments, approval of a $1.5 million settlement, appointments, purchase resolutions, and a first reading on an ordinance to extend the South Tacoma Groundwater Protection District moratorium. A council statement responding to the Tacoma Pierce County Coalition letter to the Department of Justice was also adopted.
I would like to call to order the city council meeting of August 20th, 2024. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Bushnell. President Councilmember Daniels. Councilmember Diaz. Deputy Mayor Hines. Here. Councilmember Rumba. Here. Councilmember Sidalgay. Here. Councilmember Scott. Here. Councilmember Walker. Here. Mayor Woodards. Here. Please join me in listening to the land acknowledgement and the flag salute led by Councilmember Diaz, followed by a moment of silence. We gratefully honor and acknowledge that we rest on the traditional lands of the Pialla people where they speak their home or where they make their home and speak the Lashut Seed language. Please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence. I'm glad we sue the flag of the United States of America. And so they're outlet for which stance mode under God agenda modifications. We have two modifications to tonight's agenda. Item number 14 to consider a substitute resolution 41512 to revive several council member appointments. And item 18A, consideration of a motion to adopt a statement of the council. The proposed substitution resolution can be found of city at cityofdachoma.org/slash council meetings. Any wish anyone wishing to comment on resolution number 41512 may do so during public comment. Are there any additional modifications to the agenda this evening? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. I move I move to adopt the consent agenda, including resolutions resolutions number 41510 and 41511. Second. All right, are there any council questions, comments, or corrections? All right, Councilmember Sidalgi, I'm gonna call on you. Hi. Um so this is in regard to resolution 41510, and it's really fun to be voting on accepting money instead of spending money, so that's kind of fun. Uh, but I did want to talk about this. Um the McKinley Overlook project was identified by the community through a deep process of co-creation. Um uh through the McKinley neighborhood plan. And if you're not from the east side or from the area, you may not know why this project is so important. Um the McKinley Overlook has tragically been a really unsafe place where multiple homicides have occurred, and neighbors are really afraid to go to. Uh this project aims to transform this area to a place that celebrates Tacoma, the port, and the ancestral home of the Piala people. And in so doing, bringing positivity to our community. As we uh vote to authorize this um agreement, let's also take a moment to recognize and celebrate that the construction for it started yesterday. It looks awesome, actually. Um just to remind the rest of the council and and people listening. The project will narrow the street, it will deep, it'll add new amenities, including landscaping, new trash cans, and lighting. It'll provide ADA accessible sidewalks and ramps, which we sorely need to allow everyone to experience the beauty of that view. Uh further activation in the next year will include uh community uh community planting day, temporary and permanent art, interpretive signage, and wayfinding sites uh signage and viewfinders, and I believe specifically the viewfinders is what this uh amount of money is going to uh support. Um I've had the opportunity of joining the McKinney uh community members and neighborhood uh planning team to be part of the public life evaluation.