Tacoma City Council Special Meeting on 2025-2026 Biennial Budget Amendments - November 20, 2024
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Tacoma City Council Special Meeting on 2025-2026 Biennial Budget Amendments - November 20, 2024
This special meeting of the Tacoma City Council was held on November 20, 2024, to discuss and vote on amendments to the 2025-2026 preliminary biennial budget. The meeting included public comment, a debrief on the budget public hearings, a presentation on budget risks and structural gaps, and consideration of multiple council-proposed amendments. After extensive debate, the council voted on a series of amendments, while a major proposal regarding fire department rover positions was withdrawn for further refinement.
Public Comments & Testimony
- David Strodell (Director, Downtown Tacoma Partnership): Expressed strong support for economic development investments and asked the council to continue funding the retail advocate position, noting the city has added 356 positions since 2022 while economic development funding has not kept pace.
- Patrick McEliott (Tacoma Firefighter): Corrected statements from the previous night: clarified that the department uses engines from 1955, not that they drive such engines; station five is a reopened station, not new; said wages were not an issue; argued the council is cutting 16 positions; stated delayed response times lead to poor outcomes, not that council members were murderers. Urged the council to show its values through the budget.
- Sherry Celine West End (Resident): Requested a visual map (like the fire levy map) showing where city funds are spent, so property taxpayers can see the distribution. She said she would promote this idea for all future levies and budgets.
- Sally Perkins (Resident): Noted the disconnect between city leadership and Union 31 (firefighters) hurt the fire levy vote. Urged the council to sit down in good faith to invest effectively in fire services and community supports like the Hope Team.
- Timothy Villa (Resident and city employee): Acknowledged the difficulty of balancing the budget. Expressed hope for positive outcomes and a strong partnership between the city and firefighters, noting the EMS levy passed but little changed in service.
- Matt Frank (Tacoma Firefighter and resident): Emphasized that the 4.2 million dollar cut (for rovers) also impacts fleet maintenance and the ability to do jobs. Expressed disappointment that the council’s comments the prior night were out of context and that there was no opportunity for dialogue.
Discussion Items
- Debrief of the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget Public Hearings: City budget staff summarized outreach efforts and themes from the two public hearings (October 29 and November 19). Topics included: community safety, affordable housing, homelessness, business taxes, climate action, and equity. Notable: 42 public commenters at the first hearing (12 on TFD, 9 on Vision Zero, 7 on senior centers); 72 public commenters at the second hearing (58 on TFD, 17 on senior centers). Written comments also received.
- Budget Discussion and Risk Slide: City Manager Elizabeth Pauli presented the budget challenges: a 24 million dollar structural gap closed with expense reductions, revenue increases, and fund balance use; ongoing risks including overtime costs for police and fire (potentially 7-9 million), capital facility repair needs (6 million per year), and the temporary shelter site extension (6 million for 12 months). Council discussed the severity of the structural deficit and the need for ongoing revenue solutions.
- Council Budget Amendments: Each council member presented proposed amendments. Key debates centered on funding the fire department rover positions (16 rovers at 4.2 million), with Deputy Mayor Hines proposing a combination of reducing the mental health fund transfer and using opioid settlement funds, but this was withdrawn after discussion. Other amendments covered community investments, public safety, and infrastructure.
Key Outcomes
- Grand Cinema Capital Campaign (Mayor Woodards): Approved $50,000 from the 2025-2026 council contingency budget for the purchase of the Merlino building. Passed (9-0).
- Summer Late Nights Program (Mayor Woodards): Approved $150,000 from the BRAVE (Building Resilience Against Youth Violence and Exploitation) program to fully fund the program for one year, pending permanent funding. Passed (9-0).
- Downtown Tacoma Partnership Retail Advocate (Mayor Woodards): Approved $42,500 from unspent 2023-2024 council contingency funds for one year. Passed (9-0).
- OASIS Youth Center (Councilmember Rumbaugh and others): Approved $18,000 ($10,000 from 2023-2024 or 2025-2026 council contingency, $8,000 from general fund contractual savings). Passed (9-0).
- Anti-Graffiti Public Art (Traffic Wraps) (Councilmember Scott): Approved $25,000 from the tidy up Tacoma fund, reducing the private graffiti abatement program. Passed (9-0).
- Rebuilding Hope Facility Support (Councilmember Scott): Approved $25,000 from the 2025-2026 council contingency budget for the new Hilltop facility. Passed (9-0).
- FOSS Waterway Seaport Commercial Pump Out Loan (Councilmember Rumbaugh): Approved up to $50,000 loan from the UDAG 1195 fund. Passed (9-0).
- Vision Zero Grant Match (Councilmember Walker): Approved $1 million from the real estate excise tax (REET) 3210 grant match fund specifically for Vision Zero projects. Passed (9-0).
- FOSS Waterway Seaport Museum Esplanade Project (Councilmember Walker): Approved $36,000 from the REET 3210 fund, reducing the unfit unsafe sidewalk program. Passed (9-0).
- McKinley Hill Streetscape Design (Councilmember Sidalgay): Approved adding the project to the 2025-2026 Capital Facilities Program. Passed (9-0).
- Business Safety and Resilience Program (Councilmember Daniels): Approved up to $250,000 from the general fund, offset by shifting up to $250,000 in administrative costs to a state grant. Passed (9-0).
- Fire Department Rover Position Funding (Deputy Mayor Hines): Withdrawn after discussion; the deputy mayor will work with staff and council to refine the proposal for the next meeting.
Meeting Transcript
I'd like to call to order the city council special meeting of November twenty, twenty twenty four. Clark, will you please call the role? Councilmember Bush now. Councilmember Daniels. Here. I'd like to call back to order the city council special meeting of November 20th, 2024. Moving on in our agenda, and thank you for your patience. Um we're going to um move on to public comment. On today's agenda, there's one opportunity for people to comment on the twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty twenty-five-twenty twenty-six biannual budget on proposed amendment. The forum is intended to give speakers the opportunity to share their viewpoints and feedback with the city council to aid in our decision making, and it's not meant to be a back and forth dialogue. Your remarks should be directed to the city council and not at individual staff members. If you want to speak under the public comment period, please press the raise your hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or star nine on your phone now so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this morning. If you're speaking in person, please sign up in the back of the room if you have not done so already. Your name or the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak. Clerk, we please read. This is the time set aside for public comment. Speakers are asked to identify the specific legislation they wish to address. Uh to provide a comment period where people can feel respected while sharing a wide variety of viewpoints and clearly acknowledge that sometimes we may hear comments that conflict with our values. If you cannot remain on topic, you will be given two warnings. If you remain off topic, we will have to move on and we'll end your time. Okay, if you're if you're in the room and you'd like to speak, um, please come forward to the mic at this time. I am not Andrew Ray, lest there be any confusion. Um I thank you for allowing me to come and speak today on briefing item two four one two four five, the council budget amendments. Um last night, a lot of people testified um looking for something from the city. The great thing, and one of the reasons I love talking about economic development is because we are talking about growing the pie that helps pay for those things from the city. And so anytime we can invest in economic development, we know that that supports the city's bottom line by growing businesses and the tax base. There was a hope that that would be reinvested in economic development and support of the business community. Today that increase is added over 20 million dollars to the city's budget. Um but the investment economic development has not moved much. Um meanwhile, according to the city's budget book, the city has added 356 positions since 2022, or is proposing to add a total of 356 positions since 2022. That's a significant increase. I'm asking you to continue to support economic development. Um, in 2020, uh the city did eliminate funding for the retail advocate, um, and we had to cut the position back to match that. Um, as we look at the funding coming back in 2021, we were able to continue to support the businesses. This has allowed us to actually see an increase in the number of storefronts in downtown Tacoma that are failed compared to some of our peer downtowns. Please continue to support the economic development work, even if it's over the short term to give us a chance to do some transitioning. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, David. All right, I'm gonna go to those who have their hand raised. Is there anybody else in the chambers wishing to testify? All right, seeing none, I'm gonna go to those who have their hand raised. Um, we have three people online, and we'll start with Patrick McEliott. Hello, American Council. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. All right, so uh just kind of uh piggybacking on talks that we've been having uh over the last couple months, and I also would like to make some uh corrections. Uh last night it was said uh that uh we are uh driving around in uh engines from 1955. Uh that is not what we said.
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