I'd like to call to order the city council meeting of July 15th, 2025.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Bushnell, absent.

Deputy Mayor Daniels.

Here.

Councilmember Diaz.

Here.

Councilmember Heinz.

Councilmember Rumba.

Here.

Councilmember Sidalga.

Here.

Councilmember Scott?

Here.

Councilmember Walker, absent Mayor Woodards.

Here.

Please join me listening to the land acknowledgement and flag salute led by Deputy Mayor Daniels, followed by a moment of silence.

We gratefully honor and acknowledge that we rest on the traditional lands of the Puala people, where they make their home and speak the Lashutsi language.

Please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

Second.

All right, are there any questions, comments, or corrections?

Seeing none, all those in favor adopting the consent agenda, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, the consent agenda is declared adopted.

Moving on to proclamations, recognitions, and presentations, we have one ceremonial this evening for the Saber Fest Pacific Northwest Day Proclamation.

I'd like to invite Julie Davidson, founder of Caribbean Queens, Chef Lydia Mendez, owner and operator of Little Miss Sweets NYC and founder of Saber Fest Pacific Northwest, and Mirabel Galvin, Art and Cultural Director at Me Centro, to the podium as Councilmember Diaz reads the proclamation.

All right.

Thank you.

Um, so whereas Tacoma celebrates its ethnic and culinary traditions, and Saber Fest Pacific Northwest 2025 brings together diverse communities to showcase the artistry, food, and music that make the region a uniquely flavorful peace place to live and gather.

And whereas Saver Fest Pacific Northwest now in its fifth year was founded by Lydia Mendez and is organized by her business, Little Miss Sweets NYC, which has worked tirelessly to establish it as a beloved and inclusive Tacoma tradition, and whereas the festival's success reflects both the dedication of its founder and the support of vibrant communities it uplifts with this year's event, gaining further momentum through the support of the city of Tacoma, and whereas Mi Centro, a long-standing organization serving Latin American, Latinx, and Indigenous communities for over 40 years, will transform its campus into a dynamic cultural hub for this year's Saber Fest, reinforcing Tacoma's identity as an inclusive and culturally rich city, and whereas this year's collaboration with Caribbean Queens of Washington further amplifies the visibility and culture of Tacoma's Caribbean diaspora and whereas the event highlights local BIPOC chefs, food vendors, and artists and performers, and includes family-friendly activities such as a kid's zone and cooking demonstrations by Chef Mary Cortez and Chef Susan Burbano.

And whereas Saber Fest provides an essential platform for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities to showcase their products, engage with the public, and foster economic opportunity, and whereas this is a free family-friendly event that is sponsored supported by the community arts projects funding from the City of Tacoma Arts Commission, advancing inclusive, accessible, and equity centered arts and culture initiatives.

Now, therefore, I, Olgi Diaz, on behalf of Mayor Victoria Woodards, Mayor of the City of Tacoma, and on behalf of the whole city council, do hereby proclaim Sunday, July 20th, 2025 as Saber Fest Pacific Northwest Day in the city of Tacoma, and invite our community to attend the Saberfest Pacific Northwest Festival this Sunday at Mi Central into Tacoma's historic hilltop neighborhood.

Welcome.

Thanks for being here.

I'll let the mayor, she's much better at the words, and I just fought for my life reading.

So I just am very grateful for y'all producing Saberfest, bringing it to us for a fifth year, and um really excited to always be supporting the work that we're doing at Mi Central and all y'all do for the whole community.

Thank you, Councilmember Diaz, and thank you for bringing that request forward for this proclamation.

Um, I'm gonna turn it over to you guys.

First, I kept going, where's the date?

And then we we said the date.

But um please tell us a little bit about Saver Fest and and so that everybody in our vast listening audience can hear about it and hopefully we'll get some more people to come out.

Okay, um saying I'm not the best at public speaking, but I guess um, so um started in 2021.

Um basically, I'm from New York, originally I've been here six years.

Um, and growing up, I ate everything.

There was an appreciation for everyone's culture, and it was all through food.

Um, we're kind of the Mecca for all of that.

And when I came here, I was noticing that that wasn't represented as vastly as what I was used to, and I wanted to create uh an inclusive space where you know, food-based businesses and chefs could come and share who they are, where they're from in the most authentic way possible.

Um, because a lot of times I've gone to restaurants, and unfortunately, those restaurants are catering to um a different demographic, and it's not the way you know they would eat it at home, it's not the way their ancestors would eat it, and I wanted to make sure that whatever we created, it was a place where people were gonna open up and taste something different, taste something new, and know that this is exactly what it's supposed to be like.

Um then uh let's see what else.

And then uh basically we started with no money, it was just a dream.

Um, I didn't know how I was gonna pull it through, but I wanted I wanted to make it happen.

Um, and I was super fortunate to have people in my community see that vision, understand just how genuine and uh and real it was for me to have it come true, and through their support and you know, um offering up space and offering up time and effort, we were able to do year one, two, and three, and now we uh partnered with Mi Centro last year for year four to be able to grow it even more, where we had performances again and we had chef demos and um a kid zone and all the things that I wanted to see come to fruition.

We were able to get up to 20 vendors, um, which is huge, starting from I think we had like five originally, and it started in October on like the coldest windiest day possible.

Um, and now we do it in July because it's beautiful here.

Um, and we're in year five, and now we have funding that we've never had.

We've got partnerships that are making this grow into something that I envisioned.

Yeah, we did it, girl.