All right.

I would like to call to order the city council meeting of October 28th, 2025.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Bushnell.

Present.

Deputy Mayor Daniels?

Here.

Councilmember Diaz.

Here.

Councilmember Heinz.

Here.

Councilmember Rumba?

Here.

Councilmember Sidalgay?

Here.

Councilmember Scott.

Absent Councilmember Walker.

Here.

Mayor Woodards.

Here.

Oh, mom's here.

Okay, please join me in listening to the land acknowledgement and flag salute led by Councilmember Walkard, followed by a moment of silence.

We gratefully honor and acknowledge that we rest on the traditional lands of the Pualut people where they make their home and speak the Lachut seat language.

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

We have two modifications on the agenda tonight.

To add ordinance, ordinance number 29073, which pertains to a tenure telecommunications franchise agreement with Forge Fiber 37 LLC to tonight's agenda as item 12A and to revise the order of business for public hearing on the proposed advalorum levies for emergency medical services and general property tax to be held before item 13, ordinance number 29069.

We now have a motion before us for consideration.

I move to suspend Rule 4A of the rules and procedures of the Council of the City of Tacoma to amend the agenda as follows.

To add an additional ordinance, ordinance number 29073 to tonight's agenda is item 12a on the regular agenda and to revise the order of business for the public hearing on the proposed ad valorum levies for the emergency medical services and general property tax to be held before item 13, ordinance number 29069.

Second.

Are there any council questions or comments?

All right, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

The motion is declared adopted.

Anyone wishing to comment on ordinance number two nine zero seven three may do so during public comment.

Are there any additional modifications to the agenda this evening?

Okay, seeing none, we will move on to the consent agenda.

I move to adopt the consent agenda including resolutions numbers 41788 and 41789.

Second.

Are there any questions, comments, or corrections?

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

Aye.

All those opposed signify by saying nay.

The consent agenda is declared adopted.

Moving on to proclamations, recognitions, and presentations.

We have three ceremonials tonight.

For the Veterans Day's proclamation, I would like to invite Dr.

Janice Clark, visionary and vice president of Safe Homes to the podium as Councilmember Bushnell reads the proclamation.

Whereas the United States military is the most capable fighting force in the world, and the brave men and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard, and Reserves and Space Force embody the American spirit of service and sacrifice, and whereas we enjoy freedom, peace, and representative government because veterans are willing to risk their lives, and we are forever grateful for their selfless contributions, and whereas joint base Lewis McCord is an integral part of the South Sound and the state, shaping our economy, security, and community character, and whereas military service members, retirees, and their families enriched Tacoma every day, including the nearly 400 city employees who have also served our nation, and whereas Pierce County is home to nearly 90,000 veterans, including a growing number of women veterans who continue to strengthen our community and whereas it has long been our custom to honor Veterans Day on November 11th by paying tribute to their sacrifice and rededicating ourselves to the cause of peace.

Now, therefore, I, Joe Bushnell, Councilmember of the City of Tacoma, on behalf of the mayor and the city council, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, November 11th, 2025 as Veterans Appreciation Day in the City of Tacoma, and I invite all residents of the city to join me to expressing thanks to the many veterans who live and work in the city of Tacoma.

We also extend our appreciation to Dr.

Janice Clark and her continued efforts to honor our veterans through the 13th annual Veterans Days event with the theme celebrating diversity, a tribute to many backgrounds, voices, and experiences that enrich our nation's military legacy.

Please join me in a round of applause.

Thank you for reading that, Councilmember Bushnell.

I would like to call on Dr.

Clark to say a few words.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Mayor and City Council and staff.

First, give an honor to God who is the head of my life and through all my blessings flow to Jesus the Christ, my Savior and Risen King, and to the Holy Spirit that leads, guides, and directs me to all manner of truth, and the comforter who keeps me, and to know that I'm never alone.

God's presence is with me.

I bring you greetings from the partners.

There's 10 of us in Safe Homes International Public Private Partnership.

Uh as the Him at the Ship.

I am the forever founder and visionary of Safe Homes, president of the Board of Directors.

Safe Homes has been a Washington State Incorporated nonprofit since June 1st, 1995.

That's 30 years, y'all.

Thank you.

And greetings from my husband from Texas, Reverend Dr.

Alan Jerome Watkins, who is a Marine, once a Marine Always Marine, 24 years, senior pastor and founder of Simon Tendencis Ministries, a 501c3 community and faith-based organization, and is the official sponsor, fiscal sponsor of Safe Homes from time to time, along with the other members, eight members.

The 10 total Safe Homes Incorporated, also known as SHIP, Simon Tendencis Ministries Incorporated, ML Empire LLC reigns out of Georgia.

Have Hope Limited LLC, the company of contractors, where I am the certified veteran business owner of, and representatives from King, Pierce, Nahomish Thurston, and Kittsap County.

We have five international partners hailing from Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, and the Congos.

And our national partners include the states of North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and Texas.

Don't mess with Texas.

Yeah.

Okay.

It is, and I rise and I also want to give honor in the absence of the mayor, who is also a veteran, and certainly Councilmember Bushnell for representing today with the approximation.

It certainly is appreciated.

Because of time and space and limit to the written word and spoken word at this podium, I would now uh cease and I would just ask if we're gonna come up, I would ask uh Michelle and any other veterans that might be in the room and family members that would like to come up and help receive the proclamation.

And if it's allowed by uh city council, then we invite you.

All right, please come forward and accept the proclamation.

We only have one.

If there, if there are any other veterans in the audience, please come on forward.

All right.

And disregard that it's me that's losing this star.

Oh, Matt.

Oh no.

I think they're gonna want you guys to scoot over just a little bit.

This way, that'll be next to your next clear.

One, two, three, one more.

One, two, three.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, I got you.

First of all, I still can't say that.

Deputy Mayor, can I just say one comment?

Absolutely, please do.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

I just I just want to say thank you.

Thank you to all the veterans that have served.

Um yeah, let's give them another round of applause.

Really appreciate it.

Um, you know, I spent over a decade in the Marine Corps myself and some time overseas, and um, you know, no matter where your service led, um, a lot of folks, you know, it's a lot to raise your right hand and you know, pledge your oath to the Constitution, United States, and to our communities.

Uh, many of you are continuing to serve in other ways, and so I really appreciate that.

Um, I also want to recognize um that there are uh I'll just leave it at that.

All right, thank you all, and thank you to all the veterans.

Oh, oh, that's what I was gonna say.

How can I forget?

Uh, also, since council uh is cancelled next week, uh, November 10th, uh, is the Marine Corps birthday.

I have to remind everybody of that uh as a Marine myself and uh celebrating 250 years.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Bush now.

Uh we are gonna swap the schedule just a little bit, and we're gonna go to proclaiming uh November 2025 as Native Heritage America for the Native American Heritage Month Proclamation.

I would like to invite Christina Tate, Customer Service Lead, Planning and Development Services, and Olivia Matheson, Senior Engineer, Environmental Services, to the podium as Councilmember Walker reads the proclamation.

Whereas the first American Indian Day was originally observed on the second Saturday in May and was expanded in August 1990 to designate the month of November as National American Indian Heritage Month.

And whereas the City of Tacoma recognizes that Native American tribes have made and continue to make invaluable contributions to the diversity, arts, knowledge, labor, technology, science, philosophy, and economy of the state of Washington, and their historical and cultural contributions, particularly those of the Puallop tribe of Indians, have substantially shaped the past, present, and future of the city.

And whereas last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Bolt decision, the landmark court court decision, which affirmed indigenous people's right to inclusion, equity, and sustenance as outlined in the 1854 Medicine Creek Treaty.

And the city recognizes and honors that Tacoma is built upon the ancestral lands and villages of indigenous peoples of this region, and in particular recognizes and honors the ownership rights and land restored to the Puallop tribe under the Puallop Land Claim Settlement of 1990.

And whereas over recent years, the city and the Puelop tribe have worked in cooperation to build and strengthen the relationship between the two governments through sponsoring Canoe Journey, partnering to raise the pride flag on top of the Tacoma Dome to celebrate LGBTQIA 2S plus Pride Month, renaming the Puallop River Bridge to the Fishing Wars Memorial Bridge, sharing in other cultural events, and coming together in conversation regularly on issues of importance to the two jurisdictions.

And whereas the city is honored to continue working with the Puallop tribe on many substantive policy issues, including housing, homelessness, economic development, and the Tide Flats sub-area plan.

And whereas the city celebrates the extraordinary contribution of Native American employees who have served in diverse capacities, both in general government and at Tacoma Public Utilities.

Now, therefore I, Christina Walker, Councilmember of the City of Tacoma, on behalf of the mayor and city council, do hereby proclaim November 2025 in the City of Tacoma as Native American Heritage Month in the City of Tacoma and encourage our residents to reflect on the accomplishments and contributions all people from Native American Indian Heritage backgrounds have made to our city and our nation.

All right, I would invite you all to say a couple words.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Daniels and Mayor Woodards, who may not be physically present here, but I'm sure she's she's listening.

Thank you, members of the City Council, colleagues, community members online and in person.

My name is Christina Tate, and I am a member of the Cherokee Nation.

I am proud to accept this proclamation on behalf of the Native American and Indigenous Peoples Affinity Group.

We acknowledge the inherent sovereignty of all Indigenous nations and with respect and gratitude honor the traditional and unceded lands of the Peolip tribe of Indians on which we live, work, and gather.

We are dedicated to the preservation and promotion of all Native American cultures, traditions, and the well-being of Indigenous people.

We as city employees serve indigenous populations, and we as an affinity group gather as colleagues to celebrate indigenous cultures together.

My hope is that by sharing this proclamation with the city and honoring Native American Heritage Month, we highlight the indigenous staff and community members that make community home.

Thank you.

On behalf of the employee group, myself, and our community.

Thank you.

Do you have words as well?

I didn't have a few words prepared, but just in case.

As an indigenous woman, uh raised in the federal Indian boarding school system from age five through 17.

Recognizing November as Native American Heritage Month means exhibiting resilience in each space.

I am in.

I am grateful to be an employee of a city that partners with the local tribal communities in making difficult decisions for its residents together.

I appreciate the time set aside to recognize November and recognize the importance of this month as Native American Heritage Month.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Please come up and accept the proclamation.

Thank you so much for your comments.

Thank you.

Hi everybody.

It's not two.

Thank you so much.

Okay, and for our final proclamation.

All right, I will pass it to Councilmember uh Hines to take us through this proclamation.

Yes, for the Tacoma Sesque Centennial Birthday Proclamation, I'd like to invite the following members of the Tacoma Historical Society to the podium as council member, as my this is Council Mines, as I read the proclamation.

Uh John Ladberg, attorney and co-chair and board of directors, Bill Barzma, former mayor and President Emeritus, Jim Katalinich, President and Board of Directors, and Jeannie Jefferson, second vice president board of directors.

All right.

Whereas on November 12th, 1875, the City of Tacoma was officially incorporated by the Washington Territorial Legislature, marking this year as Tacoma's sesqui centennial birthday.

And whereas Tacoma takes its name from Mount Thoma, the mother of waters to the Native peoples and the first mayor, Job Carr, Job Carr, has descendants who remain in the city today.

And whereas the city's early growth was shaped by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which established New Tacoma, a larger city adjacent to Tacoma, and the two cities were combined in 1884 by the territorial legislature into the Tacoma we know as today.

And whereas the thriving tea and goods trades with Japan and China in the late 1800s led to President Benjamin Harrison's 1891 proclamation of Tacoma as the gateway to Asian commerce.

And since then, the Port of Tacoma, created by a public vote in 1918, has become a global leader in trade and port operations.

And whereas Tacoma pioneered public power and safe drinking water through the purchase of Tacoma City Light and Water in 1893, and has long stood at the forefront of innovation in infrastructure and utilities.

And whereas Tacoma's history includes major contributions to the United States industry and defense, historic environmental cleanup and restoration with the Asarco site and the Foss Waterway Superfund sites, the creation of Utah Tacoma and a thriving downtown museum district, and the construction of the Tacoma Dome as a cultural landmark.

Now, therefore, I, John Hines, Councilmember of the City of Tacoma, on behalf of the mayor and the city council do hereby proclaim Wednesday, November 12th, 2025, as Tacoma's sesque centennial birthday, and invite our community to join us in the celebration of this momentous milestone in our city's history at an event on November 12th with the Tacoma Historical Society and the Asia Pacific Cultural Center to commemorate Tacoma's rich cultural diversity and its many, many achievements.

Thank you, Councilmember Hines.

But please, if you all have some words.

Whomever.

Well, thank you, uh Madam Deputy Mayor and City Council.

I do want to mention that on the 11th, Veterans Day, the Tacoma Historical Society, along with the Edward Gload's Lodge, will be hosting once again the City of Tacoma's official Veterans Day celebration, 11 o'clock at the War Memorial Park.

And I just wanted to mention that.

And invite all of you to uh to join with us in honoring uh our veterans.

Uh I do want to mention uh that uh the city of Tacoma was officially uh incorporated by the Washington Territorial Legislature on November 12th, 1875, despite what you see on the seal, it says 1885.

That was the discrepancy.

Official date was November 12th, 1875.

As a matter of fact, I even have the statute, which I won't read, but uh I can share uh to make that a fact.

Now, why 1870 why 1884?

It was mentioned in the in the proclamation that the Northern Pacific Railroad established a company town called New Tacoma, which was adjacent to the city of Tacoma, and uh they then later became incorporated.

Now, why did they not come to Tacoma?

Well, because they could get land much cheap much cheaper.

In fact, they could even take some of the land uh outside of the city.

That's why they ended up where they were.

Finally, after all the confusion uh over the two Tacomas, two Tacoma City Councils, two mayors, uh let the territorial legislature uh decided to combine the company town with the city of Tacoma in 1884.

So that's why uh the day.

So I'll I'm gonna invite uh John Ladmer to come forward, talk a little bit about the uh event itself, and sure and uh Jim uh Katalinich might want to say something as well as thank you, Bill.

Um pleasure to be here.

Been a few years since I served five years on the council.

Uh yeah, I always had that end seat because I could get away quick.

So good thinking.

Uh I I happy to invite you and all the citizens of Tacoma and citizens of Pierce County, because Tacoma is the capital of Pierce County.

So it's a big deal for county government, for city government, for citizens, to think about the history, because if you don't know history, you're bound not only to repeat it, but repeat it poorly.

And so we need to look at all those things we've done wrong, such as the Chinese reconciliation park is for, and look at what we can do right in the future.

So I invite you and the citizens because of that.

Now, what's going to happen?

We're gonna have a birthday cake, and we will celebrate Tacoma's birthday.

We'll also have some more history for you, and we'll have some special awards that night.

So I hope you all can come because the awards will go to some very prominent Tacoma people who you will want to congratulate.

And for the citizens, the same thing.

Uh, please help us celebrate Tacoma's history.

Tacoma Historical Society is moving forward and pushing very hard, fundraising, looking for a new location, and opening a reopening of museum so that people can come and see what the history of Tacoma is.

So again, pleasure to be here.

Pleasure to see all of you and invite you and thank you for the proclamation recognition today.

John, you might want to mention where it's gonna be.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I Bill mentioned it's at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, not the East Side original one.

This is the new one in South Tacoma, off South Tacoma Way, and it is a beautiful building.

If you have not been there, please go.

And you might want to go early.

If you can go that day, go another day and just walk around.

It's like an art museum.

They have hundreds of pieces of Asian and uh Islander art from all over the world.

It's just beautiful.

You can spend a lot of hours just walking around through the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.

I invite you to do that too.

Thank you so much.

My comments will be very short.

I want to express my gratitude to the City of Tacoma.

This event would not have occurred had it not been for the cooperation and leadership of Mary uh the mayor.

Uh she uh opened up her doors to us, her staff, uh she helped us solicit funds, and the city of Tacoma has been a major financial supporter of this event.

And so, on behalf of the board, I'm very, very appreciative.

And if it's okay with the council, I would just like to recognize some board members who are here from our organization.

Professor Iroh, I'm sorry, Jairo Goyos, Galvest.

I apologize.

I'm Hispanic and I should know better.

Vice President Doug Andreessen, Treasurer Andrew Kuklas, and Board Member Secretary David Shaw.

So thank you.

Thank you very much for your support.

Very appreciative.

Thank you.

I don't know if Jeannie's gonna talk, but when you Miss Jeannie's gonna talk, when um we all come up and when they come up and do the proclamation, maybe you all could join as well.

Well, my comments will be shortest of all.

Thank you.

All right, please come up and accept the proclamation.

Deputy Mayor.

Mayor.

Yes, as they are coming up, I'd like to make just a couple comments.

Um I I do want to thank uh Bill Barzma for his leadership in helping Tacoma um celebrate our susquentennial.

I also want to thank um the board, John Ladenberg and Jeannie Jefferson for all the work that they've done to make this event possible.

Um I I think that the mayor said it best when he said that um if you don't I'm sorry, I I believe it was John Ladenberg who said this.

Sorry, that if you don't know um your history, you are destined to repeat it.

Um, and so I appreciate everyone for making sure that Tacoma is learning its history and completely understanding what we've been through the last 150 years.

So look forward to celebrating with you all.

Um we will be moving the time of our council meeting on that day so that we can all attend, but look forward to joining you all and hope that the residents of Tacoma will come out as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um where is here?

We're here.

Okay, everybody look at this way.

And there we go.

All right, one, two, three, and one more.

One, two, three, six miles.

Thank you all for smile.

Thank you.

Um bigger one of these, like yeah, you know, thank you so much for coming.

Okay, I'll try.

Thank you.

I'm good.

Okay, turning mics on.

All right, moving on to public comment.

On tonight's agenda, there are four opportunities for people to comment.

Under public comment, you can speak about motions, resolutions, and ordinances on tonight's agenda.

Under the first public hearing, you can speak about the proposed ad valorum levies for emergency medical services and general property tax.

And under the second public comment hearing, you can speak on the proposed Tide Flat Sub-area plan.

Under community forum, which is held at the end of this meeting, you can speak about items over which the city council has jurisdiction.

These forums are attended 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 towards the city council and not at individual staff members.

If you want to speak under the public comment period, press the raise the hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or press star nine on your phone now so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this evening.

If you're speaking in person, please sign up at the back of the room if you have not done so already.

Your name and the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak.

Clerk, will you please read?

This is a time set aside for public comments.

Speakers are asked to identify the specific legislation they wish to address.

All right.

Okay, we are going to start online.

Let's see.

And I would like to remind everyone to please keep your comments respectful, relevant, focused, and on topic.

We strive to provide a comment period where people can feel respected, sharing a wide variety of viewpoints and acknowledge that we may hear comments that conflict with our um our values to ensure that all speakers can express their First Amendment constitutional rights.

We ask that you refrain from clapping, cheering, booing, or otherwise being disruptive.

You will have 90 seconds to make your remarks, so please be mindful of the time frame.

As always, you are not required to use all of your time to make your point.

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.

As we all know, we will see a number of high-profile elections and ballot measures this fall.

As a reminder, per rule 9D of the rules of procedure, uh, public comment and community forum discussions must not be used to support or oppose any election campaigns or ballot propositions.

Any direct mention of a candidate's candidacy or ballot proposition will result in the immediate suspension of the speaker's right to continue speaking at the council meeting.

Clerk, have we received any written public comment for tonight's meeting?

We have not received any for the public comment portion.

Okay.

So we will start online.

Is Shalom Agtara Hi, good evening, everyone?

Reverend Shalom Agtrap with First United Methodist Church.

Um just want to speak on ordinance uh 2906 regarding the budget.

We saw the numbers.

I think what's most concerning is not just um the expansion of the camping ban that continues to criminalize homelessness, but so many who have behavioral health crises, mental health crises.

Um the fire department has been so pivotal, so so so idle in terms of showing up in humane and compassionate ways, and to the extent that these populations overlap and create um safe uh physically safe um engagements.

I think we need to reconsider gutting that entire it went from 6 uh 55,000 to zero, and we just can't in light of the city council's recent uh vote to expand the camping ban as well as the cut to neighborhood community services, which is kind of toward down the end of that proposed budget.

So please I encourage city council to reinstate those funds um in their budget hearing.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Shalom.

Uh, next up is Sarni Sarnache.

Sarney Shea Evans.

Yes, thank you.

My name is Sarnesha Evans, and I'm representing the Trust for Public Land and will love to uh just speak a bit more in support of resolution number 41791 for Larchmont Community School Yard Project.

And I just wanted to express thanks that this um project even made it to the agenda and for all the support that um community members have really poured into Larchmont Elementary School.

And I want to stress the importance of not only Larchmont but several community spaces in the greater Larchmont community, and hopefully there's um ongoing support for not only schoolyard projects but uh this space and that students have been a pivotal part of not only the creation of the space, but some of the new amenities.

And so very happy that Larchmont is receiving the love and care that it rightfully deserves and really excited to see the space be opened, renovated, and used as a community hub and on an ongoing basis.

So again, thank you all.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Nicole.

Nicole, can you hear us?

If you're talking, we cannot hear you.

Okay, let's pause on Nicole and we'll go to Onita Arnold.

Dang it.

Oh, Nicole, are you talking?

Nicole.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you now.

Oh, I am so sorry about that.

I am uh attending this meeting, so I can make a community comment about the Tacoma Tide Flat sub-area plan.

Oh, yeah, I am a resident.

Nicole, I'm so sorry.

We have four public comments tonight or periods tonight, and we have a um public hearing for the Tide Flats.

That comes up in I think it's our second or third opportunity tonight.

Can you hold your comments?

Oh, I appreciate that.

I apologize.

No problem.

Okay, we'll see you back.

Onita, you're up.

Yes.

Oh, Nita.

Oh, okay.

I had to unmute.

I I too actually am going to was planning on speaking, but the sub-area plan, but I I will say uh I'm hoping that the Hope team receives its funding back.

It's such a very, very critical part of our community safety.

And it took so long for so many people to get this uh into the budget.

I hope that they will place that back in.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Onita.

We'll see you back at the Tide Flats hearing.

Okay, that's it for those online.

We will start with those inside the room.

Um, Sally Perkins, you're up first, followed by Devin Rydell Kelly.

Good evening, Sally Perkins, District 3, speaking on ordinance 29066.

Last week we came to ask you to add back funding for a certified peer support specialist position in the Hope team.

We provided a number of compelling reasons for this add back.

Apparently, the excessive reduction in the Hope team's budget was due to applying a blanket policy that all vacancy savings would be taken regardless of the impact.

We pointed out to you that this policy applied to the Hope team cut too deep and jeopardized the future of the team.

When a policy is applied arbitrarily and there are unintended collateral damage consequences, the council has two choices.

One is to acknowledge the mistake and correct it, which I hope you will do.

The other is to double down on the arbitrary policy.

But we've heard nothing back about the position being added back, and so we must assume that you've decided to double down on your arbitrary policy.

I hope that's not the case, but I'm afraid it is.

Many of you have waxed eloquent from this dais about your love and appreciation for the Hope team.

Except that when the going got tough, apparently you've abandoned them and us and our community.

We should not have allowed ourselves, I guess, to be fooled by the council's glowing statements.

Because we know that too often performative is the love language of the powerful.

We will not be fooled again.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Sally.

I just want to remind everybody of the rules of public comment.

We are allowed to clap during the proclamations and all of the uh the things in the beginning, but when it comes to public comment and all the four that we have tonight, it'll make it really easy if we all um are quiet during everybody's time to speak.

Thank you so much.

Devin.

Hello, council members.

Um Devin Red O'Kelly, I live in District 3, and as I think most of you know, I was deeply involved in the multi-year campaign to lead the creation of the Hope Team along with many people in this room, many of whom will not be speaking tonight, but uh on the budget, but care deeply about it.

Um the Hope team has been an invaluable, profoundly important service in the community in the few years it's been operational in the short time that it's been around.

It's done a ton as evidenced by the data, as evidenced by community understanding, as evidenced by everything that they have done to um popularize mental health treatment despite many, many, many roadblocks and their ability to have direct dispatch and their ability to reach the community.

They've gone above and beyond uh with very limited resources, and it would be really tragic for the limited resources they do have to be cut this year at the same time that many people are being moved on to the streets and many people in crisis will be on the streets, and at the same time that the police overtime budget is being uh added to by double the amount of the cut to the hope team.

So please return the peer specialist supervisor role back into the budget and uh you know, listen to community.

But when we want to say we want alternative response, we want mental health, we want our hope team.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Devin.

Emily Duffy, you are up and followed by Emily Wilby Alton.

Hello, my name's Emily.

I live in District 4.

I'm also here to talk about the Hope team and the budget and to ask you to leave the funding for the Hope team at least enough for them to hire a peer support specialist.

I work in an oncology clinic, and many people, when they have cancer diagnosis, go through some type of mental health crisis.

I get to see on a regular basis what a difference proper support can provide.

I send one message and a co-worker comes to talk to my patient with all the right words that I wish I had to give them.

They listen as long as it takes, and then they provide that patient with the resources they need, and they follow up with them to make sure they continue to thrive.

The difference in having the support verse not in my patient's life and well-being is profound.

I see it regularly, and it's just incredible to watch the change that having the support can give them.

With the support, people are able to take care of their needs, they improve their interactions with others, and they make better choices.

This is what the Hope team provides to our community.

It can make a life or death difference.

People in crisis don't make good decisions.

They lose the ability to take care of themselves and to take care of others around them.

A little extra support can just turn everything around.

And that's why when that person does come along, we want that position to be there for them.

Please leave the money for them.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Emily.

Alton will be followed by uh it could be tweed Terry.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, Council members, uh citizen and taxpayer of the city of Tacoma.

We talk about the levies and taxing the citizen of the city.

We are now in the turbulence timing of a country, turbulence time in a community.

And we're asking, I'm asking the city council, Deputy Mayor Mayor.

Do we have to do the taxing now?

I do understand that we need taxes to do work as related to the city.

Yes, ma'am.

Is your comments are tonight about I have you for under VA?

Oh, is that for ad valorum?

That's correct.

We have a whole hearing for that.

Do you want to finish?

Do you have anything else you want to talk about on tonight's agenda?

Or do you want to wait till we do the tax hearing?

I could also go to uh 7-1 or considerable.

Go ahead.

Yes, ma'am.

Can I claim my time back?

Yeah, you can have your time back.

All right, thank you.

So uh as I say in Deputy Mayor Council is that uh as we talk about taxation, and we're talking about uh where we have citizens who have worked so hard all their lives to live in the city, beautiful city of Tacoma, and then be taxed out of their place of residence is not also it's not a good thing.

So I I don't know how we can mitigate this, how we can work to see what we can do as related to taxing our citizen as they live who live within the city uh to get to raise fund to run our government.

So whenever you engage in such a business of taxing us as citizens, that you take in consideration those of us who have worked all our lives to acquire some property here and to live here, and then eventually we tax all of that property because we won't be able to pay the property tax.

So something I want the city council uh to consider when you're thinking about taxing the citizen of Tacoma.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Alton.

Uh, I did not get this name right earlier, I know, but it again, Tui Terry.

Um not sure I can read this name.

Jonathan Pottle will go with you, and then if we can figure this one out.

Hey council, I'm Jonathan with the Air Coalition.

I live in District 2, speaking on ordinance 2906.

Budget decisions are moral decisions, as I've said a thousand times in this room, and like other moral decisions, their consequences might not manifest immediately.

It's short-sighted to save money by leaving vacant positions vacant because once money is gone, like when it's counted as savings, the associated FTE is likely to follow.

Some people think it sounds good to cut funds from a bureaucracy's budget, never mind who loses the services.

And I doubt I need to tell any of you how hard it is to add funding back to a budget once it's lost.

Leaving the Hope team's peer support specialist position vacant now is merely a prelude to leaving it vacant forever.

Without this position, and more like it, hope cannot field a minimum of two response teams.

This means more people will be left in crisis without help, more people hurting without the people they need to get through it.

And for all I know, it might mean that more TFD ambulances are showing up in places where hope would be better suited rather than showing up in places where an ambulance is truly needed.

Don't cut funding to the helpers.

Don't leave people in crisis.

Shouts to everybody who supports us tonight.

Shouts to the Hope team, shouts to tenants' rights.

Thanks.

Thank you so much for your comments tonight, Jonathan.

Uh, and Dorn.

And Dorne will be followed uh up by Dr.

Janice Clark.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, Mayor uh members of the council.

I'm here to speak about the biannual budget and urge the strongest support possible for the Hope team.

I think it is a mistake to go backwards, and any choice that sacrifices funding is a short-term gain and a long-term um potentially serious impacts to the people of Tacoma.

Lots of you here have been very proud of this team.

I've heard you in this room, uh, including the mayor talk about the victory that it was to get this team established.

And I think a lot of Tacoma is very, very proud and grateful that we have this resource.

It is absolutely a mistake to make any sort of budget decision that does not fully empower this team.

We need to be thinking about increasing funding.

We need to be helping the people of Tacoma more than ever.

And I know that all of you here are very aware of a lot of the stresses facing our families, including snap cuts in November, including the camping ban, all of these reasons are putting a lot of pressure on our community, and we need to make sure our mental health supports are as strong as they can possibly be.

All of these reasons are putting a lot of pressure on our community, and we need to make sure our mental health supports are as strong as they can possibly be.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments tonight, Anne.

Okay, Dr.

Clark.

Dr.

Clark will be followed by April Bodnar.

Thank you.

I rise again to express the uh proclamation there for the veterans.

And I was offended, and I should say it because we shouldn't offend that the special honor for the veterans on Veterans Day.

This is a 13th annual Veterans Day Award banquet that not one city funding have been asked, but have been asked inadvertently.

And we've heard that the city has participated in a number of different events, and we are calling upon the city of Tacoma to support 100% on 13 annual Veterans Day on Tuesday, the federal holiday, November 11th, from 2 to 6 p.m.

At the Emmer Queen Tacoma Event Center.

Do not confuse it with Fife.

We will be at the entertainment capital of the Northwest in this great city of Tacoma where we've held the previous 12 annual Veterans Day.

We are encouraging with everything I can encourage today to have council, city manager, and staff consider the participation of the city of Tacoma in supporting veterans that not only work for the city of Tacoma in a very number of departments, but this is an opportunity today, the final opportunity I might add to say we want to see a tangible support for this Veterans Day.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Dr.

Clark.

April Bodnar.

Good evening, Council, Mayor, Deputy Mayor.

This isn't the first time I've stood before you guys.

This is the first time I've spoken on the budget.

We're in the middle of a national crisis.

11 million families are about to lose SNAP benefits during prime holiday season.

Mental health is serious.

I've had to battle cancel twice last year, three times since 2023.

Mental health is a big issue.

Being homeless, mental health goes with it.

If you're in the middle of a mental health crisis, do you want to see a police officer, somebody from the fire department?

Probably not.

Uniforms are terrifying when you're in the middle of a situation.

Last thing you know, they're gonna snatch you up, cart you off somewhere, and your family won't see you again.

Okay?

And that's something that's been put into national spotlight, given the new rulings.

Now, you add to it a camping ban, add tenant rights issues.

You are asking for a severe crisis when we're a city that the rest of the nation looks to.

It's not just Portland, it's not just LA.

It's us too.

And if you guys aren't who we can count on to be our shield, what do we have?

That literally puts us on a silver platter to everything being cut.

Thank you for your comments tonight, April.

With that, I am going to close public comment in the room and take the last couple that we have online.

Michelle, I don't have you on my list for public comment.

I was under this.

I was on this too.

Are you very we have you guys we have four public comments?

So we have three more opportunities.

So maybe you signed up for taxes or for um the tide flats or for community forum.

Community forum is where you can talk about anything that the city has over to jurisdiction over, and then public comment is just for what's on tonight's agenda.

So if you have something that's kind of broad, you we you'll be up in a couple more comments.

I signed outside with uh public comments.

Okay, come on, Michelle.

I wish it's me.

Yes, uh Michelle Reich speaking to Veterans Day.

Uh proclamation.

Okay.

And in the past, uh up to 50% of homeless have been veterans.

Now we know the that the veterans unhoused population in Tacoma's somewhere between 10 and 20 percent.

And I know uh last week we had a resolution for uh a low barrier drug shelter uh resolution to find a place, but I think it would be more appropriate than having a a shelter for drug users to have a shelter for veterans, as some cities have done in the past.

Uh going the problem.

And another thing about that is that um for the veterans uh that are on house, you need to get transportation to get them to the services because unlike the drug users, the veterans have resources with the VA, community uh help for mental care drug to have and and resources to get them off their feet, and the the drug users don't, and you don't have money to support the drug users, so I would urge you to help the veterans that are on house with shelter before a low barrier drug shelter.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for your comments tonight, Michelle.

Um, I'm gonna take the last three, and then I'll end with Tracy tonight.

So Kathy Lohan, followed by Marilyn and then Tracy.

Kathy, you're up.

I can't hear you if you're talking.

I think you might need to unmute.

Okay, Kathy, let's go with Marilyn.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Good.

Good evening.

I want to talk about the budget and the proposed uh discontinuing of the Hope team as a 25-year veteran of uh as a mental health counselor through comprehensive mental health.

I'll tell you that it is very short-sighted to think about cutting funding for the hope team.

As everybody has told you tonight about this, so many different supports and services are closing down.

We need the hope team more than ever.

Uh, whoever it was that said that when you're in crisis to see people in uniform just escalates for fear and anxiety.

Excuse me.

Um the members of the hope team are what's needed to actually reach through to the people in mental health crisis and help de-escalate them.

If we discontinue the money for the hope team, we are just gonna end up spending more money in policing, and that is not the way to go.

We can look at it this way.

You either provide the help for mental health, or you're going to have an increase in violence in our city, which is a more expensive and more damaging thing to have to deal with.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Marilyn.

Uh Tracy.

Tracy, you will be last, and then we will close public comment and head on to the regular agenda.

Hi, this is Gemini.

Um I just use a shared uh Zoom accounts.

I shows up as Tracy.

Uh, you know, I'm uh a lot of people know me.

I'm one of the founding members of the Climate Alliance of the South Sound, and I'm also a proud member of the Osage Nation.

And so when I see that you're declaring November is Native American Heritage Month month, um, I think that's good.

And uh I would love to see that backed up with action, right?

Because we know Native Americans are one of the most likely people to be killed by the police.

Tacoma is a border town to the Pial Preservation, and I know for a fact that the Tacoma Police Department is out here brutalizing Puala people, uh native people of all kinds, but especially the pual.

So um, you know, with this declaration, I'm looking forward to what you guys are gonna put forward to actually give justice for us and our communities, uh not continue to perpetuate the environmental racism that we see with the police department and also with the uh proposed expansion.

I know they're not calling it an expansion, but the expansion of the Puget Sound Energy liquefied natural gas facility uh built illegally on Piallop land.

So um I'll see the rest of my time, but uh uh I would like like to see statements from all the council members speaking out uh for us native folks and and our rights on these lands.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Jim and I.

With that, we will close public comment and head back into our regular agenda.

Item number seven.

This item will have a PowerPoint presentation.

Clerk, will you please read resolution 41790?

A resolution authorizing the execution of an amendment to the agreement with the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority to increase compensation for administering the portion of the city's affordable housing fund.

I move to adopt resolution number 41790.

Second.

All right, for this, I would like to call on Felicia Medlin.

Okay.

Good evening, uh Deputy Mayor and the Mayor Online and the rest of the members of the city council.

So Felicia Medlin here.

I'm with the housing division within the community and economic development department.

I'm just gonna have a few slides here to just run you through the amendment that's being proposed here today.

So I'll just get started.

So the Affordable Housing Fund was originally adopted in 2019 via resolution 40527.

Um there have been some subsequent additions of funding into that once it was established.

So in 2020 and 2021, City Council added some general fund dollars for a sum of 2.2 million to that fund.

There's also an ongoing 853,000 that is added annually from the Washington State uh sales tax remittance, and then in 2021, City Council adopted the House Bill 1590, which is one tenth of one percent sales tax that goes exclusively for affordable housing development and housing related services, and that was via ordinance uh 28747.

Some additional background on the amendment uh on the agreement that we're requesting the fourth amendment for.

Uh it was originally executed in 2021 uh for 3.5 million.

So this was the funding that originally ceded the affordable housing fund.

This was the first agreement uh entered into for those revenues.

Uh it's a 10-year agreement, so it's set to expire in 2031, at which point we would be coming in and seeking an additional type of contract to continue on with the affordable housing fund.

It allows for annual renewals, and those renewals are based on the outcome of each uh notice of funding availability, and the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority makes those awards, and that process typically starts in March and April, um, resulting in awards being announced typically in August or early September, depending on how the the year plays out.

So the first amendment is you'll see so all the amendments kind of target a November 1st start date based on the timing of when recommendations are made.

So in 2022, we added an additional 3.3 million.

In 2022 in 23, we added 13.4, and then the most recent amendment last year added uh 6.9.

So this is a list of uh projects that have been impacted by these funds so far.

So there are a total of 10 projects that are serving 740 that are creating 742 units.

So we have four of the projects that have completed construction, resulting in 240 of those units being online currently.

Uh we have two projects that are actively under construction for a total of 227 units, and then in the um over the next few years, we anticipate the remaining 257 units coming online here in the city of Tacoma.

And so the current contract with those uh three amendments stands at 27.2 million dollars, and again, this is representing uh anticipated 724 units overall.

So that brings us to our current to our current scenario where we have three projects that were on that list, and so this is reflective of some additional funding to support those projects overall development.

Uh and so they were recommended for funding and awarded by the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority on August 28th.

Um, those three specific projects are highlighted there on the screen as bridge meadows, South Yakima Senior Housing, um, which has since been named uh Hope Heights, uh, and then 35th and Pacific.

So, in order for the TCRA to contract with those specific projects, we have to have um they have to have broader authorization for those contracts, and this is the agreement that gives them that broader contracting authority for the contracts that have been awarded for the projects that have been awarded funding.

So, next steps or for recommendations.

We do recommend approving the resolution 41790.

Um, this resolution would again increase the contract by uh 10.8 million dollars, and that would bring the new agreement value uh up to 38.1 million dollars.

So if this is approved, we would move forward with um amending through the contract amendment process.

And that does conclude my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Do we have any council comments or questions?

Councilmember Walker.

Um thank you so much for this, Felicia.

This is really great news and a good reminder of how many units we've been able to support getting it in the ground.

Um you gave that new total of 38.1 million.

Um do you know what the total units the new units would be or are the projects still in flux?

So the the unit total would actually still be the same.

So this uh these awards represent three projects that have previously received funding, and so this just gives them some additional resources to get them to um to close their development gaps in their budget.

So same thing.

The project is staying the same.

Okay, and then can you just remind us?

And this might have been on one of the first slides.

The um affordable housing fund is funded through sales tax, and then we can put additional dollars in there, and so that was that big influx in 2023, I think.

Was that ARPA dollars that we put in there?

So that 2023 number, I'm I'm guessing you're referring to the number where the year was uh 13 million dollars.

So that number was higher than other years because we had some funds that we didn't allocate um in the prior year based on uh the sales tax revenues outperforming our projection in a year, so we had some extra resources to make available um in 2023, and we also had a project that didn't need um I believe it was about a million 1.2 million dollars, and so we were able to re um to put that back in the pot to advertise as well.

So that made that year a little bit of an anomaly.

Awesome.

Well, thank you as always for the great work.

Councilmember uh Rumba.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

And Felicia, could you just remind um us what makes them affordable units and um do any of them are any of them voucher programs?

Uh yes, so the the AMI or the area median income requirement for units funded through the affordable housing fund is 60 percent AMI, and that um varies by household size.

So a one-person household at 60 percent is gonna be lower than a four-person household at 60 percent.

So that's the minimum or the maximum allowed income, 60 percent.

And then the second part of your question related to vouchers.

We don't um we don't drive whether or not a voucher is present on a property.

Uh, most of the time, what we see is our nonprofit providers will um work with the housing authorities, whether it's Pierce County or the Tacoma Housing Authority to try and get an allocation of vouchers um for that property, which project bay fosters right now are really tight.

I actually think um both housing authorities aren't currently uh making vouchers available, um, but when they do, they usually negotiate those directly with the nonprofit housing provider.

And how long is the um like how many years is it stay affordable?

Uh the projects that we fund have a minimum 40-year affordability period, but most of our projects are in the 50 to 60 year range.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you for your questions, Councilmember Rambah.

Uh Councilmember Sidalgay.

Uh thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, thank you.

I think this is a great way to showcase some really innovative um projects that we we support through our uh housing trust fund.

Uh if I recall correctly, 35th and Pacific uh Mercy Housing, which is in my district, is actually going to be primarily ADA accessible um units uh for families that have at least one individual that needs uh handicapped accessible uh housing.

Uh South uh Yakma is also senior because we do need senior low-income housing.

Uh bridge Meadows is the one I'm actually really intrigued at.

Uh, I believe this would be the very first one in Washington State.

There's I believe four in Oregon, and that's uh uh that's a development that does family housing and senior housing with a community center in the middle with a unenforceable social contract where the seniors are um surrogate grandparents uh to the children in the family side.

Um these are amazing programs that are uh that this one-tenth of one percent is allowing us to to fund.

Um I'm very supportive of the housing trust fund because it allows us uh you know to be a portion of the funding that these nonprofits will get, they'll use some city funding, state, federal, uh, and even private funding together and kind of come up with really cool innovative uh programs.

So uh I'm glad I can say yes to this today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Sadage.

Okay, I just had one question.

I just wanted to make sure I understood the the purpose of this um resolution tonight.

So when you come in the beginning of the year, it is to ask for the total amount of dollars to spend in the housing trust fund to allocate to the budget, and then when you come back, it is after the NOFA goes out.

We choose who is which developments or projects are gonna get it, and then this is just the authority to be able for our um the redevelopment fund to be able to manage it or oversee it basically.

So just one uh clarification is so this is really this is our one time that we come to council related to this on an annual basis, and so on our two-year um biennial budget, we plan um the projected amount for the affordable housing fund, which includes this uh resource, and so we already have um that authorization under the fund itself.

It's really um this component is making conveying those funds to the TCRA so they can um contract with the developing entities.

Got it.

Thank you so much for that.

That's what I thought.

I just want to make sure.

Okay, do we have any other council comments or questions?

All right.

Well, with that, I will take a motion.

Oh, we did the motion, just kidding.

Okay, well, all of those in favor signify or all those of adopt of favor of adopting resolution 41790 signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed signify by saying nay.

All right, the resolution is declared adopted.

Thank you, Felicia.

Moving on to item eight.

Clerk, will you please read?

Resolution 41791, a resolution authorizing the one-time use of council contingency funds in the amount of 32,380 and 44 cents to support the Larchmont Community School Yard Project.

I move to adopt resolution number 41791.

Okay.

All right, I would like to call on Council Member Bush now.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor, and um thank you to everyone in the community that's uh reached out to me about the concerns about the loss of funding around Larchmont Elementary.

Um and uh I want to really also extend my appreciation to Councilmember Rumbaugh and Walker for helping co-sponsor this and a special shout out to Councilmember Diaz.

She helped uh make sure that this was on my radar as well.

Um this contingency fund request for 32,380 and 44 cents.

It's very specific, uh, is in support of the Larchemont Community School Yard Project.

A few years ago, the Trust for Public Lands, Parks Tacoma, and Tacoma Public Schools launched a mission to transform Tacoma Schoolyards to be vibrant community spaces through the what's called the community schoolyard program.

Um they've been working very hard to ensure that every person in Tacoma has a quality park within a 10-minute walk of home by maximizing the use of existing schoolyards uh to serve as improved play areas and increasingly natural spaces for children as well as adults and families in the neighborhoods.

Uh the first five pilot locations will serve more than 25,000 people in Tacoma's South End and East Side neighborhoods.

And while the first four projects, which included Stafford Elementary, Reed Elementary, Mann Elementary, and Whitman Elementary, have been completed.

Uh recent reversal in federal grant funding disrupted the construction of the Larchmont Elementary Community School Yard.

Uh I personally was able to attend um the um the kickoff event for uh Junior Reed Elementary School.

Um and actually I had had gone to Jenny Reed Elementary School as a child.

Um, and when I was there before uh they broke ground and the playground looked much similar, uh very much the same as when I went there uh when I was a child as well.

And so I was really happy to see uh how much it had transformed and changed what was blacktop um and a lot of you know cracky asphalt.

Uh now it is a vibrant schoolyard playground for all the kids in the neighborhood to be able to go to.

Um in the South End and the East Side, sometimes the only green spaces neighbors have access to are schoolyards, and without this partnership, the schoolyards would be outdated and possibly even closed off to the public, uh, eliminating what little green space the public has.

Uh I believe in Tacoma that we deserve nice things, and every resident, including those in the South End and the East Side deserve access to parks and green spaces.

Uh and it really I'm really heartened to see that um, even though the federal funding had created uh huge setback for our partners, this project didn't let them stop uh didn't stop them.

Uh they lost over one million dollars in grant funding.

Um they pulled together 450,000 from Parks Tacoma, 50,000 from Tacoma Public Schools, and 380,000 from the Trust Republic Lands.

And so I wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity to help uh fill the gap and finish off this project strong.

Uh and that's what this particular dollar amount does.

And so uh we're coming together with our schools and other partners, uh, Parks Trust Republic Lands uh to make sure that uh Larch Mond is not left behind, like many uh areas of our district are uh are often left behind in times past, and so um I'm really happy to that we are able to support this, and I hope you can join me in supporting this tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Bushnell.

Are there any other council questions or comments?

All right, seeing none, all those in favor of adopting resolution number 41791 signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed signify by saying nay.

The resolution is declared adopted.

Moving on to the final reading of ordinances.

Item nine, clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29065, an ordinance amending chapter 1.12 of the municipal code relating to the compensation plan to amend several sections regarding standby pay and sick allowance with pay to align with provisions contained in agreements negotiated with the Tacoma Joint Labor Committee effect of January 1st, 2026.

All right, this item was presented last week.

Are there any additional uh council questions or comments?

Okay, clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Bushnell?

Aye, Deputy Mayor Daniels.

Aye, Councilmember Diaz.

Aye, Councilmember Hines, aye, Councilmember Rumba.

Aye.

Councilmember Sidalgay.

Aye.

Councilmember Scott, absent.

Councilmember Walker.

Aye.

Mayor Woodards.

Aye.

All right, the ordinance is declared passed.

Item 10.

Clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29066, an ordinance modifying the 2025-2026 biannual operate operating budget to recognize new revenues budget for resolutions passed by the city council, adjust for changes and make corrections.

This item was presented last week.

Are there any additional council questions or comments?

Councilmember Walker.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, last week um I think that someone uh one of us asked about the um changes to the Hope team.

And I know um our interim city manager um gave us a detailed um overview of the funding there, and I'm wondering um Deputy City Manager, if you might reiterate that because this is a point of um I'm not excited about this part of the budget, but I think that there's a good explanation for it, and I really appreciate City Manager Kim in both working on it and explaining it.

So absolutely, Councilmember Walker, and thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, so uh to reiterate uh the reduction proposed for Hope is a reduction of currently vacant positions.

Uh you did receive a memo on uh following the 21st uh explaining exactly those positions.

I can run through it for you if you would like.

Um I think importantly, and what the city manager would want me to stress is that uh in times of reduction, I don't think any of us uh love the position that we are in.

And so uh what he is treating this as is a pause while we look for additional revenue sources in the 2728 by any.

So does that answer your question, Councilmember Walker?

Yeah, thank you, Deputy C manager.

And then um I also wanted to confirm that those um vacancies are gonna stay as vacant positions and not disappear.

Councilmember Walker, thank you for the clarification.

Those will stay uh as vacant positions and not be fully eliminated if that's what you're asking.

Yeah, thank you.

Appreciate that.

And and I just want to uh be vocal, and I know that our interim city manager Kim is already working on this with the fire chief, and um want to stress the importance of that.

I agree with all the comments that this is not an area that we want to cut, um, but I understand that the pause for this point and this is gonna be a priority for me next year as we move into our our big budget process, and I know that process starts right away, so um that'll be first on the list.

Thank you for that question, Councilmember Walker.

Mayor Woodards Thank you, um Deputy Mayor.

Um, I too just want to um uh join in with Councilmember Walker.

Um I do appreciate City Manager, interim city manager Kim's um explanation for this.

I too am greatly concerned as I was one of the very vocal people about making sure that we have a Hope team.

I've had an opportunity um as Councilmember Walker has as well.

They had an opportunity to go out with the Hope team and see them in action.

Um they are really committed in really making a difference.

So what I would say is that I too will be monitoring this.

Um, just because I won't be the mayor, doesn't mean I won't be paying attention.

And um, and I too will be joining the other side with Sally Perkins and others to make sure that next year that this gets fully funded as we seek to find dollars to make sure that there's permanent fee with the Hope team.

Um, their work is too vital and too important, and I agree with everything every speaker said tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Do I have any other council comments, questions?

Okay.

Uh well, with that, um this item was presented last week.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Deputy Mayor Daniels.

Aye.

Councilmember Diaz.

Aye.

Councilmember Hines.

Aye.

Councilmember Rumba.

Aye.

Councilmember Sidalgay.

Aye.

Councilmember Scott, absent.

Councilmember Walker.

Aye.

Councilmember Bushnell.

Aye.

Mayor Woodards.

Aye.

Okay.

The ordinance is declared passed.

Item number 11.

Clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29067 and ordinance modifying the 2025-2026 capital budget to recognize changes and transfers, additional revenues, and budget adjustments.

All right, this item was presented last week.

Are there any additional council questions or comments?

All right, seeing none.

Clark, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Diaz.

Aye.

Councilmember Heinz.

Aye.

Councilmember Rumba.

Aye.

Councilmember Sidalga.

Aye.

Councilmember Scott, absent.

Councilmember Walker.

Aye.

Councilmember Bushnell.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Daniels.

Aye.

Mayor Woodards.

Aye.

All right.

The ordinance is declared passed.

Moving on to our first reading of ordinances.

Item number 12.

This item will also cover number item will cover item 12A.

Clerk, will you please read?

Ordnance 29068 and ordinance granting a non-exclusive ten-year telecommunications franchise agreement to Fat Beam Fiber to construct, operate, and repair telecommunication system in the city.

All right, I would like to call on Jeff Luters.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Mayor and City Council members.

My name is Jeff Leaders.

I'm the Media and Communications Office Division Manager for Franchise Services from the City Manager's Office.

Before you this evening is a request for ordinance number 29068 for a 50-page telecommunications franchise agreement for your consideration between Fat Beam Fiber LLC and the City of Tacoma.

Setting forth provisions, terms, and conditions of the grant of franchise, specifically making such grants subject to the provisions of Title 16B and Title 10 of the Tacoma Municipal Code, providing for city regulation of the telecommunication system, prescribing liquidated damages and certain other remedies for violation of franchise provisions, in addition to those specified persuaded to municipal code.

This request from FAF Beam Fiber is for their first 10-year telecommunications franchise agreement with the City of Tacoma.

This franchise will allow FAF Beam Fiber LLC, a company currently involved in the business of operating telecommunications networks, utilizing fiber optic technology to construct, operate, and maintain their network within the city of Tacoma.

This item was presented to the government performance and finance committee during the October 21st, 2025 meeting and approved for your consideration this evening.

A special thanks to Charles Lee, Deputy City Attorney, and Dusty Burmeister, Stacey DeCai, and Heidi Osborne with Fat Beam Fiber for all of their efforts as we negotiated this agreement.

This concludes my presentation regarding ordinance 29068.

Also before you this evening is a request for ordinance number 29073 for a telecommunications franchise agreement for your consideration between forged fiber 37, LLC, ATT, and the City of Tacoma setting forth provisions, terms, and conditions of the grant of franchise, specifically making such grants subject to the provisions of Title 16B and Title 10 of the Tacoma Municipal Code, providing for city regulation of the telecommunications system, providing prescribing liquidated damages and certain other remedies for violation of franchise provisions in addition to those pursuant to the municipal code.

This request from Forge Fiber 37 LLC ATT is for a 10-year telecommunications franchise with the City of Tacoma.

This franchise will allow Forged Fiber 37 LLC ATT, a company currently involved in the business of operating telecommunications networks utilizing fiber optic technology to construct, operate, and maintain their network within the city of Tacoma.

ATT recently purchased this fiber infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, previously owned by Lumen CenturyLink, and will be operating this network within the City of Tacoma as Forged Fiber 37 LLC.

This item was presented to the government performance and finance committee during the October 21st, 2025 meeting and was approved for your consideration this evening.

A special thanks to Charles Lee, Deputy City Attorney, and Sonny Osink of the Wireless Policy Group, Richard Bush, and Kevin Marvin for all of their efforts as we negotiated this agreement.

This concludes my presentation regarding ordinance number 29073, and I can now stand for questions on either 12 or 12A.

Thank you for the presentation, Jeff.

Are there any questions or comments on this item or item 12A from council?

Okay, this ordinance will be set over for final reading on November 18th, 2025.

Item 12A, Clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29073, an ordinance granting a non-exclusive 10-year telecommunications franchise agreement to forge fiber 37 LLC to construct, operate, and repair a telecommunication system in the city.

This item was also just presented.

Are there any additional council comments or questions?

All right, this ordinance will be set over for final reading November 18th, 2025.

Moving on to public hearings and appeals.

Again, we have we have three now opportunities for public comment.

Uh the one that is coming up now.

Um we'll have a uh PowerPoint presentation.

Um if you have not signed up to comment under the ad valorum levies for emergency medical services and general properties tax for 2026.

Uh, please make sure to finalize that now while we go over the presentation.

Um, Mayor.

All right, item 17.

This will have a PowerPoint presentation and we'll also cover items 13 through 16.

Clerk, will you please read?

This is the date set for a public hearing by the council on the proposed ad valorum levies for emergency medical services and general property tax for 2026.

Okay.

All right, I would like to call on Jeff Upton to begin the presentation.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council.

My name is Jeff Upton, and I'm a manager in the Office of Management and Budget.

And I will be talking to you this evening about setting the property tax amounts for 2026, for which there is a public hearing tonight.

Setting the property tax amounts is something the city does every year as as it is required by state law.

There are four ordinances involved tonight for the property taxes.

There are two types of property taxes, which I will sometimes refer to as the levies.

The two levies are the regular property tax levy and the emergency medical services or EMS property tax levy, and each of those levies has two ordinances.

The first ordinance approves the total levy amount to be collected in 2026, while the second approves the increase over the prior year's levy amount expressed as both a dollar and a percentage increase.

And this practice of passing two ordinances is consistent with past uh with past city actions and state law.

Okay, thanks.

Okay, so catching up with the slides.

First, I will talk about the regular property tax levy.

Again, there are two ordinances for this levy.

The first ordinance sets the regular property tax levy amount at 71.2 million for 2026.

And the second ordinance states how much it is increasing over the 2025 levy amount.

This figure of 71.2 million represents a 1% increase over the 2025 levy.

The ordinance's language also specifies that this amount excludes some additional revenues.

Excuse me, additional revenues from new growth, such as new construction, refund levies, changes in state assessed valuations, and annexations.

Here I will also briefly mention that 2026 is the first year after the end of the streets initiative voter-approved levy lid lift, which temporarily raised property taxes for 10 years.

This means that the total regular property taxes collected by the city in 2026 will be lower than in 2025.

Even so, the 71.2 million figure still represents a 1% increase of the base amount under the lift of the 2025 levy.

Okay.

This slide shows that amount again of 71.2 million, as well as a breakdown of some of those additional revenues mentioned earlier.

The added property taxes from new construction is estimated to be around 800,000, and that of the refund levy and changes in state assessed valuation at around 400,000.

Adding them all together, the total amount in the estimated levy is the 72.4 million figure.

And in the final line below the table, we apply a 97.5% collection rate, which is based on historical data of property tax receipts.

Applying that to the total estimated levy results in the figure of 70.6 million, which is what we anticipate the city will actually collect next year for the regular property tax.

That amount is consistent with what is already in the 2026 property tax revenue budget.

Next, I will talk about the emergency medical services or EMS levy.

This levy has its own two ordinances, and the language on those ordinances is very similar to that of the regular levy, except that in this case, the increase over the prior year's levy is 6%.

And this 6% increase year over year was approved by voters in August of 2023.

So for 2026, the EMS levy amount with the 6% increase is $23.7 million.

And this again excludes some additional revenues such as increases due to new construction.

The EMS levy amount is also subject to a statutory cap of 50 cents per 1,000 assessed value.

So the table for the EMS levy.

This table shows the 2026 levy amount again of 23.7 as well as the additional estimated revenues for a total estimated levy amount of 24.1 million.

However, currently the estimated levy amount looks like it would exceed the statutory cap of 50 cents per 1,000 assessed value.

So we have also shown what applying that cap would do to the total, and that is the 23.0 million just under the table.

Finally, using the same historical collection rate of 97.5%, we anticipate the city would collect 22.4 million in EMS property taxes in 2026.

This last slide illustrates the distribution of property taxes in 2025.

So in 2025, the uh largest single portion of property taxes goes to the Tacoma School District, and next is the state of Washington.

Third largest is the city in the orange over there on the slide with both the regular and EMS portions shown.

Other taxing districts, such as Parks Tacoma, the county, and the port are all on the right hand side.

So in summary, every year the city is required by state law to set our property tax rates for the upcoming year, and that is what these four ordinances would do.

Thank you.

That concludes my presentation, and I am happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um I'll take questions from council.

Uh Councilmember Rumbach.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, could you just remind everyone what where that money shows up in our budget?

Yes, thank you for the question, uh, Councilmember Rumbaugh.

So for the regular property tax levy, that amount goes into the general fund and is spent on uh anything that did the general fund funds.

So, like public safety and other things like that.

Exactly.

That's yep.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, thank you for the question, Councilmember Rumba.

Do we have any other council questions for Jeff?

Oh, I have a quick question.

Um on the the annex annexation um uh line, it was zero.

Is that because it's not quite enough to make it on the scale yet, or because it's so new.

Um on the EMS.

On the EMS levy.

Yeah.

I can follow up for sure on that.

I I believe that there were uh no recent annexations that made it into the levy change, but I can follow up to be sure.

Oh, okay, no problem.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

All right, seeing no other questions.

Um I would like to ask attendees if you want to speak under the public hearing, propose for the Avalarum levies for emergency medical services and general property tax.

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 evening.

If you are speaking in person, please sign up at the back of the room if you have not done so already.

Your name and the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak.

You will have 90 seconds to make your remarks for each of the public hearings.

Please be mindful of the time frame, and as always, you are not required to use all the time to make your point.

All right.

Um we are going to start in person uh with Michelle Reich.

Um Michelle Reich.

I'm opposed to the tax increases.

First of all, the city has wasted millions of dollars on the encampment ban in the past.

11 million dollars, as you said a few weeks ago.

And also you're asking for an EMS levy.

And that's also related to not taking care of the unhoused population because they have to power department has to make so many calls that you have to have a levy for more money so they can keep up making more calls.

You haven't taken care of the problem, and you ask a money to take care of the problem that hasn't been taken care of by you.

And so that's why I'm opposed to the levies and the tax increases, because the city has not spent the money wisely.

And you the campaigns, you're just moving the problem around, and the new one you passed, you're gonna be spending millions of dollars in the coming year or two uh to deal with it, and you're not dealing with the problem.

And the problem is uh just being moved around to other parts of the city.

And you every move and thing you do is gonna cost millions of dollars.

And the EMS uh depart department's gonna have to go all over the city looking for calls, and that's what you asked for money for because you're not taking care of the problem.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Michelle.

Elton, I have you on this list, but you did your tax comments earlier during public comment, right?

That was an order to the ordinance.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, uh, Deputy Mayor, Council Altimul.

I say no taxation without representation.

There are X amount of dollars being given to Tacoma's public school district.

The superintendent is not here this evening.

Tacoma school district is failing over children.

When you cannot read when you cannot write, maybe cannot communicate.

There's something wrong with that.

We're talking about taxes.

Tax in the city isn't of Tacoma.

And the taxes are being given to Tacoma public school district as I sat here like three dollars and ninety-three cents, I think it is.

That was showing up there a few minutes ago.

And then the school failed to deliver.

It's a problem.

As Mr.

Rightly stated, the problem is not being addressed, it's not being resolved, or we're being taxed.

So, what is it that the city, the school district gonna do differently?

The same sanity is doing the same thing over and over again, the same thing, and they expect a different result.

And so I'm asking the council that if you are given if you're collecting taxes from the citizen of the city, and it's going to the school district.

I'm asking you to follow up to see and to make sure that our children can read, they can communicate, compute, and they can understand what they're doing as they're being taught in over school.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Alton.

Um, seeing no hands online, I will declare the public hearing closed.

Clerk, have we received any written comment for the public hearing?

We've not for this hearing.

Okay.

Item number 13.

Clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29069.

An ordinance authorizing no increase in the ad velorum general property tax revenue revenue collection in terms of both dollars and percentage for the general property tax levy for 2026.

All right, this item was just presented.

Are there any additional questions or comments from council?

Okay, the ordinance will be set over for final reading on November 12th, 2025.

Item 14, will you please read?

Ordinance 29070.

An ordinance fixing the amount of ad valorum tax levies necessary to identify the amount of the estimated revenues for property tax levies to match estimated expenditures for budget service and other funding requirements.

Okay, are there any council comments or questions?

That ordinance will also be set over for final reading November 12th, 2025.

Item number 15, Clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29071, an ordinance authorizing an increase for the emergency medical services property tax levy in terms of both dollars and percentage for 2026.

Okay, are there any additional council comments or questions?

That ordinance will also be set up for final reading November 12th, 2025.

Last one item 16, Clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29072 and ordinance fixing the amount of the emergency medical services levy necessary to identify the amount of estimated revenues from the property tax levy to match estimated expenditures for debt services and other funding requirements.

Okay, if there are no additional council questions or comments, the ordinance will be set over for final reading November 12, 2025.

Okay, moving on to public hearings and appeals.

Item number 18.

This item will have a PowerPoint presentation.

Clark, will you please read?

This is the date set for a public hearing by the City Council on the proposed Tide Flat Sub-area Plan as recommended by the Tide Flats Steering Committee and related amendments to the one Tacoma plan and Tacoma Municipal Code as recommended by the Planning Commission.

All right, I would like to call on Stephen Adkinson to begin the presentation.

Hi Steven.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Uh Deputy Mayor Daniels, uh, Mayor Woodards online tonight, and the rest of the city council.

I'm Stephen Atkinson, Planning Development Services and the City's uh lead on the Tide Flat Subway Plan.

Um the primary purpose, obviously, for the meeting this evening is to conduct the public hearing and to hear from our community about their thoughts and comments on the Tide Flat subway plan and the related code amendments.

I do want to present a brief introduction, um, giving some background on the planning effort, how we arrived here this evening, an overview of the public review documents, as well as a summary of next steps and tentative schedule.

Um the uh map on the left on this slide depicts the area that we are referring to when we talk about the Tide Flat sub-area.

Uh this is the area that is designed uh currently designated as the Port of Tacoma Manufacturing and Industrial Center, and the area in which the Tide Flat Subway plan, if adopted, would apply within the City of Tacoma.

Um, as the council is aware, uh, the Tide Flats area is approximately 5,000 acres of waterfront and industrial lands.

It's part of the ancestral lands of the Pialp tribe of Indians as well as the site for uh the tribal members uh continuing uh their tree protected practices.

Um it is an area designated by the state of uh by the uh state of Washington as a container port and home to the Port of Tacoma.

Um, designated by the PewDiePie Regional Council envisioned 2050 as a regionally significant manufacturing and industrial center, as well as a site for critical saltwater and freshwater habitats.

And unlike some of the other industrial areas throughout the region, uh this is an industrial area and port that is really located within uh dense urban context and neighborhoods, including our neighbors in the city of Fife.

There are a number of different planning requirements that are really unique to the Tide Flats area and that have guided the work that we've accomplished as part of the suburbate planning process and which are represented in the work that's presented to the city council.

Uh first off, I will mention under the State Growth Management Act and the container port planning requirements.

The city was conduct uh was required to conduct this planning work in collaboration with both the Port of Tacoma and Pialp tribe of Indians.

So, really, from a project initiation by the City Council in 2017.

Uh, this work has been guided by that uh uh ethos of collaboration with our partners, bringing together the P.

Hribe of Indians, Port of Tacoma, Pierce County, and Fife to work collaboratively towards a shared vision, shared plan for the Tide Flats area that is represented in the recommendations to the council here this evening.

Uh those partner governments uh developed a joint work plan that guided uh the planning effort.

It identified the planning process and milestones that we would work through.

It also identified and uh uh expressed the roles and responsibilities of all the partners, uh staff and the elected representatives throughout this effort.

Uh there are a couple of things I'll note about the the uh work plan that was approved by the governmental parties.

Uh first, it uh established a tide flats advisory group that met continuously throughout the planning effort to act as the sounding board for policy development and to uh provide input to the steering committee.

Um second, the work plan established an ongoing steering committee comprised of elected representatives from each of the partner governments uh that really guided all of this work and ultimately uh resulted in a shared recommendation uh unanimously approved by the steering committee to the city council.

Now there's uh a lot of background that we could talk about and how we got here this evening.

Um I want to really focus on uh the phase of this work that began in 2021 with a community launch.

Um again, as I mentioned, uh the Tide Flats Steering Committee really uh led this effort and met continuously from project launch all the way through the steering committee's recommendation of a draft plan uh in just December of last year.

Uh similarly, the Tide Flats advisory group met on an ongoing basis, providing input to the steering committee through their deliberations.

Uh but in addition to that work, there was uh direction from the steering committee to make sure that we had extensive community engagement, particularly at the outset of the planning effort.

And that really began in 2021 with the community visioning process.

That community visioning process led to the development of the initial guiding principles and draft land use alternatives that were later considered in the EIS and by the steering committee in the compilation of their plan recommendations.

Throughout this effort, there have been key checkpoints where we conducted formal public hearings and comment periods to make sure we were on the right track with our community members and to be able to provide that comment to the city council at those key check-ins.

This included a public city council public hearing during the development of the land use alternatives and guiding principles.

This also included a public hearing and comment period during the development of the draft EIS, as well as comment periods to the planning commission review process and city council.

In addition, what the slide shows is in addition to the community engagement, the steering committee also considered the findings and recommendations from the draft EIS.

Ultimately, the steering committee's recommended plan took into account both the public comment through those phases of the work, the findings and recommendations from the technical analysis of the EIS, as well as consideration for consistency with state planning requirements, primarily the container port planning element of the GMA and the planning criteria for the Manufacturing Industrial Center.

Following the steering committee's recommendations in December last year, the plan was transmitted to both the city council and planning commission.

We provided an introduction earlier this year.

The commission conducted their review in March through July of this year, culminating in their recommendations on July 16th.

We presented those recommendations to the City Council on August 12th alongside recommendations from the Health Impact Assessment that were provided by the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department.

And on September 9th, the City Council took action to set the public hearing this evening.

I want to make sure that for everyone attending tonight and interested in providing comments, they're aware that there are a number of exhibits that are part of the public review package.

First of all, this does include the plan itself.

That will be part of ordinance number one, which will be focused on amendments to the comprehensive plan.

So when adopted, the suburbate plan would become part of the City of Tacoma's comprehensive plan.

The second exhibit that we expect to be part of, the first ordinance, are some additional amendments to the comprehensive plan.

Ordinance number two includes the exhibits amending Title 13 of the land use regulatory code, and ordinance number three that comes to the city council will include the amendments proposed for Title XIX Shoreline Master Program.

The next few slides, I'll give a brief overview of each of these documents that are part of the public review package.

First of all, the Tide Flat Subway Plan itself is organized around seven chapters.

The first two chapters provide some of the introduction, overall context and history.

Um and the related code amendments.

This is a very extensive document that includes a significant number of recommended actions and investments that can help improve both environmental and community public health in the Tide Flats and around the Tide Flats area, as well as actions to help support economic development activity and the growth of jobs within the City of Tacoma.

I'm not going to go through an exhaustive list, but I'll provide a few examples of some of the actions proposed in the plan.

First of all, in the environment and health chapter, that chapter recognizes sort of the extent, the known extent of soil contamination within the Tide Flats area, identifies some of the existing resources and programs we have to help remediate that soil contamination, and then identifies specific actions that the City of Tacoma and our partners could take to help build capacity to undertake additional remediation of those sites, expedite that remediation, and put those properties back into public and economic use.

In the long term, this chapter identifies some of the freight mobility projects that would benefit the movement of freight within and outside the port of Tacoma.

It also identifies specific projects, especially the expansion of a shared use facility network to support increased access and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians within the Tide Flats area of note.

One of the projects that is recommended in the plan would improve Marine View Drive to implement safety improvements as well as a shared use facility on Marine View Drive connecting to this Piella Pops Trail, providing a connection from Northeast Tacoma into downtown Tacoma.

There are a number of other recommendations here that are then integrated into the code related amendments that are part of the package this evening.

Just a few examples in chapter four tribal assets.

That chapter identifies some of the area wide goals for the preservation of cultural resources specifically related to the Pialp tribe of Indians and a number of actions that we can take to improve our permit process and code review to protect those resources.

Those recommendations are then integrated into Exhibit III, the proposed changes to Title 13 land use regulatory code.

In chapter three, the environmental health chapter, there are a number of recommendations on improving tree canopy and expanding tree canopy to help support the citywide goal of 30% tree canopy by 2030.

These goals and actions are then integrated as well into the Title 13 code amendments so that any future development under these proposed amendments would be required to implement tree canopy and landscaping improvements consistent with and providing their fair share towards that citywide goal.

Lastly, I'll mention again in chapter chapter six, the land use and economic development.

This chapter provides recommendations on a new zoning and land use framework for integration into the Tiscoma Municipal Code.

This is again primarily integrated into the Title 13 recommendations as part of the package this evening.

So very quickly going through the rest of the exhibits.

This is intended to better connect the policies that apply to the port area to some of the state and regional policies that are really unique to this area.

So these amendments, if approved by the city council, would really distinguish the port tide flats area from the other industrial lands in the city of Tacoma based on the policies that are unique to this area.

The third exhibit are the proposed amendments to Title 13, the land use regulatory code.

Again, the map on the left is from the subway plan.

This depicts the proposed zoning framework as recommended by the steering committee.

There are a number of amendments to various sections of Title 13, but specifically those zoning districts and the land uses would be integrated into 1306-060, where our industrial districts are primarily codified.

And some of the updates to the archaeological and cultural resource code would be integrated into a new chapter 1313.

So this is intended to show some of the relationship between the recommendations in the plan and how those will be codified in the companion documents.

Just a little bit of information on the Shoreline Master Program under the state law, under the Shoreline Management Act.

The Shoreline Master Program applies to any use or development that occurs within our marine waters of the Pialp River and to any project that applied that occurs within 200 feet of those waters.

Generally under the Shoreline Management Act, there's priority given to projects that are dependent on a waterfront location, projects that enhance or provide shoreline public access, or projects that provide ecological restoration.

So some significant use priorities under the State Shoreline Management Act.

The amendments here are really in order to ensure that there are no conflicts between the uses that are allowed within the Shoreline Master Program and the use recommendations that are proposed for codification in Title 13.

So we want to make sure the Title 13 and 19 work hand in hand and are consistent in how they apply to new uses and development within this area.

Now, in uh setting the public hearing tonight, the city council also, as part of that resolution, integrated in some initial amendments to the exhibits.

Um there were four that were uh approved by the city council.

The first was uh an amendment to the non-conforming code in Title 13 uh to provide greater restrictions on the expansion of non-conforming residential and institutional uses in the seaport core.

The second amendment that was approved by the city council and is integrated in the package uh were updates to the seaport transition transit-oriented development district to better support transit-oriented use and development within that area.

The third were a series of minor plan and coda or sorry, minor code amendments that were in response to public comments, and then lastly, the council adopted an amendment to the landscaping code to provide an option for public agencies to develop an urban forestry plan to show how in the long term uh they will provide uh tree canopy and landscaping that meets city codes while providing them greater flexibility over individual sites in the development of the plan and the recommendations that have been provided to the city council.

Uh the city and our partners conducted an environmental impact statement, a climate vulnerability assessment.

We evaluated economic trends and impacts, um, as well as partnered with Tacoma Pierce County Health Department to conduct a health impact assessment.

The plan itself uh represents uh goals, policies, and actions that integrate many of the findings and recommendations from these documents and are expected in the long term to help result in improvements to both public and environmental health within this area.

Um and finally, the senative schedule for council review uh following the public hearing this evening.

Um we will we expect we are tentatively scheduled to be back on November 12th for a study session and first reading of ordinance, followed by uh potential city council adoption on December 2nd.

Um lastly, just following uh city council action.

Uh the suburb plan itself will be provided to the PewDiePie Regional Council and submitted for certification to maintain our manufacturing and industrial center status.

That is a critical component of this because that helps us be more competitive and get greater prioritization for state and regional transportation grants.

Um and then lastly, the Shoreline Master Program will be submitted to the Department of Ecology for their state review and approval process.

Um, and this the Shoreline Master Program does not take effect until it is approved by the Department of Ecology.

So, with that, happy to answer any questions uh that the council may have at this time.

Okay, thank you, Stephen.

Um, are there any council comments or questions?

Councilmember Rumbach.

Stephen, I just want to thank you for all your hard work.

And I noticed that the port is here too, and I want to thank them for how they you know participated in this as well as the city of Fife and the tribe and all of the other partners.

And I know this was a long haul, and we've been working on this for a long time, but I really feel like I need to give you these kudos for getting us to this point.

I know that there was a lot of work, and it may not show because we're here at the last minute, but I know this has taken several years, and I was only a part of it as a council member, and I want to thank you for everything that you did, um, and also just really the inclusion of my neighborhood, Northeast Tacoma and the conversation.

So thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Rambaum.

Um, if there are no other council comments and questions, um, I would like to ask attendees online if you want to speak under the public hearing regarding the proposed high class sub-area plan.

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 evening.

If you are speaking in person, please sign up at the back of the room if you have not done so already.

Your name in the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak.

You will have 90 seconds to make your remarks for the public hearing.

Please be mindful of the time frame.

As always, you are not required to use all of your time to make your point.

Clerk, have you received any written comment for the public hearing?

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

We have received 19 emails for this public hearing.

Okay.

All right.

I will start with those online and we will move to those in the room.

Yvonne McCarty.

Hi, this is Yvonne McCarty.

I'm a um I was the former uh chair of the Northeast Tacoma neighboring council.

I was on the tag.

I've been working on this issue for over 10 years now.

Um I don't know where to start other than to say that the steering committee failed us.

They failed Northeast Tacoma.

And moreover, the City of Tacoma, council members have allowed them to do so.

And I want to go back and say that there's nothing that the staff, I don't hold this accountable to the staff at all because the planning department at the city of Tacoma, the planning department at the Port of Tacoma brought forth proposals and alternatives that we had been asking for forever to make our um uh the the property that aligns along Marine View Drive less industrial.

That was in June.

I reviewed that as a part of the tag in June of 2024.

A couple months later, the final plan draft EIS came out, and suddenly that was gone.

And we were now back to heavy industrial zoning.

And I've met with many elected officials.

I've met with staff since then.

I have pleaded to try to get an amendment done.

And I I don't know, you guys have filled us.

Northeast Tacoma will remember this.

Please do your job and get an amendment done that helps protect your citizens and not these out of state businesses.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Yvonne.

Marilyn Kimmerling.

Can you hear me?

Well, I want to speak about this too because there is a lot of objection to including in the master plan as part of the environmental mitigation.

Uh LNG and the proposed changes to uh the uh oh what do I call it?

The refinery storage tank uh down on the tide flats, which proposes a huge environmental and safety risk to everybody in Tacoma that needs to be taken out of the environmental mitigation plan.

I yield my time.

Thank you for your comments, Marilyn.

Umita.

Onita will be followed by Robert.

Hi, this is Onita Arnold.

Um, I'm speaking in strong support for the proposal to designate Little Marsh as an official restoration site.

This small but ecologically vital area deserves long-term protection and recognition within Tacoma's Tide Flats.

I have volunteered numerous times to clean trash out of the area and take out noxious weeds.

Little Marsh is one of the few remaining green natural areas in the industrial port.

Designating it as a restoration site ensures his peaceful accessible space stays protected for future generations.

The marshes saltwater and mud flat habitat are vital for young salmon and many bird species.

Protecting it helps preserve biodiversity and supports the region's ecosystem.

This proposal aligns with city and tribal goals to protect treaty rights, natural habitat, and cultural resources.

The site is already publicly owned and managed for restoration, so no development or displacement would occur.

This change simply gives Little Marsh stronger recognition and long-term protection.

Little Marsh offers a quiet restorative place for workers and residents to connect with nature within the busy industrial port.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Onita.

Robert, you're up.

Robert, you might be on mute.

If we are talking, we cannot hear you.

Oh, can you hear me now?

There you go.

I just want to thank you all for putting on the uh putting up with us for today and putting on this uh this discussion.

Uh as far as the port, I just want to just remind everybody.

You know, I've worked in this port for over 30 years.

Um, and unfortunately for some of you, it's there's a lot of oil and gas down there, but I'm I'm here to ensure you people that you know the port of Tacoma and all of the people that work down there, and unfortunately, we lost that paper milk pulp mill, which is truly unfortunate.

But everybody down there goes through extensive training when we talk about environmental concerns.

It's as much as our concern as it is anybody else's.

I would promise you that.

So I ask uh all of you to remember, you know, we're talking about earlier talk about uh tax uh income for the for the uh city of Tacoma.

The Port of Tacoma is a huge, huge opportunity, and we need to keep that in mind for the future of everybody.

It's a not it's just a beautiful place to work.

It is a it's a it's an amazing environment uh from sunrise to sunset and in the middle of the night.

Um I'll just leave you with this that all of us down there that work do an amazing job of training and uh nobody's perfect, but we we care more about the environment than any of you could imagine.

So I appreciate y'all.

Uh let's make sure we keep uh port jobs uh in the port of Tacoma lively and uh moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Robert.

Uh Stacy Oaks.

Stacy will be followed by Nicole.

Good evening.

My name is Stacey Oak, and I'm a community organizer with 350 Tacoma.

I'd like to echo all of the comments made by our data about Little Marsh and how important it is to make sure that one of the nation is going to have get the most protection.

If you look at a drone image of the port, you'll see this little green triangle, and that's little marsh.

And it's a concrete and fossil fuel tank around it.

And if you were trying to find somewhere to live in, that is such an important place.

And we know that we're currently eat lunch there as well.

And the crew taking care of that 350 Tacoma's steward that site for the last eight years.

And um as only ahead, it's not going to cost anything to do that.

Um, we need to protect things before it's late and things go lines.

Oops, it was for grandfathered in.

So please do consider that.

Um want to put in our thank you, Stacy.

Nicole, and we will be finished.

We will finish off with Jude Gray online.

Nicole, if you're talking, you might be on mute because we cannot there.

You go.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Oh, hi.

Um, thank you for taking comments.

Um, I do want to be in partnership with the railroads and uh and in the business and the people who work there.

Um, but I do have a concern as a resident living along Dock Street.

Um, of the burnoff of the gases, diesel gases that are uh being released from the trains.

Um so I live parallel to an area that the trains uh idle their engines.

Uh one to three engines are idling almost day and night intermittently.

Um, and then they go down and then they pick up um a container, um, is what I my understanding is.

Um, and this is a procedure, something that is known.

It's something that the railroads along Dock Street are built to do.

Um, as a resident, I'd like you to know I have suit uh that comes in near the doorways, the windows, the trickle vents.

I would just recommend moving forward um that maybe we can move and move that action uh further down the line, uh considering that there's lots of track, uh, maybe along Kialabath where there's less condominiums, apartments, where there isn't a public park, Melanie Jan Jan La Plant in the FIA FOSS Waterway Seaport, the Chavouli Bridge.

If we can move that away from there, um, I think the residents' health would be better.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Nicole.

Um, seeing no other hands online, we will move to those in the room.

Uh first up, we've got Diana Keller, Commissioner.

Right here.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Deanna Keller, commissioner at the Port of Tacoma and a member of the Tide Flat Subaria Plan.

I want to thank you for your leadership and for the opportunity to be able to speak tonight regarding the Tide Flat Sub area plan.

This plan represents over seven years of collaboration, and I'm proud of the work done by the steering committee, the staff, and our community partners.

The tide flats are a vital economic engine and environmental asset, not just for Tacoma, but the entire region.

As one of the few natural deepwater seaports in the country, preserving its working waterfront is essential.

We support two proposed amendments to the implementing regulations recommended by the planning commission.

The first provides corrections to Scrivener's errors, while the second provides flexibility and landscaping standards for public agencies.

These refinements strengthen a plan that already reflects broad consensus.

I respectfully urge you to adopt the Tide Flat Sub area plan and the related amendments to the one Tacoma plan and municipal code.

This is a pivotal moment for our future, and we're ready to move forward together.

Thank you.

Thank you, Deanna.

Okay, next up we've got Janine Provazek, and then followed by Janine will be Andrew Strobel.

Hello, everybody.

Um I am addressing amendment two, the non-conforming residential and institutional uses in the Seaport Court area.

Amendment two strengthens protections for industrial land use within the seaport core by limiting the expansion of nonconforming residential and institutional uses.

While current standards allow limited expansion through conditional use permits, this amendment would remove that option and prohibit any increase in residential capacity or institutional facilities such as dormitories or shelters within the core area.

These changes respond directly to public concerns about safety, land use compatibility, and environmental health in an area designed for heavy industry.

By clarifying and tightening existing regulations, amendment two helps ensure that activities in the Seaport Core remain consistent with its primary purpose supporting ports' current heavy zoning operations and protecting both workers and nearby communities from incompatible land uses.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Jane.

Um Andrew will be followed by Andrew Trotsky.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

My name is Andrew Strobel.

I'm honored to speak on behalf of steering committee member and Pierce County Executive Ryan Mellow in strong support of the draft Tide Flat Subarea Plan and to emphasize its clear alignment with countywide and regional goals.

The county's 2024 comprehensive plan lays out a 20-year framework to promote regional industrial integration, environmental stewardship, and equitable growth.

It calls for supporting high-wage industries, preserving open space and rural lands, and strengthening collaboration with local jurisdictions and our tribal partners.

The Tide Flat Subarea Plan embodies these principles, a coordinated multi-governmental effort that advances the shared vision outlined in our own comprehensive plan.

At the same time, our unincorporated Frederickson Manufacturing Industrial Center benefits from a connectivity and strength of the ports network.

Equally important, the sub area plan outlines actions not just to protect the critical environmental resources in this area, but to enhance them.

It proposes clear building standards for air and water, uh, habitat conservation through implementation of conservation zones and reducing the impacts of sensitive ESA species limiting uh industrial stormwater discharge sites in commencement bay.

It also affirms policies to protect treaty fishing rights.

In closing, this has been a journey to reach this point, but it's taken the effort of truly been worth it.

Mayor Woodards and Councilmember Walker, your steadfast leadership as part of the steering committee and your commitment to keeping the partners at the table has made this achievement possible.

For the first time, we have a shared and unified vision of the tide flats.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Andrew.

Uh Andrew number two, Mr.

Stosky.

I am Andrew number two.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Andrew Trotsky, and I'm with U.S.

Oil.

We are a small refinery that focuses on providing the fuel needs of the South Sound community with world-class carbon intensity.

The sub-area plan process has been lengthy, and my congratulations goes out to the those on this council and those in this room that worked on the plan.

We are supportive and believe that it addresses many community and industrial issues.

However, there are certain elements included in the plan and amended codes that could make it impossible for U.S.

oil to transition to cleaner fuels or reduce our facilities' carbon intensity.

First is the prohibition on any new water discharges for cleaner fuel facilities.

All cleaner fuel technologies require water for processing and result in discharges, which are already strictly regulated.

No water discharge is a no vote on green hydrogen.

Another concern is we have is the application of conditional use permits.

Permit uncertainty inhibits investors, and a new clean fuels facility is a significant investment.

An investment would be needed.

Adding a subjective CUP, which does not include any safety impact standards, makes it impossible for us to build the facilities we believe meet climate goals.

A CUP is a no vote on clean fuels.

The state and city want cleaner fuels.

We want to provide those.

We urge support of policy that allows this to happen.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Andrew.

Um I just want to just take a super quick second to thank everybody for being so mindful and just listening to everybody speak.

Um Alton McDonald, you are up.

And then after Alton will be Michael Katsey.

Alton, no.

Okay.

Michael Katze, you're up.

After Michael will be Tom Pearson, Madam Mayor, Madam Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak to the Tide Flight Sub-area Plan this evening.

Uh reaching this moment after seven years of work is a major accomplishment.

The steering committee, the technical advisory group, community members, and this council have invested countless hours to get us a unanimous recommendation, and that speaks to the strength of the consensus you've built.

Is the plan perfect?

No plan ever is.

Implementation will require continuous refinement to ensure the plan delivers on its intent, making it easier, not harder to do business in the tide flats, without compromising our environmental and social values.

We also need to ensure that Tacoma is positioned at the forefront of the green energy economy.

This means removing barriers so the private sector can invest confidently in cleaner fuels, greener operations, and the jobs of the future.

The EDB is fully committed to partnering with you to help recruit new investment, retain and grow local businesses, and strengthen our economic and environmental future together.

We ask that you approve the tide flats sub-area plan and then immediately begin the next phase.

Refining implementation policies that unlock the full benefits that this plan promises for workers, industry, and the community.

Thank you for your leadership, your perseverance, and your willingness to make progress after seven long years.

We look forward to celebrating this with you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Michael.

Tom.

After Tom will be Robin Evans.

I can't read the last name, but Robin Evans.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Members of the Council, sorry, I have my lost my voice a couple days ago, so I'll make this short.

First, I just want to thank everybody for their hard work through this, the steering committee, seven years it's been.

And many as many of us have lived through those seven years, and so I just want to say thank you for the hard work that's been in.

There are some issues.

You know, if you read the 194 pages of the sub-area plan, there are very aspirational goals in terms of green energy, and we want to align with that, and we think we need to in terms of the what what our needs in this community.

Unfortunately, aspirational goals don't align with the with the document that's within there.

And so we'd ask you to look at some amendments or not amendments, but it's just administration, administrative fixes.

And you see those in those public comments that are that our energy partners have laid out for you.

I think the fixes are very simple, and I think they can be done by consensus.

And we have 35 days to get this done.

So look forward to passage on this on December 2nd.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Tom.

Uh Robin Evans.

After Robin will be Chris Green.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

My name is Rob Dr.

Robin Evans Agnew.

I'm a public health researcher and a nurse specializing in environmental justice and air pollution.

My comments are my own.

I'm briefly commenting on one specific but important and to me unresolved area of concern in the sub-area plan, the expansion of multiplex housing in the seaport transition zone in order to build out residences at the Tacoma Dome Transportation Hub.

This is the only circumstances made to allow mixed-use housing in the sub-area planning zone.

I remind council members that the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department's health impact assessment predicted that this decision would, and I quote, expose more residents to industrial emissions noise and light and to the traffic-related air pollution associated with freight.

The health impact assessment went on to recommend multiplexes should be cited in at least 500 feet from major highways and constructed with HVAC systems.

However, the priority action number 42, which addresses indoor air quality in the plan, does not require it, only encourages an upgrade of ventilation systems and pursue resources and grants to facilitate conversions.

Air pollution is a major and unregulated con indoor air pollution is major and unregulated contributor to health impacts through the lifespan.

I urge council members not to simply encourage but to develop standards now that will require upgrades to all present and future ventilation systems for housing in the seaport transition dome.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Robin.

Chris Green, and after Chris Green will be Matthew Maurer.

Hey, good evening, Deputy Mayor, members of the council.

My name is Chris Green.

I'm here to represent the Manufacturing Industrial Council here in Tacoma.

And just here here to some of the comments you heard from the chamber earlier.

Um, encourage the council to stay on pace to pass this on schedule on December 2nd.

Thanks for all the work that's been done to date.

Uh, but amplifying some of the comments you've heard about uh the difficulties this may present in terms of trying to produce green fuels and new innovative clean fuels here in the port industrial area.

Um producing clean fuels is a pretty massively difficult undertaking right now.

I've spent a lot of time trying to get these facilities online all over the Northwest and worked with companies all over the world trying to get these to get financeable uh and get developed.

Um and if you look at what's going on globally, and you look at if you pay attention to what the International Maritime Organization did just last week under pressure from the United States to uh delay implementing new global frameworks that would have increased green fuel access and green fuel production globally, um it's gotten a lot harder.

Uh and when I think about the Port of Tacoma, I think about this area, a place that I've worked in and around for most of my career trying to create new jobs.

It's one of the most perfect places to be able to have these kinds of fuels accessible for all the needs we're going to have.

We can't use batteries to decarbonize big ships.

It's not going to work.

And the Port of Tacoma is an exceptional area to be able to try to produce these things.

So we hope some of these uh comments will lead to some more discussions.

Again, want to make sure the plan does get passed on time, but point out that uh we do want to make sure we have a future for producing these green fuels here in the local region.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Chris.

Matthew Mauer.

I was gonna I was trying to figure out your other hat, which I don't know which one you're wearing tonight, but thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, for the record, Matthew Mauer.

I am here on my own volition.

I do not work for any uh of the agencies that are involved in this sub area plan anymore.

Um, but as you may know, the last four and a half years I spent a lot of time for the Port of Tacoma uh on this effort, and it is uh really close to my heart, I think, and uh it is I'm so excited that we're at this point.

Um I wanted to take this time real quick to thank the staff that were involved over the last four and a half years, actually, some of them over the last eight years, uh, to get to this point.

Um, specifically Deirdre Wilson, the planner at the Northwest Seaport Alliance in the Port of Tacoma, Andrew Strobel, who you just saw earlier, who at the time was working on behalf of the tribe of Indians, Chris Larson from the City of Fife, uh, Steve Atkinson from the City of Tacoma, and Sean Gaffney from uh Pierce County.

Additionally, along with uh multiple members from the community who've been involved in the tag, I want to specifically call out uh the executive director of the manufacturing industrial council, Ryan Spence.

Uh, he was integral in getting this uh package to where it is today, and also advocating on behalf of businesses and manufacturing to make sure that their voices was heard um in this sub-area plan.

And so, real big shout out to him.

Um as I said before, so excited that we're at this point.

Um, I can't wait for um uh December, and this is a really good plan that does a lot of amazing things.

I'm about to run out of time, but we're uh habitat restoration manufacturing, uh removed incompatible uses that everyone didn't really want in the first place, including uh rendering plants, really really cool stuff that we've done in there, including um tribal assets um and cultural resources, um, lots of really cool stuff.

Anyway, thank you for your time.

Looking forward to December.

Thank you so much, Matt.

Uh next up is Thomas Fountain.

Thomas will be followed by Carol Sue Bratton.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

Um, my name is Tom Fountain.

I'm representing concrete technology, uh, which is a third-generation uh local business in the port of Tacoma.

We manufacture large-scale infrastructure that supports the port itself.

Yeah, uh parts, piers, and pilings, as well as interstate infrastructures such as bridges and our Safe Coast Stadium and our light rail projects, to not to mention quite a few more.

Um we've read through the plan.

Um we do have a few concerns.

Um once upon our our review, we see that there's some undefined or open interpretation language that we'd like to see uh structured and strengthened, um, which will allow us to clarify a couple things.

Um thank you, um Mr.

Atkinson and Mr.

Boudet for helping us craft some language which will not trigger review but will strengthen some of the language in the plan.

Uh we are seeking some definition, and we have some suggested uh language which will help strengthen strengthen the definition of final and basic manufacturing, which we feel without doing so will greatly affect our potential to continue business uh in the port of Tacoma and manufacture products which support our infrastructure throughout the United States.

Um we also are concerned about um some of the regulations that uh describe pre-existing industrial use is allowed, but then restrict the use by applying code that limits previously only applied to nonconforming uses.

In other words, uh concrete tech is is treated as a nonconforming use, and to make that worse, the standards are modified to take away that right that every other entity has uh to move from one nonconforming use to the other.

Um so thank you for hearing our uh submission and uh thank you, um Councilmember Ramba for your response and also letting us apply our contribution through the portal to all of us.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Thomas.

Uh Carol Sue and Carol Sue will be followed by Barb Church.

Then Melissa Millot.

Carol Subrayton, I'm asking that you set aside and decline this.

The extensiveness of this is missing documents that are critical, and I'm asking you to put me with the city manager and some of you.

My background is soil science.

I have geological hazard background, I have critical areas and everything else.

The missing documents include liquefaction soil, liquefaction, the port liquefied in 49.

That means an earthquake took it out, and it turned to liquid.

There are two earthquake fault lines.

There is earthquake fault line going through the port and earthquake fold line.

Those can wipe out the entire port.

The entire port is in a tsunami hazard area.

By the way, the Stafford Act of 1974 prohibits building any of in any of these areas.

Also, the 1970 Act of the Tank Act for the LNG.

Any petroleum product must be underground.

It cannot be any in a liquefaction soil.

The you also are in the volcanic eruption, Lahar mud flow area from Mount Rainier.

You are in two dam break areas, Electron Dam and Mud Mountain Dam.

You also, I've talked to Dennis Dixon, who did the call out for the 2009 evacuation.

I was part of that.

The entire port evacuated out.

The wastewater treatment plant would have been devastated, and you would have no toilets, no sewer, no nothing in Tacoma.

My mom lived through the 1930s flood, which flooded from one side of the valley to the other.

My grandfather brought the children down to the Long Charmans.

There was flooding all the port.

If you want more information, I'll give you my cards.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Okay, Barb, you're up.

After Barb will be Melissa, and we will finish out with Michelle Reich.

Thank you.

My name is Barb Church.

I live within a two-mile radius of the Port of Tacoma.

From the beginning of this process, there was a public engagement plan, including public input, open houses early and often as part of their overarching theme.

That engagement only happened once in all those years.

So the planning commission had some amendments to the sub-area plan based on public comments.

We ask that you consider the comments today as an opportunity to make up for the lack of meaningful inclusion of local residents earlier in the process.

Amendment one designating Little Marsh as a restoration site.

Amendment two, limiting nonconforming residential and institutional uses in the Seaport Core, and amendment three restricting expansion of nonconforming heavy industrial uses in the sea port transition area.

We strongly support this amendment, which prohibits expansion of nonconforming industry through conditional use permits.

This ensures that buffers areas between the port and nearby neighborhoods, protect residents from harmful emissions, and pave the way for clean, green, and innovative industries that align with Tacoma's climate and economic goals.

I do want to thank the planning commission for all their work on this.

I also thank those residents who've worked on this for over 10 years and those who have been marginalized by the pollution that we breathe every day.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Barb.

Melissa, and again closing out with Michelle Reich.

Mayor Woodards, Deputy Mayor Daniels, and City Council members.

I'm Melissa Millot from Communities for Healthy Bay.

I'm here to say one thing tonight clearly.

Pass this plan as is.

Because maintaining the status quo, that's the real threat to Tacoma.

This plan is a major improvement, a leap forward for the health, safety, and future of our city.

We owe gratitude gratitude to former mayor uh Marilyn Strickland, who had the vision back in 2016 to bring five governments and so many stakeholders together.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to Mayor Woodards and especially Councilmember Christina Walker and this city council for carrying that vision forward.

You guys carried it through seven long years through the pandemic and through one of the most robust public processes that this city has ever seen.

You listened, you balanced competing interests, and you kept Tacoma's values of health, equity, and sustainability front and center.

This plan is not perfect, but let's not let perfection be the enemy of the good.

It is good, it is fair, and it is time to pass it.

I'm a little surprised at the whiplash that we're hearing from some of industry about waiting or making changes.

We have waited long enough.

Let's finish strong.

Let's pass this before Mayor Woodards leaves office, and let's take a win for the future of Tacoma.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Melissa, uh Michelle.

Michelle Raj.

I used to work at the Port of Tacoma on contract for a private security firm when I was stationed at Fort Lewis.

So I had to have a second job.

So I I worked with most of the tenants at the Port of Tacoma.

There's one uh Tacoma boat that done on contract for the US and Korean Navies.

Wakeo chip plant where we got the Tacoma aroma from.

So uh anyway, um uh I've seen the the changes of the port over the years, and uh the L and G plan is a problem there for me because uh years ago and on the coast of Spain, there's a collision between uh gas link tanker and a propane truck on the coast road, and that that created a big fireball that uh inundated at a trailer park and killed about 500 people in that trailer park, it was wiped out.

And so LNG is such a uh combustible uh thing in the port, and so I have concerns about that.

So uh and besides the pollution issue, too.

But uh that is uh a problem that uh you need to look at very carefully for safeguards because uh it can impact all of Tacoma uh explosion with the L and G plant, such as happened in Spain years ago.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Michelle.

Um seeing no other uh speakers, um, we will declare the public hearing period closed and move on to any unfinished business.

Is there any unfinished business?

Seeing none, we will move on to community forum, during which you have during which you may speak about items over which a city council has jurisdiction.

As a reminder, these forums are 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 towards the city council and not at individual staff members.

At this time, I would like to ask.

Oh, at this time I would like to ask attendees if you want to speak under community forum, please press the raise your hand button near your Zoom window or press star nine on your phone now so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this evening.

If you're speaking in person, please sign up at 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.

Before we start, I'd like to call on Mayor Woodards.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Daniels.

I'm sorry, I I wanted to make a comment um before the close out of the of the hearing for the Tide Flat sub-area plan.

Oh, I want to thank everybody who came.

Oh, thank you.

I um I want to thank everybody who came this evening um to um share their thoughts on the sub-area plan.

This has been um uh a long effort in the making.

I also want to take a moment just to thank staff for their work and council member Christina Walker for being my partner and getting this over the finished line.

Um, I will share um deeper comments on December 2nd when this is passed.

But I I do want to remind uh everyone of something that Michael Catzley said when he spoke this morning, and that the plan is not perfect.

Um, the plan will probably not meet everyone's needs.

But this is seven years in the making, as a matter of fact, the plan that's before us now was what we voted on in December and has been available for comment since December.

I appreciate the idea of making small tweaks, but any tweak that is made to the plan requires another 45 days, which would put us past the time to past the time of getting the plan passed this year.

Um so I respectfully hear and understand those concerns, um, and we can look into them as we can, but again, the importance of getting this done now so that we can provide some certainty, and the next council can continue to take on and amend this umend this uh report or or amend this uh ordinance um in the future.

Um, but again, appreciate everyone who came out, appreciate all of the five governments who have worked hard to get here to this day and to the planning commission.

Again, it's not perfect, but I have a uh post it note on my desk that I read every day and it does say don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

And I think this is a good solid plan.

Um, and we need to get this moving forward so that the port can begin to move forward.

Remember, all five governments, the port, the tribe, the city of Fife, Pierce County, and the City of Tacoma unanimously voted to move this plan forward.

Um, and um and and I believe that it is our obligation to do just that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um okay.

With that, we will move on to community forum.

Community forum will be community forum.

Um will be limited to a total of 60 minutes, and each speaker will have 90 seconds to make your remarks.

Please be mindful of the time frame.

As always, you are not required to take all of your time to make your point.

If you cannot remain on topic, you will be given two warnings.

If you remain off topic, we will have to move on and in your time, in your time.

Clerk, have you received any written comment for public for community forum?

Um, Deputy Mayor, we have we've received 259 emails, um, 256 regarding uh tenants' bill of rights, one regarding a camping ban, the camping ban, and two regarding biosolids.

Okay, thank you.

All right, we are gonna start online.

Oh, Nita, you're up first.

Thank you.

Um so that this is on Ada Arnold on, and so the deed is done, despite the reality of shelters that have closed, leaving no alternatives for our unhoused community.

I want to thank the members of the council, council members Scott, Bushnell, Danielle, and Diaz for your votes, your votes opposing ordinance 28831, the expansion of the camping ban.

The Hill team will need to be creative now.

What housing services to offer when there are none?

Tacoma police department will also need to be creative.

With the ban going into effect next Tuesday, where are the maps detailing the areas our unhoused neighbors are allowed to be, and what are the standard operating procedures for how removals will be conducted within the two blocks of libraries, schools, and parks.

And the outreach workers and volunteers will also need to be creative and finding our unhoused community as they get forced again and again into hiding as they seek a safe place to be.

The homeless are not the problem.

Homelessness is.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Onita.

Uh Jude Gray.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can.

Um, I now live in district one.

I've been house insecure for barely secure for five years.

I have never been able to afford the affordable so-called units in our city.

I have been houseworth, luckily, by the grace of my community now on the street.

Um, but one of the only reasons why is the research tenant protection, the labor rights that we have.

So while you're gonna go ahead, and my you know, council Karen is gonna go after homeless people in my own district and all of the districts around here by extending the campaign.

I cannot stress it enough along with all of the other people who recognize this that health insecurity and food insecurity are the two main things that travel into crime.

If you want crime district one, the one I live in to go down, then you need to be prioritizing the welfare of the people who live in the city.

Stop going after people.

You are so beholden, Mr.

Thumb to the businesses and the corporations of this area.

I mean, you want to sacrifice, literally sacrifice the lives of the people that live in your district.

Not to mention the other districts around you.

It is absolutely selfish.

It is so disregarding a fact of child with our community to which is not getting money to the police, which is not giving money to landlords.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Jude.

Stacy Oaks.

After Stacy, we will move on to Pete.

Yes, good evening again.

Um, my name is Stacey Oaks, and I just honestly having um the comments that uh from Mayor Woodards coming back on to remind us that you know it won't fit in the timeline to make any changes.

Why have a public hearing if you know it doesn't matter what the public says to you?

And it just it's so frustrating to try to navigate how this city does stuff, to try to participate, and to constantly feel like the city almost goes out of its way to make sure that people don't feel heard or it seems like your comments aren't going anywhere.

Um it's just really frustrating, and it translates through all of the issues that people come before you.

And so I just wanted to come back on and say that.

Um stand in solidarity with everyone speaking against the camping van tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Stacey.

Uh Pete.

Pete will be followed by Marilyn Kimmerling.

Pete, if you're talking, we cannot hear you.

Oh, okay.

Hi, this is uh Peter Tower.

My name's Peter Tower.

I'm a tenant and resident of district four.

I am fortunate to live with a homeowner as a renter.

However, I have been denied my deposit and charged for damages that served more as unit upgrades following movement.

I had to send certified mail to both property management companies in the past for repairs to be made.

Property upkeep was poor.

And I was billed $50 if rent was later than five days.

At one of my apartments, I had a cockroach infest station and at another one.

Rather, they used an interior door for my front door, which left me uh left the unit vulnerable.

And once again, I had to send certified mail because they would not return my calls.

Um the tenant bill of rights would protect me from this kind of negligence.

Last week you suggested in committee that eviction protections should reach for more people than Rimba's proposal.

I'm calling on Sidalke to stop this rush to repeal in the committee and for open and fair negotiations with tenants.

Please protect us.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Pete.

Um, Marilyn, and we will close out online with Yvonne McCarty.

Good evening, council.

So I want to first of all support the things that were said by Stacy Oakes, Barb Church, and the people that have gone before me about the tenants' bill of rights and then the problems with the camping ban.

The camping ban is going to cause, well, without shelter, people die.

And now that people will be dispersed, I mean, it was well meaning to say, well, we should look at maybe providing lockers, so at least that everything they own doesn't get uh swept into the garbage.

But the lockers aren't here yet.

It's nice to say we should provide public bathrooms, which was what big chest did last night.

Excuse me, last week.

But the public bathrooms aren't here yet.

These are our neighbors.

There, but for the grace of God, go you and I.

So I'm speaking on behalf of keeping the tenants' bill of rights as it is to strengthen protection so that more people will not be out on the street.

And get those shelters, excuse me, get those lockers and those bathrooms in before you enact the tenant bill of the camping ban, so that there are some protections for the people that you are sweeping from place to place.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Marilyn.

Yvonne.

Hi there, thank you.

Um, I just wanted to come back on and uh heard what Stacy said.

I agree with her.

We definitely need to take a pause and not necessarily rush to get this done before the end of the year to get it right.

And I implore you guys to just think about what you're doing, the impacts it has on you know our communities.

I have been doing this more than anyone on this dais.

I mean, I've been working on this on this project on this effort more than anyone up there.

And I know that what the profound impacts that are happening to our community, and the fact that we got you know basically screwed at the end of the of the of the EAS process, really needs a second look.

So I implore you, please delay this vote.

It doesn't have to be done by the end of the year.

That's an artificial deadline.

Look at what your constituents, what the impacts they are are going to be to your constituents.

And I'm willing to meet with any one of you.

The invitation is open.

I would like to talk to you about my 10 plus years of advocating for Northeast Tacoma and the same transition zone that everybody else gets in the rest of this around the tide flats we want in Northeast Tacoma.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Yvonne.

All right, we are gonna close public comment online and move on to those that are in the room.

We are gonna start tonight with Matthew Dooley, and Matthew will be followed by Devin Rydell Kelly.

Hello.

I want to talk about the landlord fairness code, the tenant bill of rights.

Knowing that our rent isn't gonna go up more than five percent a year, knowing that if we face an emergency, we won't get kicked out onto the streets during winter, that we get six months' notice of rent increases, and all the other protections that allow us to sleep well at night, knowing that the city the city of Tacoma has our backs and wants to protect everyone living here.

I'm a recipient of SNAP, and I know that my family is not likely going to get enough to afford food in November due to the funding being cut.

Please do not roll back protections on the Bill of Rights any further.

The eviction ban is one of the few things standing between someone having a roof over their head and being out in the cold.

Please do not forget people's humanity.

Uh everyone should have a right to shelter.

Please keep this in mind as you continue your fight for the people of Tacoma.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Matthew.

Devin, you are up, and Devin will be followed by Sol Ozuna.

Hi, folks.

Uh, my name is Devin Ride O'Kelly.

I live in District 3, and I'm the co-director of Tacoma for All.

I'm excited to be here tonight to deliver these hands-off tenant right petitions uh signed by over a thousand Tacoma residents over the course of the summer.

Of course, they join the many people here in this meeting tonight, the dozens of community leaders who've recently spoken up with us and over 400 residents who have sent you letters in the last two weeks.

All of us are united by clear, simple demands.

Don't rush to repeal the landlord fairness code.

Give tenants a seat at the table.

Negotiate with them transparently.

I'm joined tonight by tenant leaders who will share the conditions they face as renters across Tacoma.

Some will speak about their almost unlivable buildings overrun by rot, mold, or pests.

Others will speak about their greedy landlords, Jackie up the RAND or outright ignoring not only our tenant bill of rights, but countless other local and state laws.

Most of her probably experienced both in the last year.

All of them want to protect the bold, life-saving tenant protections in the landlord fairness code.

I'm also joined by members of Tacoma for All Steering Committee who will share our many concerns with Councilmember Rumbaugh's rush to roll back and repeal tenant rights.

Her proposal may at first seem like a compromised position, but as a combination of restrictive means testing, massive landlord carve-outs, and nickel and diming tenants amounts to wholesale giveaway to corporate landlords and rental housing association.

We look forward to you listening closely to us tonight and then negotiating modifications to the LFC with us deliberately in community and in good faith.

Thank you.

I'm gonna deliver these petition signatures to the clerk.

Thank you, Devin, for your comments.

Please do.

Uh Sol.

Sol will be followed by Jake.

I don't want to butcher your name, Jake.

Hello, my name is Sol Hesus Osuna.

I'm here with Tacoma for All.

I am a tenant who has been living uh in city member Rumba's district for eight years now.

To my surprise, every complex I've lived in has had rent increase despite its inability to function properly on a regular basis.

I'm done paying over 1200 in rent for an unsecur unsecured and unsatisfactory living experience.

Here's some of the issues I've endured within uh the past year.

Roof leaks and issues due to improper maintenance repairs, my water being shut off two to three times a week due to plumbing issues, a roach infestation, needing to sleep in multiple layers, and a beanie because my building has a faulty boiler.

Worst of all, massive health issues due to long-term mold exposure that's connected to improper maintenance around the building.

These issues don't only affect me physically, but mentally as well.

We've heard the term beggars can't be choosers.

I don't support that statement.

Your constituents have pleaded for you to listen to their needs.

Time after time, you continue to shove our livelihood aside.

To that I say, maybe it's time we shove you out of our council chamber.

I don't wish to run for city council, but if you're taking your job, but if taking your job is the only way to properly get work done, I will happily do that, Sarah.

Uh this isn't a threat, it's simply a promise.

And unlike the rest of you, I stay true to my word.

Lastly, um, who should I forward my medical bills to?

My health issues are on you, and it's time you start paying.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Okay.

Jake.

Jake, can you pronounce your last name for me?

Altschule.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jake.

I'm a tenant in Sarah Rumbaugh's district, District 2, and a supporter of Tacoma for All.

I live in a large apartment complex owned by a very large company.

I don't know the owner of the company, and I barely know the property manager at my building.

Uh, we have had four in the past year.

What I do know about my landlord is that they are currently in a class action lawsuit that accuses them, among other landlords, of using a software to inflate rent prices through a fixed pricing scheme.

The software is information that is not available to the public, information that my landlord used to decide how much to raise rent costs, remove discounts that attract tenants, and even recommends keeping units vacant to artificially inflate rent prices.

Then instead of competing, the landlords all agreed to raise their prices together based on the software's recommendations.

This is just one example of how greedy my landlord and the others listed in the lawsuit truly are.

Thank you for your comments tonight, uh, Jake.

Next up we have Aidan.

Aidan will be followed by Martel Hall.

Hello, my name is Aidan Gardy.

I'm a renter in District 2, Sarah Rumbaugh's district, and a steering committee member of Tacoma for All.

I'm here to demand that City Council keep their hands off the landlord fairness code.

My landlord, Garrett Gilbertson, has been negligent on maintenance for the house I rent.

By one, refusing to look into a suspected mold issue in the HVAC system.

And two, by forgetting to pay the water bill twice on two separate occasions, our house was without running water.

I felt like my landlord didn't care about me or even understand what I pay him for.

Without the protections of the landlord fairness code, current market forces give landlords no reason to treat their tenants with respect.

Many landlords apparently need to be reminded that their tenants are humans worthy of respect.

The code has improved my Central Tacoma neighborhood by securing essential and common sense protections against displacement and homelessness.

Specifically, the moratoriums on evictions for families with school-aged children.

Has protected children from going to school homeless.

Draw your rush to drop your rush to repeal.

Instead, support a transparent open negotiation with tenants at the table.

If you can't do this, then you should recu recuse yourself from voting because of your potential conflict of interest.

As a landlord.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Aiden.

Martel will be followed by Arya or Avia.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Martel Hall, and I'm a proud resident of District 5, a supporter of Tacoma for All and a constituent in a constituent of Councilmember Joe Brushnow.

I'm standing here tonight as a father, a fiance, a man who's doing everything he can to build a stable, loving, living life for my family right here in Tacoma after moving from St.

Louis, Missouri in 2015.

My fiance and I work hard to provide for our kids.

We're not asking for handouts.

We're asking for a fair shot, but it's hard to stay steady when your rent keeps jumping up multiple times a year.

Your landlord will fix what's broken.

We've dealt with we leaks, busted things, infestations after instations of roaches.

And that constant stress of what happens if they raise the rents next month.

The Tilla Bill of Rights gave us a little peace in the gay families like mine, breathing room.

Now these proposed rollbacks threatened to take away.

They push families back into survival mode.

The very thing that this law was created to prevent.

Councilmember Bushnill, last week you showed real courage when you voted no on the expanded camping ban.

You stood up for a compassion and common sense, and I want to thank you for that truly.

Tonight I'm asking you to bring the same strength and heart right here for your constituents.

Because this isn't politics for us.

This is home.

This is our kids' sense of safety.

This is our shot at building something silent and real.

Please stand with Tacoma families.

Keep the tenant bill of rights strong.

Keep the Tacoma a place where people like me who have built this city can stay, grow, and thrive.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Okay.

Um is it Arya?

Arya will be followed by Dez Chagant.

Hello, I'm Aria Jocelyn.

I am a longtime Tacoma resident in District 3 and a renter.

And I'm here to uh implore you to not repeal the tenants Bill of Rights, the Landlord Fairness Act.

In 2007, I got a notice on my door that my rent was gonna go up by several hundred dollars.

I had an infant under a year old and two small elementary school children.

A series of events occurred that led to us ending up unhoused.

Um we uh couch surfed and slept in a uh extra office room in a Tacoma business who was kind enough to give us shelter through the winter.

We spent nearly a year unhoused, and once you're in that predicament, it is so hard to get out of homelessness.

It's one of the most expensive lifestyles that there is.

If from things like having to buy milk a court at a time, because you cannot refrigerate a gallon.

It's so expensive.

I ended up losing my needing to get a new job.

My kids had to change schools, my son had to change daycares.

This I support this tenants bill of rights so that no other mother ever has to go through what my family went through.

And I'm begging you, do not repeal this, not at this time.

The world is too fragile right now, too fragile.

Leave protections in place.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Aria.

I just want to remind folks before we go any further.

We're almost through community forum.

Uh just to be mindful of the rules of um clapping after folks are speaking.

Are you Des?

Yes.

Okay.

Des will be followed by Francis.

Sorry, Des.

Hello, my name is Dez, and I'm a proud union worker from uh UFCW, Local 367 at the Hilltop Safeway, and a renter here in Tacoma.

Every day I work hard to keep my community running, stalking shelves, serving neighbors, and helping families put food on the table.

But at the end of my shift, I go home knowing that without renter protections, I could lose my place in the city.

I love renters like me aren't asking for special treatment.

We're asking for fairness and stability.

Over 10 years ago, when I was a student in community college with no income beyond financial aid, my family was evicted in the cold month of January.

It was pouring rain, and there were no tarps to protect our belongings.

Our landlord, a lawyer, used the system to abuse the system.

Being homeless while trying to go to college was devastating.

I spent nights couch surfing, studying, and wondering if life was worth continuing.

Housing is suicide prevention.

And housing is not a privilege, it's a human right recognized internationally as part of the right to adequate standards of living.

That means access to secure, affordable, and habitable homes for all people.

When we protect renters, we're protecting Tacoma itself, our workers, our families, and our neighborhoods.

So tonight our urge you do not repeal renter protections.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Des.

Frances Faye Oak, you're up next.

Francis will be followed by April Bodnar.

I'm Francis Faye, I live in District 2.

This council speaks of sanctuary and yet behave like tyrants.

Thousands of Tacomans worked for, voted, and democratically won the landlord fairness code.

We were sick of living in deplorable conditions, paying exorbitant rents to absentee landlords like mine, Rob Hoover, who lives in Southern California, but owns $18 million worth of Tacoma housing units.

And as a matter of profit making strategy, turns a blind eye towards his tenants' needs.

My neighbors spend winters without working heat, go weeks without hot water.

We live in units with caved-in ceilings, mold-infested walls and rotted floors.

These conditions haven't prevented rent increases.

Rent increases have not correlated to better conditions.

The tenant Bill of Rights is a lifeline for us.

And if Council Member Rombaugh's proposal passes, our lives in your district are going to get worse.

Yet many on this council seem all too ready to strip away the very protections that we the people implemented against this kind of abuse.

It's odd and it's despicable, and I staunchly caution you against this action for not my neighbors and I are getting organized.

We are bold, we are strong, we are unafraid to fight for our dignity and a livable future for Tacoma for all.

Power to the people.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Thank you.

April Bodnar.

Good evening again, Council.

This is again not the first time I've come before you.

I want to say the last time I talked to you guys prior today was in June.

I'm the person who had two cancer surgeries last year and was fighting with PCMI, a company that makes three million dollars just in the state of Washington.

Off the back of working citizens.

Without the tenant rights that we currently have, I'd be in a world of trouble because I wound up homeless.

I have kids.

I've been fighting cancer.

I am something that you'll see frequently.

You guys are looking at rolling back, you know, the requirements.

Where does that leave us to continue paying exorbitant amounts of rent?

PCMI alone raised the rent three different times in a year at 4.9%, just under the rules.

So that they can just keep skating by.

Thank you for your comments tonight, April.

Uh Ty Moore.

Tyrone Moore.

Ty will be followed by Kishanan.

Hello, Councilmembers.

My name is Tyron Moore, co-director of Tacoma for All, resident of District 2.

As has been mentioned last week when Councilmember Rumbaugh released proposals that, in my view, would effectively repeal most of Tacoma's voter-approved renter protections.

And I want to be clear, we don't, this is not just a watering down of those protections.

It would effectively gut eviction protections, gut relocation assistance, and reopen the door to excessive rent hikes and fees.

One of the core aspects of the proposal is to force tenants to prove their income, means test to access their rights.

You know, I think this is just like what Trump is doing with Medicaid, where you increase bureaucratic hurdles with the intention of driving millions off of their benefits.

Means testing will effectively block the vast majority of tenants who currently enjoy rights from being able to access them.

That will be the impact.

For two years, the courts have simply barred economic evictions, evictions for failure to pay rent between November and March, giving families a lifeline, like you've heard tonight.

This plan would end this automatic protection by means testing.

It transforms what is today a universal protection, a universal right for all tenants who find themselves in economic hardship and unable to pay rent.

It transforms that into a battle that each tenant must individually face legally, jumping through bureaucratic hurdles.

It transforms it utterly from a protection that will impact most to a protection that will impact the tiny minority.

Overall, what this does is guts protections.

We urge you negotiate with tenants, negotiate, uh, set up a table with stakeholders, and don't rush this repeal.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Kishana?

Kishana.

Kishana.

Hello, counsel.

My name is Kishana.

Um, I am here as a leader with Tacoma for All, and I'm also here to speak on the damage that means testing will cause for renters in this city.

Among other rollbacks, Rumbaugh proposes to means test tenants before they can access eviction protections or relocation assistance.

Landlords know that forcing Tacoma's tenants to prove their income will prevent the vast majority from even attempting to access their rights.

Those who do try will face stiff landlord resistance and a city bureaucracy lacking the staffing and resources needed for enforcement.

As a member of Tacoma for All, I have been involved with helping tenants advocate for their rights granted under Measure One through our legal aid program.

Landlords have routinely violated the law and have withheld relocation assistance when they were legally required to offer it when raising the rent above the 5% threshold.

The relocation assistance provision within the landlord fairness code has kept thousands of tenants from having to relocate.

Means testing will create another barrier for tenants exercising their rights to now prove their income before being offered relocation assistance way later than they will need it in order to actually move.

This will only intensify intensify housing insecurity in this city.

At a time where funding for emergency resources like shelter beds is being cut and the criminalization of homelessness is being expanded via Heinz's abysmal camping ban, introducing more bureaucracy and barriers to staying housed is extremely cruel and irresponsible.

Drop your rush to repeal.

Instead, support a transparent open negotiation with tenants.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kishana.

Okay, Jean Barfield, you're up.

Jean will be followed by Jackie Aya.

Ayello.

Hi, my name is Jen Barfield.

Um, I'm a Tacoma resident in District 5 and on the steering committee of Tacoma for All.

I'm here to speak in opposition to the changes being proposed to the Landlord Fairness Code by CM Rumbaugh.

I work in Tacoma Public Schools, and we have families throughout the district right now fighting economic evictions by slum lords.

When families are evicted, their options for housing are few and far between.

The changes being proposed to the cold weather and school year eviction protections will make the situation for these families even worse.

In my work with Tacoma for All, we've canvassed complexes throughout the city.

And we've seen a pattern that you've heard about tonight.

Um, you know, in our conversations with tenants, landlords are attempting to raise rents without proper notice, lack of needed repairs leading to mold and rot, rodents, and roach infestations allowed to go unchecked, excessive utility charges, fees for garbage, uh, fines for any number of petty infractions, and towing of vehicles.

And this is not an exhaustive list.

Landlords often set up the conditions that will cause their tenants to end up in arrears that are then unwilling to work with them toward a resolution.

Pushing through changes to the eviction protections in the LFC will set up a perfect storm of evictions, with families forced onto the street with nowhere to go due to funding cuts, loss of shelter beds, and an expanded camping ban.

Starting next week, we'll also see an end to SNAP benefits.

Many families will be forced to choose between rent and food.

What do you think they'll choose?

At a time like this, changes to protections that keep families housed could be devastating and deadly.

Please leave the landlord fairness code intact and come to the table with tenants to make any future changes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jean.

Okay, Jackie.

Jackie will be followed by Karina.

Yes, hello.

Um, thank you all for being here today.

My name is Jackie Ayello, and I'm a renter in Proctor and a steering committee member in uh Tacoma for All.

I'm here to oppose the proposed amendments to the tenant Bill of Rights on behalf of half of Tacoma's residents.

Councilmember Rumbaugh's amendments include increasing late fees from $10 to $75 and increasing the maximum for move in fees above one month's rent.

It's apparent from this amendment that Rumbaugh never worked a job where her boss wasn't late to pay her paycheck or had a financial catastrophe hit, such as a car issue, emergency room and visit, or the myriad of other reasons people may not have enough to pay the first of the month for rent.

It's also apparent she doesn't care that others endure this.

As a landlord, Rumbaugh is abusing her position of power to benefit her business, regardless of how it may harm her constituents that she supposedly represents.

$65 may not mean a lot to you or to your landlord buddies, but to those who are living months a month, it can render them homeless.

The amendments also include decreasing the rent hike notifications to four months in lieu of current six months.

This policy may be an inconvenience to you and your landlord buddies, but when half of Tacoma's residents are officially rent burdened and 25,000 spend most of their incomes on rents, this proposed change will push more people over the edge and again render them homeless.

Please revoke these amendments.

Retain the tenant bill of rights as it is and do your job by protecting your constituents instead of thinking of your own pockets.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Jackie.

Um next up we have Karina, followed by Karina will be Ann Dorn.

Good evening.

My name is Karina, and I'm a steering committee member for Tacoma for All and a constituent of Sarah Rumbas.

I speaking on uh Councilmember Rumba's rush to repeal the tenant bill of rights.

I've been a longtime tenant in Tacoma, and I currently know many tenants who live in unsafe conditions and are being taken advantage of and harassed by their landlords.

Rumba's proposal is reopening the door for excessive hike or rent hikes with little city enforcement capacity.

Over the last two years, Tacoma for All has canvassed thousands of tenants across our city.

A majority of tenants report rent hikes are now kept under five percent.

Many times this is because the landlord fairness code requires landlords to offer relocation assistance for rent increases over five percent.

And cases where landlords uh in cases where landlords uh do raise rents higher, Tacoma for All has helped many tenants get their rent lowered to under 5% by simply asking for the relocation assistance they are owed.

If passed, this proposal returned Tacoma to the years of excessive rent hikes, causing mass displacement of working class residents for our city.

Also, Rumba is proposing moving all enforcement into the hands of the city like it is in Seattle.

However, protections are dramatically underutilized in Seattle, which has many more staff that can help with enforcement.

This would be far worse in Tacoma, which has a staff of one and is facing budget shortfalls.

We need to keep the tenant bill of rights that were passed to ensure many folks, to include myself, have protections to keep us safe from slum lords.

There are council members here tonight with their heads down and not engaged.

Why is that?

I'm calling on Sarah Rumba, drop your rush to repeal.

Instead, support a transparent open negotiation with tenants, and if you can't do that, then as a landlord, you should accuse yourself from voting.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Uh Karina Anne.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor and members of council.

I'm Ann Dorn, resident of District 5, elected chair of Tacoma for All, and I have spent time unhoused as a single mom of an eight-year-old child.

It wasn't a whole lot of fun.

So I'm here today to beg you drop the rush to repeal tenant rights.

I want to specifically address two contradictory proposals that are coming out of CVS committee.

Um, one of them is implementing a means test for tenants, which potentially means that significant numbers of families who are already struggling to afford groceries, medicine, and rent would be ineligible for relocation assistance and other protections of the landlord fairness code.

Another proposal coming out of the CVS committee is that we're going to exempt deed restricted housing.

And this proposal, and and these are the folks who get they benefit from tax breaks in exchange for providing what's often marginally more affordable rents compared to market rates.

Um this means uh the means testing creates a group of struggling tenants who may be just barely making ends meet, but will still lose all protections under the current law.

This hurts some tenants.

However, the other proposed amendment I mentioned hurts a different group of tenants.

This is because the landlords in question who will be exempted from the law by virtue of falling into that deed restricted housing category, are also some of the most predatory and abusive out-of-town and often out of state corporations who collect rents from our most vulnerable tenants, the folks who will not be safe from means testing.

What you're essentially doing is making the landlord fairness code apply to no one and protect no one.

Stop the rush to repeal.

Nothing about us without us.

Come to the table and negotiate.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Ann.

Okay, next up we've got Josiah.

Uh Devine Johnson.

Um, following Josiah will be Janine.

Hi.

I'm here to talk about the tenant Bill of Rights.

My name's Josiah Devine Johnson, and I am a proud resident of Tacoma.

A city with a council that cares.

A city that just today moved to recognize veterans and indigenous folks.

People who often struggle in ways that directly impact them and other communities financially.

Stripping the tenant bill of rights and creating obstacles for Tacoma's most desperate renters only harms people.

Forcing those who are already losing their housing to face landlords and already overwhelmed city bureaucracy to prove they deserve a roof over their head in the coldest months is a clear vacancy in Mercy.

As it stands, renters in Tacoma are able to sleep through the winter, knowing they will not be faced with the potential reality of dying on the frozen earth.

My houseless neighbors and who Councilmember John Hines succeeded in further criminalizing, will find amongst them countless more.

I am a proud Tacoma resident.

A title I might lose.

Not just out of shame that the tenant bill of rights is gutted, should you decide to vote that way.

But because I will have to confront the reality that Tacoma is not a place I can afford to live.

Voting for Rumbaugh's bill may feel like agreeing to a modest proposal, but I assure you joining Rumbaugh's bill embraces the kind of proposal written by Jonathan Swift.

That those who do not pay their rents are faced with homelessness, starvation, or both.

The road to heaven is already too crowded tonight.

And restricting the tenant bill of rights to make keeping your home more difficult or impossible helps only to broaden that road to accommodate those who literally couldn't afford to live.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Up next, we have Janine.

Hello again.

Um I am urging you to slow down regarding amending the voter-approved tenant protections.

What is currently being proposed is like a hollowing out of the tenant rights bill.

And this is just not morally okay.

And this is being done without professional due process.

First of all, there is a blatant conflict of interest due to the city council members who are landlords who are rushing to get these amendments passed.

If you were landlords on the Seattle City Council, you would be recused from working on the amendments and voting on them.

Yes, we are a smaller city, but that does not excuse us from having professional best practices in place.

Secondly, our city council has chosen to exclude those who should also be at the table to work on this process, like tenants, landlords, affordable housing providers, people from labor and community organizations.

Finally, this is a time when our federal government is drastically removing rights, protections, and essential services in many areas and on many levels.

It's really a nightmare.

Let's not do the same to our tenants in Tacoma.

Please form an appropriate inclusive committee that takes the time to thoughtfully look at our current tenants' rights bill and makes recommendations that work for tenants and good landlords.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Janine.

Next up, I have Alexa following Alexa.

We have Alton McDonald.

Alexa, are you still here?

Okay, Alton, you're up.

Good evening, Debbie the Mayor, Council members.

As I said, no taxation without representation.

I'm standing with the tenants because I don't believe a landlord should have the right not to attend to issues that brought either her attention, like infestation of rats, or if there's any kind of repairs that need to be done in the home is not being done taking care of the landlord.

Needs to be responsive to the tenants issues when they arises and should do so quickly.

Also, I'm against uh landlord raising rent two or three times a year.

That means you will push the tenants out in the street, they become homeless, and that is not sustainable and should not be.

So please uh council, if you should allow the tenant bill of right to stay in place, and as the citizen rightly stated, we should have stakeholders, the tenants, the landlord, uh labor folks, everyone should be at the table to craft whether we need to be crafted so that it's it serves all of us and not only some of us.

Also, I'm asking the council to support the shutdown of our government is hard.

However, we have millions of Americans who November one will lose our Canada for the healthcare.

We have one man who is the president dictating to 365 million people in this country.

Is this his way or the highway?

We say no.

I want this council to understand and please support this because when we talk about America, it's not only for some of us, it's for all of us, and thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Alton.

Uh, next up we have Sean Beals.

Sean will be followed by Kathy.

Thank you, um, Deputy Mayor and the City Council and Mayor Woodard.

Um, I'm surprised my name would not be familiar to you guys.

I was in the tiny homes on Sixth and Orchard.

I barricaded myself in my tiny home because I was being evicted because a family of five was smoking, the parents were smoking fentanyl in a shower stall with three children.

And fentanyl seems to be very dangerous in the media and all that.

Police officers have OD'd on that.

I complained for four to six months.

I called every city official that I could think of, everybody.

I went to Mayor Woodard's thing at the high school over on the North End.

I I talked, and I'm still talking.

I'm begging for people to look at the homeless as human beings and not criminalize us, not dehumanize us because we go through enough.

I've been raped four times out here being homeless within the last two years.

There's men that have been raped out here.

There's human trafficking out here.

I'm a human trafficking victim from 14 years old.

I'm 55 now.

Okay.

Too bad they changed the senior citizen age to 65 or is it 67 or whatever.

But it was 55 when I was younger.

I'm homeless and I'm scared, and I want to have a roof over my head, and it all started in 219, two weeks before the moratorium came out.

So I had no protection whatsoever.

Where do I go now?

We don't know because I'm sleeping on a sidewalk in front of the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

Where do I go?

Nobody can answer that.

Thank you so much for your comments tonight.

Uh Sean.

Next up we have Kathy.

If I hadn't waited almost um four hours to speak, I would cede my time to back to her.

My name is Kathy Pick.

I'm a constituent in district number one.

Councilman Hines.

I'm a Tacoma resident since 2022, not 2020.

2002.

And I'm also the spouse of a retired Washington National Guardsman.

Recently, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual out of reach report, aptly titled.

In Tacoma, we have over 120,000 renters.

The fair market rate for a two-bedroom unit is 2,057.

The housing wage to afford that unit is $39.50.

No one makes that per hour.

Not the people that are going to check you out when you go to Safeway, not the people that are going to help you when you need to pump gas.

Those are the people that you're hurting.

When you consider rolling back the tenant protections that we democratically won, we did it the right way.

These people standing behind me.

Are you kidding me?

These people standing behind me went out and did grassroots work.

Kathy, your time is exceeded tonight.

Thank you for your comments.

I am so sorry.

But I cannot yield my time until I let you know that this past year, my family ended up unhoused.

Me, with all the resources and all the connections that I have, my efforts failed.

And if you think it's easy for me to stand here in front of you people that I respect and say that out loud, then you're just not paying attention.

Because if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.

Think about what you're doing, reflect on it.

Use your critical thinking skills to understand who you're impacting when you make these decisions.

And the legacy that some of you are going to leave this council.

I'll talk to any of you anytime, anywhere.

I'd love to talk to you on the side, but I want to make sure that we are.

I appreciate that.

I was last on the list.

I have disabilities, and I really needed this message to land.

Thank you for letting me go over.

I appreciate your time.

Okay.

We still have quite a few comments to go, and uh, we are almost at our time, so I want to make sure I get through everyone.

So, Michelle Michelle Reich.

I speaking on um Councilmember Strumba proposal for a low barrier drug use uh shelter.

And I was there when the other one opened up.

Um, I think one of you council members, either uh councilmember Walker when she's deputy mayor or Rumbo was there when it opened up in Pacific Avenue, and there's uh entire community opposition to that to councilmember Sadagi's district to that facility.

Yeah, and I was there with councilmember yeah, you scope.

So I asked you, Councilmember Heinz, if you had a town meeting and you queried all your constituents in your district and asked them if they would approve uh low barrier drug use shelter.

What would the answer be?

I you don't have to answer that.

And any one of you council members too, what would the answer be if you if you asked your constituents for a low barrier drug use shelter?

Well, the problem with the shelter is not that they need help, but I think you you're proposing it to get the people off the street, and they don't get any help once they get into that shelter.

That's the problem.

And there's no structure, there's no supervision, they allow drug use, and that should not happen.

Yeah, if you're gonna do something like that, you need to have supervised structure and help, like the brochure I gave you from the BA.

That brochure I gave you shows you what help is, and that's why I gave it to you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Michelle.

Uh Jasmine Matthews.

Followed by Jasmine will be Kit Burns.

Jasmine, are you still here?

Okay, we will move on to Kit Burns.

My name is Kit Burns.

I live in District 3, and I'm here to speak about the multifamily tax exemption.

And I'm sure that you're all aware of this.

I've been talking about having a 60 percent AMI for the tax affordable housing.

Tonight, one of the council members asked on item seven of the items.

What is the affordable housing funds rate of rent?

It's 60%.

So I would like to see the city of Tacoma make it at 60% and not continue to do this kind of regulated rate.

I'll give you an example.

Two weeks ago, the city council approved a $5.6 million tax break for a particular uh apartment.

Sorry.

I mean a $6.4 million tax break.

Prior to that, it had a the city this development had an eight-year tax break of $5.6 million.

Together, this particular development has 12 million dollars of tax breaks.

It's a 42 million dollar project.

So the city has actually put in 28% of the project, and we're still not giving affordable housing.

Um and we need to do that.

So I want to see the city council change that to 60%.

Um I think that's the only reasonable thing to do.

You know what would cost these people?

The developer in this particular project gets 12 million dollars, and we give and they give back 2.8.

That's not balanced.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Kate.

Uh Renee.

Maybe Courtney, Renee, Cornet, Cornway.

Okay, Renee is not here anymore.

Uh Carol, are you still here?

Carol Sue Braden.

Carol Subrayton, Five.

I'm going to talk about liquefaction soil.

But first of all, I'm going to talk about tidal intrusion on the port.

There's flooding on the port.

Every tide, high tide, king tide, I've got pictures on my cell phone from it.

If you don't know about this yet, and it hasn't come across your areas, I think you need to know.

Others know it, it's critical because it's undercutting the port.

And it's coming all the way into my side of five.

I have pictures of that.

This is flooding.

So if we get a flood through here, and any flood from the Puallop River, my levy is already just certified, 2007.

It won't be certified by the U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers.

You can lose the entire wastewater treatment plant from the flooding.

Ask Dennis Dixon from the flood engineering from Pierce County.

You need to talk to also Pierce County Emergency Management diver, who is the only person who's had eyes on the earthquake fault lines.

He's also knows about liquefaction soil.

The quake that hit in 1949, my family members were on the port.

My grandfather was trapped in the ship that turned because the cargo moved.

My uncles were on the port when it turned to liquid and areas of the port moved over six feet.

The LNG can only move 24.

The whole thing would come down at 29 tons, and it would start expanding.

Thank you.

And I think we need more looking into problems that we have.

Thank you, Carol.

Uh next up we have Lev Kellindley or Kellindi, followed by Teresa Evans.

She's still here.

Oh, she's hi, my name is Lev Kellandy.

I am a tenant supporter for Tacoma for All and a constituent of John Hines.

I'm here as a supporter of the tenant bill rights and the landlord fairness code on moratoriums on winter and school year evictions, relocation assistance for rent hikes over 5%, and limits on move-in and leak fees.

Housing is a basic human right, and I ask you to not rush the repeal and support a transparent open negotiation with tenants in our community, especially with the camping ban.

Please keep Tacoma accessible for all.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight.

Uh Lev.

Teresa.

Teresa will be followed by Natasha.

Hello, Council.

Hello, Mayor.

Um good to see you guys here, you guys.

Um, I know it's an interesting time, just a short time before elections, but I wanted to say thank you so much for especially for this community forum, so that people can come here uh physically, can come here online.

And I think you guys can show people have people on the phone too.

I really like this uh forum, so I just want to say hello and thank you.

So hola.

Uh thank you, thank you, Shalom.

Um, and Namaste.

Um, and I'll be my time.

Have a good day.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Teresa.

Uh Natasha Alicio.

I'll see so.

Hello, my name is Natasha Alciso.

Um, I'm a constituent in um district two, um, Sarah Rumba's district.

And I grew up with uh rental most of my life.

I definitely understand and have dealt with the fears of rent increasing with no restrictions, unanswered maintenance requests, and the knowledge that I don't own or have any say in this property that I'm living in, really.

I'm more recently a homeowner and someone who would be considered a landlord, as I do collect rent on our first home that we bought out of school.

This landlord relationship is something that we accept as a risk, but more accurately, it's a benefit in this system that we live in.

Often landlords feel like they are providing housing, but tenants are also providing payments.

And um excuse me, for housing, which is a basic thing, and most often tenants don't have another property to lean back on, should this one not work out for whatever reason.

As a landlord, when we have so much more of a safety net, both financially and oftentimes when worse comes to worse, we could even sell the property if we needed to, so we could get access to the funds in an emergency.

Tenants usually don't have those things, especially in this day and age when most tenants are just trying to make this month's rent.

Landlords have stability, and the landlord fairness code helps provide an iota of that for tenants.

The limitation, the limitations on rent increases, the inability to evict tenants with children in school and during harsh weather, and an appropriate notice on evictions as well.

These are all basic decencies, I think that we should afford people in our community.

It's a risky it's risky being a landlord, but it's even riskier being a tenant.

The landlord fairness code provides the most basic essential protections for tenants.

I hope that you won't make any repeals or changes to the landlord fairness code unless that you're meeting with community members.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, uh Natasha.

Uh next up we have David Chandler, followed by Zev Cook.

Hello again.

I'm David Chandler.

I live in District 4, and I'm here about the proposal to demolish the tenants' rights ballot measure here at the first charter allowed opportunity you have to meddle with what voters passed.

As a country, we're currently walking off an economic cliff.

Hard times have been with us, but it will get worse for all of us.

It's your responsibility to help us weather the storm, not shove folks overboard to keep the privileged among us comfortable.

So for those of you who don't have business interests in rent housing, please about face on this pattern of institutionalized violence the council has embarked on and respect the will of the voters.

For any of you on the council who have a conflict of interest on matters of tenancy, I'm not here tonight to bespert your name or say that you're governing in your own financial interests, or say you're abusing your position of public trust, or call you ethically compromised or anything of the sort.

I'm not saying any of those things.

I'm here to remind you that only you can prove those things true or false.

When the time comes, recuse yourself on this, or use your vote to protect your neighbors teetering on the edge.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, David.

Uh Zev.

Zeb will be followed by Vanessa below.

Good evening, Council.

Uh, my name is Zev Cook.

I'm a renter in the South End district.

Um, and this is what I think that every working person in our city should hear about tonight's council meeting.

The cost of living has never been higher.

Millions of us are about to lose SNAP benefits, and the response from landlords on the Tacoma City Council is to raise your rent.

In fact, even though half the population of Tacoma are renters, we have a city council with multiple landlords but no tenants.

When renters had the opportunity to weigh in uh as voters on this issue, we passed the strongest rental protections in the state.

Two years later, before any impact study has been published, council is looking to push through rollbacks solely on the word of a relative handful of landlords.

When it comes to our city, it is the duty of local government to protect people, the people of our city, not the profit that is made off of it.

Uh the current proposal would roll back eviction protections, relocation assistance, increase moving fees in late fees.

How can you ever talk about tackling homelessness crisis in Tacoma while trying to gut protections that keep families housed and raise barriers for folks trying to enter housing?

How does piling more late fees on top of families struggling to afford rent help Tacoma?

How does evicting families with kids during the school year help Tacoma?

When I was a case manager in 2022, before the tenant bill of rights passed, a major part of the job was spending time on the phone begging landlords to waive moving fees.

How does redoubling or tripling these fees help Tacoma?

Vote no on any rollbacks to renter protections in Tacoma.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Zev.

Vanessa, are you still here?

Vanessa will be followed by Marcus Bartlett.

I'm a tenant in the trauma.

I live in a Tacoma housing.

They raised my rent every every in July.

And I have people that live in my building, and some people some of us do work, and some of them us are sinners in the building.

So sometimes we don't get stuff fits in our building.

Like I have a neighbor downstairs on the first floor.

She can hear water leaking through her apartment.

And I have a guy that lives below me that smokes in my building.

And we have tried to tell the THA that he is smoking in there, but when they go into his apartment, they don't smell it.

When I come home at night, and I can smell marijuana in my apartment.

And it's not right.

And I tried to tell my landlord this over and over again.

And most of us have put in complaints, and nothing has been done with the THA.

And I have no right to tell.

I have tell you to tell them there's married someone smoking in our apartment.

And sometimes when we have the elevators breaking down, we have to wait until someone comes and fits it.

Thank you so much for coming in tonight.

Umessa Marcus.

I think that uh the proposals uh suggested by Councilmember Rumbaugh are very revealing.

Uh, and they have uh little to do with protecting the community and have more to do with protecting the interests of uh the landlord class uh and uh their interests.

Um I think that there's a very big difference uh in um uh when you uh when you increase the late fees, uh you're affecting I mean you're affecting a landlord's bottom line, but you're affecting also uh a tenant's livelihood.

Um there's a big um uh the the there's a big um uh difference between the two of them.

Um I I I would urge the council uh not to adopt uh council member Rumbaugh's um proposals.

Um thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight, Marcus.

Uh Lori Lee.

Hello, I'm Lori Lee.

Um, from a different town, but I came over here to support Tacoma for all.

Um my landlord raised my rent.

I'm a disabled veteran and a single mother, and I don't work, and I can feel their pain.

Um my landlord raised my rent eleven and a half percent right before the law passed earlier this year.

Um, as a veteran I served to protect their right for redress of grievances, petition and freedom of speech.

And for entire almost the entirety of this um council meeting, I've noticed that Rumba hasn't even looked up from her fucking phone to look her constituents in the face.

So please have the decency to do that.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you for your comments tonight.

Uh Ovaniah, you are up.

And Ovanai will be the last speaker that we have tonight.

About one minute and thirty seconds, bud.

I did my business, Tom.

Alright.

I know you can do this.

There is a four y'all that don't like to look up, that is true though.

Uh good evening.

Uh oh, you almost uh see, messing up.

Uh so Tacoma has an interwoven struggle that is one fight.

Uh black liberation, indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, and the human right to survive.

Uh LNG is dead in Tacoma, and yet they're trying to resurrect it under a lying label of clean air, uh, like we don't know the poisons uh our land and on our lungs.

Uh, like we don't know the poisons.

Uh our land and on our lungs.

Uh so no LNG in the 253.

Respect the tribe or step aside.

While we push back against corporate assaults, ice is kidnapping our neighbors, indigenous to this land long before colonizers or borders.

Mississippi blocked ice.

Will you block Trump's Gestapo, block ice, migrant rights now.

This city spends millions on police harassing the house lists and killing black and indigenous people instead of investing in life, safety, and community survival.

And here's the real human cost of our your policies.

My sister's family of nine, five children, and three disabled adults were evicted and thrown into the streets just this evening.

Every shelter in the city is full.

There is no space.

Yet you made it illegal to be houseless, and now you want to remove the tenants' bill of rights so that more families can be forced into the same crisis.

I'm almost done.

Uh shame on Tacoma City Council members Roomba, who wants to remove the tenants' right of bills.

Walker, Saldana, Heinz, who led this genocidal act, and shame on you, Mayor Woodards, profits over people every single time.

This is not governance, this is violence.

This is not protection, this is persecution.

We demand homes, not sweeps.

We demand indigenous sovereignty, we demand clean air, we demand justice now.

All power to the people by any means necessary.

Fuck ice.

Okay, thank you for your comments tonight.

Um seeing no other speakers, I will declare the community forum period closed.

Moving on to reports by the city manager.

We have none tonight.

Uh comments and committee reports of city council.

We have uh we'd like to call in Councilmember Rumbaugh, chair of community vitality and safety committee.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

The community vitality and safety committee has convened twice since the last report.

Hold on one second.

We have just a little bit of business to finish.

If you guys just leave quietly, thank you so much.

The CVS committee met on October 9th to receive an informational briefing from a study group assessing the effects of recent municipal code changes regarding rental housing.

Michael Mira and Professor Michael Cro presented information on work.

A group of community members has been doing to study the effects of these changes.

This includes a tenant survey, landlord survey, tenant and landlord listening sessions and study of Pierce County Superior Court and Sessor Records.

The presenters discussed their methods and preliminary findings.

They expect to deliver a completed report at the end of the month.

The CVS committee met on October 23rd to discuss a proposed regarding proposal regarding landlord fairness code initiative and possible refinements to that code.

This included proposals for changes to exemptions to the code, late fees, notices um to increase rent, and some requested technical changes and our clarifications.

The committee intends to continue discussion on these policies at its next meeting, which is currently slated to occur as a special meeting on November 6th at 4 30 in council chambers.

Virtual attendance options will be available for the public.

Okay.

Um so we know that a lot of people are hurting because of the federal shutdowns, and for many reasons.

Um I want to thank Eloise's cooking pot for hosting that, and just please spread the word tomorrow from 10 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

in Tacoma Dome parking lot.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I would also like to remind everyone that uh November that the November 4th, 2025 City Council business meeting has been canceled.

Um, and I would like to remind everyone that November 4th is General Election Day and encourage all residents to exercise their right to vote if you haven't already done so.

Ballot drop boxes will be closed next Tuesday, November 4th at 8 p.m.

Okay.

Um I will take the final motions.

Uh move to excuse Councilmember Scott from this evening's meeting.

Second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, signify by saying nay.

The motion is declared adopted.

Move to adjourn.

All those in favor, second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed signify by saying nay.

The motion is declared adopted.

We stand adjourned.

For all of those.