I'd like to call to order the city council meeting of April 14th, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell.

Present.

Councilmember Diaz.

Here.

Councilmember Hines.

Here.

Councilmember Palmer.

Councilmember Rumba.

Here.

Councilmember Sidalgay?

Here.

Councilmember Scott?

Here.

Councilmember Walker.

Here.

Mayor Ibsen.

Here.

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

We gratefully honor and acknowledge that we rest on the traditional lands of the Pualt people where they make their home and speak the Lashut seed language.

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

Are there any modifications to the agenda this evening?

Seeing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda.

I move to adopt the consent agenda, including resolution number 41882 through 41884.

Final reading of ordinance number 29095 and first reading of ordinance number 29102.

Second.

Move and second.

Are there any questions, comments, or corrections?

I move to accept the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the hearing examiner for ordinance number 29102.

Second.

Move and second.

Those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those supposed to say nay.

Motion is declared adopted.

All those in favor of adopting the consent agenda, including setting ordinance number two nine one zero two over to a date to be determined, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed to say nay.

The consent agenda is declared adopted.

All right.

As I read the proclamation.

So come on up to the front, everybody.

And then uh members of the community, if you would like to join uh around them as well, um and stand behind them, uh, stand behind our people up here, that's that'd be great as well as I read the proclamation.

Whereas Cambodia is one of the original civilizations in Southeast Asia, dating back nearly 4,000 years, and whereas between 1969 and 1973, the United States dropped 540,000 tons of bombs into Cambodia, destabilizing the country's already fragile government and helping fuel the rise of the Khmer Rouge and during the Cambodian genocide from April 1975 to January 1979.

Approximately two million people lost their lives at the hand of the Khmer Rouge.

And whereas today, over half the members of the Cambodian population experience varying degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder or other forms of mental health issues brought forth by the Cambodian genocide, and whereas this marks the 51st anniversary of our community coming together to remember the atrocities that occurred to the Khmer community under the Khmer Rouge regime.

And whereas Khmer community leaders and elders from across Washington State work together tirelessly to rebuild the historical and cultural identity nearly exterminated by the Khmer Rouge and uplift our communities through advocacy, education, and cultural empowerment.

And whereas it is critical to remember the ultimate sacrifice of those lives were lost during the Cambodian genocide and the resiliency of survivors, and to celebrate community members who tirelessly promote neighborhood revitalization by participating in public policy on local and national levels, establishing local and international businesses and professionals, and developing new art forms and community organizations.

Now, therefore, I, Joe Bushnell, Deputy Mayor of the City of Tacoma, on behalf of the mayor and the city council, do hereby proclaim April 12th through the 18th, 2026 as Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Week in the City of Tacoma, and urge all people in our city to join me in this observance.

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

Thank you for this meaningful proclamation.

Honoring the day of remembrance and providing a space where we can all be together.

It means a great deal to our family and our community.

Honorable mayor and city council.

My name is Sotia Tatch, and I stand before you today as a son of survivors.

My presence here is not an accident.

It is a victory.

Every step they took through landmines and harrowing uncertainty was a step towards my birth.

They survived the unthinkable so that I could stand in this beautiful city and speak their names today.

It is difficult to wrap my hair heart around the loss of 1.7 million lives.

It pains me deeply to know how much beauty, culture, and progress was stolen by the Khmer Rouge.

But today, Tacoma is helping us reclaim what was taken.

By acknowledging this history, you aren't just leaving a document.

You are creating a sanctuary for our memories.

Through that art, I realize that my culture is not a relic of the past, it is a living, breathing part of who I am.

The greatest gift of my life is being Khmai American.

I don't have to choose between two worlds because I am the bridge between them.

To my parents and our elders, you're you are the ones who brought us to America.

You carried the heavy weight of the past so that we could enjoy the lightness of the future.

I see you, I love you, and I promise to keep our culture alive.

To the youth of Tacoma and my peers, our community is still healing.

The scars of the Khmer are still felt in the living rooms of families right here in our neighborhoods.

You possess a unique superpower, the power of welcoming.

When you see us, when you learn our stories, and when you celebrate our culture in the public eye, you become an essential part of our healing.

Today, Tacoma tells every Khmer family, you are seen, you are valued, and your history is woven into the fabric of this city.

Thank you for this honor, and may we continue to move forward together, remembering the past but thriving towards the future.

Hello, my name is Bella Chia, and I am honored to be here today.

Um I want to start off with honoring my two grandmothers, women of unimaginable strength and resilience.

They carried so much pain while raising their families alone after both of their grandfathers were taken from them.

Living through a level of suffering most of us um can't begin to understand.

Because of their sacrifices, my parents were able to come to America and give me something they've never had, which is the freedom to grow without the weight of trauma and fear that shaped their childhoods.

Second generation trauma is something not spoken about much as we tend to carry emotions we don't fully understand, such as anxiety, grief, and fear.

Growing in silence where love is deep and pain is unspoken, and expectations are rooted in survival.

It's living between worlds carrying both pride and pain, um, feeling the quiet responsibility to make every sacrifice worth it.

We need to honor the responsibility we carry to keep these stories alive, to uplift one another, and to ensure that the future we build is one of hope, unity, and peace.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to my parents and Nekuru Radium for having the courage and strength to making the sacrifices to embrace and honor our Khmer culture in ways they were never able to.

I would like to thank you for the um major option and puri may uh snare that I'm glad I'm proud to be here, and I come to United State, and I got my degree.

I have the other people, I keep my cartou al lie here.

So I'm so proud and so thank you for to all of you.

Thank you so much.

Are there any other uh comments from members of the council?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, some jungdopsuo, bang tongdong.

Um I'm so proud of every single one of you.

Um just we look, there's so many of us out here.

Um I so for folks not at home are or watching online.

Um I this is a special moment for me personally.

I am of mixed Cambodian heritage.

My mother came to the United States as a refugee uh in the early 80s, um, fleeing the Cambodian genocide.

Um it's been the honor of my lifetime to be able to serve as a Cambodian American as the first Cambodian American ever elected in the state of Washington and to be able to uplift my community.

Um I you know, uh and I I take that responsibility very seriously.

Um but I I certainly wouldn't be the person I am without my mother um and without the community that helped raise me.

Um as a child, I was passed around by a lot of aunties.

Uh and you know, growing up because our family was was working very hard to try and provide, just like every other family.

Um, and to our speakers, there's intergenerational trauma that continues to exist and persist in our community.

Um, and so it's something that we continue to try and heal from.

Um, but I think this this is just a wonderful example of our community coming together uh to heal, uh, to remember, to reflect.

And uh really we have our our elder generation and our younger generation coming up.

Um, and I just the bridge across generations here is just really I'm so proud.

Um so I want to thank every single one of you.

Uh this didn't happen before uh the council meeting, we did have a uh a remembrance ceremony, um, and we have a lot of great folks that came together to help plan that I just want to thank you for that.

It's very moving.

I would invite um, I expect it to happen again next year, and invite the larger community if they'd like to come to that pre-proclamation ceremony.

Certainly I encourage it.

Um, it doesn't just have to be for Cambodians, it can be to help educate.

Um, and our culture is is open.

Uh you know, we have different great cultural arts organizations that would love to teach you the our language, that would love to teach you how to to our dances um and our traditional foods, and so we are welcoming and you know, I just again I'm so proud, so thank you.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor, and uh thank you for helping organize this.

Councilmember Sidalgi has some comments too.

Um I just wanted to thank Deputy Mayor Bushnell uh and the rest of the community for inviting me earlier today for your remembrance ceremony.

Uh I am deeply grateful, um, and I was absolutely moved by the testimony that was given by several of you.

Um, and I'm really proud to be on this council with Deputy Mayor Bush now because despite the rhetoric that we are hearing on a larger stage, it is so important that we continue to remember ourselves, to celebrate our diversities, to celebrate our cultures, to celebrate our history, even when the history is painful.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Scott.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you all for being here.

Um I also had the opportunity to see the remembrance ceremony earlier, and uh one of the pieces of it, the whole thing was really great, and I think it was just it's really touching to be able to um you know hear what you all have gone through, uh, how you have remained resilient and how you have continued to build community.

Um I think the part of of the ceremony that really stood out to me was the young woman who read her poem, and I just thought it was really touching, and it really um I think obviously it holds a lot of meaning for you all in the the community that you're here to represent, but I think it they are words that everybody could read.

Um we all have a history that we are you know here despite whether it's in celebration of or despite of like so I I think that it was just a really great poem, and I was wondering if at some point that poem could be shared with the whole council for everybody to to read.

Thank you so much, uh Deputy Mayor, thank you to everyone who's involved in in organizing this.

And just to conclude, thank you so much also for your invitation and for putting on that that beautiful uh remembrance.

And this is just one of many examples of how Tacoma is so much of a richer place because of the contributions of our different communities.

And so from the bottom of my heart and the heart of my colleagues, Tacoma sees you, loves you, and celebrates you.

Are there any further comments from the council?

Well, with that, please come forward and accept the proclamation.

Let's give one more round of applause for our friends.

Mao Mao Mao Muknia Hait Alun.

I uh some thought uh to taught.

Everybody gets all the way back.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh like squeezed sweet squeeze.

Okay, one more.

Here we go.

Let's see if we can get it all.

All right.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Yeah.

Oh.

Okay, one more, one more.

One, two, three.

Thank you all so much.

Okay.

All right, thank you everyone so much.

Please keep our voices down.

We're going to proceed with the rest of the agenda here tonight.

Thank you, everyone.

Okay, we're gonna move on to our second of three proclamations tonight.

Our second proclamation is proclaiming uh this week Black Wellness Week.

And for this proclamation, I'd like to invite Christina Blocker, founder and principal strategist, and Keith Blocker, CEO and policy strategist and former councilman, once a council member, always a council member, uh Momentum Professional Strategy Partners to the podium as I read the proclamation.

Why don't you take the time and make your way uh your way up here?

Good to see you, folks.

All right.

Whereas Booker T.

Washington initiated National Negro Health Week in 1915, and Governor Emeritus J.

Inslee announced the observation of an inaugural Black Wellness Week in 2024, and whereas holistic well-being encompassing physical, mental, emotional, and social health is paramount to the vitality and prosperity of our communities, and whereas disparities persist in healthcare access and outcomes disproportionately affecting black individuals and communities, and it is crucial that we recognize and address these disparities while committing to solutions that promote equity and justice.

And whereas Black Wellness Week provides an opportunity for communities to come together, celebrate achievements, and commit to actions that promote health and well-being for all.

Now, therefore, I, Andrews Ibsen, Mayor of the City of Tacoma, on behalf of the City Council do hereby proclaim April 13th to 17th, 2026 as Black Wellness Week in the City of Tacoma, and call upon all residents to join in celebrating the rich heritage, resilience, and strength of the black community in promoting health and wellness.

Let us work together to grow initiatives that foster physical, mental, and emotional well-being for all members of our communities.

Please say a few words.

This moment is not just symbolic, it's a commitment.

Recognizing black wellness is a necessity.

It's about ensuring that our commit communities have access to care, to knowledge, to opportunity, and to environments where we can truly thrive physically, mentally, spiritually, and economically.

For too long, disparities in health and wellness have impacted black communities.

Black wellness week is about changing that narrative.

It's about reclaiming our health, strengthening our families, and building the systems that see us, serve us, and invest in us.

This week is also a call to action for institutions, for leaders, and for all of us to move beyond awareness and into sustained commitment.

Because when black communities are well, our entire city is stronger.

Thank you again to the City of Tacoma for this recognition, and to everyone here who is part of advancing this work.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Ibsen, Council members, honored guests that are here this evening.

It is the third.

Before I go further, I want to pause and say thank you to someone whose name also belongs in this moment.

Um that is Mayor former Mayor Victoria Woodards.

Mayor Woodard signed Tacoma's first Black Wellness Week proclamation in 2024 and sign it again in 2025.

And so I just want to first um share how grateful we are for this renewal of the proclamation.

Mayor Ibsen, we are so grateful for your leadership as well.

Um and for all the work um that you all as a council have been doing.

Tacoma has always had a story to tell about black life in Washington State, the hilltop neighborhood, the churches that anchored our community for generations, the families who built businesses, folks that raised their children, created culture in the face of policies that were designed to exclude them.

And that history is the reason why this observance matters.

Black Wellness Week was born from a hundred and ten year old idea.

And that was from Booker T.

Washington as Mayor Ibsen shared.

Booker T.

Washington launched the National Negro Health Week back in 1915 because he did he understood that health is not simply the absence of illness.

Health is the presence of conditions that allow people to flourish.

He Booker T.

Washington, Booker T.

Washington and others organized entire communities around the radical proposition at that time that black people deserved to be well.

That idea is something that we reflected on when we thought about what it would have an impact in Washington State.

And that's where Black Wellness Week came from.

And every April, we ask cities and counties across the state to say publicly that the well-being of black communities is a civic priority.

And Tacoma has said that for three years now.

Why that matters is because of it's more than you know this moment.

This framework is rooted in targeted universalism, which says if we want a healthy Tacoma for everyone, we need to be honest about who is further from furthest from that goal and why.

In our city, black residents still face higher rates of chronic disease, maternal health risks, housing instability, and barriers to behavioral health.

And these are downstream effects.

When we invest in black wellness, we don't narrow our focus.

We end up sharpening our focus.

Resources that reach black families reach the hardest to reach corners of every neighborhood.

Providers trained for cultural responsiveness, serve every patient better.

Systems built for equity serve everyone more equitably.

And Tacoma's proclamation today joins other cities and counties that are that are also joining in this work, such as Lakewood, University Place, Pierce County, amongst other cities and other cities in the state of Washington and counties like Pierce County, King County, and Snahomish County.

Governor Ferguson signed this observance into state record for 2026.

And like I shared, other cities and counties that joined in as well.

And Tacoma again was one of the first.

So thank you.

Thank you for making Black Wellness Week one of the first statements that again centers what it looks like to invest in our entire community.

And to the Black communities that reside in Tacoma, this week is for you.

I also want to invite you all to an event that is happening at the People Center.

It's a free community and wellness fair.

We're going to be giving out free groceries.

We'll have colon cancer blood screenings.

And this is for everyone to attend, going back to targeted universalism.

When we think about specific needs, specific communities needs, our communities get greater access to all of those.

And so I encourage you all to come because it's in Tacoma, because it's at the People Center, and again, it's free.

It's this Friday from 12 to 3.

Thank you again.

Thank you, Mrs.

Balker.

Thank you, Councilmember Blocker.

Do you have any any additional comments?

Oh, just thank you.

Really appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening.

Um thank you for all your hard work as leaders in the city of Tacoma.

And again, we are very um pleased that City of Tacoma has decided to support this proclamation for third straight year.

Thank you, Councilmember Locker.

Are there other council comments?

Councilmember Scott.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you guys for being here.

I just really appreciate that you guys have an ongoing commitment to the wellness and thriving of black communities, but I know that that extends to other communities that have been left out of conversations and uh kept away from seats at the table, so I just appreciate the work and the commitment that you all have in coming back and doing this every year and the work that you do every day in the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is such a strong example of lift as you climb and uh just put into practice, and I appreciate that.

Uh Councilmember Palmer has a comment as well.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Thank you, Blockers, for showing us what black wellness looks like.

Um, you know, you're one of the core families in Tacoma, showing us how it's done and all the work that you've put into even making this uh happen year after year, much appreciated.

Um, I heard a common theme between our committee neighbors and you know the um this black wellness week uh proclamation.

You know, a lot of what we're dealing with is you know mental mental illness, mental health, and it's passed down from generation to generation.

And so I think my heart is full that you know we've had two communities come and express the importance of making sure that that's acknowledged and addressed.

Um thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Seeing no further comments, please come forward and accept the nomination, and please join me in a round of applause.

All right, thanks.

Big smile for proclamation.

All right, one in two, three.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much, everyone.

Our third and final proclamation tonight is proclaiming April 2026 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month or a Sexual Assault Awareness Month for this proclamation.

I would like to invite Carolyn Sampson, executive director, Rebuilding Hope Sexual Assault Center to the podium as I read the proclamation.

Whereas Rebuilding Hope Sexual Assault Center was incorporated in 1975 as Pierce County Rape Relief and is one of the longest continuously operating community sexual assault centers in Washington State.

And whereas Rape Awareness Week was established in 1979 by the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, expanded to Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the late 1990s, and was officially recognized in 2009 by President Obama for the month of April.

And whereas, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all women and more than one in six men have experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetimes.

And at least half of our LGBTQIA2S plus community is sexually assaulted.

And at least one in four girls and one in twenty boys are sexually abused before turning 18.

And whereas continued efforts to increase awareness about how sexual violence impacts individuals, institutions, and communities are critical to dismantling the myths, beliefs, behaviors, and systems that promote sexual violence, and whereas partnerships with the City of Tacoma and community-based organizations have supported rebuilding hope's delivery of 24-7 victim survivor advocacy and trauma-focused therapy services, as well as prevention education to thousands of youth and adults to identify the signs of unhealthy behaviors and relationships, build skills for healthy boundaries in communication, and stop sexual violence before it happens.

And whereas with more than 50 years of dedicated service as Pierce County's designated sexual assault center and three years of service as Kitzep County's designated sexual assault center, rebuilding hope remains committed to its mission to provide support, promote healing, and partner to end sexual violence.

Now, therefore, I, Andrews Ibsen, mayor of the City of Tacoma, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim April 26th as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the City of Tacoma.

Encourage residents to seek information, education, and support related to sexual assault and abuse.

Please say a few words.

Thank you so much.

Good evening.

My name is Carlin Sampson, and I am the executive director at Rebuilding Hope, the Sexual Assault Center.

Thank you again, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council Members, and City Staff who make tonight's platform possible.

And thank you so much for supporting this important proclamation.

I also want to take a moment to thank many of Rebuilding Hope's invaluable partners.

I have two joining me here today.

On my left is Nadia Van Adder, director of the Crystal Judson Family Justice Center.

To my right is Abby McLean, CEO of the YWCA of Pierce County.

In addition to the Family Justice Center and the YWCA, we also want to give acknowledgement to additional partners, both here and beyond who create a comprehensive system of support for survivors to include, but not be limited to the Pewalt tribe, our sister's house, OASIS Youth Center, Mi Central, Mary Bridge, and Tacoma Community House.

On behalf of Rebuilding Hope, we are truly honored by the city's partnership and supporting victim survivors and building communities free from sexual violence.

Establishing a month in honor of sexual assault awareness and prevention is itself a marker of our progress towards safer, more respectful cities and neighborhoods, as well as a stark reminder of the all-too important work that is still ahead of us.

As noted in the proclamation, we know that sexual violence is an insidious and pervasive problem in our communities.

Nationally, almost half of all women and almost a quarter of men will experience physical sexual assault in their lifetime.

It's also estimated that as many as one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before turning 18.

Women of color are reported to be disproportionately assaulted compared to white women.

Indigenous individuals are at least twice as likely to experience sexual assaults than all other racial groups and at least half of our LGBTQ plus community experience this abhorrent violence in their lifetime.

Closer to home, our state's association of sheriffs and police chiefs have found that a Washington resident experiences a sexual assault every three hours.

Every day, Rebuilding Hope's team of advocates, therapists, and educators show up in our Tacoma and Pierce County community for survivors who have lived these very statistics and these very experiences.

We show up in emergency departments, courthouses, and schools in the middle of the night and at every hour of the day, in support of survivors in the first moments after their trauma, and for those survivors recovering or still healing decades later.

Rebuilding hope is there.

No matter their age, their gender, their relationship to the offender, if any at all, the nature of sexual violence endured, no matter whether they ever reported to law enforcement or if they have ever told another person at all.

Every survivor in Tacoma deserves and will receive compassionate, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered support.

We are proud to deliver that support at rebuilding hope.

Our agency-wide vision is to build communities that do not tolerate oppressive social norms, behaviors, or systems that promote or excuse sexual violence or exploitation.

Communities where those who have been harmed are believed and supported in pursuit of their individual paths of healing, and communities where sexual violence does not exist and where people are educated and empowered to center full choice, consent, and safety and healthy relationships.

I'm here today to proudly accept this proclamation and to express my gratitude that we stand together in support of that vision.

I ask you to join my colleagues and me to take action to make that vision for our home our reality.

I hope that your action starts with learning and sharing the history of the sexual assault awareness movement, how we trace this work back to the roots of our country through women's rights movements and women's suffrage and enslavement and colonialism.

I hope you take action in the present by connecting directly with Rebuilding Hope and our partners to learn how sexual violence is impacting our community locally, how we're addressing it and challenging it, and how you can be a part of the movement to disrupt sexual violence so we can co-create safer communities together.

I hope you'll look forward to future action and join us at events and activities, Rebuilding Hope and our Partners offer to educate the community and raise support for healing services, including many events at this April in honor of sexual assault awareness and prevention month.

I hope you will remember that each of these actions matter to the survivors around us and will bear in mind that sharing your knowledge of rebuilding hope's vision and work makes a difference and increases access to support for your neighbors and your loved ones.

Together we can draw on the lessons of the past, our work in the present, and our responsibility to the future.

We create the safe, protective, and supportive community that we across all of Tacoma deserve to have.

Thank you again for your time today.

Thank you for supporting this proclamation.

Thank you.

It looks like we have a comment from Councilmember Rumba, followed by Council Member Palmer.

I want to thank you all for being here today.

We have such a great set of providers in Pierce County doing this important work.

I think like the most important thing is when people hear I believe you and I'm here to listen is like the most important thing.

But I just, even in the news today, there are women coming out for the first time to share their story about the sexual assault.

An incident that happened in their life and what that has meant.

And the fact that they feel safe at this moment to share that story.

So thank you for being a resource in our community.

I want to thank Nadia and Abby.

I mean, we we just have the have the people we need here and um our sisters' house.

And I and I just really appreciate what it means to be involved in this work and have the city supporting it.

So thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer.

I just wanted to thank you.

I cannot imagine what you all deal with on a daily basis and what it takes to do that and do that with the caringly and professionally.

And so I just, you know, I can't imagine.

So I just wanted to thank you all and um all of your staff uh for doing what you do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Seeing no further council comments, thank you so much for all the great work that you do.

Please come forward and accept the proclamation, and let's uh give one more round of applause.

Okay.

All right.

One, two, three.

I'm gonna do one more.

One, two, three.

Thank you so much.

We are going to now move on to public comment.

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

Under public comment, you can speak about motions, resolutions, and ordinances on tonight's agenda, except for ordinances number two nine oh nine five and two nine one oh two, for which a public hearing has already been held.

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

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 is not meant to be in back and forth dialogue.

Your remarks should be directed to the City Council and not at individual staff members or members of the council.

If you want to speak under the public comment period, praise the place the raise hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window if attending virtually, so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this evening.

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

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

Clerk, please read.

This is the time set aside for public comment.

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

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

We strive to provide a common period where people can feel respected while sharing a wide variety of viewpoints and acknowledge that we may hear comments that conflict with 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.

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'll be given two warnings.

If you remain off topic, we will have to move on and we'll end your time.

So with that, we're going to move on to uh the first section, which is pertaining to Connect Tacoma.

Our speaker is Laura Svencharik from Tacoma on the Go.

Hello, Mary Hussle.

Uh Laura Executive Director.

Come on the go, also uh a member of the community levy advisory committee.

Um thank you for bringing forward a streets levy that will tangibly make it safer and easier for all people to get around Tacoma.

Um and particularly thank you for prioritizing revitalizing um our major arterials in this package and addressing the Vision Zero High Risk Network.

Um people who drive on these arterials, they also, you know, they know that it is an unpleasant experience.

Uh it doesn't feel particularly safe.

But people who get around by walking, biking, and transit are incredibly aware of what it feels like to try to cross these roads, what it feels like to sit at an unshaded bus stop on the side of a high traffic, high-speed roadway with no trees and broken sidewalks.

It's not a fun experience.

It does not bring respect to all members of our community, and it's not accessible mobility for all.

Um as the city continues to encourage more people to walk, bike, and take transit per our climate action plan, as well as encouraging increased density along these transit arterials.

It becomes more and more important that we invest in safe infrastructure that helps everybody to get around our city, and I firmly believe that this levy package will tangibly move us towards those goals.

So we look forward to supporting this, and thank you.

Thank you, Laura.

All right, moving on to our general public comment.

Our first speaker is Gunther.

And can you uh clarify which item you're speaking to, sir?

Boulders.

Okay, please proceed.

Good evening, Council and Mayor.

Uh I once knew a homeless man.

He would go around at night and leave origami birds on park benches with little messages in them.

He simply wanted to make people smile.

My name is Gunther, and I'm the former deputy mayor of Ording.

Some of you may also know me from my AWC talk.

According to AI, I may be the only homeless person to have ever governed a U.S.

city.

By day I pan-handled on corners in Tacoma, and by night I was on TV approving million-dollar checks.

I came here tonight to talk about the boulders.

Only not about them per se, but something related.

And that's a proposal for a new parallel program in Tacoma, a dignity initiative.

Because whatever solution you use for this complex situation, the unhoused deserve to not be hated so much.

I know because I was once one of them.

Here is my suggestion for you as city leaders.

Each year you have the destiny awards with categories like adult leadership and sustainability.

Starting next year, it would be wonderful if you considered a new category, street courage or givers.

A city shouldn't just recognize those who have houses, but those who have nothing.

Those who perform great acts of kindness, like the gentleman I mentioned up front.

I speak around the world to UN partners now.

And did you know cities spent millions on housing, but nearly zero on helping citizens see the good of the homeless.

Thank you so much, Councilmember.

Your time is up, but if you have further comments, you're absolutely welcome to email the rest of us.

We'd love to hear the rest of your comments.

I will do that.

I will uh give a clarification on your city website.

It says we are allowed two minutes.

I came here prepared to give two minutes.

That should be changed on the city website if that's not accurate.

I appreciate you have now not lost half of my speech.

Okay.

Thank you so much for your comments.

We're going to move on to our next speaker, uh, Michelle Reich, followed by Rebecca Stith.

And uh, Michelle, can you uh can you uh uh specify which item you're speaking to in tonight's agenda?

Uh Cambodian genocide remembrance.

Okay, please proceed.

Um I trained with uh Arvind, South Vietnamese soldiers votion, and Cambodian soldiers of General Long Nove during the Vietnam War.

And there were two genocides, not just one.

Uh Long No, he was overthrown by the Khmer Po Pot because of our bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that killed 200,000 Cambodian civilians, collateral damage.

That's the second genocide.

And when the South meetings invaded to remove uh Pol Pot, um we, the CIA, through a black site in Thailand, supported a six-month insurgency by the inmates of Pol Pot, including Pol Pot himself, to fight the South Mies.

So the U.S.

supported Polak for six months after uh the Bid Me's invaded.

Plus uh the arms we gave Pol Pop were captured from uh FLN in the El Salvador in Civil War, so they wouldn't have a U.S.

footprint on them and funnel to Thailand and give them to Pulpots and Mits to fight the Vietnamese.

So that's a little uh behind the scenes history of the Cambodian genocide.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Rebecca Stith, followed by Chris Zachary.

Looks like you're speaking to the Boulders Resolution.

Yes, I I have that in my remarks.

I'm speaking in support of resolution 41891.

I'm Rebecca Stith.

I live in District 2.

This resolution, I which I support, um, directs the city manager to review site reclamations using boulders to prevent encampments, and it also requires the city manager to provide an annual assessment and cost estimates for potential boulder removal and more home humane alternatives.

The resolution represents quintessential good government, humane government.

Thank you, Councilmember Scott Walker and Diaz for bringing it forward.

Passing this resolution tonight will not cost the city anything now.

It will not mean boulder removal now, which some alarmists in the city are claiming.

It will, though, acknowledge that boulders are not always effective, and more humane options may be possible.

Boulders can create obstacles for persons with mobility issues, lead to more pedestrian indust injuries, and become an eyesore and contributor to visual blight.

The resolution acknowledges the city's dual interest in enhancing safety and making community spaces more welcoming.

It will direct the city manager to establish transparent, accountable process for review assessment and cost analysis of boulder use and potential removal going forward.

We have a highly experienced city manager who can and will implement this process responsibly and efficiently.

Establishing it will generate data for evidence-based decisions for the council and the city.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to our next speaker, Chris Zachary, followed by Barb Church.

Chris Zachary.

All right.

It appears Chris Saccher is not here, so moving on to Barb Church.

Looks like speaking about the site reclamation resolution.

Thank you.

I'm actually reading Oneita Arnold's testimony.

Go ahead.

Dear Mayor Ibsen and Council members, I encourage you to reconsider the deployment of boulders that the city has implemented over the past years to prevent unhoused individuals from taking shelter.

Hostile architecture treats the unhoused on the streets like pests, not people.

It doesn't tackle the causes of homelessness, ultimately lack of truly affordable housing.

It just sweeps people further away from support, making the things harder, more dangerous, and pushing them deeper into this crisis.

Who counts on who counts as a member of the public?

This hostile architecture has created public spaces which are less inviting to all audiences, including elderly and those with physical disabilities, damaging social trust.

Placing restrictive boulders increases instability and displacement by pushing unhoused individual individuals out of visible spaces without offering real alternatives.

This practice causes deep sleep deprivation, chronic stress, exposure to extreme weather conditions, and increases the risk of illness, injury, and long-term health decline.

Hostile architecture is a symptom of a larger crisis, the affordable housing crisis.

Policy change is long overdue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Barb.

All right, moving on to our virtual speakers.

Lua Pritchard, followed by Tyler Daniels.

Hello.

Hello, Lua.

Oh, great.

Um, Mr.

Mayor and respected members of the council.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

I'm Fan Wayne Pritchard, executive director of Asia Pacific Culture Center, and I'm a member of the community levy committee.

I uh first want to say thank you to all of you, the council and mayor, for the recognition of our sister Asian country Cambodia tonight, in respect and honor of your history.

Thank you so much.

But I also want to thank you for your support for resolution 41890.

It is uh great movement for our city of Tacoma, and what a wonderful way to um to fund and and help support all of the different uh needs that we have for in uh making sure that we have safety connections in regards to our roads.

Um thank you so much, council and and Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you for all the great work that you are doing.

Thank you.

Of course, thank you, Lua.

Tyler Daniels, followed by Jay Worley.

Greetings, Tyler Daniels, uh licensed professional civil engineer.

Um regarding the holders, I also support that their removal be done as that implementation was an attempt to solve a community issue at the level of consciousness that it was created.

And the attempt was not done in a human fashion.

It was done in a thought-together attempt to reactionarily address a community-wide issue.

The other uh item I'd like to discuss is the uh public works funding initiative.

The past actions that Public Works has done has fallen short of installing any sort of vegetation or street trees along residential blocks, creating significant increases in heat islands and impacting those who are in the minority groups who are suffering from health conditions, not from genetic inheritance, they're from toxic environments that we as a community suffer from.

The public works design standards that are outdated and they are toxifying our community.

The asphalt concrete installation is toxic to those who implement it without face coverings.

Those exhaust fumes go through the community, and the oil that's used in the chip ceiling is toxifying our groundwater and the stormwater system.

So I hope that you are able to implement that as you review their proposal moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jay Warley.

Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

All right.

My name is Jay Worley.

I'm a experienced advocate and a housing advocate.

I sit on the permanent supporter of housing advisory committee for Washington Commerce.

And I also sit on the advisory board for Shape for Pierce County.

I am here to discuss boulders.

Uh the resolution 41891.

I am grateful for this resolution.

On the other hand, I am going to ask that you look at that resolution at the same time as your public works initiative and consider how it can work together.

The money that is put towards those folders, the maintenance of them and the abuse of them could be much better used in public works, creating infrastructure that supports our community.

Every time that we build for disabled people, every time that we build for those who don't have a home, every time that we build and plant trees that are an extension of gardening and fruit and vegetation to help feed our communities, then we are making the quality of life better for absolutely everyone.

And as soon as we start harnessing a better community build out and understanding that by providing for those who do not have, we are guaranteeing the better quality of life for everyone who does.

Then we can have a better community into COMA, and it can be a epicenter of proof of what can be for the outer rings of the communities outside of it.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Laurie Arnold.

Good evening, Council and Mayor.

Um I agree with everything that the previous speakers before me have said.

I just want to add my voice in support of resolution 41891.

Um I wholeheartedly agree that the boulders need to go eventually, even though I know this resolution doesn't direct that specifically at this point.

Um but putting the boulders on our streets, you know, does nothing to solve homelessness problem.

And they're also just plain unsightly and and definitely don't promote a welcoming or thriving community at all.

And others have spoken much more eloquently than I could about this.

So I'll just say there are other options and they should be explored.

So I definitely ask you to pass this resolution, getting the city manager to explore alternatives to boulders.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing no further uh community members signed in for public comment, we are going to close public comment and move on to the rest of our agenda.

Moving on to appointments, item number 18, Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41885, a resolution appointing an individual to the Human Services Commission.

I move to adopt resolution number 41885.

Second.

Moving and seconded, I'd like to call on Councilmember Rumbaugh.

Thank you.

At the March 26, 2026 Community Vitality and Safety Committee, the committee conducted interviews and recommended the appointment of Sarah E.

Quinto to the Human Services Commission.

Thank you.

All right.

Are there any council questions or comments?

Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting resolution number 41885, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed to say nay.

Resolution is declared adopted.

Item number 19, Clerk, please read.

Resolution 4186, a resolution appointing an individual to the Urban Design Board.

I move to adopt resolution number 41886.

Moving and second, I'd like to call on Councilmember Sidalgay.

An urban design board member vacated their position as of January 20th, 2026, which created a vacancy.

And at the March 25th, 2026 Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability Committee meeting, the committee reviewed the application of a previous interviewee and recommended the appointment of Guyane Rosenzweig to the Urban Design Board.

All those in favor of adopting resolution number 4186, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

I was supposed to say nay.

Resolution is declared adopted.

We have invited individuals being appointed tonight to attend the city council meeting virtually or in person.

Whether you are attending virtually in person, I'd like to thank you for volunteering your service to the Human Services Commission and the Urban Design Board.

We really appreciate your willingness to serve.

And uh please join me in a round of applause.

Thank you.

Moving on to purchase resolutions.

Item number 20, Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41887, a resolution awarding a contract adopts Peter Belt LLC in the amount of 4,337,480.56 cents plus a 10% contingency budget budgeted from the Solid Waste Fund for seven compressed natural gas trucks to collect solid waste recycling and yard waste from residents for a projected contract total of $4,771,228 and 62 cents plus applicable taxes.

I move to adopt resolution number 41887.

Move and second.

Are there any council questions or comments?

Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting resolution number four one eight eight seven, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed saying nay.

Resolution is declared adopted.

Moving on to regular resolutions, item 21.

This presentation will also cover items 22 and 27.

Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41888, a resolution authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters Local Union number 117, Tacoma venues and events unit retroactive to January 1, 2026 through December 31st, 2028.

I move to adopt resolution number 41888.

Moving seconded, I'd like to call on Mr.

Dylan Carson.

Good evening, Mayor Ibsen and members of the City Council.

My name is Dylan Carlson.

I am the Labor Relations Division Manager for the City.

I have two resolutions and one ordinance to present this evening.

Resolution 41888 authorizes the execution of a collective bargaining agreement as negotiated with the Teamsters Union Local 117 Tacoma venues and events union unit.

The agreement is for three years and covers approximately 26 FTEs.

The agreement provides for wage increases in each year of the agreement.

Effective retroactive to January 1st, 2026, a general wage increase of 3 percent, and market-based wage adjustments by classification between 6 and 7 percent.

Effective January 1st, 2027, a general wage increase of 3 percent and market-based wage adjustments by classification between 1 and 5 percent.

Effective January 1, 2028, a general wage increase of 3 percent, and market-based wage adjustments of 1 percent.

Other changes to the agreement include the addition of clarifying language regarding grievance procedures for employee complaints alleging discrimination, the utilization of other agreed-upon agencies for labor arbitrations in the event that the public employment relations commission is not available, an increase to the rest period required after working consecutive shifts, proration of the annual stipend received for clothing for employees hired mid-year, and an increase in the amount allowed for the replacement of damaged clothing per calendar year.

Clarifying language on what constitutes the sixth and seventh day of a work week for overtime purposes, and additional detail on when additional lunch breaks are required for additional or extended shifts.

Resolution 41889 authorizes the execution of a letter of agreement as negotiated with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local 43 clerical unit.

The agreement was approved by the Public Utility Board as a resolution on March 25th, 2026.

The agreement provides for the creation of a new classification to be titled Safety Specialist.

The classification will be represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 43 Clerical Unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.

The safety specialist will be created as classified, designated for as overtime category A with a 2026 pay range of $36.80 to $44.73 per hour.

All other terms and conditions will be consistent with the current collective bargaining agreement.

Finally, ordinance 29103 will provide for the implementation of the provisions included in the agreements as negotiated with Teamsters Local 117 Tacoma Venues and Events Unit and the International Brotherhood of Local 483.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 483 Clerical Unit.

I would be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Dylan.

Any council questions or comments?

All right.

All those in favor of adopting resolution number 4188, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed to say nay.

Resolution is declared adopted.

Item number 22, Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41889, a resolution authorizing the execution of a letter of agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 483 Clerical Unit regarding a new classification of safety specialists.

I move to adopt resolution number 41889.

Second.

Move and seconded.

This item is just presented.

Are there any additional council questions or comments?

Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting resolution number 4189, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Resolution is declared adopted.

Item 23, this item will have a PowerPoint presentation.

Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41890 of resolution transmitting a ballot measure to the Pierce County Auditor to be placed on the ballot for the primary election on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, which reads City of Tacoma Proposition 1, funding transportation safety improvements.

The Tacoma City Council adopted Connecticoma Safe Streets and Sidewalks Resolution No.

41890 concerning increases in utility and property taxes for street improvements.

This measure funds safe streets, school routes, pothole repairs, paving sidewalks, traffic safety, and neighborhood connections by levying additional 1.5 percent utility tax on natural gas electric phone utilities for 10 years beginning in 2027, increasing the regular property tax levy for 10 years by 20 cents per 1,000 dollars to a maximum rate of $1.78 per $1,000 assessed value for 2027 collections and using the 2027 levy amount to calculate subsequent levies through 2026 qualified seniors and others are exempt.

I move to adopt resolution number 41890.

Moving second, I'd like to call on public works director Curtis King Silver.

Thank you, Mayor.

That was a lot, Nicole.

Um thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, members of the council.

I'm going to go through a brief presentation for you tonight, hopefully a little more brief than this afternoon.

I'm going to start out with a brief overview.

Excuse me.

A brief overview of the community engagement efforts that we helped that helped shape the conversation we're having tonight.

I'm going to give you a brief overview of the investment themes that are community engagement helped shape.

I'll walk you through each investment theme that we are going to be calling the Connect Tacoma Safe Streets and Sidewalks Levy.

And last, I'll talk about the ballot.

One of the lessons we learned from the 2025 Streets Initiative is the process itself needed to be grounded in community-oriented engagement, clear and accessible communication, and transparent decision making.

We learned it needed to be guided by council priorities, including Vision Zero, the Climate Action Plan, and the Transportation and Mobility Plan.

In response to what we learned, we developed a framework that was more focused, more transparent, and more aligned with community priorities.

To ensure this framework stayed grounded in community priorities, we established the community levy committee.

You heard from a couple of members tonight.

This was a 23-member committee that represented the broad cross section of Tacoma, including labor, real estate, private business, construction, as well as community-based group or organizations and private partners like the Port of Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, Parks Tacoma, and Pierce Transit.

It also included voices from organizations like TACED, the Tacoma Area Coalition of Individuals with Disabilities, and the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.

Their role was to reflect community perspectives and ensure we were incorporating considerations around access, opportunity, and belonging throughout the process.

They reviewed engagement input, validated key themes, and provided feedback on investment priorities.

In addition to the community levy committee, we had one-on-one conversations with other key partners and stakeholders.

That included organizations like Safe Streets, City Commissions like Commission on Disabilities, and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Group, as well as community community partners like Reach Tacoma Till Top Action Coalition and Transportation Choices Coalition.

We also hosted a Connect Tacoma community levy listening session, an open house to gain further input.

Together, this helps ensure we were hearing both broad community perspectives and more detailed issue-specific input.

The frame framework I'm bringing forward tonight was directly informed by what we've heard from residents, stakeholders, and community partners across Tacoma.

So after some lessons learned from the 2025 Streets Initiative, working with community levy committee, receiving feedback from our town hall, as well as other one-on-one conversations, we landed on what we're calling the Connect Tacoma Safe Streets and Sidewalks levy.

Similar to the streets initiative package in 2015, we ended up with a proposed levy combined with grants and partnership funding that would raise approximately $320 million over the next 10 years.

And again, similar to 2015, we landed on three investment themes.

These themes are better neighborhood streets, safer streets for everyone, and improved connections.

Better neighborhood streets will focus on enhancing the quality of our neighborhood streets.

Safer streets for everyone will focus on our busiest streets and key arterials, and improved connections will focus on providing easier access to transit, schools, libraries, parks, and neighborhood business districts.

Our first theme, better neighborhood streets, is similar to what we did in 2025 for residential street maintenance, but will allow us to do more.

In 2015, our primary focus was residential street maintenance.

We committed to maintaining 5600 blocks, uh, maintaining or improving 50 to 600 blocks or 70% of our residential streets.

Because it wasn't part of the streets initiative, we didn't fill in missing link sidewalks, and we didn't add traffic column or other safety measures.

We simply maintained as many residential streets as we could to meet or exceed our goal.

This levy will, however, be different.

Our fourth goal, however, will remain the same as it was in 2015, and that's maintaining residential streets.

After spending the last 10 years focusing on maintaining residential streets, it would be responsible to let the investment deteriorate over the next 10 years.

So we used our pavement management model to determine the investment needed over the next 10 years to maintain residential street at its current level with continued improvement.

That number is 85 million dollars.

75 million we anticipate coming from the new new Tacoma new Connect Tacoma Safe Streets and Sidewalk Levy with an additional 10 million anticipated coming from partnerships.

The difference between the 2015 streets levy and what is being proposed today is we will be adding traffic calming, sidewalk, and other safety improvements is necessary.

The focus will be on maintaining improvement uh improving residential streets to make them safer, calmer, and more accessible with better sidewalks, traffic calming, and safer routes for all ages.

The next investment bucket is safer streets for everyone.

This is where the bulk of our resources will be focused.

This is again somewhat similar to the 2015 Streets Initiative that set aside 30 million dollars for arterials and freight corridors, mostly for grant match.

The Tacoma Connect Safe Streets and Sidewalks Levy would set aside $85 million for grant match and other priority projects on our busiest streets and key materials.

Our goal would be to use this as leverage to receive an additional $74 million in grants for a total of $159 million.

These funds will be used to improve our terrible streets that are vital for moving people, goods, and services.

These are the streets that connect neighbors to jobs, business transit, parks, trails, schools, and libraries.

Our last investment theme is improving connections.

Again, similar to mobility in 2015, our theme mobility.

These funds will be used primarily for grant match in hopes of generating another 36 million over the next 10 years for a total of 76 million.

This is safer routes to schools, sidewalks, improving accessibility, and again improving connections to trails, transit, schools, parks, libraries, and business districts.

It's making it easier and safer for people to walk, bike, and take transit while connecting neighborhoods to places where people want to go.

Our goal is to raise $320 million over the next 10 years.

$200 million from the Connect Tacoma, Safe Streets and Sidewalks levy, $90 million in grants, and $30 million in partnership contributions.

We were proposing tonight is a property tax increase of 20 cents per thousand of assessed value.

For the average home value of just under 508,000, it would be an increase of $8.46 per month.

This is the same property tax increase voters approved in 2015 that has now been removed from their property taxes.

We are also proposing a 1.5% gross revenues tax on utilities.

This would cost the average ratepayer an additional $1.97 per month.

This again is the same increase voters approved in 2015.

The total increase would be approximately $10.43 per month, all of which would be used for better neighborhood streets, safer streets for everyone, and improved connections.

In closing, after working with the community levy committee, receiving input from our town hall, one-on-one conversations and other feedback.

We are requesting you to consider placing the Connect Tacoma Safe Streets and Sidewalks Levy on the August 4th ballot for our voters to consider TELP fund transportation and safety improvements throughout Tacoma.

Thank you.

Thank you, Curtis.

Are there any questions or comments from the council?

Councilmember Sidalga.

Hi, thank you.

You know.

Every time there's something that sounds like a tax increase, it has a lot of uh attention paid on it.

Um I'm usually someone who is you know skeptical, especially years ago.

Anytime you saw one, you're like, well, why should we do an increase?

So I do want to talk about some of the reasons why I do support putting this on as a question to uh the people.

First of all, this is um effectively uh asking um residents to vote for uh set of levies that we had for 10 years that expired.

And I think something that wasn't as uh and I hope there's a way we can get real information out there.

What really struck me was uh just how really powerfully good the City of Tacoma was at using those dollars that were raised.

Uh for every dollar we raised, we got another two dollars and twenty-seven cents back.

So we basically tripled the effectiveness of these dollars.

And that that's a really powerful statement, and it also shows um how good we were at using that investment.

We went to the National League of Cities recently, and one of the things that was really apparent is um you know fixing your roads is not a partisan issue.

Every single city municipality out there that's a core core service we provide.

And we were um we were lobbying uh to have the bipartisan transportation bill passed this year, which still appears to uh have legs, which has that mechanism that allows local municipalities who put a little bit of their skin in the game to be able to win larger awards, which is what we did.

And so if we if this were to pass, we would actually have a greater chance at this large pool of money coming in from higher levels.

But I also want to talk about um the individuals uh that work at the city that have done a really good job.

Uh often when you have an investment, we've we have used money over ten years to hire really, really talented individuals who understand our streets, who understand our infrastructures, who work really hard to put those grants together, and I would hate to lose that talent because that's an investment we made, and it's something that gives me great, great confidence that if this were to pass, we could probably do even better in the first 10 years because those individuals are here.

I looking at a few of them behind you.

Um as I said, I'm usually very skeptical anytime there's something about raising revenue and it sounds like we're just trying to raise the revenue and not do the really hard things.

This this council, you know, a year and a half ago, we did we made some hard decisions in our budget, and we're going to continue to do hard make hard decisions.

Um if this does not pass, we will have very, very, very hard decisions uh coming up.

So I I hope uh that some of those um themes can be uh expressed appropriately so people are are well informed when they they use their right to to either vote for it or not.

So uh I appreciate the um um the presentation.

I think there's a lot more we could have gone into and I am in full support of putting this as a vote uh as a question to the people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Deputy Mayor.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

And Councilmember Sidalgay really eloquently said a lot of what I wanted to say.

But I really want to I want to bring home kind of how this impacts us at the neighborhood level.

There are so many people that are in harm's way every single day traveling and traversing through our city networks.

Um whether it is on a bike, whether it is walking to school, whether it's walking to a park.

Um everybody needs to utilize our road infrastructure, and it's really important that safety, their safety, our safety, is at the forefront of that.

Um historically, our roads have not been designed in a way that um thought about pedestrian safety or the safety of the community.

It really was about how fast can you get your car through a certain area.

Um so I really appreciate the the philosophical change uh that's occurring in our city, you know, vision zero and and our high risk corridors.

Um but I also appreciate the the original uh vote for the 2015 streets initiative.

It really shows to our community what is possible when we make those investments in our road systems in in safety.

Um I really, again, to Councilmersidalia's point, really just want to hit home how much that investment has impacted our community uh through those grants.

For every for every dollar, we got three dollars in return.

That to me is not a waste.

That's a maximizing of our voter uh and tax dollar impact.

Um and I can foresee that occurring again if this were to pass.

Um I really believe that uh this is a great opportunity for us to renew our commitment.

Renew our commitment not just for um for the workers that are gonna be impacted by this, um, but also renew our commitment to provide safe passage for all who uh traverse our city streets.

Um and then also it's an opportunity for partnership.

Um it's an opportunity for accountability.

Um I've heard very loud and clear from folks out in the community that they expect to see progress reports.

They want to know what's going on.

And we definitely could have done a better job of telling that story.

Um and there's a lot to learn there uh for the 2015 Streets Initiative.

But I know we are gonna do better.

I know we're gonna be able to uh talk about all the different streets and all the improvements uh that are going to occur uh throughout our our community.

And then again, back to partnership.

We have a great opportunity to continue to work with uh our partners at Parks Tacoma, uh Tacoma Public Schools, as well as the other uh folks in our development community to make sure that we when we are going through and repaving these streets, environmental services and others, we do it once and we do it right the first time.

Um we do it in a way that makes sure everybody from from the kid walk into school to um to our seniors trying to take a walk in the park, they have the opportunity to get there safely.

And I think this is a great um exercise and community feedback and accountability, and I'm really looking forward to supporting this, and I hope the rest of our community will as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Councilmember Rumba.

Thank you.

And um thank you, Curtis, for giving this presentation again.

We did hear it today at study session, and we've also met separately with um public works to talk about it.

Um I was really excited today to ask my question about projects that might be done by environmental services, and we have done a lot of stormwater work, and we probably have a lot more to do.

And I'm excited to know that in the cases like that, we will be fixing the missing sidewalk that might be there and making improvements to neighborhoods where we do work.

Um that for me is something that I had a lot of people in district two ask about where our project was done and why didn't you put the sidewalk in that was missing?

And it's nice to know we have a tool now to do that.

Um I appreciate the thoughtfulness of that.

I also appreciate that there's funds available to do um repairs and replacements to roads that might not meet the equity standards that we look for.

Um we have those all over our city, and I appreciate that we're being thoughtful about that as well, because there are parts of our city that just don't get the same, they still need levels of service, um, taking care of them.

Um and I always use Portland Avenue as one of the streets I think needs the most um updating um just because of how dangerous it is.

But other streets still also need um to be taken care of, and I appreciate that this is a broad um stroke as well, looking at our tirials, but also thinking um just really um intentionally about how people move around our city.

And every and the other people who've spoken before me, I really appreciate my other council members.

Um, really talking about the cost and how we've kept it the same as the last um initiative that we passed.

I appreciate that.

I think it makes it simpler for people to understand.

And um I just want to thank you again for leading this and for the city, all of the different departments that have been involved in this, MCO for helping get the message out.

I think that we are always could do a better job communicating our stories, and I'm hoping at this time we'll be able to do that with this initiative.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rumbaugh.

Council Member Rhines.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh I have a question and I have a couple comments.

So, Curtis, you know, thank you very much for the presentation and what I've seen for what we're putting forward on the ballot.

We've got three buckets we've identified for which money is going to go into.

Um, maybe remind me how do we ensure those that money goes into those buckets?

So let's say it passes in August, it passes in August of 2026.

How do we then provide um since that's a certainty to the public that the money will go to those places?

Well, Councilman, I think it's a good question, and ultimately I'm gonna be leaning on the council.

That's the accountability we have to add.

You know, we have to present to you, I would say yearly, you know, what money's what revenues we've raised, what projects we're putting out, and what buckets those those projects go into.

Um, for full transparency, we certainly don't have to.

We could just collect it.

Our goal is to spend it the way we say we're gonna spend it, just like we did in 2015.

Yeah.

And I imagine as in any of these public works projects, we have a lot of tools we utilize for which to address where the money goes to.

We have our vision zero high impact network, we have our six-year transportation improvement plan, we have a lot of other guiding documents, our facilities, capital plan that all kind of guide all of this work.

So that would all be part of this if this was to pass.

Those would be guiding documents.

It'll be guiding it'll help describe what projects we're going to do.

Um I think again, very excited about this.

This is, you know, I'm hoping that come August, late August 2026, we're celebrating that this passes.

Um, but I I maybe city manager want to talk about what a work what a some kind of guidelines the council could provide around spending that could support those documents and ensure that these dollars go to where you know the public is really said that we want to and give us an opportunity to um provide guidance in some of those cases too.

So I think that would be let's hope we're having that conversation come August, late August 2026.

Um my comments are gonna be pretty cool.

I'll keep them very brief.

Um, I did a walk across the city back in 2024.

Some of you probably are bored to death of hearing me say that over and over again, but you know, it was actually a pretty fun experience to go out and talk to people in the neighborhoods and hear kind of what their issues are.

And the one thing I heard over and over again is when you're on foot is man, it's really hard to walk around some places here in the city.

Um different council members joined me for parts of the walk, and they also noticed that.

I think Council Solgia was brand new into the job when he joined me for a big part of the walk across the east side.

Um it's part of that just stopping and talking to residents, like, hey, so what's the issues, what's going on, like what do you care about?

And uh what I heard more than anything was hey, John, I want to get easy I want to find a way to easier get from where I live to the park near my neighborhood, to the school where my kids go to school, to the neighborhood business district where I like to shop, to the major kind of business districts and commercial centers where I want to go.

Um I want to be able to get to more parts of the city more safely, more quickly, more easily, no matter how I choose to get around.

And when I look at the package you've put together, I want to first of all just thank staff for all the work you did and the community levitate committee for all the work you've done to really I think put into terms what I had heard, I think what many of us have heard as we're out talking to the public, which is people want to live in a community that is connected.

And that's connected in not just I get in my car, I drive where I want to go, the community is connected that I have sidewalks that can get me there, that um if I have a disability or I'm pushing a stroller, I have an easy way to get to where I need to go, that if I want to ride my bike, I feel safe and I'm not taking my life into my own hands on some of these arterials.

Um, that when I go uh when we had the community meeting at uh HP Cultural Center, I said the image in my mind that I think most people get to is that idea of your kids kind of running off ahead of you.

Like you know you're in a safe place where it's easy to get around, where I would feel comfortable let my children run off ahead of me, you know, down the street.

Um but too few of our neighborhoods don't look like that.

And so I really think this is gonna be a great opportunity for us to get closer to that.

Um it's why I'm happy to support it.

It's why I'm happy to ask our community to try to make this investment into our community.

I want to reframe this not as the city asking you for money to fix the streets you think are our problems.

But it's a chance for you all to take your hard-earned tax dollars and invest them in a brighter, more connected, more mobile and more equitable city for everyone.

So don't think about this as a city asking you for something when you go to vote in August if this passes.

But go in forward to think about how this is gonna be a generational investment you're gonna make in a better community for everyone.

And that's why I'm happy to support this tonight, and I'll be happy to support it when we get uh further along.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Heinz.

Uh I too am supportive of this resolution.

I want to start by giving my sincerest thanks to uh Director King Solver and the many volunteers as well as city staff who have been part of this conversation.

Um this to me is really just about one simple thing.

It's about being directly responsive to some of the most crucial community concerns that we've heard again and again about the state of our infrastructure, about public safety, and just about how we feel about our community.

I was here in 2015 when we passed the actual resolution on to the voters when it when it was uh authorized, and we saw firsthand how that was done so well.

Uh, this was literally something that our public works staff and our contractor community did uh literally um underpromised and overperformed.

The these were projects that were done under budget, that were done ahead of schedule, that were overpromised.

Uh and basically, if if my math is correct based on the public works folks I spoke with, uh just the 6,000 or so lanes of the residential repaving that the city performed along with our contractor uh partners, that's basically the equivalent of 27 and a half Rust and ways for reference.

So in partnership with our utilities, uh in partnership with all of the of the folks who made those things possible.

And so that's what success looks like, and also it's also what responsiveness looks like.

We're going to do that again, but differently.

Uh, the vision behind this is to be directly responsive to what you, the people of Tacoma have told us is most important, which is making our neighborhoods more connected, making them safer, and making them feel more uh attractive and more conducive to the activity that we want more of.

So that means less drag racing, it means less unsavory activities, it means more street trees.

It means more spaces for families to interact and push their kids and strollers to walk to the school, to walk to their parks.

Uh it means more activity, more engagement, and more pride in the places that you live, work, and recreate.

So that means more success stories like East 64th Street, like Sheridan, like what we've seen in the Lincoln District, like South 38th Street, for example, uh, all of which have been resounding successes and beloved by the people who live around there.

It also means jobs too.

It means more money directly in the pockets of our small businesses, more opportunities, more access to the skilled trades for kids here in Tacoma.

Um imagine what we could do more with uh more of that when the jobs 253 center opens up, for example, and we can see even greater um identification of uh of a talent pool for our local contractor community.

And it also just means greater connectivity.

It means more opportunities for our downtown to actually feel more like a downtown, for our neighborhoods to be more connected, as well as more opportunities for public transit and for greater transit connection uh connectedness.

All these things set up our community to win.

And at the end of the day, the through line is just one simple thing.

It's about performing and being responsive to clearly identified concerns of our community, public safety, just a sense of safety as well as connectedness, and just making sure that we're providing the tax base and the economic opportunity that our community deserves to have as a world class city.

So with that, I'm definitely in support of this and that we're looking forward to the community engagement that's going to follow.

So with that, thank you so much, Curtis.

Seeing no further um comments or questions from the city council, we're going to vote on the resolution in front of us.

All those in favor of adopting resolution number 41890, please signify by saying aye.

I.

Thank you.

All right.

No clapping.

All right, moving on to item number 24.

Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41891, a resolution affirming that site reclamation should aim to activate and restore public spaces for communities to use the best extent possible in directing the city manager to review past efforts that utilize boulders to provide cost estimates for removal, site restoration, and boulder storage, as well as options for expanding general funding for future site reclamation without board without boulders.

I move to adopt resolution number 41891.

Second.

Moving second, I'd like to call on Councilmember Scott, who's in person, and Councilmember Walker who is attending virtually.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate the opportunity to share some background about our proposal.

And I think Councilmember Walker and I will be able to help clarify.

But there's also been some misinformation circulating in the community about this resolution.

And so I just wanted to take some time to share about the resolution and to clear up some of those things.

Tacoma, like other cities, has used large rocks, boulders as a last resort for site reclamation.

Specifically in the past two years, we have placed boulders in 24 sites.

We recognize that boulders can't be necessary for site reclamation, particularly particularly in dangerous or hazardous areas around vital public infrastructure and around vital public infrastructure, sorry.

We also recognize that boulders block off public spaces from community access, and that many residents believe that boulder line streets give false impression that a neighborhood is unsafe or not well cared for by neighbors.

What we are trying to do is understand whether any of the boulders that we have that we have in the city are no longer serving a specific purpose and therefore are no longer needed.

We simply cannot put large rocks that block off public spaces in our neighborhoods and then just leave them there forever if they are no longer needed.

We are building an accessible and livable city and leaving boulders that are no longer needed in public areas runs directly counter to that effort.

Fortunately, there are a wide range of options to help make public space, public and private spaces safer and more welcoming for people who live or work in the area, while also discouraging the behaviors that we don't like, don't enjoy seeing as a community.

Which does not include homelessness, by the way, just so I am being very clear about that.

More talking about things like loitering.

We are particularly excited to see if we can increase our use of trees in cycle reclamation or site restoration work.

Trees are not always going to be the best choice, but we can often work well in tandem with other techniques, including including the placement of boulders.

Enhancing accessibility, safety, and livability in our community by removing boulders that are no longer needed and decreasing our reliance on boulders in the future when possible would also help advance our community safety action strategy and many of our goals in the comprehensive plan.

I will now turn it over to Councilmember Walker to speak to the details of the way forward that we are proposing in our resolution.

Great.

Thank you, Councilmember Scott.

Um, just to go over the details of what's actually in the resolution.

This uh would affirm that site reclamation should aim to activate and restore public spaces for community use to the best extent possible.

It also directs the city manager to review the past 24 site reclamation efforts that utilize boulders to assess and evaluate whether those boulders are still necessary.

So that assessment would include looking at factors such as how likely it is that an encampment may return if the boulders are removed.

If there are locations where boulders are assessed to be no longer needed, then the resolution directs the city manager to provide cost estimates for their removal and then site reclamation and boulder storage as part of the 27-28 biennial budget.

So again, we're not just taking the boulders out and walking away.

We're looking at what we could put in there as an alternative.

So a couple um key points just to address some of the misinformation that Councilmember Scott mentioned.

So, first of all, we're not proposing to remove any boulders right now.

Um we're only asking for the city manager to do an assessment about whether those boulders are still needed to protect against crime and loitering.

Second, if the city manager assesses that any of our boulders are still needed to protect um against those things, no one is going to remove them.

Our objective is to enhance community safety, not undermined it.

And as council member Scott noted, we understand that boulders can be necessary in certain places.

Third, all adjacent property owners must approve any potential removal of the boulders.

Fourth, um, we're proposing storing any removed boulders at city property so that we can reuse them when needed.

So this is aimed at fiscal responsibility.

Um we are not interested in continuing to spend taxpayer dollars on buying new rocks unless unless it's absolutely necessary.

Um fifth, no boulders will be removed that are in dangerous or hazardous areas around vital public infrastructure.

Those boulders in those spaces play an important role in community safety and they must remain in place.

Again, we're assessing each site individually.

Um and then six, we want to see some estimated costs and options for alternative treatments that decrease boulder use at future site reclam as um future site reclamation locations.

So if we can use a different treatment for site reclamation, and that would be effective, we will be doing that.

Um I just want to also note that I've been spending some time um Googling, looking at what other um cities are doing just in terms of the look and feel, and there are many, many options that incorporate landscaping, incorporate trees and boulders.

Again, we're trying to make better, more active community space.

Um we know that boulders are not solving homelessness, but we do know that they're necessary to keep our communities safe in some places.

So this is a relook at what we've already done and hopefully some opportunities uh to inspire ourselves and others in the community to do things differently and more beautifully in our community.

Happy to answer any questions and thank you.

Thank you.

Any council questions or comments?

Deputy Mayor.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I just want to uh I don't have any questions.

I I appreciate the resolution that you uh each of you have brought forward here.

Um I really think about it in a way of what is what is the future state to look like.

And I I think about you know, boulders can look nice in certain capacities.

However, there's many more areas in our city in which um maybe that shouldn't be there in perpetuity.

Uh there are op opportunities and options for us to look at things in a different way, uh crime prevention through environmental design, um, trees, there's ways to activate our spaces to make sure that they're a safer community.

Boulders clearly are an option, but it should not be the only option.

And also I think uh it takes a really good idea of of re-examining where they are currently existing and whether there are other opportunities to make sure that we are uh you know looking at the long term, like is this supposed to be there in perpetuity?

There might be some places where you know safety, like high speed traffic is occurring where we net don't necessarily want folks uh in that area.

Um, and so where it might be appropriate um critical infrastructure and things of that nature.

Um but I really appreciate the this resolution and I will definitely be supporting it tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other council questions or comments?

Councilmember uh Diaz.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted to thank Councilmember Walker and Scott for all of their work getting us to this spot on this resolution, and I know there's more to come from all of us up here to get get further along here and stop using so much hostile architecture in the city and deprioritizing it.

So I just wanted to acknowledge how much work that they did and grateful for them letting me sign on and support.

Thank you.

Councilman Ronz.

Uh thank you, Mayor Ipson.

And um, I want to thank Councilmember Scott and Councilmember Walker for addressing uh two of the questions I brought up during study session when they brought this forward.

Um was just the challenge around the ongoing costs associated with it, right?

So uh a boulder has no ongoing cost, right?

It's there.

And then there's no cost to upkeep or maintain it.

But if we look at things like trees, benches, um, plantings, shrubs, there is an ongoing cost is required of it.

So I I appreciate that in the resolution it talks about the fact that when we look at that, there is both a cost on the other end if we are to remove and change uh what's there.

I also just appreciate the change of the should to would talk to the adjacent property owner.

And um I just be really clear, you know, this is probably gonna be surprising here for some people in the room here, but you know, I don't like the rocks, I think they're ugly.

Um, but I don't have a large encampment that's been camped in front of my property for multiple months or even years in a row.

And I've talked to many property owners who after watching the city do outreach to people on the streets and watching community members do outreach to people on the streets and watching ongoing efforts to try to connect people to shelters and services, the frustration has gotten to the level that the boulders are better than the alternative.

And so when I think about that, I do think that I appreciate the way this is written, is that we would have to work with the adjacent property owners to understand.

Because it's one thing for me to drive down a street and say, wow, those boulders are ugly, they should be gone, but I don't live there.

I'm not the one who has been subjected to the issues in the past.

And so as we look forward to this, I look forward to, and something I have not yet heard is I've not yet heard a property owner say, uh, Councilmember, I'm really angry that these boulders are in front of my house or in front of my business.

I've heard people say I don't like them in my neighborhood.

I've heard people say I don't like the same when I'm driving down the street, but I've yet to hear someone who has one that was placed for their house where there's a long present encampment come to us and say, please remove them right now.

I don't want them there anymore.

And I think this process would allow us to go out and talk to the property owners to see if that's actually something that someone wants and if they want it to then talk about what they want to see in exchange for that.

Um but again, I am also, I just put it out there.

I am hoping that we can move from this conversation.

I think we're talking about boulders when what we really want to talk about is how do we respond to homelessness and get people shelter and housing they need in our community.

And I'd really like us to shift into that conversation as soon as we can.

And I'm excited to have that conversation with the council and the community in the years ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rumba.

Um thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank Councilmember Scott, Councilmember Walker, and Councilmember Rodiaz for working on this and um bringing it forward because you know, um I think that we as a city, we evolve, and I think it's good to look at what we've been doing.

Um and I want to say that in in Northeast Tacoma, on all of our pull-outs, we used to have barricades so nobody could pull over because we had a large issue with people illegally dumping, and we had um people with RVs there, and they didn't always have toilets, and so um it was in polluting commencement bay, and so um for a long time we had those, and we were we decided to remove them, the city did, and we have not really had a return to what was before.

Um I'm not sure about the illegal dumping for sure, but I know um that people are using it to pull over and enjoy the view.

And that's what I want people to do in Northeast Tacoma in that area.

Um but I also I I think that there's other things that we could do, and we need to be thoughtful about how we look at this, and I think that we are being.

I think we're looking at um I think every city, anything that we do at the city, we should be re-evaluating, and that this is what this is, and I appreciate that we're doing it, and I support it, and um I hope that my other council members will get on board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further comments?

Well, I want to thank the uh sponsors for bringing this forward.

I too will be supporting this as far as I see it.

This is about options.

This is not about moving wholesale in one direction more than the other.

This isn't about uprooting all boulders or going one way or the other um hard and fast.

This is about having really thoughtful deliberation about each particular site on a case-by-case basis based on what's in the best interest of that neighborhood and what actually makes that site as safe and attractive as possible, be it boulders, be it a combination of boulders with another site improvement, be it something completely different, just like better street lighting or native vegetation or trees or what have you, but just giving our city more options for making our neighborhoods more attractive.

So for that, uh in the spirit of greater creativity and freedom of choice, I will be supporting this resolution.

So seeing no further council comments, the uh vote before us is the adoption of resolution number 41891.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed to saying nay.

Resolution is declared adopted.

Moving on to final reading of ordinances, item number 25, Clerk, please read.

Ordinance 2910 and ordinance amending chapter 1.12 of the municipal code relating to the compensation plan to implement rates of pay and compensation for employees represented by IBEW Local 483 Court Clerks Unit.

This item was presented on March 31st, 2026.

Are there any additional council questions or comments?

Seeing none, Clerk, please call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

Aye.

Councilmember Diaz?

Aye.

Councilmember Hines.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmer?

Councilmember Rumba?

Hi.

Aye.

Councilmember Sidalgay?

Aye.

Councilmember Scott?

Aye.

Councilmember Walker.

Aye.

Mayor Ibsen.

Aye.

The ordinance is declared passed.

Item 26, Clerk, please read.

Ordinance 29101 and ordinance amending various sections of titles 1, 2, and 3 of the municipal code relating to administration and personnel, building and development code and fire to place peel appeals to building and fire codes under the authority of the hearing examiner and eliminate the Board of Building Appeals Effect of April 28, 2026.

This item was presented on March 31st, 2026.

Are there any additional council comments or questions?

Seeing none, Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Diaz.

Aye.

Councilmember Heinz.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmer?

Councilmember Rumba?

Aye.

Councilmember Sidalgay?

Aye.

Councilmember Scott?

Aye.

Councilmember Walker.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell.

Aye.

Mayor Ibsen.

Aye.

The ordinance is declared passed.

Moving on to first reading of ordinances.

Item 27.

The clerk, please read.

Ordinance 29103, an ordinance amending Chapter 1.12 of the municipal code relating to the compensation plan to implement rates of pay and compensation for employees represented by the IBEW Local 483 Clerical Unit and Teamsters Local Union No.

This item was presented earlier in the meeting.

Are there any additional council questions or comments?

Seeing none, the ordinance will be sent over for final reading next week.

Moving on to unfinished business.

Is there any unfinished business?

Seeing none, uh, we're going to have um reports by the city manager.

Is there anything from the city manager's office?

Thank you, Mayor.

I've said no report tonight.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh before community forum, we're just going to check in with IPS real quick to see if there's um a report.

It appears there is one from uh Councilmember Sidalgay, Vice Chair of the Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability Committee.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

The Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability Committee has met twice since our last report out.

The committee dedicated our March 11th meeting to reviewing proposed changes to the six-year comprehensive transportation improvement program, which State Code requires the city update annually.

Staff summarize the proposed changes, the rationale, and the community engagement efforts behind these recommendations and provide an overview of how the update supports Tacoma's transportation and mobility plan goals and policies.

The committee also voted to recommend the appointment of a candidate to f fill a seat on the Urban Design Board, which had its first vacancy since the since the board's inaugural term began last January.

Among other reasons, IPS decided to take this action outside of the annual recruitment process and appoint one of the outstanding candidates we interviewed during the initial application process because the Urban Design Board is a relatively small is is relatively small with only seven members.

Finally, IPS returned our attention to the Urban Forest Action Plan.

Staff and the committee have prioritized these ongoing discussions and updates as they inform and provide the public with early visibility throughout this two and a half year action plan.

IPS's April 8th meeting was canceled, and we will meet again next Wednesday, April 22nd.

We are excited for our first briefing on the Schuster Parkway Trail Project since June 2024 and to discuss the six-year comprehensive transportation improvement program annual update one last time in advance of its full consideration before the council before the council.

Mayor, this concludes my report.

Thank you.

So now we're going to move on to community forum, during which members of the public can speak over about items over which the 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 is not meant to be a back and forth dialogue.

Your remarks should be directed to the City Council and not at individual staff members.

At this time, I would like to ask attendees if you want to speak under community forum, please raise press the raise hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or star not in 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 or the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak.

Community forum, Clerk, please read.

The purpose of community form is to assist the council in making policy decisions.

Items of discussion will be limited to matters over which the council has jurisdiction.

Arguments shall not be made in support of or opposition to any matter on this week's agenda.

And each person may address the council only one time during this forum.

Each speaker will have up to 90 seconds to make your remarks.

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.

We have a number of speakers who are signed in.

Our first speaker is Vidal Rojas, followed by Patricia.

I don't know if this is a point of order.

I'm guessing.

Yes.

Can you clarify?

Yes, sure.

That is a procedural ruling.

There are 22 speakers who want to ensure that there is maximum time.

We're going to move on to uh Ms.

Rojas, followed by Patricia.

Please proceed.

Three minutes.

Three minutes.

Please proceed.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um Maria Teresa Gámez, language access coordinator to Nightema, I'm in an interpreting capacity for Mr.

Vidal Rojas who's gonna talk about immigration issues.

Um is Vidal Rojas, so I'm inmigrante mas de la ciudad de Tacoma.

Good evening, council and mayor.

My name is Vidal Rojas.

I'm part of uh leadership team at the East Side Community.

I almost I'm also the coordinator of a community community garden, and I'm also part of the and other collectives collectivos que se enfoca in rescatar nuestra cultura su medicina, su propio medicina, su propia comida el fin de esto is de tener nuestro propio espacio de ser felices de sonreír a la madre tierra de reír con los hijos, rein con la familia a part of the community of the retra purepecha, and part of this uh our goal is to preserve traditions uh cooking and preserve our traditions as a culture and have spaces to coexist as community and families.

And this is something that we cannot do too often anymore because our immigrant community is scared and is preoccupied about what is happening with ice.

Thank you so much for speaking.

Uh, we would absolutely love to hear the rest of your comments if you'd like to submit them in writing to the clerk or the rest of the council.

Let her say what she said.

Can I translate it as part?

Uh yeah, please translate the last.

So they are putting together since February a bunch of workshops for the community and for people who are affected to that, and their petition to you today is related to the resources that they need for those workshops.

Thank you so much for your comments.

And if there's anything else you'd like to say in writing, please feel free to submit it to the rest of the council.

Okay.

Maria Teresa lay conocido por telephone y por text, y ahora tengo el gusto de conocerlo in persona.

It's more largo y bueno, ella se ofrece muchas veces he hablado con Carissa también.

Thank you.

So uh she has many, many questions and concerns, and now she's working with Maria Teresa and Maria Teresa is gonna help her to and with Carisa as well, and Maria Teresa is gonna help her to put together a list of the questions and concerns and give her the appropriate information about our ordinances and other pieces of legislation that Miss Patricia may look is que toming in quenta mi requerimento respuestas.

She only wants to say that she wants you to keep in mind her request and and and she needs the responses.

And with respect.

Thank you for the Michelle Reich, followed by Rebecca Stith.

Michelle Reich.

I'm speaking about Earth Day, which you say days away.

And uh first of all, that you uh acknowledge taking the land from the Indians, but you also took the land away from all the animals in Tacoma.

What about them?

And that's my point there that on Earth Day.

Uh human rights and animal rights should be one.

And this has been uh uh acknowledged in a lot of past societies, and there's still remnants left in the world today that animals are treated equally to humans.

And I know that's a concept because religion told you that you're superior, that uh when you die, you're gonna go to heaven uh with the angels and streets of gold.

And if you're Islam, you're gonna have 17 virgins, but that's not gonna happen.

And we're not going to Mars either.

And what counts is here, and we do not treat uh the other wildlife because you all are animals.

You're just wearing clothes.

That's the only difference.

You're mammals, predators, uh carnivores, most of you.

There's no vacants in here, probably 100% vacants.

Uh you you're just uh the apex predator on earth, and and you have not uh acknowledged the other animals.

Thank you.

Rebecca Stith, followed by Eugenia.

Hi, Rebecca Stith District One.

I'm here to ask you not to take community forum away from the regular council meetings.

It is far more than an echo chamber.

It does communicate community wide needs, and I know this from personal experience.

In 2017, I joined the Human Rights Commission a short time later I was made its chair.

I started coming to council meetings, I started doing public comment and speaking at Citizen Forum, which is now called Community Forum.

I learned a lot.

I learned a lot about issues that the human rights commission is supposed to look at, discrimination issues, what was going on in different communities within our city.

I learned a lot from the council members I met.

And there was one very wise council member when a very similar proposal was made in 2017, and he pointed out that even if they take it away, and we go to neighborhood council meetings, and people still try to attack council members sometimes.

It's gonna happen at Citizens' Forum, Community Forum, it's gonna happen at neighborhood meetings if that's what someone really wants to do.

But more importantly, and not from New York, more importantly, he made the point that you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

You want to have more opportunities for back and forth and communication with council members.

And that wise council member was Anders Ibsen.

And I hope the mayor will listen to him and all of you will.

Please keep community forum at our city council meetings.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rebecca.

Our next speaker is Eugenia, followed by Renee.

Hi, um, it's Eugenia.

Um thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I was actually really hopeful today just seeing the different proclamations that were that were adopted today.

Um Black Wellness Week and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

But this effort to take away public comment and just seeing the lack of sensitivity to the different uh demographics that are trying to portray their point here.

Um it's actually very disheartening.

Um I came, I I've been here before, and I normally prepare a statement, but I wanted you guys to see me for what I am.

I'm in perfect human and for what I represent.

I represent thousands of immigrants that live in this city that are afraid.

And um I've had conversations with some of you on a personal uh level uh outside of these chambers.

And I I'd like to think that we're not very different.

A lot of you um do align with what PCIA um and and the ISO resolution um is is demanding.

And um, so yeah, I I wanna I want to address that.

I want us also to remember, you know, as we're passing these proclamations that there are thousands of people, thousands of women, child uh children, and and men uh I do believe there's an active uh lawsuit right now that are being sexually assaulted in the Northwest Detention Center.

So while that sounds great, we have a sexual assault awareness month now.

Um let's let's consider other members of our community.

Appreciate your comments.

Our next speaker is Renee, followed by Vicky Stanitz.

Hello, let me start by saying congratulations, Mary Ibsen.

I'm very glad you won.

Um the first people that were the first proclamation you did today, the the um Cambodians, they they said a tragedy that should not be repeated is what stands out, and that's what stands out in their speeches.

It was a tragedy that should not be repeated.

It's being repeated, right?

Just as ICE is threatening anyone of color, once again.

These people are have been terrorized.

Here we go again, right?

They're not safe.

They spoke to me personally and said they don't feel safe.

The Heltap community has never had a library over 14 years.

Oh, it had a library 14 years ago.

It was named the Martin Luther King Jr.

Library.

It was very well attended.

It was turned into a foot clinic over 14 years ago.

This community deserves every amenity, just like every community.

It's a shame.

Those little boys that you gave, you know, that were in the picture for that proclamation, they don't have a library in their community.

Whatever.

Um, so but perhaps you did not hear the news today, but another January 6th insurrectionist that murdered a police officer on January 6th and was pardoned by Donald J.

Trump, just pled guilty to raping two children repeatedly.

One was under 11 years of age.

These are the ICE agents now.

How many women, children, males, and non-binary folks are being sexually abused in the horrible detention centers around the country?

I wish we could say not in my sanctuary city.

What does that mean?

Sanctuary city.

This is just within your three proclamations tonight.

Thank you.

All right, Renee, appreciate it.

Vicky Stanich, let's keep clapping to a minimum, please.

Uh Vicky Stanish, followed by Laura Lee.

Thank you.

My name is Vicky Stanich.

Um good evening, uh Mayor Ibsen and Council Tacoma City Council members.

I'm I'm speaking on behalf of Indivisible Tacoma.

Um Indivisible Tacoma is speaking to you today to remind you of one of the core principles we shared, you shared with us while you were running for election.

Mayor Ibsen.

Um we know you as a listener.

Um of the reasons you were dedicated to knocking 20,000 doors personally was to hear directly what people cared about, what their concerns were and what they hope to see happen with a new mayor and city council.

To further these important goals, we are writing to ask that the community forum not be removed from city council meetings.

You acknowledge that there was a long history of unresponsiveness to public sentiment by the Tacoma Mayor and City Council.

This impression is clearly evidenced by such projects as the LNG refinery, which went forward relentlessly, even without permits against massive public opposition, including the organization organizing of many new community groups, extensive protests, marches, and speak outs, and eventually even lawsuits, which speak not only to the breadth but depth of concern expressed by the Tacoma public.

And now we are stuck with a giant fossil fuel refiner refinery at a time when everyone recognizes that if we are to address climate change in any meaningful way, we must stop using fossil fuels like yesterday.

Serious concerns about excessive force by police, especially against people and communities of colors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome to submit the rest of your comments in writing to us as well.

Thank you.

Uh Lori Lee, followed by Design.

Um just continuing above from what she was saying.

You are not being blamed for what um has been stated.

You have even participated in resisting these terrible policies and practices.

We are simply reminding you of what you ran for, and you promised to do better by the people of Tacoma.

It is within this framework we are expressing our concern that with this long and tortured history, we understand the city council is actually considering eliminating the community forum where people can speak about issues not already on the agenda.

Proposing instead to substitute five district meetings to be held around city neighborhoods with no video capability, no hybrid options for people with mobility or transportation limitations, thus canceling 20 opportunities for the public to speak openly to their elected leaders.

In actuality, the community has made clear that they want district meetings in addition to existing community forums.

Restricting the Tacoma City Council meeting to only what is on the agenda effectively removes public concerns from the city's meeting records.

Under these circumstances, the only official reality is a reality that is created by the agenda.

That does not represent an opener process.

Restricting comments by community members at the city council, this manner does at the city council in this manner, it doesn't seem like it is coming from the mayor and city council is truly listening to responsive public concerns, which is what we thought we were helping to elect.

Just as a personal note for me, as a veteran, I serve to protect the Constitution when it's included the First Amendment rights.

Thank you, Laura Lee.

Our next speaker is Dez, followed by Tonya.

Hello.

They built it where the tide can hear it, where mountains stand witness but cannot speak.

Inside time does not pass, it waits.

Fluorescent lights hum over names turned into numbers, over stories pressed into silence.

A mother remembers her child's laugh like a prayer she cannot say out loud.

Love does not count here.

Not in policies, not in profit, not in cages.

What is a country that cages those who come to survive?

What is law without justice?

Listen, the walls hold hunger strikes.

Whispered prayers, the quiet rebellion of endurance, but with voices that break like waves against these walls again, again, again, until concrete cracks, until names are restored, until no one is caged or daring to live.

This is not detention.

This is disappearance.

This is what it looks like when dignity is denied, and still they resist.

So we must too.

Not with silence, not with comfort, but with voices that rise and refuse to fall.

Shut down the NWDC.

Thank you.

Next up we have Tanya, followed by Cole.

Should I wait for the major?

Please go up, proceed.

Without him.

He has stepped out.

Well, hello.

Supposed to be major, but the rest of your council.

My name is Tanya, and I'm here with Pierce County Immigration Alliance.

And we have returned to bring our resolution back to you today with further endorsement from organizations such as International Migrants Alliance, Tango Imigranti, and Labor Unions, including UFCW 367 and UA Do UAW 4121, among many others.

From every walk of life, stand in solidarity with the immigrant community and with our demands to fight for a truly welcoming city, not just for the rich, but for the everyday people who make this city the fantastic place that it is.

We are here to ask once again that you join us in the fight against ice terror in our streets and against the neglect and abuse that happens every day in NWDC.

You can do this by passing a resolution.

Do not continue to protect ice and this corporation that wish to profit from human suffering.

Instead and standing down proudly with your constituents and neighbors against this injustice until we get until we get ice out.

That we do not represent Tacoma.

We are Tacoma.

Look around you.

All of them.

Everyone that you guys are trying to silence.

Look around you.

Like the Cambodians that spoke before me.

Some of you all don't deserve to wear that that you got.

You should take it off.

Thank you for taking it.

Okay.

You do nothing for your constituents.

Thank you.

Uh next up we have Cole, followed by Matthew.

All right.

At least 13 people have died in ICE custody between January and March of this year, and that's just what we know of.

Um and other cities are standing up and fighting back in a number of different ways.

We'll start off with uh in Aurora, Colorado, the City Council passed resolution R226 in January, which states that it stands in solidarity with the Twin Cities and their call for ICE to leave their communities immediately, and that the Aurora City Council opposes lawlessness and overreach by ICE agents.

The City of Tacoma has refused to even say this as a statement from the dais.

The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania isn't waiting for state legislation.

They're making ICE's masking using of unmarked vehicles and badge concealment illegal.

In Baltimore, the City Council has enacted an order that their police officers document all encounters with immigration enforcement and request and document agents' credentials and request and any detained person's name and whether they're being detained on the basis of a warrant and ensure that the interaction is captured on body camera.

The same has been done in Chicago and Seattle.

The City of Tacoma has not given the same guidance to its own officers.

In Kansas City, Missouri, when a private company tried to collaborate with ICE to expand their detention capacity, their port authority voted to sever all ties, terminating their relationship and refusing to enter any negotiations with the company.

The City of Tacoma claims it was among the first to establish a ban on ICE entering government facilities in 2025, but even though it has been over a year since Revolution 41627 passed, there are no signs posted on the entrance to city owned property stating that ICE is not allowed to enter these spaces.

Something that only took other cities only five days.

Okay.

Community support for our ICE out resolution is growing.

We have Teamster members, student teachers, and other union members who are endorsing this resolution.

Teamsters, local one one seven, the same union you heard from in your regular meeting tonight, approached us just this week about endorsing our ICE out resolution, and our latest union supporters representing 17,000 local workers.

They joined the United Auto Workers LOCO 4121, which represents 6,000 academic workers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers LOCO 367, which represents over 8,000 grocery retail, food processing, cannabis, and other essential industrial and industries workers through throughout the South Sound in endorsing the ICE Out resolution.

The people of this city are showing up daily to stand up and fight back against the systemic oppression that ICE has committed in our community, regardless of their citizen status.

Whether we are holding rallies like these or hosting fundraisers for impacted families, the people are responding.

We ask you to do the same.

We don't come with malice.

We show up with love and sometimes that is showing up passionately and with conviction that ICE is not belonging in our community.

Over the summer, we have gathered senators at local places of commerce, and we have emailed and gained support from folks who are previously unaware of ICE being in their communities.

My question to the council is what are they going to do about it now?

Are they going to listen to their constituents?

We know that other cities across the United States have taken voter stances, even if those stances will be subject to challenges.

We have a robust robust immigrant community here in Tacoma, and they deserve the safety and representative efficacy of any other person who lives here.

Thank you for your comments.

Excuse me, please refrain from clapping.

Thank you.

Next up we have Caitlin, followed by Anna.

Since we have begun our campaign, it's been revealed that City of Tacoma has invested its employee retirement funds in a mutual fund that supports Geo Group.

Not only which, if you don't know, is the private company that profits from detaining immigrants in Tacoma.

Not only does this financially support the operations of Geo Group as it continues to flout local, state, and federal law, uh, but it also provides the city with a share of profits from the continuation of immigration tear.

Every one dollar of the city funding in this internment camp is too much.

Every one red cent of blood coming uh blood money coming out of this investment is a crime against the people of the city.

If the city of Tacoma wants to claim it stands against Trump, it must stop reaping dividends from his agenda.

It must divest from Geo Group immediately, even if this means taking a small step of finding a new mutual fund that has ethical guardrails.

If this fund is invested in the whores we see every day in the Northwest Detention Center invested in a company that has repeatedly been sued for abuse, forced labor and inhumane treatment.

The community shudders to think what else this fund might be supporting with its vast financial resources.

The moral path often isn't the easiest or the cheapest.

The right path is rarely the path of least resistance, but it remains the right path, and that path that only the people of Tacoma will accept.

Divestment is possible.

Divestment is one small step towards getting the Northwest Detention Center out of our community, and one this council has absolute power to direct the city manager to begin work on.

Thank you for your comments.

Next we have Lane, followed by Riley.

On Monday, Councilman Mark Conway of Baltimore, Maryland, introduced a bill that would require city retirement funds to divest from private detention companies.

We demand that our city council do the same.

No more lies, cut ICE ties.

Late last week, media announced that the private prison company GEO group and U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE signed a new contract for the Northwest Detention Center.

The Seattle Times reported that this new contract is for 1,635 new beds.

That is an expansion of the detention center.

That concentration camp down there in the port was already a non-conforming land use, a violation of Tacoma zoning code, and that was grandfathered in.

But now they are making it bigger.

That is a violation of the city zoning regulations, which say that Seaport Core manufacturing districts cannot have a detention facility.

It cannot expand to add more beds to existing facilities.

The City of Tacoma must not stand by and allow the detention center to expand.

It is a threat to our families, our neighbors, our safety here in Tacoma and elsewhere in Washington.

What is the city doing right now to def defend its zoning code?

What is the city doing right now to stop the expansion?

Regarding the re revocation of community forum time, it cannot be interpreted as anything other than the city's failure and refusal to listen to and respond to community needs.

It is a deliberate effort to silence our voices, ignore our demands, and avoid accountability.

Thank you for your comments.

Next up we have Riley, followed by Gloria.

The supposed effort to silence our voices, ignore our demands, uh it is a deliberate effort to silence our voices, ignore our demands, and avoid accountability.

The supposed reformatting of this time, which belongs to the people, is designed to dilute the collective power demonstrated in previous meetings where the community unequivocally demanded ice out of Tacoma.

This move serves only to further alienate the community from decisions that directly impact our lives.

By restricting our opportunity to speak, the city sends a clear message that public input is an inconvenience rather than a fundamental part of democracy.

Community forum time is not a privilege granted by the city, but a fundamental right that ensures transparency, accountability, and the community's participation in governance.

We call on all Tacoma residents to join us in demanding the full restoration of community forum time and remind city officials that their authority is derived from the people, and any attempt to diminish our voice will be met with unified resistance.

As we've said since January, we are open to changes to the language we've provided in our resolution, open to any tactics that the city will bring to the table, as long as action substantially answers our demands.

Our demand is a resolution condemning ice and demanding ice out.

An official statement saying the same, which the city has confirmed it can make, substantially meets that demand as far as we're concerned.

We reject the argument that the city already made this statement on January 13th.

We do not just want a condemnation of one legal observer's murder.

We demand a condemnation of ICE's business as usual.

Our demand is that the city of Tacoma commit to finding avenues to shut down the Northwest Detention Center.

Thank you for your comments.

Next we have Gloria followed by Sybil.

Our demand is that the City of Tacoma commit to finding avenues to shut down the Northwest Detention Center.

We ask that you commit to being creative, to investing more resources in the legal fights and explore every option you may have to stand against inhumane cruelty towards our neighbors.

We demand you commit to defending your zoning against ICE expansion, zoning that was touted as protection against these expanded detention operations.

And it turns out the first step may be further back than we initially thought.

We demand you divest from Geo Group.

Our demand is that the city respond to ICE subductions as the armed kidnappings they are, giving clear guidance to the police officers whose salaries we pay regarding responding to, verifying the legality of, and documenting these encounters would substantially meet that demand.

Seattle, Chicago, Baltimore, and others have either ordered or put forward such requirements, so we know it is within the city of Tacoma's power.

We see no reason that the city hasn't met the basic demands of providing a timeline by which the city's plan enumerated in resolution 41817 for ensuring that its facilities are not used for immigration activities will be released, or in confirming that it has an actual policy around preventing and punishing employee collaboration with ICE that has fangs instead of a slap on the wrist.

We see these as basic steps of good faith and well within the city's sole purview to release.

Yes, we are active, engaged, informed, and passionate members of the community, and many members of Immigration Alliance are in fact so involved in community politics that they door knocked for the members of this council.

Thank you for your comments.

Next we have Sybil, followed by Barb.

Okay, she's still here.

I'm sorry.

Oh no, we just isn't me.

It's UI.

Okay.

Just one moment.

Um I was in middle school, I was assigned a text that stayed with me.

It was about a girl who could not participate in her community, living for many months in the attic of a friend, as the government was directing agents to kidnap people of certain immutable identities to live in concentrated locations, hidden away from the public.

She made art.

She kept a journal.

She had people she loved.

Her name was Anne Frank, and she almost survived.

People just following directions swept her away to be quashed like an unwanted insect because of where her family was from.

Do you know what text I'm talking about?

Recently, I bought a bag.

This bag is hand painted by a woman who cannot leave her home for fear of being swept away by our government and hidden away.

It has a cactus on it and the phrase no pieces mis raíces.

Do you know what this phrase means?

It means don't step on my roots.

If Tacoma sees, loves and celebrates its many diverse peoples, as was said repeatedly tonight.

It won't step on the roots of its community members.

That I recognize in each of you bright minds and loving hearts who can work with us to create a safer community.

And I ask with curiosity, how does pretending this is acceptable weaken our many diverse communities?

Renee Good and Alex Pretty almost survived too.

Thank you for your comments.

Next we have Barb.

Please please reframe from clapping.

I've I've asked three times respecting.

Thank you, Council.

For our council rules, we do not allow clapping during community forum.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council and Mayor.

Barb Church from Northeast Tacoma.

In 2017, the council brought in the Center for Conflict Resolution to improve communication with the community, investing $25,000 of taxpayer money.

Was clear.

At the end.

That practice and guidance has since been forgotten.

At the very first community forum under Mayor Ibsen, the residents spoke passionately against IC.

Even when the 90-second buzzer sounded, some were allowed to finish their thoughts without being abruptly cut off.

At the close of the forum, the mayor responded with acknowledgement and concern, followed by the city manager addressing the same issues.

Isn't that what you all want?

That's what we want.

Thank you.

Thank you, Barb.

Next we have Karina Gallero, followed by Wendy.

And just wanted to say that will be really great.

Um to be like inclusive city.

I think it is I mentioned this with a lot of emphasis.

We'll be doing the city more inclusive.

And I wanted to say too, in special to Sadars, thank you for to put together all that resource for the immigrants community.

And also I would like to make mention we need other crime like notaries, bilinguals, and uh some housing and is in special for the people who are farmers, immigrant farmers, and we need a special medical attention for them.

I have a case of a lady who the Obarix was getting down for the all the force who she pulled out and she's really really bad.

And also sometimes with bank accounts when the people is getting outside for immigration immigration things, and uh family separation in the schools.

We have a lot of problems in the schools.

Um the kids are really traumatizing, and we need attention in the schools.

That is super super important.

The kids are like breaking, trying to suicide.

We have people trying to suicide inside the detention center too.

So we everybody knows of what's happening.

But thank you so much, and and thank you, Sarah, for putting that together.

Thank you very much.

Next up we have Wendy followed by Ovenio.

Oh, that was Wendy.

Yeah, oh, the other person, Karina.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh next we have Ovenio followed by Andrew Boso.

Good evening.

Uh so we want to keep eyes out of the city, period.

Because when you allow eyes into our community, they're not creating safety, they're enforcing fear, they're harassing our neighbors, they're draining public resources and contributing to the death of our people, especially those that look like me, including those that are born right here in the United States.

It's not protection, the state violence by another name.

That's the same violence that shows up in our city, treats our houseless neighbors in the way that they do.

You criminalize survival, you weaponize poverty, you install hostile architecture such as boulders, barriers, and displacement, not to solve anything, but to erase people from sight.

In this city, we have empty warehouses and unused buildings.

Then there's no excuse for that.

Open them or establish safe, designated spaces where the people can exist without being hunted from black to block.

Fuck boulders, build shelters.

This is all connected.

Accessibility, housing, transportation.

These are not separate issues.

These are the same struggle.

Dignity versus displacement.

You cannot claim to serve the people while ignoring the ADA uh compliance.

Pave the sidewalks like Matisse Hoyt fought for.

Accessibility is not charity.

It is a legal obligation and a human right.

And while we're talking about access, build parking that actually serves the people, working families, large families, disabled residents.

They cannot rely on inconsistent transit all day.

People are being forced into illegal parking situations to live their lives.

That is not a failure of the people, that is a failure of the system.

And let's speak the truth.

Public transit is not a universal solution.

We are already seeing the consist uh consequences of neglect and contamination in surrounding regions.

Tacoma is facing an even deeper crisis.

Yet still refuses to provide safe, stable alternatives for those most impacted.

And if we do not invest in our youth, we are choosing this cycle over and over.

No mentorship.

No safe spaces, just abandonment, dress for the colour.

Excuse me.

You're beyond your time.

Your time has expired.

You can just cause you don't give a shit about our opinions.

You can send your rest of your comments to us written.

Thank you.

I have the comment from Karina, so I want to read it for you.

Uh she said that you gave us resources about immigration 101 and that they appreciate that.

But now they are going to an what they call immigration 201, which is they need resources and they would like your support in getting lawyers, notaries, lawyers to say to tell people what to do, especially once they are inside the detention center.

They are signing papers that they don't know uh anything about under intimidation and duress.

They also would like notaries.

They don't know what to do with their things when they are removed and how to leave things their affairs to their families and to others.

And uh that's those are the resources that they would like uh from you.

And they said that uh they are very grateful to the person to the people who are allies, but that their word as direct affected communities is important and needs to be prioritized.

Um they also said uh we are the people who do the jobs that other people with social security numbers don't want to do, but we are not delinquents, and we deserve to be heard as well.

Thank you.

That was the comment from Karina.

Thank you very much.

Next.

Next up we have Andrew Boso.

Apologize if I mispronounce your name.

Uh no worries.

I'm here uh to conclude PCIA's statement.

Uh we come here demanding action.

And we come here with a notice.

People's movement grows by the day.

Every day of continuing ice terror, every day that this council ignores or attempts to silence its constituents instead of answering reasonable questions, is a day that pushes a new union, community organization, family, and fighter to push for stronger action.

We are a proud endorser of this year's May Day rally, which is slated to be the largest in Tacoma history.

Last year, marchers numbered over a thousand unions, working people, immigrants, community organizers, families, and students are uniting under the slogan fight free workers and migrants' rights.

We will be asking every single person there to come to the community forum on May 12th to tell you that it's time to do the same.

We will be coming to that meeting with the same demands we've posed for three months.

The same demands we posed earlier today.

We would suggest that you come to that meeting with some answers.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Next up we have uh folks online, and the first person I have before us is Dre F.

Good evening, Council.

Uh, can you hear me?

Go ahead.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

I was I I wanted to discuss.

Um I didn't know that was going to be discussed tonight was the streets initiative or um the streets initiative of being suggested.

I I'm hoping that you guys think about 60th and mason.

If I could just pause you for one second.

Um because this was on tonight's agenda.

Uh it's not a part of community forum.

However, if you wanted to talk about street safety generally, you can go ahead and do that.

Okay.

Yes, street safety in general.

It's specifically 60th in Mason.

We're having issues with this issues with flooding on streets that are not paid at all, that the city has a as a novice that are streets, but they have not been paid.

Uh people are walking up and down those streets and having issues when they're walking their dogs.

Also, the kids who are playing on the street can't ride their bikes down the street because of all the because it's not a paid area.

Um regards to vehicles going up and down the street, the sanitation workers and also the mailman have complained about the uh status of our street.

So I uh I will be supporting this initiative as 60th and Mason can be addressed on that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Dre.

Our next speaker is Tyler Daniels, followed by Estley.

Hello.

Um, when it comes to climate action, and everything the council said to support initiatives that were on the ballot earlier.

I hope that you are able to expand your consciousness and awareness and to educate yourselves if you are not aware.

If you are not from Tacoma or know the history of Tacoma with the Asarco smelter plume, we as a community have been poisoned and toxified by arsenic, heavy metal, cadmium, and other heavy metals.

The entirety of the Puget Sound, the water, the seabed, the wildlife, the soil, the trees, and our individuals that are born generationally have been toxified.

If you continue to push forward on initiatives that continue to pave the way for the past actions to be perpetuated, you are harming all of us, and you are all included in this.

I send this with love, light, and compassion and empathy.

That we are in this together.

And if we are not going to stop development and allow digging of soil to gas all of our neighbors with toxic heavy metals from underneath the ground, then we have a problem on our hands.

And we will continue to talk about this in community forums to come.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tyler.

Followed by APCC programs.

We have our next speaker lined up.

Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

Hello, my name is Amelia Escobito.

I'm representing myself.

My thoughts are my own.

Shut down the Northwest Detention Center and quit prof profiting from this disgusting polluted machine.

You do proclamations for injustice to the Cambodian peoples.

And yet allow the continued genocide and torture by having the Northwest Detention Center open.

Your inaction is an inhumane and will go down in history.

ISIS killed, raked and harassed my Chicano, Hispanic, Indigenous, Latinal and all oppressed people.

What will it take to make it stop?

How many deaths keep IC out?

How many rapes and assaults will it take for you to join us?

Last time I spoke, you stopped me, even though it is my constitutional right to speak.

You want to stop public comment again going against the Constitution.

I'm a veteran that fought for your rights and was deployed, and yet you disrespect me and the deaths of many battle buddies that I saluted as their caskets were put on a plane to be sent back to their families.

So please stop this hate that's happening in our cities.

Stand up with us.

I know you hear us.

And to my fellow veterans and to my fellow oppressed people, I hear you.

And para la gente, que necesita ayuda.

Go to Mi Central.

Go to Pierce County.

I mean, Pierce Pierce County Immigration Alliance.

Go to these organizations that can help.

Estamos contigo.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, our last speaker is APCC programs.

Hi there.

My name is Mary Chris Valdez Castro, and I work closely with immigrant and refugee communities here in Tacoma.

I'm here representing myself.

And I need to be very clear.

What is happening right now is creating a severe crisis in our community.

In recent months, I have supported directly families connected to Sudan, Venezuela, who are Vietnam, Mexico, and Lao refugees who have been deported from Tacoma.

These are individuals who built their entire lives here.

Some of them brought here as children.

And their sudden removal has left families in crisis with deep emotional and financial harm.

At the same time, the young people I work with are also living in fear with their families.

Students are telling us that ICE has tried to follow them home, that ICE has shown up to their neighborhoods and to their homes dressed as construction workers, sometimes in other ways that make them really hard to identify.

Our communities are afraid to walk home because ICE is trying to follow them to catch their parents.

They are afraid to open their door.

This is part of a broader ongoing pattern.

And right now families in our community are hiding.

They're afraid to leave their homes even to get groceries, and it's causing a second pandemic of isolation and fear.

And I strongly encourage this council to support the ISO resolutions proposed by the Pierce County Immigration Alliance.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

With that, there are no other speakers uh signed in, so we're going to close community forum.

Thank you so much for your commentary.

You're always welcome to reach out to the council in writing as well.

So with that, are there any other items of interest or final um items for the good of the order from the council?

Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn?

I move to adjourn.

Moving second, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those say nay.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.