OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Tacoma City Council Study Session - January 14, 2025

City Council Study SessionTuesday, January 14, 2025
BodyTacoma, Washington
SessionCity Council Study Session
DateTuesday, January 14, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record

STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

Transcript — Verbatim
0:03

I'd like to call to order the city council study session of January 14th, 2025.

0:08

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

0:09

Councilmember Bushnell, absent.

0:11

Deputy Mayor Daniels.

0:13

Here.

0:14

Councilmember Diaz?

0:15

Here.

0:16

Councilmember Heinz.

0:17

Here.

0:17

Councilmember Rumba?

0:19

Here.

0:19

Councilmember Sidalgay?

0:20

Here.

0:21

Councilmember Scott?

0:22

Here.

0:23

Councilmember Walker?

0:24

Here.

0:25

Mayor Woodards?

0:26

Here.

0:27

Mayor and Council, your materials were sent at 1101.

0:30

All right, before we get started today, I want to apologize for starting late for those of you who were waiting for our meeting to start today and to all of our directors who are in the audience.

0:41

I don't like to start meetings late, but today we are fortunate enough to have students from SOTA, SAMI, and IDEA here.

0:50

And so we had an opportunity to have some dialogue with them.

0:54

And hopefully, I don't know where how the cameras are situated, but at some point the cameras will shine on the students and everybody can see the amazing young people that we have with us today.

1:15

We are very fortunate today.

1:19

Now the camera's on you guys, so you guys can all wave your family.

1:22

We'll see you at home.

1:24

But really exciting to be talking to a group of young people who are really concerned about their city and not just the future of their city, but the city that they are in today.

1:48

And so it was worth running a little bit late to be able to engage with them more.

1:52

And let me say to all of you, it was really an honor to have you here.

1:55

This is your city hall.

1:57

This is not a place that's only left to certain people.

2:01

So even when you're not in class, if you ever want to drop by but don't skip class on a Tuesday at noon, you're welcome to come by to account to our study session.

2:10

Or we meet almost every Tuesday at five o'clock with our regular meetings.

2:16

So you are welcome to stop by any time to say hello and to learn more about the city, but we're just grateful that you're here today.

2:23

So with that, we're gonna hop into our agenda for today.

2:26

And our first agenda item is a city council budget reduction and revenue strategy, and this is going to be around context setting.

2:33

And I'm gonna call on City Manager Polly to begin the presentation.

2:36

City Manager.

2:37

Thank you, Mayor.

2:38

Mayor and uh in council.

2:40

Today is a continuation of the roadmap that we've built for you, which the goal of which is to get to the additional 4.7 million dollars of reductions necessary to program the balanced budget that the council adopted back in December.

2:55

And we do have we do have three discrete agenda items on your agenda, but really it's going to be a little bit of a blending of the three of them now since we've um already gone over each of those sections.

3:07

So first let me take a minute and orient you to the materials that you have in front of you today.

3:12

Um today you should have a handout of draft criteria and parameters.

3:17

We're gonna walk through that in a minute.

3:19

That is the document that we talked spent some time talking about on Friday, and today what I'm gonna share with you is the changes that we made based on your input to those documents.

3:29

Um and then you also have new materials under your programs and services tab of your green binders.

3:38

And if you didn't get those today, please let us know and we'll make sure you have the updated materials.

3:44

Likewise, we're gonna walk through and talk to you about how those materials have changed based on the input and our interactions in our in the last sections.

3:52

And last but not least, I have um both Katie Johnston from the neighborhood and community services department and Adam Cook from Tacoma Venue and Events with me today, because our goal for today is actually to um walk through a couple of reduction proposals using the criteria that the council developed and discussed last week to make certain that those are working for you as we move forward to the presentation of the full reduction package, which we anticipate will um uh take place in your special community of the whole meeting, which is a week from this Friday.

4:28

All right, so backing up for a minute to the criteria and proposal uh sheet in front of you.

4:35

Last week, as you might recall, we walked through this document that started with a staff proposal of potential criteria and parameters for council to use for consideration as they evaluate reduction proposals.

4:49

We got some good feedback from council, and I'll just spend a minute today showing you where that now is in the new list.

5:00

So under the area criteria, standard for prioritizing and service impacts.

5:03

Under the second bullet, what is happening to demand for the program?

5:08

The sub-bullet now includes whether for us to indicate to you in our proposals whether the demand is increasing, decreasing, or level.

5:17

So that is the addition there.

5:18

Under the next bullet, where we're asking the question of ourselves and of the proposals, has the program or service achieved its intended or identified outcome?

5:30

We're just also rephrasing that for you if it's helpful to say, does it meet the need?

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Budget Equity Analysis█████████████████████████████████████████████53%
Homelessness██████████12%
Public Comment█████████11%
Procedural██████7%
Youth Programs██████7%
Public Works███4%
Mental Health Awareness███3%
Arts And Culture1%
Public Engagement1%
Summary of Proceedings

Tacoma City Council Study Session - January 14, 2025

The City Council held a study session on January 14, 2025, starting at 12:00 PM, to discuss budget reduction and revenue strategies, review draft evaluation criteria, and consider a sponsorship request. The meeting also included a public interruption and scheduling announcements.

Consent Calendar

  • No consent calendar items were presented.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • During the budget discussion, an audience member interrupted to express concerns that fireworks are not a priority given homelessness and hunger. The mayor directed the individual to speak with staff and return for the evening public comment period at 5:00 PM.

Discussion Items

  • Budget Reduction and Revenue Strategy (Items 1-3): City Manager Elizabeth Pauli presented revised criteria for evaluating reduction proposals, including questions about demand trends, outcomes, mandates, alternative funding adequacy, and service efficiency. New data tables were introduced: a green table showing full department funding and general fund support, a blue table with program-level expenses, a table for general fund transfers to other funds, and a gray table for non-departmental expenses. Council members asked about the likelihood of alternative funding success, sustainability of funding sources, and the need for criteria on secondary savings (e.g., reduced overtime). Two example reduction proposals were walked through:
    • Fireworks Display: Withdrawal of $182,000 general fund support for the Fourth of July fireworks (part of $255,403 in special events). In-kind services from police, fire, etc. total $200,000 annually. The event draws 40,000+ attendees. Alternatives include transferring to the event producer or seeking sponsorships, but demand is level and the service is not mandated.
    • Mental Health/Substance Use Fund: Reduce the general fund transfer by $1.767 million (from $3.1 million) by shifting $767,000 in complementary sheltering services and $1 million in housing services to alternative opioid funding. These services support homelessness and health priorities, demand is increasing, but the alternative funding is projected to last 10 years. Council discussed whether special revenue funds should be self-sustaining.
  • Golden Gloves Sponsorship (Item 4): Councilmember Heinz proposed a $10,000 sponsorship for the 76th annual Golden Gloves boxing tournament (January 25, 2025, at University of Puget Sound Field House). He highlighted the program's positive impact on at-risk youth, reduction of participation barriers, and economic benefits to local businesses. The item was co-sponsored by Deputy Mayor Daniels, Councilmember Scott, and the Mayor. No vote was taken; it is expected to be considered at a future meeting.
  • Scheduling Announcement: The January 17 Committee of the Whole meeting was canceled. The next special meeting will be Friday, January 24, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, in a hybrid format.

Key Outcomes

  • The city manager will prepare a full reduction package (approximately $5 million in reductions/revenue) using refined criteria, to be presented at the January 24 special committee of the whole.
  • The council provided feedback to incorporate in the criteria, including consideration of likelihood of alternative funding success, sustainability, and secondary savings.
  • The Golden Gloves sponsorship request will be placed on a future agenda for decision.
  • The council will hold no meeting on January 17; the next study session is January 24.

Meeting Transcript

I'd like to call to order the city council study session of January 14th, 2025. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Bushnell, absent. Deputy Mayor Daniels. Here. Councilmember Diaz? Here. Councilmember Heinz. Here. Councilmember Rumba? Here. Councilmember Sidalgay? Here. Councilmember Scott? Here. Councilmember Walker? Here. Mayor Woodards? Here. Mayor and Council, your materials were sent at 1101. All right, before we get started today, I want to apologize for starting late for those of you who were waiting for our meeting to start today and to all of our directors who are in the audience. I don't like to start meetings late, but today we are fortunate enough to have students from SOTA, SAMI, and IDEA here. And so we had an opportunity to have some dialogue with them. And hopefully, I don't know where how the cameras are situated, but at some point the cameras will shine on the students and everybody can see the amazing young people that we have with us today. We are very fortunate today. Now the camera's on you guys, so you guys can all wave your family. We'll see you at home. But really exciting to be talking to a group of young people who are really concerned about their city and not just the future of their city, but the city that they are in today. And so it was worth running a little bit late to be able to engage with them more. And let me say to all of you, it was really an honor to have you here. This is your city hall. This is not a place that's only left to certain people. So even when you're not in class, if you ever want to drop by but don't skip class on a Tuesday at noon, you're welcome to come by to account to our study session. Or we meet almost every Tuesday at five o'clock with our regular meetings. So you are welcome to stop by any time to say hello and to learn more about the city, but we're just grateful that you're here today. So with that, we're gonna hop into our agenda for today. And our first agenda item is a city council budget reduction and revenue strategy, and this is going to be around context setting. And I'm gonna call on City Manager Polly to begin the presentation. City Manager. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor and uh in council. Today is a continuation of the roadmap that we've built for you, which the goal of which is to get to the additional 4.7 million dollars of reductions necessary to program the balanced budget that the council adopted back in December. And we do have we do have three discrete agenda items on your agenda, but really it's going to be a little bit of a blending of the three of them now since we've um already gone over each of those sections. So first let me take a minute and orient you to the materials that you have in front of you today. Um today you should have a handout of draft criteria and parameters. We're gonna walk through that in a minute. That is the document that we talked spent some time talking about on Friday, and today what I'm gonna share with you is the changes that we made based on your input to those documents. Um and then you also have new materials under your programs and services tab of your green binders. And if you didn't get those today, please let us know and we'll make sure you have the updated materials. Likewise, we're gonna walk through and talk to you about how those materials have changed based on the input and our interactions in our in the last sections.

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