Tacoma City Council Study Session: Community Survey, Staffing, and Park Grants – June 30, 2026
Tacoma City Council Study Session: Community Survey, Staffing, and Park Grants – June 30, 2026
The Tacoma City Council met on June 30, 2026, for a study session covering the 2026 Community Survey, council staffing models, sponsorship requests, and letters of support for park grants. The meeting began at an unspecified time and included roll call with all members present. The session concluded with an executive session for potential litigation.
2026 Community Survey
- Ted Richardson (Strategic Initiatives Coordinator) and Derek Harvey (ETC Institute) presented results from the statistically significant survey of 902 Tacoma residents (margin of error ±3.26%, 95% confidence level). The survey was administered in April 2026 via mail, phone, and online in the top seven languages.
- Key findings: 74% of residents aged 18–34 were satisfied with library services; 65.3% of District 4 residents identified condition of major streets as a top infrastructure concern; overall, condition of major streets was the top infrastructure concern across all five districts. Since 2024, satisfaction increased in most areas, with notable improvements in feelings of safety (10–15 point increases), police services (e.g., patrol up 8 points), and civic participation (20-point increase in belief that participation has an impact). Top community priorities included homelessness (67%), housing affordability (56%), public safety (43%), and trash/graffiti cleanup (43%). Fire and EMS services received the highest ratings (83% satisfied).
- Councilmember Rumba noted a contrast between the survey showing improved safety perceptions and a news report claiming Tacoma had the highest crime rate in the state. Councilmember Sidalga questioned the representativeness of the sample, particularly the high rates of civic participation (e.g., 20% reported attending city council meetings). Councilmember Palmer requested demographic comparisons and trust trend data. Councilmember Hines asked for statistical significance of benchmarks against national averages; Derek Harvey clarified that differences beyond the margin of error (3.26%) are significant, citing fire/EMS and library services as areas where Tacoma outperformed the national average by 15–20 points.
Council Staffing Discussion
- Ben Thurgood presented a historical overview of council staffing, noting current resources: one policy analyst for the mayor, two policy analysts shared among eight council members (4:1 ratio), and limited constituent relations support (1:9 ratio). Eight areas of need were identified through interviews: policy analysis/legislative drafting, collective coordination, constituent response, scheduling/administrative support, communications, committee/board/commission support, meeting preparation, and external duties.
- Three concepts were presented for policy analyst support: (1) increasing the ratio to 2:1; (1B) adding policy analysts with enhanced communications/duties; (2) aligning analysts by subject matter expertise for standing committees. Two management structure concepts were also discussed: continuing under the city manager or creating a chief of staff directly reporting to the council.
- Councilmember Diaz expressed concern about costs and potential strain on city departments. Councilmember Walker supported concept 1B and volunteered to lead further discussions. Councilmember Hines favored a central staff model with specialization and noted the need for scalability. Councilmember Rumba worried about oversight and employee development if staff did not report through the city manager. Deputy Mayor Bushnell preferred city manager oversight for clarity and accountability.
- No final decision was made. Councilmember Walker will coordinate with the mayor and colleagues to refine a proposal for the 2027–2028 budget cycle. Estimated annual costs ranged from $115,000–$190,000 per FTE depending on role. A proposal must be submitted by mid-July to be included in the city manager’s proposed budget.
Council Consideration Request: Saber Fest PNW Sponsorship
- Councilmember Diaz presented a request for $16,000 from council contingency funds to support the third annual Saber Fest PNW on Sunday, July 19, 2026 (noon–5 pm) in Hilltop, organized by Chef Lydia and community nonprofit Me Central. The free, family-friendly event celebrates BIPOC chefs, food vendors, artists, and performers. Funds will cover vendor scholarships, cooking classes, entertainment, marketing, staging, security, and street closures.
- Councilmembers expressed strong support. The request will be formally considered at the July 17 council meeting. Councilmember Palmer suggested inviting vendors to the Economic Development Committee for future learning.
Letters of Support for Park Grants
- Deputy Mayor Bushnell introduced a letter of support for the Wapato Park playground improvement project (District 5), which would replace aging equipment and expand the play area. Councilmember Hines presented a letter for the Titlow Park North Hidden Beach Bridge project, replacing a 1939 pedestrian/vehicular bridge to improve access. Councilmember Scott presented a letter for Peck Community Sports Park field lighting, installing energy-efficient LEDs for year-round use.
- All three letters are addressed to the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) for different grant programs. Councilmembers unanimously supported walking the letters onto the agenda to be sent together.
Other Items
- A citizens initiative measure (2026-01, "Homes for All") was noted for information only.
- City Manager’s weekly report included a proclamation declaring June 30, 2026, as honorary pet mayor Sambuka and Deputy Mayor Kai Day.
- The council received updates from the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) annual conference in Spokane, which several members attended. Councilmember Hines highlighted shared challenges across the state; Councilmember Sidalga noted that Tacoma will host the 2027 AWC conference.
- The meeting moved into an executive session for potential litigation (motion passed); no further action was taken, and the session adjourned afterward.
Meeting Transcript
I'd like to call to order the city council study session of June 30th, 2026. Clerk, please call the roll. Deputy Mayor Bushnell. Present. Councilmember Diaz. Here. Councilmember Heinz. Councilmember Palmer. Councilmember Rumba? Here. Councilmember Sidalga? Here. Councilmember Scott? Here. Councilmember Walker. Here. Mayor Ibsen? Here. Our first agenda item is the 2026 Community Survey. I'd like to call on Strategic Initiatives Coordinator from our Center for Strategic Priorities, Ted Richardson, to begin the presentation. Thank you, Mayor, and good afternoon. My name is Ted Richardson, and I'm joined today by Derek Harvey with the ETC Institute. And we're here today to present the results of the 2026 Community Survey. The community survey is a statistically significant representative sample of Tacoma residents that is administered by an objective third-party consultant, ETC Institute. The data generated allows us to answer the question, who cares about what? Or really how satisfied are different demographic groups of residents with different city services. This is the one tool the city has to gauge residents' feelings using quantitative data to assess how the city is doing over time. For example, with this data, I can say that in 2026, 74% of our residents ages 18 to 34 are either satisfied or very satisfied with the overall quality of the library services provided in Tacoma. Or again, using this data in 2026, I can say that 65.3% of District 4 residents selected conditions of major streets as one of their top infrastructure concerns. And in fact, using this data, I can say that conditions of major streets was the top infrastructure concern across all five council districts. I use these as examples going into our presentation because while we will be presenting a lot of data, we won't be able to go into detail for all of the data in all of the reports generated. So council, while we'll give an overview of the questions we asked in the survey, I want you to also come away knowing the questions that you can ask of the data, like the two examples I just gave. Next slide, please. Thank you. So here's the agenda that we'll present today. First, I'll give a quick overview of what the community survey is, and then I'll go into the reports that we produced using the data because there are quite a few. And then I'll hand it over to Derek, our consultant, and he'll go over the methodology that we use to gather the data, and then he'll go over the results of the survey. And you can see there are a few different types. First, the perceptions that Tacoma residents have of living in Tacoma, then the services and uh provided by the city and the infrastructure of Tacoma, public safety, neighborhood issues, and funding priorities that residents have for the city, community participation and city communication, and finally summarizing the results. Next slide, please. So starting on the left hand side of this slide, the community survey is an objective and random sample of Tacoma residents. Derek will go over this more on the methodology slide, but what this means at a high level is that if we were to repeat this survey, we would have the similar results, and that these results did not happen by random chance. On the second bullet, the three main types of questions are uh resident satisfaction levels of city services, the perception levels of Tacoma, or living of life in Tacoma rather, and residents' priorities for how the city spends its money. The survey is conducted every two years, so the last one was done in 2024, 2022, and then going back. Moving to the right side of this slide, we hired ETC Institute to conduct this survey. It's the same firm that we used in 2024. Moving down to the second bullet, the questions were mostly the same as two years ago, which were mostly the same as two years prior, and that's to maintain consistency so that we can track trends over time. Some of the questions do get tweaked, or we might add questions or remove questions. If we do do that, it's always in partnership with the departments that that question most aligns with. And this survey was conducted in April of this year.
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