The Tacoma City Council held a study session on August 18, 2026, to discuss several policy items including the Public Safety Sales Tax implementation, the Tacoma Public Safety Partnership, a policy proposal for improving local hire and apprenticeship outcomes, a sponsorship request for Nourish Pierce County, and a city flag competition. No formal votes were taken; these items are expected to return for action at future meetings.
Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the city council study session of August 18th, 2026. Clerk, please call the roll. Deputy Mayor Bushnell. President. Councilmember Diaz. Councilmember Heinz. Councilmember Palmer. Councilmember Rumba, absent. Councilmember Sidalgay? Councilmember Scott. Absent Councilmember Walker. Absent Mayor Ibsen. Here. Our first agenda item is an update on the public safety sales tax. I'd like to call on City Manager Kim to get begin the discussion. And we also have Chief Jackson, Chief Stallings, and Director Asparza. Mayor Ipson, thank you very much. Deputy Mayor, members of council staff is here today to provide an update in regards to the public safety sales tax. We discussed in earnest last fall, as well as in January when the council took councilmatic action to pass this sales tax that we would come to you in the summer to discuss what we're doing, what we're proposing, and have start the discussions, Mayor. So we'll start with the first slide here. And as the slide comes up here, just for background, Mayor, Deputy Mayor Council. It's coming up. Gotcha. I'll just I'll ad hoc to speak to this. For background for the public who's listening today. The public safety sales tax was authorized under RCW 82.14.345 State House Bill 2020. This permits cities and counties to enact a 0.01% sales tax increase for the purposes of criminal justice purposes. And as defined, it's quite uh broad in terms of what the dollars the sales tax to be paid for. Um some examples here domestic violence services and programs, public defense staffing, diversion programs, re-entry work for inmates, uh, local government programs that reasonably contribute to reducing the number of people interacting with the criminal justice system, uh, community placement for juvenile offenders, community outreach and assistance programs, alternative response programs, and other mental health crisis response. So it's quite broad in terms of what the purpose is for public safety at the end of the day, how how to actually uh impact and also potentially get more officers. There was a stated purpose to this, which I'll speak to when it comes to the grants uh portion of uh the authorizing uh legislation. Um benefits for Tacoma the passage through councilmatic action in January. The tax became effective for us on April 1st. Um it is projected to generate about 16 million dollars on a biannual basis, so about $8 million per year. This uh also supports um Tacoma's eligibility for state grants enshrined within um House Bill 2015. It is a specific grant portion for $100 million to hire and retain police officers and staff. Um so that is the background. Um April to now, we've collected about 1.3 million dollars uh year to date. Um we're generating about $600,000 worth of sales tax at this point, and we anticipate ending with some fund balance in this uh in this actual revenue source that is not yet been appropriated by council. And just for background, uh mayor, deputy mayor, council, um this is very much like many other um revenue options for the city. We'd like to collect the proceeds and have it as a uh smoothing action, have those funds available for us to actually have the actual receipts. So it's not something that we're recommending today that we would expend those dollars or obligate those dollars through a budget amendment or at this time. We'd like to see what we collect as we move forward. The discussions today as far as the proposals are for uh this next biennium. So with that, I am advancing the slide here. Let's try one more time. Thanks, Anna. Okay, perfect. Before we go to the actual proposals, I just want to briefly just discuss um just over the summer.