Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Hey. You're Good

morning. I'd to call the order of economic development committee of 05/12/2026. Quickly, please hold.

Vice Chair Bushnell? Present. Councilmember Palmer? Here. Councilmember Scott? Here. Chair Diaz, absent.

Alright. Next up will be on a public comment. Has there been anybody who signed up in person or online? If you're online, please raise your hand in the Zoom window. You'll have three minutes

to speak. K. We've got one. Oh, wait.

Did you want to speak? Please raise your hand. I saw one go up and then disappear. I didn't quite catch who that was.

Nathaniel. Give

it once. Give it twice. Alright. Not seeing anything. We're gonna go ahead and close public comment and move on to our first agenda item. We can come back later as well, but vice chair excuse me.

The chair might be back right in, so I'll let her know.

We have our first briefing. I'm just Canadian economic development quarterly update. I'm calling Debbie Binger, interim director of CED.

Thank you, chair vice chair council members. I'm going to There

we go.

So this presentation is it was intended to kind of show since last year, we spent all year going through the strategic plan with this committee, and then it was adopted, kind of show that we have put that into action, and we're moving forward. So this is kind of it's not kind of it is an update on things we've been working on for the first quarter. I met with Cherry yesterday, and I'm not sure we'll actually do these quarterly because as you'll see, a lot of the projects we work on are longer term, so it might become more of an annual update. But I'm happy to share all the wonderful things that department is doing currently. And, of course, I have all the people who actually are doing all the work in the room so they can answer questions that I can't answer.

So overall, our department objectives, we have four objectives, housing and real estate development, job creation and economy, place making, cultural vitality, and arts, and community engagement and partnerships. So we just put up this picture because it really shows how we work together as an apartment. So this photo is from a performer that was dancing at the Lincoln Business District Association's New Year Festival this year. So that festival is partially funded by Arts Culture Vitality Division activating the streetscape with the signature place dividing event. It also obviously represents it's organized by the Lincoln Business District Association, which is supported through Carol and her division in the business services and workforce partnerships.

In the background of the picture, you can see the Patsy Stur Place, which was made possible because of the investment of our housing division. And across the street, you can't really see, but there's another building that has been torn down is going to be replaced by a multifamily project, twelve years of market rate project that has to do with our economic. So it's just kind of a good thing of how we all work together. Sorry. Oh, there we go.

Oh, woah. Sorry. So the next slides are for arts and culture vitality. So kind of this quarter, the action plan, what we set out to do, one thing they're working on is refreshing the division strategic plan, which you're gonna hear about right after I'm done talking. They launched the 2627 Tacoma Creates application process, and that's one of the major funding streams that supports the nonprofit arts, culture, and heritage.

They release them in the first quarter of every year. They've been collaborating closely with a task serve a task force at economic sorry, at environmental services to develop their public art plan and continuing their commitment to integrating arts into civil infrastructure and building a stronger accountability and transparency for the public art program. And and they've also just have started exploring a new artist in residence pilot program with Tacoma Public Library to test out the idea of using city owned spaces as affordable artist studios. So the next slide kind of shows what they have done more. So they received 81 applications for the Tacoma Creates funding that went out in the first quarter.

And one of the things that's really important to know is that, I think, is that almost all of those applications get funded. Maybe not at the level they asked, but so they go through a process. So those are eligible applications. I'm sure they received more than 81. Some of them were just kind of, you know, sent it out.

But of the 81 received, almost all of them received some funding, which is really exciting, and this is an example of how they provide access to community and stability for the natural sector where it's hard to get other financing. They also, like we were saying, are working hard with environmental services, and two really neat projects they're working on. One is a Hilltop Artists recycled glass project, and that project also is was a overlap with Carol's division and business services who brought up the idea of using well, we'll do a little deeper dive in that, but using the recycled glass from our utility to make to to for the Hilltop artists to use that glass. There's there's another slide because we're using that as an example. So and the other is the 40th Street Garden, and that is an example of it's just the partnership.

So there's a garden at 40th Street, and in their plan, in the Tacoma Mall sub area art plan, they called out that garden as one of the few open spaces, and so they're doing an art institution there. And then, again, they in support of the twentieth fifth anniversary of Tacoma Artists Month, they have are doing this artist in residence partnership at the Tacoma Public Library. I think the next one talks about yeah. So this this is a really neat story that so it's a partnership between Hilltop Artists and Environmental Services. And the interesting thing, even from the economic serve development services side, we've had people come to us and say, hey.

Can we one company wanted to turn recycled glass into concrete. And so we've been talking about these things, and nothing had really taken legs to solve this project. And so it's a pilot to repurpose the post consumer glass for use by the educational programs and creative entrepreneurs. So it emerged from an opportunity identified by the business services workforce partnerships division, and they were able to identify arts and culture vitality funding source through the 1% for arts that environmental services pays into to create this project. So the research and development will be supported by that funding stream, and they will test whether, you know, this idea can work.

And one of the things that will come out of it is public engagement and also producing artworks for the cities and municipal art collection. Because when the 1% art, we need to get something physical, whether it's the you know, when we do, like, the concrete sands and that's a physical thing or actually an art piece. So the long term goal is to provide a local reuse pathway for this post consumer glass collected from home area businesses and households and divert the glass to another use. It also overlaps really well with our green economy and the circular economy, and it's you know, if someone can if we can use that locally and actually turn it into something else, that totally, completes the circle. And as you know, we recently started recycling glass, but for a while, we didn't have anyone to to do with the glass.

And so it's a really good solution. And then they also said that while it's home public school students, it's not exactly a formal workforce development pipeline, but public school students are going to Hilltop Artists will gain exposure to the work of environmental services. So it kind of hits all the all the marks. Moving on to the business services and workforce partnerships. So their, you know, their main goals as far were to engage with businesses in a different way than they had before.

So they started initiating the business outreach in commercial corridors throughout Tacoma and not just focusing on the business districts as you've heard this kind of transition that we're trying to do. We're not just focusing on the business districts. They engaged in a different way than before by operationalizing the cross functional team of city service managers and individuals in Carol's best team. I love the acronym. It's all the best work we're doing.

And this is to problem solve business climate issues and formulate solutions in a quick thirty, sixty, ninety day possible. So our piloting of fiscal and administrative capacity building contract with the neighborhood together, which is a local five zero one c three and refocusing the staff. By doing that, they can refocus staff time with the direct business service and also continuing the program partnership to support the business districts. So they're contracting with 20 neighborhoods together to do some of that task building with the business districts and then alleviate, you know, giving staff time to actually do up and be working in the in the business with the businesses. They also do sub workshops for the community.

They just did a revolving loan fund one zero one. They also did an AI for small business workshops and how to do business with the city so that local contractors could figure out how to contract in the city. They did an OMWBE certification, bonding basic, business taxes, access to capital. So they're really busy doing these workshops, which hopefully you've seen out on the city social media trying to get better people. And then investing in training that supports their jobs framework through the programs of the workforce partnership, like the TTEC and the Brownfields program.

And then also, as we were just talking about a minute ago, putting on the or and working with Good City Connect, which event which is happening today, which is the South Sound's premier, like, local government contracting forum. So kind of getting down to the metrics level, this division did 97 business visits in six different corridors and four that were visited for the very first time. They had 13 business district association engagements, including Hosmer, which is actually not technically a business district, but they've really been engaging out there for a couple years now. A 128 businesses were served through test, through the technical assistance workshops, $49,000 in stipends for jobs two five three with 99 students participating in that, and 45 participants completed the green job training and set 27 job placements, which by any by any standards would be great right now in the job in the job environment that we have. 10 regional partnership and advisory group engagements, and, also, they are working on this piloted changes to the refresh neighborhood business district program.

And this is kind of a story about this is one of the work that they've really been doing to get the NWBE and SBEs certified businesses. So this is a company called TST Traffic Control, and they're really a business success story. They've been working with them for a while. So they are a certified MWBE and SBE firm, black female owned company that has steadily grown through city contracting opportunities. Today, the city has paid more than $1,200,000 to TNT Traffic Control, and they've now secured a citywide contract to provide flying service throughout 2027.

And and I think this also just is an example of how these workshops that the city that CED is doing is really kind of being effective in bringing in the businesses that we're looking to grow and haven't been reached in the past. For economic development services, this is this division works on driving investment, business retention, and housing opportunities. So we've been engaging and following up with key businesses to coordinate, consult, and provide resources for retention or expansion, leveraging the multifamily property tax exemption program to grow available housing and promote affordability, and advocate for community and retail oriented approach to plan to home a light rail extension. And this is one of the examples of a very long term project. Right?

But it takes a lot of time now on the planning and to really make sure that Southern Transit and all the partners are thinking about the community and not just their their rail station. Of the metrics for this division, business retention visits, visits with 18 companies, and these are five of them were advanced manufacturing companies located in the port. Two were maritime companies. Others were retail businesses and developers. And we've had five MFTP projects approved by council, and one of the kind of important parts to see here is that they are all over the city, and the new u r three zoning is being used a lot for MFTP now.

We've had two already come through this year already, but we have several more who are in the application process. And then working on projects actively right now to grow the living wage job base and investment. We had four projects closed, meaning they came to fruition, of projects we worked on for a total of $7,800,000 in investment and 70 new jobs. We're working on nine business retention projects, so projects that are or or also coming here. So if that's $800,000,000 of potential investment with 925 jobs, and then four retention projects.

So those are companies that we talked to who were thinking that they need to expand. They might need to relocate and try to keep them in the city of Tacoma, and that's investment of $5,000,000 to 75 jobs. And then we're still working on other real estate develop redevelopment projects, which when actualized, we lose $400 investment. And this is a slide that shows kind of how we work with the real estate redevelopment. So this is Lincoln Hardware Building. Probably not. It's it became vacant because as, you know, Carol's working on that whole, like, what do you call it? Passing on businesses to others. So they had a family owned business. They've been there for how many years?

Like, seventy years, I think, two or three generations. And when they retired, they had no one who wanted to take that business over even though it was a really beloved business in the area. So that business has been that building has been vacant. We worked with several different projects that none of them came to fruition. But recently, we had a person come in who owns who is partnered in several mobile businesses here in downtown and was interested in expanding to another area.

So we sent her a list of potential businesses and or properties, and this was one of them. She has since purchased this building and now is working with Dheerajha in Carol's group to get a loan for TIs. And so it's really exciting to see her not only expand and invest in different areas of Tacoma, but to see this building come back to activation. And then, also, we wanna highlight this because this is a it shows the rapid mural that we had put on this building through Spaceworks and our arts group because this building had become just completely graffiti. And we called the owners, and they would you know, they'd go out and do the graffiti, but then we said, hey.

Let's do a mural, which as people know, then kind of mitigates the graffiti. And so this is an example of how that was as well. And then housing division. So housing division worked on this quarter. They are integral to expanding that housing affordability and pathways to homeownership, and this was accomplished in three ways this quarter, developing the city annual affordable housing compliance plan, updating the city single family rehabilitation program manual, and releasing the 2026 note note notice of funding availability for affordable housing.

You're also hearing. And this just shows that they did everything they they set out to accomplish. They did them all. And then our last division is our administrative division, and I really wanted to include this because they provide full department support. And without their glue, we we wouldn't be sticking together.

So they do they completed a continuous improvement process for administrative process efficiency, which had four recommendations, which we're in the process now of of trying to implement potentially. They helped us with 46 Ariba contracts just in quarter one, and those are very labor intensive. If if you know about Ariba, it takes a long time to get a contract through, and that's a value of $3,500,000. They also help with all the student payments. We talked about the jobs due back 05/03 and how we paid those students, but that money has to get to them somehow.

And so they helped with that, or they they did that. And then they also manage this. Christy will be taking over the management of this schedule. And then they also provide support in much areas, but one of the areas is the multi family property tax exemptions and other areas. So with that, I will take a few questions.

Well, just turn right to get folks have questions in a moment. I do. Great. Thank you for making some. Thanks for the presentation. Maybe quarterly is not, like, too maybe that's too much, but I feel like yearly might be too I'm looking towards too little. So maybe it's a happy in between there. Yeah. There's seems like there's a lot of things happening, right, in the department. We'll just keep abreast of that.

Can you I guess this is Carol. But can you tell me a little bit more about Tacoma Neighborhoods Together What that is? Yeah. Okay. So I'm Carol Wolf, manager of business services and workforce development workforce partnerships division.

So Tacoma Neighborhoods Together was actually formed by our division back in, I think, 2001 with the Cross District Association, which is the peer group for all of the new business associations that recognize the city. The city actually recognizes the Cross District and forms it, and the city actually recognizes the business associations that represent various districts. The TNT was formed in about 2001, and it was meant to be a five zero one c three life fund developer for the Cross District because we knew that the city could not fund the associations for everything in the city. And they were volunteers, and so they're volunteer business owners. It was successful in, like, the first five or six years, and then it just volunteer let it kind of petered out a bit.

So we reignited it about four or five years ago when somebody from Procter came across it, and they wanted to put flower baskets. And they said, how do we get flower baskets? Like, well, you guys already have the team. She could help you raise money and actually do projects in the. So they started to revive, and they've been building.

And then over time, we have found that all of our business associations have challenges to staying compliant with public contracting because of what's required. We found that there in the refresh that their participation rates, a lot of that was a lot of reason why people weren't participating in succession planning like they were pointing to pay for business and some. So we started to say, well, could the TNT go back to its original purpose as a fiscal sponsor, so to speak, for these associations? Do that, but at the same time, build out because its mission is to do reliever revitalization through place making and nonprofit groups, community based groups. So could we build out so it could be that capacity building that's enough for you to be able to steward public funds and a little bit of project management?

So a lot of our associations do special events or something of that nature, some small project, and it's really hard when it's volunteer led and publicly funded or funded by someone who wants a tax receipt from. So the TNT is being piloted to start to go, can we do that? And right now in 2526, it's only helpful for us to do this without a compliance. But in 2728, can we continue to build our reliance on them and reduce our reliance on entities to do that contract for private inspection. So we can do the Debbie's point or direct assistance.

So that's the TMG. They've always been apart since the early two thousands. We have some background materials that I can share with you. It's just they're we're reinvigorating them at the same time. We're refreshing business district program because that partnership seems to be the missing link for us. Okay. Yeah. I'm super interested in learning more. Just fun. So, yeah, like you mentioned, I know we're refreshing the the business districts.

And so I'm curious how because those aren't very active. And in a lot of areas of the city, there there are. Then how do you bring inactive people together to do something even bigger? Can I be so part of goal with that is so some of the things we've already identified is going to a quarterly just like your meeting schedule? Going to a quarterly meeting schedule instead of requiring people to go to something monthly that didn't have any value.

And because we're going quarterly for the cross district association or burden slider, and then we program those meetings similar to, like, your meetings where you have topics that are of interest to all of them. So now we're talking about maybe treating. Maybe we're talking about park. Maybe we're talking about public safety or special events. But there's only, like, four quarterly topics a year that are based on that. And then they have access council members, the liaison, executive liaison, which is environmental services, I guess. They have the police. They have said staff, councilmember Diaz, you know, getting into that. So they're actually there with people who are decision makers to talk about that issue at that level. So that adds value to them.

I mean, and then the TNT and the city take care of all that administrative stuff that really leaves the burden on them. So we hope it'll increase participation because it has more value to them based on what they need at work. So, yeah, I just Makes sense. It makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I just love That's what we're trying to go. Yeah. Think so. Just love to see what what the meetings are up to. Yeah. You know? Get an understanding because that's kind of my my jam. I I like to I like it when neighborhoods feel empowered to take care of themselves because it just makes sense to use them as a resource. The green jobs training, what is that?

So for the green jobs training, so within our division, we do workforce partnerships as well. So we have had a grant for that. This is our ninth cycle. It's from the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, and it deals with specifically jobs that are Mexican brands. And they naturally fit into the green economy, but now we have a greater emphasis on those elements that would.

And and Debbie, in the economic development division with Paul, because he and our workforce partnership staff person, Deborah DeVorel, work closely. They try to help match a little bit more cohort to industry. So this is in our five year updated strategic plan that Debbie and her team put together early on. So we cleared it. There was some that's already embedded in there that we have a legacy business program.

And so now we've been accepted to be a part of it by NLC. So is gonna be working through this whole idea of how do we deal with our legacy businesses. Right? A subset of legacy business is succession. Right? Because that's one of the biggest things. Right? Not just involuntary displacement due to, like, market disruption, but actually people not having a plan. They do hardware, Johnson's candy. We can Southern Kitchen.

We can Right? So Deb Deborah is currently building out that strategy. We're also in relationship with it's a student named people, Crawford, and they worked with executive executive Mello and others around the silver tsunami coming for instances transferring. And they're starting to develop how do we do succession planning. So is a contract within, and it's a business I don't wanna be in because it's their business, but they're actually working with somebody locally here in the in the central area that has that issue.

So we can pilot to see how can we do succession planning with them, and then if there's something there, build out a program. But it's all sort of in the kind of not even pilot phase, but kind of beta testing different approaches with different partners because it's coming up more and more. But I think probably by the end of this year, we should be able to run our next economic development update. We'd be able to say, we actually have a program and system in place, co ops, succession planning, legacy business support. Business outreach is really helping us identify them, but that's kind of that's exciting.

And I think even, Carol, we come across a lot of businesses that just, for whatever reason, decide to close down. I mean, oftentimes, it was like, my favorite restaurant closed down. We know the inside. Like, there was a divorce in the family or someone died. You know? And, like, those kinda even right now, the a pizza down on to the gathering that closed back. He's trying to sell that business, but he didn't have a plan to do it. He just closed down and then put it on the you know? And so I would hope maybe we could it's gonna be a little different maybe than succession planning, but it's the same. Like, how do we because it's so much harder to start over from nothing.

Well, if you could actually sell your business to somebody and it could keep going. Well, and that's what that Debbie, to your point, that's what the proffer I think that's the name of it. But that's what the group and it's Corbett, Melissa Lee, Jeff Klein, Grow America, some a group out of Seattle. Of course, everything starts to send that neighborhood. We're actually the better market for it.

But they start up there in Shane County sometimes, but they are actually looking at just that. Is there a way you can get buyers and sellers early on because that value trade and transfer is much better than starting from a cold show or starting over? So I think by the end of this year, and you see it in the economic development strategic plan, it talks about these alternative ways to help businesses stay, like we see anti displacement. I think we have some exciting options for right now in the infant stage. Because usually, like, you know, she got upset. Like, they sold recently, but they no. No. I mean, they sold, and they stayed open, and, I mean, maybe you'll see a little difference in service or food. But, like, it's just such a more successful model. Right?

Shutting down. Wondering if that plays in with the the business associations with helping locate those businesses that are, you know, thinking of transition. Those. Yeah. So so some of the exciting things where council particularly is gonna have a role in this. Right now, it's not getting to, like, getting the business just for extended compliance and paid, and they're public you know, and and they're they're prior to staying here. It's really moving strategically. And in 2027, we're gonna be updating the code. The code is through our business associations and the program, our family administrative code. Right?

So that'll be where I think and we wanna co create that with them, or, really, you guys are the other side of that equation to go, what are some of those things? Do you want the business associations or the the fact that we invest in business district associations, that program, apart from just engaging with them as any other business? You want something out of it, like some of that identification. I think you'll have an opportunity to tell us to write that because that'll be the quote where it's really good for you to say this is the intention of what we want this program to do. And so I think that'll be a good opportunity right now because participation was low, and they were kind of burdened with a lot of stuff that we've revised. It's a bit too much. We're kinda giving them a break to go. Let us get you paid. Let us get you pulled. Let us get you not afraid of change.

And then we're gonna do let's change together and go, what should it be, like, in the twenty seventh week, putting code kinda cements it normally. So yes. Okay. We would love to help us do that. We would love to be our small voice partner. That's always been the goal. We wanna hear directly from you. Yeah. And how we can be of service to the business partner. One last question.

The Lincoln hardware, who what what business purchased it? What's going Can we I don't I'm not sure if done. Business. I'm not sure if it's gone fully to the TCRA yet, but I don't think I think you can talk about could talk it was a business owner that has a downtown club on the street, and they will be now opening a restaurant slash community club in Lincoln similar to what is on the street. Okay. Very community focused. I can find out by the end of the stay. I can give you that name and stuff from the public record if it's already gone through. I just wanna make sure that's in the name. Because that's No. No. That totally because that makes it a public record. But I'll send that to you. Reason I asked that is because, you know, Lincoln has its own very distinct Oh, yeah. Culture and identity.

Right? And so Yeah. I'm hoping we're also doing that. I understand there's so many balls in the air. It's perfect. But trying to match, you know, the businesses that are coming in. See, this is exciting because that's exactly how that came, and and Debbie didn't the point she didn't bring up is that when we were in a meeting or an analyst person, and she knew about the Lincoln area and we did some of that matched some of those folks up. And then they went to our funding and did meet our funding. And, you know, but it was this beautiful way of all of us working together, but it was direct because it's a good match. Yeah. And and we'll do that too. Uh-huh. K. We're gonna talk on any of these sessions?

No questions, but I did just wanna say thank you for the update. I always love to hear what CD is up to, and it sounds like you've all been up to some great things, obviously, throughout the year. We've heard of some of them. So some of them were not surprising, but, learned a couple of cool things. So that was really good.

And I think I appreciate, councilmember Palmer's questions about the Tacoma growing together or Tacoma neighborhoods together. There we go. That's that's helpful context, especially. I'm I'm I'm thinking a lot about, what's going on in the Hilltop and, you know, with the BIA where it's at, and I think also, like, reactivating there, seeing how we can help reactivate the Hilltop Business District Association and things like that. I mean, I know South Tacoma also had kind of a lull in their business district association as well.

So just looking at, like, how we can really support and and get that those vital pieces kind of back up and running because I think they help with that pipeline of, like, information and engagement and allowing us to really be responsive to the needs of of the different areas individually, but also, like, overall. So, yeah, thank you. I appreciate the update.

That's a response. And I think Hunter Palmer touched on my questions as well. So I think I am good. I do have some more questions about what this thing is with the Seattle Group, particularly as I sort of saw it online. It looked to me like it was more about the businesses being able to buy their buildings, and I have had businesses reach out to me about that around the legacy piece. So I'll take those offline while we did admire everybody in my rabbit hole, but I just wanna name it. But with that, let's see if anything else for us, Debbie. No. You're fine. Thank you.

Much appreciated. We will move to our next topic, which is arts and cultural vitality strategic plan refresh. So for that, I'll bring up Rebecca Somersen from CED and from the Center for Strategic Career Reads. Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. So here today. I'm Rebecca Salvers. I'm the division manager for Vitality Development. And we're excited today to share some high level high level progress update on where we're at. So thanks for making time, and thanks also for the scheduled adjustments. I that. No worries. I'm in control. So I'm good.

I wanted to start just by sharing the current artful diploma, which was adopted in 2016, the five categories that it was. So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but just as a starting place, what did you do? First is grow and sustain the creative economy. Second is promote equity, diversity, and inclusiveness to the arts. Third is use public art to create active, accessible, and welcoming places. Fourth is strengthen Tacoma's creative ecosystem. And fifth is optimize performance and capacity of arts programming, services, and operations. So we're starting with a really good plan. This is the first strategic plan that our group did. So it was really thoughtful, well done.

A lot of the work in this plan is still standing. That's why we're kinda. We also don't need a plan for the sake of it. So but it is good to revisit. Oops. And next one. So like I said, our goal was a great plan. We've accomplished a lot. I wanted to share just a couple of the high level things as I was looking back at the plan and some of the things that we said we wanted to do. These are these are some of the high level things that I was excited about.

So the first one, the biggest one is to that was in the plan. So advocating for cultural access program in Tacoma was in the twentieth. Tacoma was the first city to pass. Washington, it has now been reauthorized by council last year. But this didn't exist when was about. That's huge. It's changed. It's it's by far the majority of the funding. So another thing that we have also done in the last ten years is work really closely with parks to come on. Was a new ordinance for them, new new program for them when this was, when our flow was adopted.

We've worked over the last ten years to we've consulted for them, actually, with the projects. We've also been able to really, work together and tie our programs together. So really excited that they're. And it's more than just a consulting role. We are. So a good example of that is a project we do right now at Wachita Park. We have a a project on Sheridan Avenue that is right along the park, and Parks has money at Wachita Parks. In these projects. Do something. That's, like, one of the really strong ways we can look at our systems, and it's the projects we've had.

So we've really done that well in the last ten years. That's what we set out to do. We've done we've completed four public art training cohorts in the last ten years. It's good to look back at these things and just, like, be like, okay. We have done some stuff. Let's try to look back in ten years and go, like so we've done these public art training cohorts are happy. A big part of how we bring equity to public art field. So we're bringing local artists absolutely actually compete for projects, and they compete outside. Is place where public artists live, work do work here, but also outside. And those are a lot of those are place based.

So Eastside Community Center did a with the original to come from all severity plan that the planning did, we did a cohort based on public action and social engagement. That was in area. And we're working on a training program right now with Arts still that is across the city that was unfolded into a training program called public outreach and community, and then the training program was just last year. So we've been really active with the experience, which is great. We've also implemented tree arts and residence programs during the last year, several years ago with neighborhood food services.

And then we also had a plan. I should have known this, but looking back on it, St. Calm specifically called out implementing the. So that we just shared with you last year that we're continuing to. So these seeds really feed our work, and so it's it's he was good in the back.

One thing you'll note in some of our signature programs, like our individual artist funding, our our response. Some of the things that really tie our work together when he looks back at the plan. There are lots of pictures of this work, but it's not actually So that would be really clear when we're looking at the at the planning staff with a closer lens, thinking about who owns the work and and it's not represented. And so that's something that's important to refresh. To that point, why do do a refresh?

Like I said, I don't wanna this is a lot of work, so you don't wanna plan for the sake of planning. But it's been ten years. A lot has changed. It was originally meant as a five year plan. I don't know what you're thinking of that. That's really sure about the time to these kind of plans. COVID affordability crisis to someone creates is huge, not only being on being, know, voted on by the public and then pre authorized again. And then another change is the structure to the way our programs are staffed. So, like, our flow was passed. We had three of us, two staff members.

I was working as a contractor. So it's just sort of like everybody, Well, this program. We have three programs now with the state staff, so we we're doing instructions about that sort of. Then it's also really important that we're aligned with Summit the 2035 and the Canadian economic development plan. This has a lot of crossovers.

This is where I get to pass it over to Ted to share how he's been involved.

Thanks, Rebecca. So this is my one slide. And the most important bullet is that first one, which is essentially that we're doing this project with Rebecca and her team throughout the project. Our center of strategic priorities is broken into strategy, equity, and sustainability. So it's mostly the strategy work that's helping, but also some of our equity teams going to assist with this work.

And the we have done a few of these type of consulting projects for the year and a half of the centers office. We've also done some consulting with Public Works through our equity staff that has been helping them to incorporate the access opportunity framework into their funds and state law. And then it's been through this framework of guidance, reporting, coordination, and I made up a word on this slide, So we're we're doing doing some. Some. We're beginning to hear more of these projects.

And then Rebecca mentioned 2035. So that's part of why we're doing this work. So we're learning a lot through this project. We went in thinking that this would certainly relate to place making and experiences, which is that blue icon on the left in jobs and economy, which is the open sign. What we didn't realize is that this work really relates to community safety as well, which is the one on the bottom.

Debbie mentioned for feeding mitigation. The community safety action strategy also talks a lot about youth engagement, which is a big part of this work, as well as gathering spaces. It's also a big part of this work. So it's been really beneficial for our office since we learned about how do we incorporate 2035 with this plan. And I think it speaks to the work across the city and the 2035 framework. The city work really spreads across the. So it's been a good learning experience for us since this is a framework we're imagining perhaps twenty thirty five incorporated right now, but it'll be one built out.

And I'll just say it's been invaluable to have Ted's help and the partnership to make sure we're on track. But, also, when we did our full year, we had a budget to hire a consultant to do this work. And so not having that luxury of these resource restricted environments, being able to lean on our internal partners and consultants is is so important, and I think it's actually better. We can stay in the shape of context a little better. So I just really appreciate that partnership.

Been Ted's been in it with me, so appreciate that. So just to give you an overview of the plan, so there are three levels to it that is we're envisioning it right now. The first is the priority level, and that is we're kinda taking it down to three priority areas that relate directly to our program areas. And, again, the reason we're wanting to do that is so that there's a little bit more ownership over the work. There's people are empowered to actually do the work that's within their area, so we don't have these these areas that no people like homes.

Just hope time this magically enough. Those each align with our three program areas, which are funding and community programming, public art grades. Strategies are the next level down. Those are kind of the buckets within each of those areas. And then actions is the the most granular level, and that includes things that that we do now, but also stretch goals.

These are things that can, will change. We're trying to not, you know, not focus on specific programs, but, like, what we're actually trying to do with them. So we're not saying, well, we fund individual artists, but we support individual artists that work. So part of it to do that is funding. It's fun, but things like that.

So just wanted to make sure it's very much a draft. And, again, the new structure lines in the program areas, plans for folks on our existing work. And one of the things that that I do know is that you're gonna some of that introductory text is a definite and this is definitions kind of all together. I did remove a couple sections. So the operational section that said that was in purple.

And then equity, we are spreading out through the three areas. We we believe strongly that needs to be called out specifically, but each of our program areas also needs to be in different ways. Basically, the audiences, funding sources, how are we able to do that? And so being able to have a little bit more focus on not just, like, what we wanna do, but how we do it also based on the the needs of individuals who are in different organizations. They need different things. So try to get for that more focus. There's also an added emphasis on space and affordability. Those are things from community as community members, ourselves,

we

see that. And we've kind of integrated that work into one of the program areas of Sunny area, which is new. The other thing that's kind of new is pulling creative economy into, again, that funding community programming area. So creative economy has has been something that's has been sort of like an appendage that that is something that we do. We work really closely with SpaceWorks.

We kind of do special projects as they come up, but it hasn't had a program area on. So I'm trying to get that at least so that we're staff can think about that programmatically instead of just sort of special, basically, because it's so good. Okay. So just I'll just go quickly through the priority areas. First one is cultivating an environment where artists have created community scribe.

This is, again, tied towards funding and community programming. This includes things like Arts Month, which is Arts of the Army, armory studio tours, our community calendar, Vote Laureate, arts funding for individual artists, and, again, community creative economy. And then a new thing we're thinking about, which is community connections. So this is, like, the communication, some of those, like, ways that some of those communication channels, but also convenings that we do. Try to directly support community.

Opportunities is living here. This priority is about cultivating the conditions that allow entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs, organizations, and community to thrive. It strengthens the resources and networks that enable people to make work, reinforcing Tacoma as a place for creativity is generated locally and for everyone to gain equal access to making experiencing. Second priority oh, sorry. Before I go on, since council member Scott's on the line here, I just wanted to mention that this is where I would see any, like, programmatic work around film or specific creativity focuses living.

So, again, creating that programmatic area within our within our division to do that work as well as discussion projects. Okay. Priority to this is the one with Placemaking Boulevard. This is the one that has changed the least because it's called out really specifically Artful. This is Nurture Creative Placemaking and Public Art Public art supports authentic creative placemaking and placekeeping throughout Tacoma.

This priority strengthens the resources of partnerships that enable artists to create public artwork, reinforcing Tacoma as a place where creativity flourishes, the public art amplifies the stories and identities to the communities. And then the third priority is focus on. We're calling this. Priority three is up funding nonprofit culture heritage science organizations through through thoughtful, creative, and responsible administration. Restricted public funds are stewarded and serve multiple purposes, including enhancing education, ensuring access to cultural programming, and supporting financial stability for organizations.

And you'll see this, as with all these strategies, kind of hold the buckets that that our work fits with. So we recently had a retreat with the Arts Commission on April 18. We also invited members of the advisory council advisory board to be part of that. So we had we're bringing those groups together. I didn't originally think these were gonna be on the at the same day as the perdoleti.

So I'm freezing that photo, but it's a good one of of one of our TCAB members. And one of the things I heard strongest from the retreat is that they like the they like the structure, but we do need to make sure that we are creating these over those overarching themes and connections so that we're also not ourselves too much if that makes sense. So there are lots of themes that run throughout all of our work. And one of our strongest work has been across across our program areas, so just making sure we're very. And I invented the word also through this process together, and that's the vision.

So so it's the mission vision. So the thing that ties it together. So we're gonna be that's kind of the next thing. We the next steps are we have a survey open through May 15. You should have all seen that in the recent weekly report and from the city manager.

And as of yesterday morning, we had 426 entries. We're feeling really good about the response from the community. And it's not a short survey, so we're people are giving us they're also they're areas where they can give us narrative feedback doing that. So I'm really excited to have that closed and be able to dig into it. We have a Tomarks Commission and advisory board to join subcommittees that started with retreat.

We'll be continuing to help them. Again, with Ted's support, which we really appreciate, additional staff feedback. And then a really important piece that we haven't really fully dug into yet is cross referencing with on the 23,000 CE plan, but we know that needs to happen. And I think we're gonna look at them and say, it's pretty close to make sure we're actually pulling. So it's gonna pull over.

Metrics, we've started thinking about, but we haven't haven't decided on them yet. And then, again, the midget, the overarching elements. We are targeting adoption in October for this for arts month, and I'm feeling good about that timeline. We'd love to bring it back to EDC for review before then if you're interested and if time allows, or at least share it with you all before that. That is my presentation. Happy to answer any questions or go back to anything. Great. Thank you. With that, I think I'll start online. Council Member Scott, do you have any questions or comments?

Again, no questions or comment or, well, no questions. Comments. Thanks for pointing out where, like, the film work and stuff would go in there. But, again, I I just think that our our creative economy is just a really huge part of our overall our overall economic health in the city. And so I'm glad that we have some great minds working behind it and working with the a lot of people in the community to really come up with the things that allow us to, again, be responsive and to not only individual artists, but the creative economy as a whole. So I appreciate the work that's gone into it.

Thank you. Thanks, council member. To my right? It's a particular question. It's weird for me. Okay. Thanks. Question. Yes. Okay. The so if somebody wanted to put on, like, an event argument or or part vest or something, what is the what's the overlap of your work with, like, permitting for I was thinking of I have no idea if the phones, like, totally totally. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't. We do.

Okay. So, like, if somebody wanted to, like, reserve that or, like, what's the process there? Yeah. So we work closely with a lot of our organizations work closely with actually in the events to manage some permitting process. We actually so permitting used to actually be for events used to be in CD.

No. But mostly organizations Wouldn't work directly. If we can help, we do. We talked about roadblocks or that would make it easier for people to access. How do we how do we make those how do we make it so that it is an umbrella permit or easier to get it to.

Yeah. We do try work on that. I do I do think with the moving kind of back to community connections, creative economy, work into program programmatic areas. It's not just like, let's think about this when this comes up. Let's think about instead, let's think about it as, like, part of the work we do is, like, is very recent as we're able to, like, actually working on.

And, actually, they're doing a lot of work about around the special ed permitting and trying to get, like, handbooks and quick links and all sorts of things up so it makes it easier for people, especially if they're kind of not even the vent the people who are putting on are the same, but the type of event so that there's kind of, like, playbooks Yeah. Which she's done a lot. I would just add or maybe to question mark, I guess, the statement that you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think the permitting side is definitely all actually on the programmatic side. I mean, folks traditionally work with Downtown Stone Partnership on trying to establish kind of specifically, like, help support the process.

I know I've talked with David Trudell about that I'm trying to do different activation there. Yeah. So that's usually a partner to think about for that specific space. Did you have anything posted there that says, hey. If you're interested, just activate the space. He's online, by the way. It's on? Yeah. I don't know. David is on the books. Oh, David is online. Don't think I've never seen that in any of our spaces. But and we've actually had throughout the years different contracts with different folks. We contracted with the chamber for a while to try to activate that space and put chairs and tables out one year. You know, we've done two things right now.

We don't have an active, like, actual contract with anyone to use it. They do use it. Yeah. And tonomic rates is the way a lot of those things, so they to about the light trail that actually gets off in in the middle of winter. And so they have to have as part of the contract, they have to get insurance.

And they get the funding. Some of those things I see about. Access his face is happening. Just wondering if that's part of the plan at all, but it sounds like it's in between you and your department, so that's difficult. Well, I think that's good feedback to hear her too. So appreciate that, you bringing that up. Thank you. Deputy Mayer, any question?

No questions, comments. I I really appreciate the presentation and all that's gone into it. I really feel like we're kinda leveling up, so to speak. So it's it's more than just a refresh. I think it's it's a really a leveling up of what's planned. And I think it really helps create a lot more certainty and guidance and, like, effort and into all this. As been mentioned earlier, I think, you know, our arts community and our creative economy is really for the city. And I think this really just helps us push that further in a bunch more.

Excited. It's like some of these things that it feels like we can open up maybe if we if we we claim it as that's part of our work, especially some of the space activation. They're affordability. So So I agree. So is there anything we can do to accomplish that?

I guess my only question then too is, are y'all partnering or working on occasional space works on that piece around the affordability of the space? We are. Yeah. So we we partner with them ongoing, and they're one of the main partners that willing to dig into this plan to get feedback from. But they've been the way we've had creative economy in the space in the past. So hoping we can both we can, like, also programmatically too, but there were things essential. Like, we do not have staff capacity to do. Know? So Oh, Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah.

I was just gonna add to that point, though. Do have some last four years? Well, I was gonna say SpaceWorks is also the other bridge in our department between our divisions. So SpaceWorks works with housing often through the community development block grant. It works with our division in terms of retail space activation, different loans out to micro businesses, as well as with our best team.

They're a big part of our rapid response murals. And then they work in the ACV with the more, I would say, more dedicated cultural creative cultural economy development. But as we move forward with our plans, the bridging that I could already see that we'll be doing with our economic development, community and economic strategic plan, pulling the goals back and forth Yeah. Between the art plan because the creative economy development and placemaking straddles both of our divisions and then often straddles economic development divisions as well and the housing often with the the art public art placement. So it's really exciting.

Spaceworks is a bloom for a lot of us. Thanks, Kyle. Well, I'm just gonna add that for sure, just to be aware, but that spaceworks was actually the book we're at the city of. Right? It was an idea. Upstairs on the 9th Floor, we all sat around and, Art, you know, held the water. But, really, one of the kind of creative ways that we've tried to be, you know, lean and mean is by funding space for her to say instead of funding additional staff because they really could do a lot of work, and they do a lot of work. And so it's just been really important for how long have they been since twenty fifteen years. Yeah. It's so long.

It's very similar to the TNT model when you just describe it, like, things that were born from the city to be an external partner that with a shared mission, and then it's alleviated some of the FTE or some of the technical assistance requirements we have. And even if we're all really good, Rebecca's really respected, Debbie's really respected, Felicia's really respected, like, we're all in community. We're still a city. And whenever you have an intermediary that's not the city, you you get a little deeper. Anyway. I think literally almost Yeah. And and they go places weekends over. And vice versa. There's things we can do. Yeah.

I'm standing there. Super. Thank you for making that connection for me because I particularly always think about SpaceWorks in terms of CED sort of opening helping businesses open, the housing side. And then I think about it in terms of Art, who's literally in the spaces and how they work with you, but you guys just articulated the the bridge much better than it was in my mind. So thank you for making Nice. All the dots connect a little better. And thank you for the presentation. I think nobody else has any other questions. That is that is it. Thank you both for all your creativity and your vocabulary, and good luck. Yes. We're working on it. Mhmm. New words. Love it.

Excellent. With that, we will move on to our next piece, which is topics for upcoming meetings. For that, I will call on Annalise, committee liaison, for topics for upcoming meetings. The next meeting that would have been on May 26 has been canceled on June 9. You will be conducting interviews for the city defense and recognitions committee.

On June 23, economic development for this. Thanks, Anna. And I will go ahead and before I get to topics of other other any other topics of interest, I will look online for any Zoom hands that Jenna, because we don't have anybody new who's joined us in the room to see if anybody had any public comment they would like to make. If so, I can open public comment back up. Otherwise, I will move along.

I don't see any urgency, ma'am, so I won't open public comment back up. But thank you for we've made a habit now of opening up at the end, so just double checking. With that, are there any other topics of interest from anyone in the committee? Only? No? Seeing none. I will add my topic of other topic. What's it? Other item of interest. Two things.

One is I don't know if she shared it at the top, but today is Anna Lee, our committee liaison's last day with us here on this committee. So I just wanted to thank her for her work here with us and appreciate her next endeavors. I don't know if that's something you'd like to share with the committee or not. Oh, yes. I am in the 4th Floor, and I budget. So why not? Excellent. I don't know if you have much better. So Anna's going to work with the budgetary budgeting folks. We're excited to see what projects come from there.

And then the last thing I would add as my other topic of interest is it was also recently several birthdays in the room, I heard. So we're a tourist heavy committee today. I wanted to shout out both Anna, Casey, and Rebecca for their birthdays. Thank you, old ladies. With that, I will entertain the final motion.

Who's your jurors?

Sign in. All those in favor, sign in by saying aye. Aye. No one's opposed. We are adjourned. Thanks.