City Council - workshop

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the City Council Study Session of September 15th, 2026. Clerk, please call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

Present.

Councilmember Diaz? Absent. Councilmember Hines? Here. Councilmember Palmer? Here. Councilmember Rumba? Here. Councilmember Sedalge?

Here.

Councilmember Scott?

Here.

Councilmember Scott is virtual. Councilmember Walker? Here. Mayor Ibsen? Here.

Here. Welcome, everyone. Our first agenda item is a presentation from the United Way. I'd like to call on United Way President and CEO Donna Ponepinto to begin the presentation. Welcome.

Good morning. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to present. Again, I'm Donna Panepinto, the president and CEO of United Way. And with me, I have Lynn Willis, who's the director of Family Financial Stability Initiatives. And we do have one other person joining us, I think, as he makes his way down to the council chambers. So I'm just going to begin by giving you, it's been a while, first of all. and I want to give you an update on United Way. I've had a chance to meet with most of you, and I'm still trying to set up some meetings with some of you as well, but I try to make sure every year that I'm touching base with our elected officials. So United Way of Pierce County, we have a, let's see, back in 2015, we landed on a bold goal for lifting 15,000 families out of poverty by 2028. And to date, we're at 14,800 households that have moved from a place of crisis to self-sufficiency. And we know that even though we'll make that 15,000, that there will be 15,000 more, and there will be 15,000 more after that. And so the work continues. We have been around for over 105 years and have invested over $7 million back into the community since, $7.8 million, I'm sorry, into the community in 2025. And over $359 million back into the community since 1921. Oops. I may need your help, Ashley, since I don't know how to use a remote. So Alice, I think everyone here is familiar with Alice and the Alice data. The report was released back in May using the 2024 census information. And so what we know is that over 100,000 households in Pierce County are Atlas. And then there's another 34,000 that are below the federal poverty level. So you've got 134,000 households out of the Pierce County households that are struggling to make ends meet. And ALICE, I think all of you know what that stands for, but Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed. And these are the households that are above the federal poverty level, but again, don't have enough money to take care of their basic needs. And about 37% live below that ALICE threshold. When you look at income levels, for instance, minimum household income for a single head of household of Alice families is $67,000, and for a family with two adults with children in child care, the survival, that's just the survival budget, is $127,000. So if you think about that for a minute, and you think about how many families of the jobs are sometimes $20 or less. And even if you're $40 an hour and you have two children in childcare, you're still struggling. So you can go to the next one. So this is just another way to look at this particular information. You've got 124,000 households in the 2023 census. And then you, again, with the 2024 census, there's 134,000 families that are ALICE. All right, you can go to the next one. So demographic hardships. Groups with the highest rates of hardship in the county starts with African-American black households. And I did send you a snapshot of the Alice County report for Pierce County in your packet so you have more detail. that you can focus in on when you get a chance. But with the African-American households, and just communities and colors, with African-Americans, 49% of the black households in Pierce County are ALICE. The under 25 households, are growing. I believe they're about 50% of the under 25 households are ALICE. And then single female head of households with children, based again on the 24th census, is 71%. So 71% of the female head of households in Pierce County are ALICE. And that's up from last, the 23 census, where it was in the 50% range. So that's pretty significant, and something that we're looking at, and we also look at it in terms of just the types of investments that we are making out in community. So again, here's a graphic. The information that I provided to you has the percentages noted so that you're able to see the other racial and ethnic areas. The Native American population there are 50% of the native households are Alice. And even though that's a smaller percentage of the population, it's still significant when 50% of those households are Alice families. And then a snapshot of Pierce County. You've got the lowest Alice families in Buckley. Highest is around Fort Lewis and DuPont. There are also zip codes in Tacoma that are well above the 50% mark as well. And this information, I just shared with you the household survival budget. Again, if you look at that two adult, two children in childcare, it's at $127,000 a year. For the stability budget, That same family needs to make at least $158,000 a year. This particular budget doesn't allow for savings. It doesn't allow for any type of emergency. And even when you're looking at housing, these numbers are based on HUD. It's still quite low when you think about the amount, the rising cost of affordable housing. So how is United Way dealing with this work? So our work focuses on the areas that you see on the screen. With the basic needs work, it's really the foundation. We know that if folks don't have their basic needs met, they're going to struggle with everything else. And so we, in our basic needs area, with our partners, we were able to provide 10.3 million meals, 724 households are staying in their homes, and 665 people moved into stable housing in 2025 because of the investments that United Way was able to make in the community in support of our partners. With Access Peers, and in fact, the county has funded us for, or not the county, I'm sorry, city. I presented to the county yesterday, or day before. Access Peers is, the city does support Access Peers. We were a 211, and I think all of you know that 211 has become one statewide entity. We were a 211 call center for well over 25 years, and we transition to what we call Access Peers, which is our resource navigation hub focused on, instead of just giving someone a phone number, but really focusing on how you connect people to those services and you're staying with them. So transportation, behavioral health, housing, working with Workforce Central to do job, connect job seekers to the right kinds of supports that they need. But really, it's about barriers. And one of the things that we heard loud and clear probably about five, maybe six years ago, is that families that are calling into a 211 call center needed more than just a phone number. They needed assistance to get them actually connected to the services. And so one of the things that we've been able to do through our transportation, for instance, is to connect over 1,200 individuals to rides. And that's working with Pierce Transit. It's also a partnership that we have with Lyft, where someone can call in. They get assessed in terms of the types of transportation they need. And then we can, if it's Lyft, go into the Lyft system and actually get them connected to a ride to and from work, to and from doctor's appointments. And I believe there's some other things that we can also connect them to. And if you have questions at any time, let me know. Your lunch looks really good. I'm going to hold off on Centers for Strong Families, and we'll go into more detail about that in just a moment. But our community partnerships, lots of different partnerships that we have. One of the things, our Centers for Strong Families, has been a partnership with the city. And again, I've shared this with most of you since the beginning. We started Centers for a Strong Family in 2016. Former Mayor Woodards, before she was mayor and part of city council, we got together and brought individual stakeholders from the community to talk about what it would look like in our community to have something that helped not just get someone a job, not just have someone help them with their finances, but this model, which is a national model. We are part of the LISC network, Local Initiative Support Corporation, but something that would intertwine all of these pieces together and really support families to move towards self-sufficiency and beyond. And really, we're looking now at how do you help families move towards economic mobility. So that is a strong partnership that we have had with the city And then the other partnerships, again, the Access Peers with the city, Workforce Central. We also, during the community reinvestment plan, we received dollars last year. And I'll let Lynn talk a little bit more about that later. But that partnership, we were able to work with the city to connect individuals to match savings programs. where they were able to save for either a car, to pay down their debt, enhance their business, or put down money for a home. And then our volunteering, I know the city is engaged with volunteering. The city was also involved with the Opportunity Knox program that we did in partnership with the county and other stakeholders, where over 500 individuals were able to have a total amount of $500,000 in debt reduction in one day. And we want to do that again. And my hope is that we can get more individuals to come for a Saturday and get all of the former players from the project earlier this last year, I guess it was last year, to come together and do this again for residents of Tacoma as well as Pierce County. And then the advocacy is we're always advocating, always looking at ways that we can support families. So now the Centers for Strong Families. Again, project has been around since 2016. We started here in Tacoma with Goodwill and Sound Outreach being the first two partners. And it is all about how you help individuals increase their income, decrease their debt, and improve their credit scores. And over 5,200 individuals have participated since 2016. We've seen enormous success from average increase in monthly income. Again, if you think about the Alice households and what they need to do every day, many of them working more than one job. We hear that constantly. that if they're able to, on average, save $2,300 a month, that makes a difference when your housing and your childcare are the most expensive parts of your budget. The net increase, average net increase, net worth, $18,000. Decreases in debt are substantial, and the average hourly rate averages $25 an hour. I think the latest data, it's about $19 an hour. So it fluctuates, but the data is updated on a six to eight weeks basis. So I'm gonna turn it over to Linda to talk a little bit more in detail about the Centers for Strong Families, and especially the impact here in Tacoma.

Well, good afternoon. I'm going to do a shameless plug. Next month, we have a bus tour. And we're going to have this bus tour, and it's going to talk about the work that we've done over the 10 years. We're going to leave from Tacoma Community House and then go to Sumner-Bonnie Lake, talk to them about their community, and come back and finish up the conversation. So we invite you to join us, either location or ride the bus. Your choice. So I just want to put that out there. I wanted to talk to you about our three locations. There are six of them all together in Pierce County. However, three of them are focused in Tacoma. Goodwill has the strongest arm because it is related to training. That is what it does. Then we have Sound Outreach. That's the catchment. But we also have Tacoma Community House because that has that language. They have spent over 10 different languages in their building. And what that allows us to do for any newcomers to the United States, help them navigate the financial landscape and understand how we do business. Because half of us don't understand how we do business. So with that being said, I just want to give you some numbers in these three specific places. Since 2025, we've served over 200 people in Tacoma. And so we've used the zip codes that are related to Tacoma. Their credit has increased about 100 points between Goodwill, Sound Outreach, and Tacoma Community House. Their net worth has gone up. Their savings has increased. Job placement is about 140, retention That means that they're staying in their jobs, because we're looking, even as they get employed, that they stay there more than 90 days. So we're looking at 180 days in that respect, so that the individuals are actually being a part of the community and doing the work. And income support, Goodwill is the highest in income support of $1,339,000. That's SNAP, that's housing benefits, that's FAFSA, doing all those different things. Where Sound Outreach comes in, 315,000. Tacoma Community House, 136,000. So they're sitting down with clients, helping them navigate and understand how to access benefits. I'm not sure if you're aware that childcare is about $1,300 a month per child. And so they're digging. Yeah, yeah. Well, I was lowballing it, OK? About $1,300, $1,400. And so that's what they're working in. When our national average in Pierce County is $25, in Tacoma, in these three locations, it's $24.90. So we're tracking to get close to that $25. And we're moving in that direction. Also, I wanted to share with you, last year we worked with the community reinvestment dollars. And what that meant is that in Tacoma, we had the Centers for Strong Families participating. The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation gave us dollars. The Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective gave us money. Workforce Development, we did 2.0, we had 95 Tacoma residents participate in asset building. So what that looked like, in their assets, they had seven debt reductions. There were nine people who pursued education, 17 housing as a down payment, four that did home improvement, 27 in micro enterprise, improving their existing businesses, five in micro enterprises that started a business, and 43 vehicle purchases. So these were the things that were happening for Tacoma residents with the individualized development account from last year. So I wanted to give you a read on that. Did you have any questions for me regarding the work that's being done in the centers?

Any council questions on this topic, or shall we wait for the end of the presentation? OK.

So some of the lessons learned from this work, in particular, in helping families build wealth. Because this particular model, what is unique about it, and I think why we were excited, why the city was excited when we first started talking about it, is the integration of those three legs of the stool. The employment coaching, the financial coaching, and the income supports. Lynn mentioned. And it's an asset-based model. There's so many programs out there that look at the deficits that someone brings when they enter their agency doors. And what this model does is to say, you know what, what are your hopes and dreams? What do you want to do? And then those coaches, they work together. to make that happen for the clients, helping them build their own plans, not assessment plan, but to build their goals and their plans, and then help them achieve those plans. So part of it, the success has been the relationships, the relationships between the coaches and the clients. That's really what drives results. The financial and employment coaching work best together, as we've mentioned. Progress is definitely measured beyond the placement of someone being in a job. And families need individualized pathways. We know that there is no single route to financial stability. We've also been looking at the wealth gap and noticing that while the gap is closing, Within this program, bless you, within this program for communities of color, there's still ways to go. So we know what's working, and we're going to keep doing that. We also know that the way that individuals in different communities of color save differently, they look at their money differently, and that's one of the things that the coaches are focusing in on, and paying attention to that. And that's why we're seeing the kinds of results that we do. The other thing is, too, we never did get a chance years ago when we finished with the guaranteed income effort that the city originally partnered with us through the Mayors for Guaranteed Income. GRIT, Growing Resilience in Tacoma. So since that time, we have been able to do a project with the state that was where we received $1.9 million and targeted 175 individuals. The mayor for guaranteed income targeted 110, receiving $500 a month for a year. Those results were, it's almost like putting money in the hands of individuals that are working hard every day, $500. One, they're not going to quit their jobs. Two, that really gives them an opportunity to breathe. It gives them an opportunity to take care of some debt, to save. We have lots of success stories, and all of those reports are on our website. Currently, we are receiving a grant from a a funder that is helping us to support 25 families in the Centers for Strong Family Network receive $500 a month. And they're going to do that for up to five years for us. So we're still trying to keep that program alive because we know that it makes a difference in the lives of families in our community. So with that, we did give you a one-pager as well that we sent ahead of time that just highlights the community impact for the Tacoma area. So with that, I will stop and see what questions you have for us.

Thank you so much for both your presentations. What questions do we have from the council? Council Member Walker.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you both for the presentation. First, the bus tour next week, but which day? October 2nd. October 2nd. Thank you. Great. Thank you for all that you do. And the on-the-ground work you do is so, so important. But for the work that we do as policymakers, the data that you bring us is so valuable. And hearing those numbers go up from such a short time is staggering. And as all of our costs go up and we're working through a budget that is difficult and we're going to have to raise costs, it's really, really hard to hear. And so I'm glad to be in the work with you all in helping figure out how we support families. I just wanted to give a shout out to the GRIT program. I know, Donna, you and I have talked about this. I am such a huge fan, and I think that the way that the impact of that program is going to pay off, both personally and as humans, but also fiscally, Is is not immediate so it's worth investing in every single year, so I'm so delighted that you have a funder I want to work together with you to figure out how we keep that going And I know that there are folks that are fans at the state level and so I hope we can continue to work together on that So just appreciate the work and working together, and please call on us when you need us. And thank you for inviting us to the tour. Is that open to the public, too, as people are listening? Okay, just wanted to make sure. Wonderful. That'll be a great way to see the details of everything you do. So thanks. Thanks for being here.

Thank you. Council Member Sedalge. Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to keep mine short because I think I was going to start out with I'm definitely getting my scheduler on our calendars because I have a lot of questions. I'm going to start with a hard one first because I think it's really important that we discuss this because there are certain people out there that find it, let's just use the word distasteful, that we would just give money to people. Can you... Can you, what would you say to that person who says, you know, why are you just giving money to people?

That's a wonderful question because we got a lot of that early on. And Council Member Walker was definitely one of our supporters along with the former mayor. Yeah, that was, you know, one of the things that we talk about and one of the things that I mentioned is that it is, it's not, let's see. I'm trying to go way back because there's still people that find that to be a problem. Why do we give people money for free? Well, if we're homeowners, we get tax breaks. The businesses get tax breaks. So there's a lot of individuals that get money. These are individuals that are working, working hard every single day. And this $500 a month is helping them take care of, you know, incidentals. It's putting food on the table. The other thing is, too, is that everyone in this country got money during COVID. They got stimulus payments. They got child care tax, extended child care tax credits. And we saw millions of children get What's the word that I want? Get out of poverty. And when that ended, the numbers plummeted. So we know that these incentives, the stimulus payments, help families. And if families could continue to get the extended daycare payments, that would be one way to get folks out of poverty and to stay out of poverty. So that's the other thing. Then the other thing about the $500, it's going back into the community. It's an economic driver. So these guaranteed income, and we're shifting away from the term guaranteed income because it really is That's the thing that kind of triggers individuals. And so we think of it as cash as a strategy for moving families out of poverty. So giving them these dollars, yes, there is a moral imperative that families shouldn't have to work two and three jobs to keep a roof over their head. But at the same time, all of that $6,000 that they get, it's all going back into the community. And I would say most of it is going just to put food on the table.

Donna, can I share? Food for thought. Think about how many companies and businesses were bailed out by the United States of America. Billions and billions of dollars. We're talking about $6,000 for a family. Second of all, when we talk about giving away, what we have done is align financial coaching with this. So it's a tool to teach and assist. Our last group decided to do a Facebook group and share resources. And they learned how to do it. They even had an off-boarding where they learned to say, you know these dollars will end this particular day. Are you ready? So it was not just we gave and we didn't work with the clients. We work with the clients having a conversation. That's one of the reasons why it's embedded in the Centers for Strong Families now. these 25 families, because they will have financial coaches who will build budgets, who will look at their credit, who will build goals and assets with them because they're going to have additional dollars. Every six months, coaches are supposed to do budgeting. And so when they get additional dollars, they have to shift that budget and say, now you have additional $500. What are you going to do with it? So the person that's running that is supposed to also have conversations with them. Because you think about it, the trauma of money. We want to change the mindset about money and looking at money and how we do it. So it's not just giving someone something. It's a program aligned with it to assist the customers as they move forward.

And I want to thank you for that. I wanted to ask this question because sometimes people will take that knee-jerk kind of reaction and basically impeach all the work you're doing. For me, it's really simple. We as a government give away billions to a lot of haves. It makes sense that we give a little to have-nots, who are my neighbors, and add support services that help them increase their skills. So those two things together, I mean, we don't do that with some of our tax breaks on larger levels, right? We just expect things to happen. So for me, it was an easy win. I was actually just got on council. I was just appointed, I think, a month or a couple of months after I was appointed. I came into Goodwill when you did your first report there with former Mayor Woodards. And it's definitely a program that I've heard of. It's definitely a program I'm glad we had here. There's a lot of research that shows that programs like that actually benefit the whole community. One that's maybe a loose cousin would be Grameen Bank. They won a Nobel Peace Prize because it has aspects of this where in that one you lend money to lending circles of people who really work with one another, mentor them, support them. And it sounds like genius, but it is exactly what we as human beings need, right? If we don't have support system, if we don't have mentors and parents and grandparents and cousins and friends that support us and teach us and help us, then often we don't get to make the best decisions that we can for us. So I love the idea that we are... We are supporting all that, not only in this one program, but in all of the programs that you help support. And I look forward to a deeper conversation into some of these, but I want to thank you for being here and providing the service, not only to Tacoma, but for the entire county, because You know, as a member of the Board of Health, I was relatively shocked to see how many of our health outcomes for many populations are below even what a statistical number would be. You know, sometimes you can be below the average, but if you're within the statistical noise, you're fine because we're a large population. But even greater than that, there's many health outcomes that are below. and even worse for certain populations. We have to recognize that we still have policies that are disproportionately disenfranchising individuals in our community. And this is the groundwork to help with that. So thank you.

You're welcome.

Council Member Rumbaugh.

Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank you for coming today, Donna and Jerry. Lynn? Lynn, thank you so much for all of the work you do, because I feel like there's been a real attack on poor people in our country. And I'm just, it's very depressing that there's just cuts everywhere. And, you know, here are these people trying to lift themselves up. And then there's more people who are falling back into this, into poverty, where we're trying to help people get ahead. And this city wants to help people get ahead. I don't feel like our federal government right now cares, but we can do something about that, hopefully. But I really wanted to say one of the things I thought was really great was the GRIT program. I just really believe strongly that people do know what to do with the extra money. And I remember some of the stories getting their children tutoring, people going back to school, and so then they are earning more money. I mean, these are things, it's interesting how a small, basically kind of a small amount of money can make such a big difference in someone's life. So I want to thank you for continuing that program. And, you know, just one of the biggest issues I see is just the rising cost, not of every, just of everything, but of childcare. It just seems to be the one thing that when you look at, Seems like less people are choosing to have children because they can't afford it. And that's not helpful to us as a society. We want to continue to grow and bring more people into our community because we know that that's how we support Social Security, which seems kind of strange, but it is. But I'm hoping that there are things that we're doing on the state level to try to get more child care dollars into Pierce County.

One of the things about the child care is, and this is where I think United Way and others can look to change policy, is that if someone makes $1 more, they lose their child care subsidy, if they're getting a subsidy. And all of the other benefits are kind of a step down. But child care, it's like it's almost a disincentive to take on an added extra hour of work or a promotion. I was actually shocked years ago when I started hearing stories about individuals actually turning down promotions because they could not make any more money, otherwise they were gonna lose their childcare. That's never made sense to me, and we've gotta figure out how to tackle it. I don't know if it's in the regulations. I would need to do some more investigating, but it seems like that could be a low-hanging fruit item that we could potentially tackle. Because if people need to work, they want to make sure that their kids are in safe, affordable childcare. And also, too, I think it's how do we work with businesses? Are there ways to incentivize businesses to provide child care incentives. I think there's a lot of things that we could work on. We're going to be having a meeting with businesses come next week, the 23rd, Atlas Roundtable for Businesses. And so we'll be able to share this information with the boards of the chamber, EDB, Workforce Central, and the Executive Council. And there's a few others that we're inviting. It's an opportunity for us to put that on the table. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much, Donna and Lynn, for your presentation today and all the work that you and your team do every single day helping families out in our community. Tremendous work, and I've you know had a chance against seeing the praises of great. It's phenomenal program And I think it really goes to show how just a few dollars can really make a difference in a family's life being able to open up options for them and improve their opportunities for themselves and their children. So I'm just a really big fan of that. And I'm really glad to hear that there's a benefactor out there helping to continue to support that. And I think the data is going to be really important to continue to collect, because I think it's going to show that over time that these make significant and huge differences in the lives of the people it's supporting. One of the questions I had in particular was around the data. I did read the footnote on it around the household by race and ethnicity in Pierce County. Do you have any data that disaggregates the Asian population a little bit more? I know that can sometimes be difficult depending on how the information is collected. I'm just kind of curious because it is a very large group to be put together in one significant portion there.

I will have to check, but I don't think so, only because this is based on the census data. But I can certainly check on that. I know it's really challenging because you've got a lot of different populations that are put into one category. And so that's definitely a challenge. So I'll check on that to see. We're part of United for Alice. So United Way of Northern New Jersey is the lead on the whole Alice project. And Dr. Ali Medeiros, who's with the University of Washington Tacoma, is one of the researchers that sits on the research team for Washington State. So I will check and see if that's something that can be done.

Great. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm just Kind of curious of that breakout a little bit more, just to kind of see if there's any other additional patterns there and areas of concern. Anecdotally, I know that there's a lot of challenges in different populations within the Asian community. And so that's part of why it's nice to have data that can maybe back up some of the anecdotes that I see.

So there are some things I can't share with you. I don't have the exact numbers, but just trending the things that we work with. When we have Asian clients, they tend higher than other demographics because receiving of the financial coaching and listening and just moving quickly. Because we have one client in the individualized development account with workforce development, and he has almost made his match because he's done exactly what the coaches told him to do. So we see them faring stronger in this program or this model.

Great. Yeah, that individualized coaching and being able to follow through, build the plan out, and stick to it, and all those things. Yeah. Yeah, that's great to hear. And I think, too, to Council Member Stodolge's point earlier, you know, it's, you know, every person's unique, but being able to get the support all around for everything is really beneficial. Are you guys still continuing to do, obviously you're still working with Goodwill, I'm assuming Sound Outreach as well, Has there been any interest in other partners coming in as well to help support the overall coaching system? Or are you guys kind of stabilized with the core group here?

First of all, Sound Outreach has coaches in Bethel, the Bethel School District. We have a location in Sumner Bonney Lake. The Tacoma Community House has coaches in Franklin Pierce. We are looking at a couple of other organizations. The thing about this model is that it is a model, and it's not a program. The agencies do provide those services, but it... There's steps to becoming a Center for a Strong Family, and part of it is the organization needs to at least do two of the three legs of the stool to be considered. And then they just go through kind of a vetting process for like six to eight months with the other So one of the things that we're doing is we're looking at how can United Way build a cohort of financial coaches. We have someone right now who's at Tacoma Community College, and she's been there going on two years now and seeing phenomenal results working with students and even doing some trainings with the faculty and staff. And then we also have a financial coach at Workforce Central. that's working with the clients to get around the match savings program. So we always knew at the very beginning of this that there was probably going to be a point where we were going to reach capacity in terms of the organizations that can do this work. And so that's why we've begun to think about how does United Way then hire coaches and get coaches out to different areas of the county.

Yeah, that's great. You know, it's a good model. Clearly it's successful and I, you know, I really appreciate that. And, you know, the numbers, you guys do such a good job of collecting data. And I've been able to use some of that for some of the policy work that I'm also doing. And so, again, just appreciate all the work, appreciate all the data collection, appreciate, you know, all the staff over there. I know it's not something you guys do alone. There's so many people that have a hand in making this happen. So, All right, thank you so much.

Can I also share something with you? Yeah, absolutely. When we look at our model, it started in Tacoma, but it has fanned out to the school districts. So every growth we had has been in the school district. What we also understand is that we've had Franklin Pierce, Sumner-Bonnie Lake, and Bethel. Well, our three locations in Tacoma support Tacoma School District. So they are feeding, the school district is feeding people into these three areas because it's such a larger imprint. So just so you know that we are supporting Tacoma School District families as well.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Council Member Palmer.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I just wanted to join with Council Member Walker and my enthusiastic support of the GRIT program. How long has it been going on for?

I believe 2020, 2021, we started the first payment. And then it went through, yeah, the December of 2021, because it was a couple of years of evaluation. The Mayors for a Guaranteed Income was part of a national effort. And we were one of 25 cities, the first 25 cities to be a part of it. And the research was done by the University of Pennsylvania. It was very research intensive. There was a lot of things we couldn't do because they wanted to make sure that they were collecting the same data across the country. The second one, as Lynn had mentioned, we were able to spend more time, provide wraparound services to that second cohort.

Thanks for that information. How has it changed throughout those years? I know the first year was set up kind of like a pilot, trying to see if this was something that would be helpful and useful. And I think it's been proven over the last couple of years that it definitely is. I'm just curious, what's our next step? Where do we take the program from here?

Well, the second phase, when we received the money from the state, we actually had some of the individuals that were receiving the dollars to be a part of a learning circle. So they helped to inform what kinds of supports and services that families receiving these dollars, what they really needed. And that was incredibly helpful. They were a part of what should we be evaluating? What didn't you receive and what would have been useful to you in the first round? So those were the kinds of things that we looked at. We brought in trainings for individuals, different financial trainings. This next round that we're going to be starting with a smaller cohort of 25, they're currently all part of the Center for Strong Families. So they're going to continue to get those kinds of supports and services. And we'll be doing focus groups and learning circles with them as well to continue to find ways that we can enhance the program.

That's great. I just want to say I think we're willing partners. trying to see what we can do to expand the program. I know there's lots of different avenues that the city tries to attack, like affordable housing and issues like that. But a lot of the research shows that just putting money into the hands of folks goes a long way. And so I'm interested in how we can help grow the program. But thank you so much for the work that you're doing. You're welcome.

Thank you. Any other questions? Well, thank you so much for bringing this forward. We look forward to doing again to support your work.

Great. Thank you again. Thank you, Mayor.

All right.

I do have one other thing. I'm sorry. Poverty of Possibilities. I'll make sure you get that information. Wanted to promote the bus tour, but from Poverty of Possibilities, it's our 10th year. And Brian Goldstone is going to be our speaker. He's a Pulitzer Prize winning author of the book that focuses on working and homeless in America. And we know that a lot of people, you know, every day, we know them in our community that are working, but they're unhoused. And they're sleeping in their cars or extended stay hotels or couch surfing or shelters. So anyway, it should be a really powerful day. It's November 17th, 8.30 to 12.30 at the McGaddock Center. All right. Thank you, Donna.

It's Brian Goldstone.

Very good.

All right, informative presentation. Thank you so much. All right, our second agenda item, I see Adam queuing up here, is going to be a presentation from the Pierce County Tourism Promotion Area, proposed, amended, and restated interlocal agreement. I'd like to call on Tacoma Venues and Events Director Adam Cook to begin the presentation, also joined by Kelly Rankin, Project Manager for Civitas. Welcome both.

Thank you, Mayor Ibsen, Deputy Mayor Bushnell, and council members. Just for the record, my name is Adam Cook, and I have the honor of serving as director for Tacoma Venues and Events. With me today, we have Dean Burke, president and CEO of Visit Tacoma Pierce County. And then joining us virtually is Kelly Rankin, the project manager for Civitas, who has helped move this forward. Welcome. We're here today to provide an overview of the proposed modification and amendments to the interlocal agreement governing the Pierce County Tourism Promotion Area, or TPA. This item will come before you tonight on the agenda, consent agenda, as resolution 42017. Next slide, maybe. Next slide. Ooh, the flashy screen of fun. All right, we'll come back to it. So as we get the slides up, the Pierce County Tourism Promotion Area was established in 2009 under RCW 35.101 through an initial interlocal agreement between Tacoma, DuPont, Fife, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, Sumner, and unincorporated Pierce County. Under this authority, the TPA levies a per-night, per-room special assessment on lodging businesses with 40 or more rooms. So this does not affect short-term rentals. It is only focused on hotels primarily. In Pierce County, this assessment ranges from $0.50 to $1.50 and is passed on to the guests. It is expected to generate just over $1 million in 2026. We'll see if it works. doesn't want to work. The Washington State Department of Revenue collects the assessment and remits the funds to Pierce County, who administers the TPA program. The TPA commission then decides the annual budget and appropriate use of the funding within the guidelines of the RCW itself. These guidelines require the funds to be used for tours and promotion within the member jurisdictions, including convention, trade show, and leisure travel marketing, sports event recruitment, and other opportunities to drive tourism to our region. And with that as our background, I'd like to turn things over to Dean to discuss why the current TPA is in need of amendment and the changes that are proposed.

I'll figure this out one way or the other. Good morning, or good afternoon, wherever we're at now. Looking at why the modification needs to happen, the current TPA rates that were established in 2009 have not been adjusted since. This change helps keep our market, Pierce County, competitive. It keeps us from losing hard-fought existing business that has been brought in. The actualized collection here right now sits at about $0.94 per room night. The dollar value in 2009 cost us $1.56 today. And there are eight peers in Washington state that are outpacing us considerably. Bellingham at a flat $5 across the board for all of theirs, Spokane the same, Spokane Valley at four, Yakima at four, Union Gap at four, Tri-Cities, and Walla Walla both at three. Seattle was at four, but they changed their system to a two point four percent rate So their functional average sits between seven and nine so considerably higher Tacoma and Pierce County the model remains under the proposal as a three tiered System we have a three three different rates collected because of the diversity in the size of the county This was chosen by the hoteliers. This was their voice, and this is for best fit and equity countywide and So I'm not running slides so going to slide number four in your packet there the proposed modification Is requested it was requested by a petition of the lodging businesses under RCW at 35 Excuse me 35 101 0 2 0 and RCW 35 101 0 5 7 with corresponding amendments to Pierce County Code chapters 2.9 1 and 4.1 8 the current rate structure is broken and into Zones A and B, which combine a $2 base charge under the RCW 35, or 101.050, excuse me, with an additional charge of $3 and $1 respectively under RCW 35, 101.057. The additional charge authority expires in July of 2027, unless extended by the legislator. If it expires, the amendment provides a fallback schedule of $2 for Zones A and B and a $1.50 charge sent charge for Zone C. The current boundaries include unincorporated Pierce County, DuPont, 5 Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, Sumner, and Tacoma. The proposed boundary sees the changes with Fife withdrawing and Ruston joining. Unincorporated Pierce County remains as does DuPont, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, Ruston, Sumner, and Tacoma. The current rate model is a three-tiered model with Tacoma at $1.50, Lakewood and Puyallup at $1, DuPont, Gig Harbor, Fife, Sumner, and Incorporated Pierce County at $0.50. As per the wishes of the hoteliers and their committee, the affected rates will propose to go to Zone A of downtown Tacoma gets rezoned. to $5, Zone B, Lakewood, Puyallup, Tacoma, non-downtown areas of Tacoma, and Ruston at $3, and then Zone C, DuPont, Gig Harbor, Sumner, and unincorporated Pierce County at $1.50. And so we're going on to slide five. The industry support and revenue impact looks like this. The TBA Hotel Commission voted unanimously on March 11, 2026, to advance the modification and circulate a petition based on the criteria I've walked you through. They have returned the petitions back at 67% on the first run, at a minimal requirement of 60%. There are approximately 10 of Tacoma's lodging businesses among those petition signers. There's just under 60 hotels currently right now, by the way, that collect this countywide. The petition estimates that the modification will increase the annual TPA revenue by approximately $2.5 million, and all additional charge revenue is dedicated to the tourism promotion purposes as stated in the petition. Allocation of the fund says that has a change that at least 90% of the Funds go to an organization whose primary mission is the year-round tourism promotion in Pierce County That is visit Tacoma Pierce County And up to 10% of that will now become available as a grant program for qualifying tourism promotion activities as determined by the TPA Hotel Commission Slide six The amended and restated, what the amended and restated interlocal agreement changes is parties and boundaries. So we mentioned Fife coming away, Ruston coming in, and the rezoning of downtown Tacoma. It is a different map than had been originally created. The revenue and allocation uses, so the 90%, 10%, the 10% is a new piece making opportunities available to other efforts. Future rate and zone changes, so again, as the map showed and under the RCW guidelines of what is allowable and to be collected now, as is the zone and zones and assessment rate changes as well. The hotelier commission composition changes with no fewer than seven voting members, up to four from Tacoma, up to one of each for DuPont, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, Ruston, Sumner, and Pierce County, and up to five non-voting ex officio members on three-year terms. And the execution of filing is effective immediately after adoption by the county council and the participating city councils.

So as... I don't want to... As we talk about the process and timeline, Dean mentioned this has been going on for quite a while now. It has actually been going on for several years. The hoteliers have finally, in 2026, gotten this across the finish line on their end as to getting everybody engaged and supportive of the amendments. So starting in March, that TPA Hotel Commission voted unanimously to advance. Then through summer, it has been getting the petition signed. Dean mentioned we have crossed the 60% threshold of all hoteliers supporting this. In September, this was considered by the Pierce County Council. They are taking initial action, as are all of the ILA participants. So every city, we are one of the last to come on board with approving the ILA amendments. Once that is done, it will go to the county council for their review and approval and eventual ratification with the expectation that first funds will start being collected in April of 2027 based on the state's collection timeline. And with that, happy to answer any questions.

I appreciate the expedited presentation. Thank you. Council Member Zadalga.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a few questions. I think you kind of touched on it. This is a dedicated fund and it can only be used for certain things. If I recall, you said 90% goes to visit Pierce County and 10% goes to other qualified activities is the statement you guys made. Yes. Can you give me examples of other qualified activities?

That's a new piece, so that'll have to be set up. So that didn't exist previously?

It did not exist previously. Got it. And roughly how much do we collect now, and how much more do we expect? I figure it's like a 2.7x if I just did.

You currently collect about 1.1, and this will increase it by about 2.5.

Got it. And what does it allow you to do at Visit Pierce County that you couldn't do before?

Well, again, with the increasing costs going up, P&A and overhead costs are driving returns down, right? So we've been sitting at the same collection rate since 2009. So this gets us out of what is now a declining line, right, of returns. and gets us more competitive with the rest of the state.

Because maybe better for everyone else over there, what does Visit Pierce County do for us is a better question.

Our first metric is we drive overnight hotel room night stays through the recruitment and delivery of conventions and meetings, amateur sports events, and leisure travel. We currently book about 15% to 17% of the overall hotel inventory sold in Pierce County wide. That is a remarkable number for an agency our size.

So one out of five, roughly.

Roughly, yeah. It's in that 20% area. We are the agents that sell and book the convention center in downtown here, for example, whose numbers we have effectively doubled since 2022. And I'll say since 2019, even a pre-pandemic number. So in broad strokes of that, I'll actually be back here next week on a more full tourism presentation. Otherwise, separate of this, but yeah.

That's fine. I just wanted to make sure the people who, I'm sorry, Adam, you had something to say.

Oh, no, I was just going to filter in just a little bit there. In terms of the overall impact Dean mentioned a little bit, we have increased, just looking at the convention center alone, from something in the neighborhood of about 15,000 room nights to 45,000 plus over the last several years. All of the money that is funded through the TPA, as well as other funding sources, comes with a specific metric for return on investment. And that's specifically categorized around room nights and the spend that comes with those dollars. The minimum base average is 2 to 1 to qualify for the funding. Most of Visit Tacoma-Pierce County is helping out of Landon. Close to 5.

Yeah. For every million dollars we spend, the baseline requirement is 16,000 room nights generated. We trend at about 35,000 per million. Thank you.

I was just trying to give anyone who's listening in several kind of key points over here. One, this isn't a quote unquote tax increase that the city's using to fund a $40 million deficit because this goes back into the industry and ultimately what it's investing in is marketing that allows us to get more people to visit here. and spend time here, correct?

Correct.

And so that is why it goes through a commission, the commission of hoteliers to agree to this because there is a benefit directly back to them. I am happy right, as a council member here, because the best money we could have, you know, is other people's money. People that come here, that don't live here, that still spend money because, as we all know, we have a regressive tax system and we rely on sales tax quite a bit. And so every single person that comes here, visits, and goes to a coffee shop or goes to a local business and spends money gives us some amount of revenue that helps us on the budget. So there will be an impact on the budget. It can't really be determined very easily. But this isn't, you know, I don't want people to conflate that this is another mechanism we're trying to do to just increase taxes just to fill a budget deficit. This is one that is supported by the industry that is being taxed so that they can increase their total amount of business that they do in the city. Correct. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Hines. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I guess on a more technical question, why would a city want to join this, right? So why is Fife one out and why does Reston one in? You're doing your work to kind of draw people into the region, so isn't there a free rider problem of a city like you're drawing people into the region and they're coming and staying in a hotel and now they've got to – I guess why does Reston want to be part of this?

Well, they've added a hotel, the Silver Cloud.

So does some of that revenue come back to them?

I mean, in bookings, yes, absolutely. In hotel bookings, yeah. That's where the return is for them. So yeah, they were very assertive. They wanted to be in this.

Because once they're in, then you all drive bookings towards their hotel?

Correct.

What I was trying to figure out is, OK, so I'm in Ruston. I'm already in the region. You are attracting conferences. Our people in Tacoma are paying for the hotels. I have a hotel in Ruston. Why would I want to have my people pay more if there's not a benefit? But I understand now. Once they're in the area, you're driving bookings towards that hotel or those hotels?

We'll start not once they're in the area, bringing them into the area at all from the nexus, yeah.

And why would Fife want out? They're just not seeing the return on investment?

Massive decay in inventory there. Most of their properties were turned into shelters or burned down or otherwise. And what's left standing is kind of like hourly kind of places. So it wasn't the right fit for the region. So yeah.

I figured that was where it was going to, so it would be converted to housing. Is the cap at 40 or more generated by state law, or is that something we could change?

Yes, state law.

And obviously we're not talking about Airbnb because they don't pay these, correct?

Correct.

And that's because it's under a separate chapter of the code?

It's under LTAC, yeah.

Okay. I think that was more my question. I'm excited that we're getting ourselves in line with a lot of the other states. Places around us, and it definitely doesn't make sense that we haven't changed this to 2009 When so much has changed is that so? Thank you. Thank you.

That's right. That's our problem.

Thank you Thanks for the presentation. I was just curious how long if you know how long some of these other cities have had the higher rates and

I believe up to the $5 ceiling, I think, began in 2021, I believe. And they all rushed right in within months of it. So since then, yeah.

My question for that was, I guess I was wondering, it feels like maybe we've lost out on some of the funds. And so I don't know if there was any conversation around building in, hey, for inflation, we're going to adjust this rate.

Or if it if any of the hotelier atelier were interested in that I Don't think that's possible at the state level just the way that the structure is but yeah good idea Yeah, the the state's amendment in 21 that approved the changes put the cap at five dollars So it was previously a cap of two dollars, and then they moved that cap up to five So we still have wiggle room then oh, no, just we're down We'll be okay.

Thank you

Thank you. Deputy Mayor? Thank you, Mayor. Good job. In my previous life, I was actually also on the board, and we were talking about this back in... pre-COVID and trying to get it done. And then COVID just, whoo, it went crazy. But I know this is something that we've been talking about for a really long time. And I think a lot of folks, you know, you have to realize this is a self-assessment that the hoteliers are doing in order to drive more businesses for our community. And it just, it also supports the entire industry, even if they're not necessarily, even if there's like a city that's, I think, All the cities are a part of it at this point. Obviously, Fife coming off. But there's like a compression effect, basically. So it really supports a rising tide lifts all boats. The more room nights that are booked in downtown Tacoma creates a knock-on effect throughout the entire county. because there are still people that are trying to visit and come to Tacoma. And additionally, you have phenomenal staff that go out all across the country that are stumping for Tacoma, stumping for our convention center, and bringing those room nights here, bringing those conventions here. A lot of folks think, oh, we're competing with Seattle. We're not actually competing with Seattle when it comes to convention center. We have a very niche area that we're actually competing with places like Spokane, other like-sized cities across the country. And you guys have done a really good job of capturing some of those folks and bringing them here to Tacoma. And then when people see Tacoma and love it, they're like, we're coming back again, which is great. So just really appreciate all the work that you and your staff have done. I am really happy to see that we finally got to this point. I'm really happy to see that the hoteliers, I see overwhelming support for it. I was really concerned about potentially Gig Harbor falling off on that. It sounds like that they're interested in continuing to stay with it. So that kudos to you and the team to making sure that they see the benefit of having the TPA So really just looking forward to approving this. And I think with the additional revenues, I think your team is going to do even more and better and greater things out there and keep at it. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Adam, Dean, Kelly, thank you so much for your presentation. And we look forward to continuing the work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Our next item, we are talking about any other items of interest. Any that come up? Seeing none, are there any committee reports to share? All right, moving on to Agenda Review and the City Manager's Weekly Report. I'd like to call on Deputy City Manager Alison Griffith.

Thank you, Mayor, Mayor, and Council for your awareness. There are three ceremonials on tonight's agenda. The first is proclaiming Monday, September 21st, as International Day of Peace. The second is proclaiming September 10th through the 19th as Welcoming Week. And the third is proclaiming September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic and Latin Heritage Month. There's no modification to tonight's agenda. There is one opportunity for public comment. That's under regular public comment regarding motions, resolutions, and ordinances on tonight's agenda. If there's any questions, please let Hyun or I know ahead so we can have staff prepared to respond accordingly. And attached to the study session agenda is the weekly report to council. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very much, Deputy City Manager. All right. Seeing no other further business, is there a motion to adjourn?

I move to adjourn.

Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. We are adjourned.