Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

We're recording. Are You're ready?

Perfect. Thank you. I'd to call to order the Economic Development Committee meeting of March 2026. Clerk, will you please call? Vice Chair Bushnell? Present. Council Member Palmer? Here. Council Member Scott? Absent, Sheriff Diaz. Here. Moving on to public comment. Is there anyone who would like to give public comment? Has anyone signed in, or is anyone online wanna raise their hand? I see one little hand. I can't read the words. April. April. Great. Before we start,

I will have to say the public comment. To

request speaker in public comment, for items on the agenda, please sign up for the room. You're speaking virtually, please press the raise hand button near the bottom of the Zoom window for sign up surveying on your phone. Your name was the last four digits of your phone number to

call that one to take care of this week.

Yes.

April, I am going to mic privileges in May. I will start the clock whenever it starts.

Let us know. I guess if you can't hear us, April I know the mics have been a little spotty in here.

It just let me unmute. Okay.

And I will start the timer whenever you're ready.

Okay. Good morning, council members. April Smith, District 5. I appreciate the intent behind the CCR proposal, especially the recognition that community safety is about more than crime statistics. That's an important shift, and it reflects what many of us in Tacoma experience every day.

But this plan stops short of what is actually needed. It focuses on quick fixes, cleaning, lighting, and maintenance without addressing the underlying reasons these corridors are struggling in the first place. Businesses aren't closing because of litter. They're closing because of rising costs, lack of consistent foot traffic, and a mismatch between development and community needs. In Tacoma, we've seen this pattern before, investment without activation, infrastructure without community, and the result is corridors that look improved on paper but still feel empty and disconnected in practice.

There's also a real equity concern here, prioritizing areas that didn't participate in planning processes, risk overlooking communities that have already been asking for help and showing up to engage. If we want these corridors to succeed, we need more than quick fixes. We need sustained investment, support for small businesses, and most important importantly, real partnership with the people who live and work there. Let's not just make these spaces look better. Let's make them work for the community. Thank you.

Is there any other Zoom hands?

I don't

see any. Anybody in the room? Get you to go sign up and make it to? Okay.

Alright.

We will declare all the concrete closed, and we'll move on to our first topic, the Hilltop Business Improvement Area updates. For that one, I'll go ahead and call Debbie Vans from the Canadian Economic Development Department. Is Evelyn Huntia online? Yes. Okay. Jenny

Voltich. Yep.

Volcic, from Unclever Burgess. The Unclever Burgess folks are online. Debbie's here. I'll let you take it over. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sarah Diaz, the council members.

I'm Debbie Fangum with community economic development department. This today, we're going to give an informational update on the, BIA process formation process, in Hilltop specifically. But just as background, I think that you're aware, but in 2022, the city council allocated funding to our department to, work on seeing whether several areas of the city were interested in starting a BIA. So BIAs are all always driven by the the community, the property owners, but, it it's hard to start the process. And so we hired a consultant to help those neighborhoods see business areas see if they were interested.

We looked at Hilltop. We looked at the Dome District. We looked at 6th Avenue and, South Tacoma. And, throughout that, South Tacoma was kind of interested. 6th Avenue was kind of interested.

We met with them a little bit for a while, but, Hilltop has had the most interest and the most work done. So, we are getting down to the very end of the process, and I'm gonna let the the experts talk to you more about that. But we have extended our contract, just the length, not the dollar value, just the length of the contract with Uncommon Bridges through 04/30/2026. And so we're kind of coming down to a crux timeline of, when that there will be they won't be engaged with us any longer to help this process. So I'm gonna turn it over to Andreas and Jenny and let them kind of walk through what we've done in Hilltop and where

we are now and, most importantly, next steps. Thank Thank

you, counsel, and I'll apologize. My I've just coming back from losing my voice. So my voice, if you can't hear me, please just ask me to project, and and apologies for that. Andres Montia, with Uncommon Bridges. We've been working, as Debbie mentioned, my colleague Jenny, and the Uncommon Bridges team, since 2022 on this process, trying to be intentional with community engagement and and following this process.

And so we'll do a little bit of introductions, talk a little bit about the work to date, specifically where we are in in the petitions collected, kind of potential next steps, and a review of the community engagement to date that my colleague, Jenny Kovacic, can go into more specifics around. But before I do that, I'll turn it over to Jenny. It'd be go to the next slide, to introduce herself.

Hi, everyone. Nice to see you again. Jenny Kovacic. I'm the strategic adviser on this project, and I've been involved for the last three or so years. So not at the very beginning, but as we got deeper, into our work with Hilltop, I've been, involved in this process and on the ground with community, providing some technical assistance on what a BIA could do and could be beneficial for the Hilltop District, and happy to provide some updates today to you all. Thank you.

Yeah. We can go to the next slide. And, just a few reminders on the work to date, to anchor, the understanding of what the BI is trying to do. Go to the next slide. We are looking at about at about 506 parcels, within, the kind of center of Hilltop, which amounts to 212 ratepayers.

And through an assessment, which is located on the next slide here in a second, the total, proposed budget, is $604,000. You can go back one slide. Sorry. Queued you too early. The way that this works is through, kind of, conversations, with the community, with property owners, with business owners.

We both structured the boundary as you can see here on the left. We structured the services, and we started to think through based on a lot of the community engagement, what a ratepayer board could be composed of. So in this case, what was sent out to the property owners for signatures is a nine to 13 ratepayer board member with these very specific designations to represent different, kind of property owners, business owners, community members, and, some of the hospitals and then, community group represent representatives should this move forward. You go to the next slide.

Yeah. I'm

sorry. No. It's okay, Andre.

We were having some issues with the slides, but we're okay now.

Okay. So the way that this is structured and and for for just your awareness, the state law, which I'll quote here in a little bit, the state law does only does not allow the assessment of single family properties, duplexes, triplexes, in in this area. So you look at this map, what is being assessed are commercial properties, residential properties, and a commercial property with four or more units is considered accessible within the state law. The standard rate, as you can see here, TAV is the, is the appraised value, that we are working with the Pierce County assessor dataset to take a look at that, and then the, lot square footage, rate as well as as how big the parcel is. And then working with our, core group, we worked through two ceiling rates, one for a residential market rate residential ceiling, and another one for subsidized housing ceiling, of $65 per unit per year and $30 per unit per year of subsidized housing.

Working, with the city of Tacoma to develop that subsidized housing list of properties to make sure that there's clarity in the dataset of who's being assessed what. You can go to the next slide. The overall budget that's included in the first year, of and this is, kind of only the first year, shows, the breakdown of percentages in terms of these service areas with clean and beautification work, identified hospitality and outreach, business support specifically, as you can see, down towards the bottom around legacy business fund, but then, activation, marketing, and administration. Administration would be to, have the ability to for the for a new five zero one c three or a fiscally sponsored organization to hire, kind of a lead or an executive director, if you will, or a program manager to be able to coordinate these activities. And in many cases, as we've worked through the core group, this will represent working with existing organizations to to to provide, you know, these services around business support activation, marketing, etcetera.

And then just a note that in the in the petition packet that was sent out, there is a commitment to hire locally for up to 70% of the contracted services. So, again, $6,604,000. Next slide. So this is what was sent in the 2025, a a business plan. The business plan showed a fuller list of programs and services under each of the categories I mentioned, a an initial, kind of makeup of what a board could look like, but also a commitment to a grounding period should this move forward where the city of Tacoma would work with, with with the community and a community based facilitator to work through a grounding period, to better define these services with much more specificity of who's gonna provide them, how much money specifically would go towards towards each service, and we'll talk about that here in a second.

But this but these these packets were sent out in the fall of last year. Next slide. Okay. So RCW, as I mentioned, this the BI program, it's they're actually called parking and business improvement associations. In the RCW, it requires 60% of the assessments by business by business or multifamily residential or 60% of the assessment total.

So, importantly, not 60% of the ratepayers, but 60% of the rate the ratepayers representing 60% of the assessment to sign in favor of, of the petition of of moving this forward. The state law doesn't require us to collect, kind of no signatures. They're only it it requires us to collect, kind of signatures in the affirmative. And, and so we've been following, that 60% threshold in this work. You can go to the next slide.

And so where we are right now in this moment, as of actually last week when I sent these slides, I I haven't checked this morning. But, you know, the threshold need is 60%. We're at fifty three point two percent of of of successful petitions collected. We've been in conversation with property owners that we believe can get us to 58.97%. And you can see that last, percent and a little bit is, is still outstanding.

So, so we aren't at the threshold needed. You know? We would need to be able to reach 60% to be able to turn over the petitions to the city for verification in their in the city's process. But, I wanted to give an update as to where we are in the petition process. Let me well, we go to the next slide, and I'll turn it over to Jenny to take us through the community engagement portion of this.

Yeah. Thanks, everyone. So, again, we've worked since 2022, and we had a series of, core group meetings, which was basically meeting with key property owners who maybe had a larger footprint, a vast amount of employees, residential populations where, there were a lot of people who might be impacted to see what the interest was. And I'm sure you guys have all heard this before, but we had to see if there was a there there. Could we, you know, even get 30% of property owners interested and then continue to work and build that group out.

So what started as a group of, you know, maybe 12 or so folks became an email list of a 140 to a 150 people. And so we continued those meetings pretty regularly and went through the process of building out what we think services could look like for the district. And that's where some of the services changed, including the legacy business district, transparency requirements, the local hire requirements, the the grounding period. And so it was really a joy to work with community and hear from them and and be able to adjust with you all on what this could look like in ordinance. So if if we head on to the next slide here, so one of those kind of changes that we made with community was the board appointment process.

This first board would work through council, hypothetically, through a standard application that that you all might have a bit modified and managed by perhaps Debbie and Carol overseen perhaps by us giving some technical assistance. And the economic development committee would then review the applications and have that first appointment. So that makes up the first board that would work in that grounding period of of six months or so. And then that's where we would kind of drill down what those services look like a little bit more in-depth. That's the one piece that we've heard from community in the last, I'd say, year is hoping that those services would really be spelled out.

But as you all know, the service area buckets are the ones that don't necessarily change when when they're putting an ordinance in such a, like, a an umbrella. And then the deeper that we get into the details, the more that's an ordinance that has to be managed by somebody over time. So the goal would be that in that grounding period, the first board would have some bylaws and take action to determine what future boards would look like and then really held within community, within the people who who are appointed to that board to go through the grounding period and decide what the first year of services would look like. All in all, the process would take about eight to ten weeks, to get the board started and then that six month grounding period. We can head to the next slide.

So this corporate that, again, would be the the governing board application selection process. In the as Andres mentioned earlier, in a page of the actual business plan, we gave some parameters for what that board should look like, having big, property owners, so varying in size, geography, and then service that they provide to the community. We also worked with council to allocate some community seats as well. So that was something that was worked on with community and and with council to add. That's not always standard for a BIA, so it was something that was crafted in Hilltop for Hilltop.

Then the nonprofit that would oversee the funding for the BIA would either be selected or created during that grounding period who is fiscally, sound enough to be able to host that some 600,000 odd dollars and allocate it and has trust within the community. Year one service and program development, really, the the sub bullet points of what was in the business plan is what we would work on, who would the contracts go to, again, the bylaw creation, and then the first assessment bill would be sent after the six month grounding period. Next slide. So we're at next steps. Andres, do you wanna take this?

Sure. So as, Debbie mentioned, our, when we've come, to previous council meetings, we've kind of continued to extend the contract in terms of timeline. We're at the kind of last iteration of this. We wanted to give you an update as to where we're at. One of the things that resulted out of the last meeting is that we did, put up information on the Uncommon Bridges website, that we linked to folks so that they could understand a little bit more detail in a kind of stand alone website.

And as it's in shown in the next slide here, there is a hilltopbia@gmail for questions that's still, that we're still monitoring and still active. So I'm happy to stop there and, see if anybody has any questions, that we can answer.

Great. I'll look at my colleagues to see if anybody has questions they wanna start with. Yeah.

Thank you, chair.

Thank you for the update. I was wondering how long have has it been sitting at as far as, like, the positions during, like how long has it been sitting at 53.2%?

We've been at 53.2 for the last probably three and a half weeks, I wanna say. So and the conversations to get to 58 are kind of ongoing. We've been reaching out to different property owners, still to get to that.

How are you all feeling about the I guess, just the like, where's your confidence level that we're that you'll hit that 60%?

It's gonna certainly take some additional work. You know, the property owners that are making up that that that last percent in a little bit are isn't just one property owner. It's it's several property owners. And so in order for us to continue to do that, you know, a lot of them are owner operators as well. Some of them are not local. And so it's just tracking down, in some cases, the right the right person. And so, it's it's something that we're continuing to work through, but, you know, if it it would take some more time.

And then, I guess, are you you mentioned, obviously, that some it's some of it's hard to track people down. Is there any other reason that that you're seeing kind of come through as, like, this these are some of the top hesitations people have, or, like, these are some of the top reasons we're finding that we're not getting the response back at all, whether it's a yes or a no. Yeah.

I'll let I'll let Jenny yeah. Go ahead. Yeah.

That's a really thoughtful question. I would say one thing because of the amount of time that this process has taken and the original community groups that we started the process with shifting over time, that has caused a little bit of delay in clarity in the process in general. So I'd say that's that's one factor. A secondary factor is a little bit of a a waiting game. There are some property owners who are looking at other property owners saying, what are you going to do?

And then we'll follow suit. And then the third most common thing that I've heard over time is either this isn't going to do enough to address the issues that I have structurally around either the houseless population or drug use in public space, safety concerns, or I feel as though this might do too much that I won't have a a say in in regards to those same issues.

May I

add to, councilmember, I think that because of the length, Jenny alluded to the length of the process, we've had changeover in some of the major some of the major proprietors that we're still waiting to sign. They've had change in their management or change in their so we'll talk like, specifically, say Safeway. Safeway was all on board to start with. They were really excited, and then they got a new manager, and they got a new regional manager. And now they haven't said no, but they're not responding to us. And so we've had different issues like that where it's, I think we've had a lot more people who just don't respond versus no's. Right? Like, we've had a few conversations. Don't get me wrong. People have said no.

Apartment building owners and even other, just commercial spaces. But a lot of it's just that we haven't gotten to the decision maker too because maybe property is somebody you know? Even the hospitals. Like, there there's a lot of medical office space. It's not owned by the medical office there. Right? And so we could go out, get the underlying property owner, and then maybe to get them to talk about, well, what would the would your tenant want it? You know what I mean? And so I think there's been a lot of just nonclarity, which Jenny already said.

There's also this, to Debbie's point, some of our what would be our bigger rate payers, it's like a medical office building that's managed by one organization but owned by another, but they're all medical and the use is still medical. But, again, who is the actual point person who would be able to sign is not anyone who is physically, available to speak with.

Thank you. Other questions here? I'm sorry.

So if I'm reading between lines, we would need more time than April to get this done. Is that right?

Yeah. If we had more time than April, we I mean, it's gonna I I think at this point, yes, council member.

And then just for the sake of clarity, could you please talk a bit about that 60% again? Because it was a little unclear to me. You said it had to be 60% of the people that respond responded, but not 60% of the property owners?

No. It's, thanks for the opportunity to clarify. It's the law says it's that we have to collect petitions that represent 60% of the total assessment. So so it means that if you own more parcels within the assessment and you sign, that signature is worth more than kind of if you own less parcels. So that's the way the law is structured.

So and can I have

a look? Sorry. Clarifying question about you. And that is just for the petition that has nothing to do it's enacted, you have a board, and every board has every board member has the same power. Right? One vote one vote is one voice, and it's not that okay. So say you have a hospital member, they don't get 50% of the vote because they you know what I mean? So just to be clear, because Carol had told me there was some confusion in community about that, and it's really just state losses of the assessment has to be 60% of the total assessment. But once it becomes a nonprofit and they have their own boards or, any nonprofit where every board member's voice is equally valued.

Yeah.

Can you

That's

Can you then tell me how many, ratepayers make up that 53%?

Right. It's, about 14 ratepayers.

Out of there were a total, like, 60 some. Was that right, Andres? How many I mean, one person's, but actually different rate pairs.

Yeah. There is, sorry. One second. There is, 212 rate pairs, and and 53%, are about fifteen fifteen rate pairs.

That's because they own a lot of the area. Okay. Okay. That's that's interesting. You said how many total? 200 and?

Two hundred and, 212 total rate payers. And, yeah, I just counted right now. It's it's 15, rate payers that that make up 53.52% is which where we're at.

I

don't think it's been a big secret that I'm not a huge fan of of a BIA for Hilltop. I think BIA's work in other areas. Clearly, it's been doing amazing things downtown, but I I had a little bit more to say if this was, like, going to happen. But since it's not going to happen, I guess, or looking like it's not going to happen. I hope that we can take what we maybe learned from this study and and all of the work that you all put into this and maybe shift it.

We you guys did some great things with including, other folks into the board and kind of, experimenting with how this could work for Hilltop. But I think we can take this work and maybe move it even further to looking into something that brings community into this mix a little bit more than, you know, what it what what it is at currently. BIAs and some other communities have done more harm than good. And I think that the difference is when you have a community that's kind of ready and active and and first in all of the things that this could do, then they're they're able to use it a little bit better than a community that needs to be brought along more, needs to be to understand all of the possibilities, in order for it to be, helpful for the most people. And so, again, I'll I'll leave it at that.

Thank you for all of your work over these past years. And I do. I hope we can take this information and turn it into something that works better for our Hilltop.

Mr. Bashore, do you have questions? I do. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Diaz, and thank you both for all your work over the last two years on this.

It's been a lot, especially helping the economic development department and then all the community members that engaged in the process, those that were here before, and then those that, you know, a lot of folks have moved on and done other things as well. It's it takes a herculean effort in order to get a BIA together, and sometimes, you know, we're not able to really satisfy the the needs of everybody all at once. And I I would agree that, you know, I I look at the Anacostia Como partnership and their BIA and how successful it is. You know, every neighborhood is very unique in in the way that they wanna engage, in the way that they want these services rendered. And I think the the downtown BIA has done a good job of of getting the pulse of their membership and making it very successful.

They have to renew it every every year. Is it every year or every Every ten years. Every ten years. Yep. But they have to get a 60% threshold.

If they don't respond, it's an automatic no. So that that, I think, goes to how much engagement you need throughout the entirety time of this. And, you know, one of the questions I had and you you touched on it earlier for when council member Scott, the questions, and and a lot of it, it's regarding the kind of the sticky points that property owners may have on how the funds are being utilized. Is there anything else beyond just the specific, like like, specific, like, life and how that interact with that with that? Or are there, like, governance concerns, like who's on the board, who has to say, who doesn't?

Like, is there other things beyond that that might be sticking points that folks are not really interested in?

Yeah. It's a good question. I I think that what we have found through this process is that there's no, consistent definition or, there's a spectrum of opinions on things like unhoused policy and programs and needs. As Jenny mentioned, we heard some strong no's because they folks felt that there wasn't a strong enough proportion of the funds going to, to the kind of working with unsheltered folks and others that wanted less. And so their their the purpose of the grounding period was for us to get to level of specificity that could make sense for for Hilltop.

You know, we got to the point where it wasn't you know, our our role was to kinda give examples of what's happening in Seattle and other areas where we're doing this work in kind of similar communities, but not to bring kind of outside definitions for community solutions. So that was one. The governance issue around who you know, Debbie mentioned, does one signature and that signature represents more mean that they get a stronger vote vote on the board. We had to work through that misunderstanding as well in the core group. It's one one signature, one vote.

You know, we expanded nonratepayer seats on the board, which was which is actually something that was kind of newer for Tacoma, which is great. And then and then there are folks that just said, you know, the city should be providing more of these services. And there was a conversation of, you know, even at whatever rate that we're that we're doing, you know, know, the city should be doing this, and we had to work through this kind of, like, this is an enhanced service model, which is what biz business improvement areas are. And they aren't replacing city services, but they're allowing kind of local control of locally raised dollars. So council member, there were different opinions, across all of that.

You know, the there were some really strong no's, and there were some strong yeses. And, you know, there were a lot majority of the people that were just kind of in between. And to Jenny's point, there are some folks that are saying, you know, I'm I won't I won't sign until I understand that, like, that there's a pathway here. And so so we've been kinda working through all of those scenarios.

Great. Thank you. And I know the the contract ends on the thirtieth. What what is what is what is the next month look like? What is May look like? And then are we what to to council member Paul, are we gonna learn from this? And and I think that there's an opportunity that we engage other business districts with the from that they may would may like to do. What are some lessons learned? What's what's what's what kind of product can we get out of this in order to support the Hilltop business area? Because I think there's a lot of good work that went into this that I wouldn't want us to lose.

But then what have we learned that we can that maybe apply to other areas that might, be looking to do business with the BIA?

So council member, I think, two things. One, so there the contract with Uncommon Bridges ends in April 30, and we won't be extending that. It doesn't mean that the effort ends if it doesn't want to. It just means that we don't have a consultant to keep helping us. You know, the a BIA could be done without a consultant.

It could be done by, you know, lots of different ways. So I think as as city staff and in conversation with council, we'll have to decide how much more effort we wanna put in or do we really wanna say, you know, call it either way. As far as lessons learned, I've talked a lot with Jenny about, you know, when we come out of this, we definitely need to have a a product at what we learned. Because, you know, we'll all admit that, you know, it did processes like these don't go smoothly, always a 100% smoothly, and we've learned a lot. And if we did if we had, you know, another effort, whether if the city was involved through funding, we would definitely use lessons learned.

But either way, we need to have that document so we remember, and we can, you know, have it so people know. And like you said, not only community we could give it to community or business groups, and we can also keep it ourselves so we know what we, you know well, you have to learn from our mistakes. And they weren't huge mistakes, but, you know, things change over time. And, you know, I think one of the things just yeah. The length of time. I mean, we obviously learned a lot in three years of work. So

Yeah. I think I think time bound and having a goal line, and if we didn't reach it or we do reach it, you know, and it's like, hey. Here's the decision point at some point. You know, I'd I'd like personally, I'd like to see us find a way to, you know, if if we're not I obviously, we wanna continue to try and pursue a VA if possible, but it really has to be a community driving that conversation, not necessarily the city we can help facilitate it. And but if there are other areas that are looking to do this, I think we wanna help facilitate them to get to that point.

And then what does this at what point is do we set this up in? Will we shift priorities to areas that might be more engaged in trying to do something with this? So that's what I'm looking forward to. Thank you.

K. Are there further questions? I have quite a few myself. I'll try to get it typed up. I think Andres might have said this while we were trying to figure out the views, and I just didn't hear it. Is that this is not time bound. Right? So this they can collect petitions forever. And then whenever they have 60% of whatever that moment is, right, as property owners change, but whenever they get to 60%, we could end up with the ordinance before us next year or the year after.

Or let me just check with the experts. And what do you think the RCW says doesn't have it coming down?

The the RCW isn't very specific on that. It's it's more of a local, preference, for the city to determine. You know, in other cities, you know, once we turn in the petitions and say these are in support, you know, here are the folks that that sign and support that make up the 60%. There's a process, you know, by which to kind of check back in and say it you know, and kind of affirm support. And, you know, the the opportunity for Tacoma is that this is the first BI expansion beyond the the work of the downtown. So there's an opportunity to to for those policy conversations and determinations to be made.

Thank you. Because if I'm not mistaken, one of the reasons that Uncommon Bridges was chosen as the partner to help this work was that y'all have done this work in several cities in other places. Correct?

Yeah. That's right.

And so I guess my question is for y'all, so I'm not picking on David because he happens to be in the room. But I'm wondering if there's other places where you've seen as you're trying to form a BIA working with the community on that where folks do just get to that minimum threshold rather than getting to, say, 80, a 100, how that has worked. What are you talking about that? Like, how that how that has worked in formation and later on how that has gone? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, we've been a part of several, if not, you know, most of the BIs in Washington State and then the Pacific Northwest. And and, typically, you know, there is a push because it's really hard. You do through all the issues that we've talked about to get to that 60% threshold by law. And then once and this is a lesson learned that Debbie was talking about is, you know, the issue around, like, sustained capacity at the ground level to be able to kinda work, you know, day to day with property owners, business owners, community members to continue to build that momentum and that awareness, you know, that continues post, the formation if it moves forward.

So, typically, once you get to 60, you know, the petition process is over, and then you move to the kind of work of the organization.

I'd like to add on to that that typically in a in a first year organization formation, there is usually, like, a a chamber or some sort of organization that helps foster and hold a lot of the those relationships already, which means that getting to, like, a 50% threshold or something sometimes happens a bit faster. But I wouldn't say that what we're experiencing now is uncommon to get the word out and and build that trust a little bit. Typically, in a renewal, and I'm sure you guys see this in Downtown Tacoma, when people are more familiar with the organization, have trust with the organization as the BIA and see the services, a renewal happens pretty easily and above and beyond the threshold.

Great. So if I can maybe put a finer point on it. I guess my question is in the, say, I don't know, the most recent 10 of these that you've done, if you've done that many, have there been some that have gone through with 60% or just this bare minimum percentage that have succeed like, what is the over under? Do they typically succeed, or do they typically fall if they only have this minimum threshold?

I don't think It it it typically, for if in our experiences, if we're going to petitions, they typically succeed, and they typically meet the 60% threshold. And it takes it takes time, and the hardest the hardest portion of that petition is, like, the last 10%.

Okay.

So for clarification, did you mean succeed long term, or did you Yeah.

I meant long term. So, like, if there's already a Ballard Association, but if I just pick on whatever. Right? So they just formed that last year. They only had 60%, and then in the future, they ended up being very successful. I guess I guess my question is, do they do they ever fail once they get to just this minimum 60%, or or do they only get to 60 and then they only ever get better?

Yeah. I mean, we've we we haven't been part of a BI formation expansion or working with the BI that once once it's formed, isn't continuing to grow, do work, and has to kinda be rescinded or redrawn. So once I don't it just I I could have to look through all the list, but I don't nothing comes to mind of a BI that we've had to kind of work to to to remove the the the work that they've been doing.

Okay. Great. So, usually, when once people get to a threshold, once a board is formed, once an organization exists, it's really uncommon for them to be removed and taken away by the by the ratepayers. That's correct. Our in

our experience, to Andres' point, now does does that happen across the country from over the 4,500 that exist? Probably, just like any other nonprofit organization.

Great. I think that's what I was trying to get to is I think if there are still folks in the community who are trying to get to these petitions, with the hope that eventually they could create a PIA, eventually they would build trust. I think I'm just trying to get a handle on that, but hopefully understand that a little bit more. And then I think my other question was around the email that has been set up. I'm wondering if city staff has access to that as well so that when the contract's over, but someone is still checking that inbox.

We can. Right now, we haven't. We've kept them, but they can give us access.

It'll be like the contract is. And contracts in the exit and every documents or whatever that looks like? Mhmm. Okay. Because I do wanna be mindful that we we did.

I remember the last time that folks came to the committee, there was a lot of interest in getting that website and getting that email form because there was so many outstanding community questions. So I don't wanna lose that as a as a resource because whoever is still interested in the community informing this should theoretically be using the tools that have already been created and exist. And then I think just maybe a last question for Uncommon Bridges or WPNO is remind me because I think this was happening right as I joined council because I remember us talking about folks in Southcom having interest, folks in other business districts. Wasn't this originally proposed by either the Hilltop Action Coalition or by the business district or by other community groups in the Hilltop area? And now some of those groups are in different leadership or just in different formats.

Is that is

that our recollection right? Yep. That is correct. And they can, Jenny, if you wanna speak to that. But

Yeah. Yeah. That's correct. The the onus behind this effort was the business district and a few others saying, hey. We would like to explore this. This is a model that we've heard about. And so the contract that we originally crafted with the city of Tacoma was to explore it in multiple regions, but it did come out of a need or desire from community.

K. Because I think that that's how this as a proposal and an RFP process won out over other business that wanted it. Right? Because there was more business owner or local support for it there. There was almost a perception there was more infrastructure there than in some of the other places where we were sort of asking if it could happen there.

Right. So that's why when we first started, we did we were actively meeting with several different business districts at one time or I mean, that's not district boundaries, but, you know, South Tacoma came on later but had an interest. They were doing the South Tacoma plan. Right? So they were really interested at that time. 6th Avenue, we met with for quite a while, and there were some interest, but then, again, we had a different property of change. People retire and sell their place, and so that one kind of died down. The dome never really got off its feet just because there's so much going on in the dome. But, and and, we even talked

to Ruston.

Ruston we talked to, and they decided, like, they should just wait until all that goes on, and we talked to Proctor for a while. And so but then yeah. So Hilltop was really the one that had most legs, and the original, ask from Hilltop was specifically three community members who were really involved in Hilltop at the time. Mhmm. And then over three years, their lives changed, and they're not as involved. And I really think one of the if I'm blunt, I think one of the core issues that we had in Hilltop was we did not have a a group of people on the ground who were necessarily pushing this. Mhmm.

I

mean, they were to start like they wanted it, but then when we started going, really, Uncommon Bridges was carrying a lot of that water where I think in a more successful scenario, you would have that you know, the bucket would have been changed from Uncommon Bridges to a group of property owners who really wanted to see it pass. And while, like, obviously, 53% are were really excited right away, they weren't necessarily still, they didn't have the time. They weren't calling other property owners and saying, hey. Did you get this? Could you sign it? It was still on Cotton Bridges and

Mhmm.

And other people doing that.

Yeah. So the super yes folks have not started organizing themselves. Exactly. Yeah. Yes, please.

I think from the, like, the community side of this that I've heard of, like, since joining the council, it's you know, I think that there has already there's already some fracture between some of those, like, initial folks who want to take some ownership over it, also the business district and the community at large, as well as, like, folks who are more involved in the business district association, but also, like, the business district itself as a kind of more, you know, less specific entity. But I think that there's just historically between people in the hilltop and and business and government, there's been a whole lot of, like, distrust there because, you know, I I a lot of people think of a BIA. They think of gentrification. Gentrification, when it's good, can be good in the sense that we're getting more of the things

that are needed. We're getting more resources.

We're getting more amenities.

We're getting more density and space and and activities to do. But a lot of people see things like this, and they speak displacement. They it's not that they're inherently against, you know, their neighborhood growing. They just have experienced through so many generations that every time their neighborhood grows, they don't get to be around to experience that growth in a way that feels it feels like you mind all of our our lived experiences, our needs, what we know as people who, live and, like, navigate this community intricately about what's gonna make it good, and then we bring all these things in, price us out, and we get to see other people enjoy the fruits of our our labor and and the struggle that we've come through. And so I think even if, you know, Uncommon Bridges had boots on the ground every single day, if there were a couple of big, you know, ratepayers, property owners who were out there calling people, I think that and even if we got to 60%, I think that because there has been there hasn't been enough done to really get people on the same page of, like, understanding the history and what causes this really acute distrust and, like, hesitation that it the further it went without addressing that, the more that fracture solidified.

And so I think it just got to a point where not only were we facing, like, oh, you know, there are people who are out of town that we can't get in touch with, and there are people who aren't sure this is gonna be what they need it to be or what they want it to be. I think that, you know, there was a sentiment in the community where there were people putting up yard signs that say no say no to the Hilltop BIA. So I think that there's also, like at the end of the day, business owners want people to come through their doors, but they also and so if they're seeing that there's sentiment in the community that this might be controversial, this might lead to people saying, well, don't go there because they want the BIA. I think they're gonna be less hesitant. So I think that there is a lot of, like, interpersonal community, like, relation type work that probably needed to happen and would still need to happen even if this got to 60% for this to work out in a way that wasn't going to be ongoingly contentious for.

And I know, you know, they said that they have to they would have to go through some data, but I I could see that if it kept going at the rate it is with the type of tension that there is between, like, business owners, property owners, ratepayers, then the the community at large, that this could be one of those things that ten years we come back that it doesn't get approved. So I I, you know, I I think that that's a piece that can't be missed in this, that there was a lot of work for this community. And I think it's important thinking about other communities because, you know, a lot of people who have been displaced from the hilltop live in South Tacoma now or they live in the East Side. And then there are people who have lived in the East Side Of South Tacoma for a really long time who feel similarly. So I think that that piece of the work can't be understated, especially going forward in other communities that have been marginalized and traditionally left out and have a really big and valid distrust of things like this.

Thank you.

Great. I think that's all of my questions. Melissa, can I close your remarks? Thank you. That was super helpful. Really glad we got to do this update while Oncoming Virgin was still on contract. Looking forward to what we hear at the end. We will I think we have slated, if I'm not mistaken, into our EDC rolling agenda of a synopsis after the contract ends. So we will bring that back should it be timely and appropriate.

But thank you. Thank you

very much. Great. We're gonna move on to the next topic now, which is high investment corridors with proposed resolution from. That's all on you.

Thanks, Mary. Appreciate it.

Okay. But I

am excited to share the presentation with with you all. So once the slides are up, I'll jump right in. And I hope that's a little longer discussion, but hopefully, we'll have a little time for discussion afterward. And if not, I'm available happy to make myself available for me. Follow-up with anybody. Thank you. We can go to the next slide. So, I gave a preview of this idea during one of our past meetings, although the, the scope has shifted just a little bit since then. And so today, I'll review the idea then go over a draft proposal for the council resolution. Next slide, please.

Various parts of of our city have been have seen robust investment in public and private infrastructure in the past ten years or so. This includes a range of new buildings, transit, new roads, businesses, public art, and much more. The pictures on this slide are from the a three block section of MLK in the Hilltop that has received several high profile and costly investments, including sound transits, like link light rail, the tea light, new apartment buildings, new public art, new businesses. And there's also been a couple of other road projects, like, not directly on Hilltop, but that or on MLK, but that directly impacts people getting to to this specific corridor. What's been bothering me a great deal about these locations, which we are calling high investment corridors, as you can see on the top of slide, is how we're treating some of these locations after the investment is made.

And we can go to the next slide, please. I think we all know that investment in infrastructure doesn't automatically generate economic development or spread growth to our neighboring areas. And when people feel that an area is unsafe, it doesn't matter how much money has been invested into the infrastructure. Most people choose not to go there. Perceived lack of safety can result in low daily foot traffic, business closures, vacant properties, low occupancy rates, and a general overall struggle to spread economic development outward.

Next slide. The city council has had some very important discussions in the past few years about community safety. Safety used to largely refer to the absence of crime, but today, we know that the perceptions of community safety go far beyond policing. People can feel unsafe when they see areas of litter, trash on the ground, graffiti up there on the building walls, overgrown landscaping, insufficient lighting, and much more. And I to the point of our speaker of public comment today, just also wanted to mention that this there are many pieces that go into solving all of the issues that our our communities need to kinda start thriving, especially in economic development since, and this is just one piece of addressing that progression.

So we can go to the next slide. Sorry. I also wanna show you pictures from both the MLK Corridor and a similar high investment corridor in the Lincoln area. So these are from the MLK Corridor, which has no shortage of issues that make people feel that can make people feel unsafe. You can see in the pictures that there is that there's litter, there's trash, there's untapped landscaping, there's vacant properties, and there are plenty of other other things going on.

The what's in what is the impact of this kind of environment on the MLK Corridor is and I hear from businesses that, you know, they struggle. They've had to think about closing or selling their selling their businesses if they can. Vacant properties have had a hard time quickly securing new leases, especially in our in, like, the apartments with the commercial on the bottom. And apartment buildings are also struggling to find tenants. All these factors add up to the high investment corridor at risk of decline.

Next slide. And these photos are from the two block Lincoln corridors, similarly shown show a high investment corridor, one that the city spent a great deal of money on with boarded up storefronts, graffiti, and dead landscaping. So what can we do about these areas? They don't necessarily need multimillion dollar investments. Next slide.

I believe that these areas would benefit greatly from quick impact projects that enhance community safety and create an environment where people from across the city want to go shop, eat, relax, and enjoy the already multimillion dollar investments that have been made. And to be clear, that doesn't mean somebody can't come in and make a multimillion dollar investment in case there's any big benefactor out there listening. I'm just saying that there are things that we can do that aren't gonna be in those can help us enjoy what investments have already been made in a more safe and community focused way, but also allow us to handle that. So but because we have deepened our view of community safety, we know that there are far more tools available beyond police safety to help with that safety. Many of the issues that contribute to community safety can be addressed with quick impact projects that might take up to ninety days and would rely only on existing city services and resources.

So we're not talking about creating something for active. Next slide, please. So I've shared a draft council resolution proposal that would take all this information and essentially do three things. One, affirm the potential for high investment corridors to serve as drivers of economic growth and development. Second, it would recognize the importance of improving community safety along high investment corridors that are in risk of decline.

Third, it would direct the city manager to prioritize these locations for quick impact projects aimed at enhancing community safety using existing resources to increase communication with the corridor. Ultimately, I believe that our ILessman border can be enjoyed by a much wider range of our community and that they can do more to spark the kind of economic development that we are hoping and wanting to see at Decor. This revolution doesn't mean that the city would stop providing services and resources to each and every neighborhood. It also doesn't, you know, limit us to only this. We will you know, there's like I said, this is one piece of addressing a larger problem.

So this doesn't limit us to not continuing to be creative and proactive in finding ways to address all of the things that go into community safety and economic development. But instead, it would recognize that these corridors do need help and that we can harness the power of these corridors to corridors if we get a broader range of community members and visitors to use them. Next slide. And I am happy to answer any questions or if that's any additions. If anybody's interested in co sponsoring, I'd also note that. I'm excited to have

you on board as well. So

You. And I will just note for folks, this is just a discussion topic today. It's for informational briefing. And so the customer can get feedback for future proposal to not voting on

this today, but do you folks have a question?

Yep. Go ahead. Yep. Can you give an example of maybe a quick impact project?

Yep. So they're like, one of the things we have right on the corner of 9th And MLK at People's Park, there is a sculpture that has been there for years and years. And at one point, it was very vibrant, and there were people who, you know, initially kind of got together to get that piece there. It is in the city's art collection, but it's not necessarily, like, folks are out there immediately, like, constantly tracking it and making sure it's there. So something like this in case there wasn't funds directly in the arts division, like, wherever they might pull from for their public arts maintenance stuff, this could also help with with dollars to kind of, like, revamp that piece so that it's more vibrant as back to what it was originally.

Right now, it's, like, kind of peeling, and, again, it's very dull. There's graffiti all over it, so cleaning up that graffiti. That's not it's, like, something that's not necessarily obviously, owned by the the city, but it's something that impacts the community. You see it. It's one of

the first things that leads you into

that corridor, especially if you're on foot and so something like that. You know, we have a few other things we noticed. And some of this might again, we through looking to this, like, some of it might we might learn, like, oh, this thing is actually gonna be a much bigger project. It's not gonna take ninety days. Like, one of the things we noticed is that jobs at candy store, They have a really cool neon sign, but it's been up there for a while.

It's you know, could use a little bit of touch up. Is that something we could help with? Is that and is that something we could help with through this, or is that connecting them with, like, help help artists to help revamp their their sign or something like that? Don't I know exactly, like, how we would do that. Also looking at, like you know, there's a couple spaces that had awnings that were just kind of there a little tattered and and things like that.

So it's not being super prescriptive because in each neighborhood, what these impact projects look like can differ. But thinking about you know, it can also go to again, there are a couple areas where it felt like there'd be a little more light in here, so we have some some more lighting. It just kinda depends on on what the specific corridor might need, but those are.

Are are you picturing maybe community getting involved in some of these projects with the I'm thinking about that sign. It would be pretty cool to get you know, if we're talking about ways that community can kinda build trust between us and the city and that sort of thing to use some of these projects for that purpose.

Yeah. I mean and, obviously, like, this is a mix of the city coming in, which, obviously, this is money coming from taxpayers. And so, obviously, there there's that representation there. It is working with, you know, private businesses in some respects. Some of it is, like I said, city owned stuff, and so it makes it a little easier to coordinate.

But I think my intention would be that whatever project whatever, like, impact projects are happening, that there is community input. Obviously, at the end of the day, if it were and I haven't talked to Johnson's about this, so this I I don't wanna make it seem like that's top of the list or and I don't want Johnson's to think of trying to come in and redo that stuff. It was just something I noticed. It's my chronic sign. And so just making sure that it continues to have that life there.

But but, you know, like, say it was their sign. Obviously, like, I think the community will have, like because it's such a recognizable sign, the community would have a lot to say. Ultimately, it's their right to change their sign how they want. So, yes, it I guess it's a little, like yes, ultimately, as far as we can, but there are some decisions that will be made by the business owner if it's something specific to that specific business. That makes sense.

I I'm a huge fan of participatory budgeting, and so I guess I'm I'm wondering I haven't seen the CCR yet, but, if there's some kind of element there for helping you know, maybe community just helps us prioritize. Okay. If we list out all these things that are happening in these areas, and then they help us prioritize the you know, where where where we get to first, what we pay attention to first.

Yeah. I mean, I don't that is not interest specifically, but I think that they're again, so, like, if it's something that is coming from a specific business, Like, it is their request. That process has been a little different because it is their business than their building. When it comes to, like you know, one of the things we looked at were, like, the planters that are on the street, and a lot of them were some of them got moved and then replaced and that being replaced after the the light rail stuff, some of them got broken in transit, things like that. So, like, something like that where, you know, we noticed the planters. We noticed some of the benches and tables and things like that. What do we wanna do with them? That would be a very easy thing to talk to the community about. Like, is it do you wanna start with the benches? Do you wanna start with the tables?

Do you wanna start with the planners? Do you wanna start with so I think that there are ways to put that in there. I just don't ever wanna give anybody the false expectation that the commune that that the participatory participatory part of it can control all of it because, again, part of this is happening with, like, private businesses who ultimately have the say on what happened. So but I think as many places as possible, definitely, but that would be my.

I am super interested in cosponsoring and been through the CCR with the

Thank you. Thank you, Cher, and thank you so much for bringing us forward. I was really excited when you first talked to me. Maybe there's ways that we can do watch. We have, like, the best of our leads to kind of, like, enhance our business area.

And I I definitely agree that this is an alignment with a lot of the the strategic priorities we have with the council and city as well as one of the different districts. One of the things that and and actually, because we just had a conversation about the BIA and a lot of the things that you're talking about, the BIA. Yeah. And so I think I I guess I'm I was, like, I was trying to think in my mind what is different with this that BIA wouldn't be able to help support and something that we are already doing as a city to try and support our business areas in the meantime. I know BIA is for our services beyond what we're doing.

And I guess we could do a little bit more focus, and and I think your to your point, like, impact our specifically, especially when it comes to, like, a fee graffiti. A lot of the work maybe we're doing a lot of that already. So and and you mentioned that as well. It's like, so how do we kind of focus that a bit more? And so what I'm hearing here is you would like to focus just to us a little bit more in some of our more effigastated areas.

So, like, our graffiti abatement as well as the, you know, the rapid mural program. Yeah. We're using you know, we've already enhanced them with our trash services with the cans and stuff like that with our excise tax. And then I think the other part of this also is and we're up here against, like, making sure property owners are keeping up with their properties. And so that that that kind of leads me towards more kind of enforcement.

And, you know, I know we wanna make sure that we have voluntary compliance as well. I'm really happy to hear that CVS is really looking at a complete. I think that might help enhance some of this as well. So I think it's really important property owners to take care of their property, but also so my understanding, they also need to be taken care of the the right of way to use their properties, just some of walks, landscaping, some of that nature. So I just need to think about a little bit more.

I I really like the idea of, like, having those focus areas, especially in locations that we're invested in. And I do think it it could potentially require more resourcing even though it's existing resources. We could utilize that, but especially if we're gonna focus a certain area that might take away from others. But I you know, maybe there's only that we can still do that and maybe not. So I I'm just trying to find what that balance is. So I'm really happy to to keep talking about this and and seeing.

Yeah. No. I appreciate that. And I I think that, you know, this is definitely so, like, as we were talking through it, you know, BIA definitely came up. And I, you know, I think that this is something this is not a BIA. This is not repairs. You know? This is taxpayers. Yeah. And so I think that that it can help give a good example of, like, what a BIA can be.

Obviously, like, this you know, what we can't with them being a smaller impact project, It's not gonna have the same, like, you know, what's it, like, 600,000 that the VA would accumulate in their assessed value and things like that. But I think it can give people kind of an entry way to see in, like, what some of this stuff can do when there's dedicated money toward it. I you know, hopefully, with as council member Palmer mentioned with, you know, making sure that it's kind of that we're thinking about how often and where we can get community participation. I think that that'll help kind of help figure out, like, especially if we ever do get to 60% of the VA and we get to a grounding period, I think that that part is gonna be really key because I I think figuring out how do we best set up the board to represent the ratepayers of the community simultaneously. It's going to be really key there and making sure that there are community members who have an understanding what this can do.

So, like, I think I'm not sure who brought it up, but, like, there's some communities, like, that were are already more equipped because they have a better understanding of things like this. And so this I again, I would hope it's like this is one of those things that can help people get that bar broader understanding. You kind of understand what the landscape is. It makes it easier for you to sit in a room and say, yes. I'm okay with that. No. I'm not okay with that. Yet the community, like, would be fine with this, or I'm not sure if we could go out to the community and talk to them about it, and I it can help with that balance.

But, yes, thank you for your comments. Thank

you. I guess a couple of thoughts I have that would help me have a better understanding of how this would be targeted is if there's resources to get some sort of a map of where the high investment corridors are in the city, especially overlap with because it it I guess the definition here.

I would

point councilor Palmer to the EDC. Know there's a draft CCR in there, the agenda packet. You'd like to look at that in the future. And I assume that will change such as for folks listening who might have seen the draft CCR result. A map would be helpful to know where the high investment quarters are because it is pretty specifically written in here that they would be a high investment corridor in a mixed use center and such as the visual representation of where where those places might be is helpful. Because it sounds like the presentation talked about Hilltop and Lincoln District, but there's definitely

Oh, that's fine.

I think so. Yeah. There's a lot more than those two. Those are just two really good examples. And then I would wonder if you might also consider coming to some of the district reps from those areas that you have, like, top of mind if the CCR is gonna prioritize them in any way or if this would direct resources to all of them at the same time. Because I also see there's a definition in here of high impact quarters at risk of decline. And I think if you talk to any business owner in any part of the city, whether or not they are in one of these defined areas or not, they would say that they are at risk of decline. Right? So, like, it's very what's the word? Very subjective.

And so I would wanna make sure that your language is is pretty clear in that so that folks can't, sort of twist it to make it mean something that you you're not intending it to mean. And then I think my other thought is wondering around the quick impact projects, like a clear definition of what that is or what that looks like. Mostly for fiscal purposes, I'm a little concerned about what kind of a fiscal note this is gonna have or look like and how we're dedicating resources because I think

part of the part of

the overlap with the BIA is that does have its own resources. Has its own board. This is, in my mind, a great idea, but also what could we take off the table from the next biennium if this is gonna be a next big project. Since the councilor Palmer's point, I think it does look like a new way to approach something like participatory participant budgeting or neighborhood planning. So in my mind, it seems like a really big innovative idea that probably needs a good amount of money dedicated to it for it to be really successful. So I'd like to either type out the definitions or figure out the funding stream so that we can make it, yeah, as successful as it can be.

Yeah. And I But no. I think that yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I appreciate that. And on the first part, like, I'm sure we can kind of work on math of, you know, some of those places. But, also, like, in talking to other council members, like, you maybe something that right now is fine, but a couple years, you wanna identify. But also wanna lean on other council members to, like, you know your districts maybe better than I do so you don't know those spaces off maybe off the top of your head before I have a chance to kinda go out and look around with the best team or whoever it may be.

It always

feels weird saying best team since the TS team.

But oh

my gosh.

And then as far as the, like, really wanting to and maybe there's a there's probably a way we can kind of tighten this up in in the the language, but, like, really wanting to keep it to the resource we have now so that will dictate kind of the level of of project that can be done. So if somebody was like, hey. What we actually need on this block is gonna be you know, we need 10 more street lights. If that would take up all of the money that is available, it's probably not gonna be the right project for this. And that might be something that we, you know, we talk with public works about or or something like that.

And so and it might end up taking a longer part of it. So really looking at those things that are going to be we, you know, we're trying to use the parameter of, like, something that can be completed in thirty six or ninety days because it's a little bit that lessens the scope of how big the project can be. I was a little hesitant to say, like, each neighborhood gets $10,000 or each neighborhood gets $50,000 because the need might be different than each neighborhood. So but that yeah. That's definitely something that I just work on. Mhmm. Thank you. Yeah.

Do have sorry. Just maybe for context,

for for thought, in Auburn when I was there, we had a it was called a facade improvement program, And about there was chunk of money that the Sydney would provide it every year for the downtown area. And the the the development team built out the facade program to kind of be what you were talking about where it was there was a three buckets of money. So there was city money, grant money, and then the last third of it, so $30.30 30 was the business owner, property owner. And the program is essentially offering with a contractor. They figured out whatever, like, the square foot price to paint a facade and square foot price to replace an awning.

And so then those three buckets of money could be combined to essentially for a business owner and a property owner to be like, hey. We wanna redo our facade, or we wanna do a facade and the awning. And so that way, it was, like, kind of a big program, and then anybody who wanted to partake in it could partake in it with the three buckets of money. So maybe, like, facade improvement program might be some of the conservation as, like, a title that might make more sense. So, like, the catchy title, I guess.

But, also, I think everyone knows that our team is also working on the commercial nodes. So just for for that there is going to be a shift from just neighborhood business districts to and I don't know what that ultimately will be, but I would just call it.

That might help you. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Super. Great. Thank you for bringing this forward. So cool to see how you're developing. We will move on to our next update. We'll come up to Jeff Colon here from the Center for Strategic Priorities to tell us about the 20 crew members.

Thank you, Jodiad.

Good morning.

Good morning, members of EDC. Whoever planned this agenda, brilliant, because, I think my presentation builds off of the previous two in talking about how can the city continue to use the levers that we have, but also acknowledge the many levers that we don't have access to that impact the economic development ecosystem, and how do we leverage our partners effectively in helping us to advance community goals in doing that. So what what I wanna talk to you about today is, the the Tacoma Anchor Network and provide you with a quick update on what the current progress of the network is, some key accomplishments as part of that, tell you about some strategic initiatives underway, some of which relate directly to, some of the work that you've talked about today, and, then talk about next steps and what a call to action around this work looks like for us as a city. So before I jump into things, when I say an anchor institution, just to be clear, to be an anchor institution, you gotta be big, you gotta be place based and rooted, and you have to be community minded. So those three things are what create what is an anchor institution.

And so, one of the things that you'll see is that there are, there are governmental entities that are not anchor institutions. Why is that? Well, even though they're place based and community minded, they probably don't have the economic or workforce assets necessary to really have leverage over the overall economic development of the city. So what we do is we bring together those institutions, which you can see here in the middle of the of the slide. By coming together, we leverage our collective spending power and hiring power to figure out how we can maximize positive impact on the local economy.

So really thinking about all of the money that we spend across these large organizations, all of the hires that we make across these large organizations. And together, by creating that those shared goals and those actions, what we're really seeking to do is to make sure that everyone that lives in Tacoma can work in Tacoma, and everyone that works in Tacoma can afford to live in Tacoma. And that is a very complex, set of of things that have to happen, but what better partners to have at the table than our largest institutions in the city working together to achieve that. Some quick impacts that I just wanted to share is in addition to tangible kind of goals around local hiring and local purchasing, which I'll talk to talk which I'll speak to more, there's also just this notion of increased partnership and coordination amongst these large partners. I skipped over the list, and I won't name them.

But what you'll see is that they largely fall into three categories, government, meds, and eds. So hospital systems and, colleges and universities. And so, collectively, you can just see there there's an immense amount of capital, immense amount of workforce, and immense amount of leverage over our our, economic ecosystem. And one other quick note, when we talk about the economic ecosystem, a key thing that we talk about in the Anchor Network is, if you think about somebody like PLU, they're not listed up here. They've had transition in terms of leadership.

That doesn't mean that they won't be up here. But why would PLU even be considered as part of the Anchor Network when they are not physically in the city of Tacoma? Well, the answer is that they have spending power that comes into the city of Tacoma. Right? And so our jurisdictional boundaries are not the same as our economic impact boundaries.

And so we talk about the economic watershed of Tacoma in the Anchor Network and what that looks like. So I don't know if you all have used that term before. It's been pretty useful for helping folks understand what we're talking about. But, essentially, what I wanted to say was that, separate from any goals, bringing these large institutions together and having, directors of strategic planning, strategic initiatives managers, VPs of community relations all talking to each other about how to do the work that we're trying to do, incredibly powerful. Then we do have our tangible goals and then specific initiatives such as the Tacoma Community Safety Collaborative, which I'll expand upon in just a moment.

So how does it actually work? There is a collaborative governance structure where we have a steering committee that operates like a board of directors with one member from each anchor institution there. The city acts as essentially the the chair of the board because we have the financial, ownership of of the anchor network at this point. But it is a collaborative governance structure. When there are decisions to be made, the anchor institutions sit down as a steering committee and vote on what should happen, across all of our institutions.

The in addition to the governance, we have working groups. So I already mentioned the the steering committee that's sort of the backbone of the network. In addition to that, we have two work groups, local procurement and local hiring, that are focused on the tactical efforts needed to actually do the things that we're talking about. So on the local procurement side, you have folks like Alicia Lauver, who is at Tacoma Public Schools that works on how to increase the effectiveness and local procurement, here in Tacoma, working with all of the other anchors as well across, like, how can we share goals, how can we share best practices, how can we we use each other's systems so that we don't have to recreate things, and all of that. Local hiring, we have, Bates as one of the leads for that.

We're really thinking about how do we partner not just with our our post secondary schools like Bates and UWT, but also, employers. Right? Creating pipelines to meaningful sectors that you're trying to invest in over time. So this is also a long term effort to really build and develop the sectors that we want to invest in as a community in partnership with our postsecondary institutions.

And

then creating a shared commitment through the steering committee, a shared funding structure, and then staffing. So real quick. When the Tacoma Anchor Network started, I believe it was about eight years ago, it was before I started at the city, the the original commitment was from the city. The city fronted all of the money that was, dedicated to that effort, and we brought all all of the partners to the table. It was essentially a city effort that other partners came to the table for.

Over time, we've recognized that the city, should not be the sole owner of this effort. And, right, the best work in terms of collaboration like this happens when there is shared ownership. And so to demonstrate that, the city has been stepping back slowly as the other partners have been stepping up. And so what that looks like in practice is that, financially, the city is no longer even the main financial contributor because we have the other anchor institutions each contributing, a a goal amount, but then what they are able to pay. So recognizing that across these 11 anchors, we're gonna have different budget situations over time.

And maybe, if the city is in a down cycle, other anchors can step up to ensure the operations continue and vice versa. So there's resilience built in there as well. And then, that what that allows us to do is to create staffing. And so right now, Tacoma Community College has just hired a full time staff person, in partnership with the city through the money that we have collected from the other anchor institutions to now staff both the Tacoma Anchor Network and the Tacoma Community Safety Collaborative, which is an effort that I'll tell you a little bit more about on the next slide. So in terms of alignment with Tacoma twenty thirty five, which you know I love talking to you all about, you will see that, all of the efforts that we have are directly aligned to what we're trying to accomplish in Tacoma 2035.

So in terms of operational excellence, we are trying to align procurement data to even just see across these 11 institutions what are we buying and from where so that we can actually see how much money are we spending, how much of that is being spent locally, and what opportunities do we have to take any of that spend and redirect it locally to make sure that our local economy is more resilient. So in addition to that, purchasing vendor process improvement. So it's one thing to know where we're spending money, but it's another thing to develop systems within our organizations that allow vendors to interact with us in ways that work for them. So reducing barriers for vendors to work with us in a way that allows for, again, not just identifying where money can be redistributed locally, but actually having systems that allow for that to happen. Then for community safety, we have the Tacoma Community Safety Collaborative.

This is a collective impact effort that is, aimed at addressing community perceptions of safety through institutional support. It's, it's being led by the Tacoma Community College in partnership with University of Washington at Tacoma, where TCC is leading the actual facilitation and implementation of the project. UWT is leading the data integration of the project, and, UWT is taking our publicly available TPD data. They're doing hotspot locations around particular types of crime, and then the institutions that are at the table are working on actually identifying what opportunities there are for improvement. So right now, we're working with Tacoma Housing Authority on a particular hotspot within Salishan that they wanna take a particular look at, and then working in partnership with not just THA, but also, the residents of Salishan on what those improvements might look like.

And then here, we have these institutional assets that we can think about what, what other leverage do we have to make these changes. So if it's something that the city has an opportunity to make a change about, like, let's say, a sign, can we work with public works on making that happen? But maybe it's something that has nothing to do with the city. Right? So how do we work collaboratively to make those things happen?

And then finally, to support our jobs and economy, goal area, local hiring and workforce efforts. Already talked about being led by Bates and aligning across those post secondary institutions. Really, again, meaningful pipelines. So we've talked about the green economy strategy here. What does that look like if we wanna invest in actually developing a green economy ten years from now?

There are multiple things that we have to put in place now. Right? There's one part of it, which is creating the conditions for those businesses to eventually be here or to grow, the ones that are already here. But then there's also developing the workforce specific to that. I don't know if you all recall the Pittsburgh video that we, that we watched during the retreat, but one of the things they talked about in that video was how they had for decades invested in certain programs at their post secondary their higher ed institutions that then led to some of the business success that they were seeing in some of the growing sectors.

So attempting to do that, for Tacoma as well. And so just a quick spotlight on, four of the anchors and how we are relating to them. Bates started a public safety certification program in 2025, which directly feeds into some of the needs that we have for developing the work force for, public safety. TCC, as I mentioned, is leading the Tacoma Safety Collaborative and, is actually hiring that staff person, which includes all of the overhead of HR and supervision and all of that. So it's it's actually an immense contribution that TCC is making to the to the effort.

UPS, you all just went there. They hosted you for the for the council retreat. But in addition to that, one of the things that we've learned, UPS has a particular focus on right now is AI. And so at our most recent, all network meeting, UPS had some of their, their leads on AI work come and present to the Network about what some of the impacts were and opportunities here in Tacoma and for our organizations. And then UWT, as I mentioned, is providing the data analysis for the Anchor Network, as well as for some of the procurement work that we talked about, aligning all these datasets, figuring out how we can overcome, data sharing agreement barriers, etcetera.

So real quick, some of the challenges that we're trying to, continually address. You all understand what it's like to try to do these cross departmental or cross institutional collaborations. It's always a it's always a challenge in terms of getting people to the table from a time perspective, but we found ways to to manage that despite having leaders that have very little time to share. Then there is the alignment with JMAC. So, we've heard from counsel in the past questions or a desire for more alignment between JMAC and anchors.

And just to be very clear, JMAC is electeds. So it is, you know, you and your colleagues essentially discussing how the policy making process can be more aligned across our, our institutions. Whereas with the Anchor Network, you can see it's more than just government. Right? We have universities.

We have, you know, the hospital system. So there is a larger audience, and it's staff led. So it is more on the administration and operations side of things, which, has pros and cons, but it's different. But because it's different, we need to make sure that we're aligned serving the purposes of you as the policymakers as well. Then systems alignment, really difficult.

Like, just a quick, just a quick example, how we code our procurement data is different across organizations, which you don't really think about until you start trying to put all of our datasets together. And then you realize that things like food even aren't just classified as food, or things like laundry or whatever the case might be. So, really, like, it it's a complicated effort to get into the weeds and figure out how to actually do that data translation. And that's without even getting into data sharing. Right?

So we're not just dealing with government. We have, private entities and entities that don't have the same data sharing requirements that we do. So how do we work together so that it is beneficial to everyone? And then finally, you all know this better than I do, budget is always a challenge. Right?

And so looking at how we can leverage the budgets of our collective organizations to make sure that this, continues to have the effectiveness that we believe that it can moving forward is a challenge that we'll continue to have to address. So the call to action, I would say leverage the value of the network as a council. It exists. It's operational, and there are things that are in motion. So, recognizing that we are each trying to do more with less, how can we leverage these partnerships in addressing that tension?

We have an established structure and venue. So, you know, beyond just your awareness, you know, an invitation to use that venue in whatever ways you think might be effective in advancing your priorities. And, the final thing is, like I just mentioned before, it it's a venue for leveraging, more effective partnerships with our non governmental partners. Alignment with JMAC was just mentioned, and then continuing to to, to build capacity and staffing to advance measurable goals. So not losing track of the sustainability of the effort over time and over any, shocks financially or otherwise to the local

economy. And

with that, I would love to, answer any questions, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to brief you and update you on the Tacoma Anchor Network.

Thank you so much. I apologize if you got rushed, but thank you. I hit it very efficiently. Does anybody have any questions?

Let's go first. I really appreciate the the information that work. I feel like, at least from my perspective, like, what more can I do to help support that work? And so if there's an opportunity for engagement with them, like, show you to meetings, other things. Like, I'd love to be able to participate in that stuff. You know, I think it's really important that we show up as a partner, but then also recognize all working together. So that's just that's just my offer out there.

Yeah. Appreciate that. And I should have mentioned that council member Walker has been a great executive sponsor from the council side for the past several years, and so I know she would have input into kind of where where the network is going as well.

That's I seem a little bit strategic because she's there as well. Yes.

Customer homework. Thank you. This is great. This is, like, ideal for me, like, what I would love to see happen, with the working together and using resources in the most effective way. I am also a new member of JMAC. And so does Anchor come and update JMAC at all, or what is the relationship?

Yes. We have provided updates to JMAC before upon request. Council member Walker has played a role in kind of making sure that messages were relayed back and forth, to some degree. And then, outside of that, a lot of the policy work hasn't necessarily overlapped with the procurement or hiring work. So we haven't we haven't necessarily had any challenges related to that. But I know that the the desire has been there for more collaboration despite not having any, you know, crisis to to deal with.

I guess I'm picturing maybe like that that Anchor. I guess Councilwoman Walker could be that person that somebody that goes to JMAC meetings every time and update, you know, what Anchor's doing Yeah. How we can help and work together. The JMAC right now just kinda I think we need a purpose, and I feel like this is, like,

super worthwhile work to get more involved in.

Yeah. Super interested to to learn more, I guess, and understand, you know, how how decisions are made is the process there. So maybe I

just come to a meeting check it out.

Sure. And happy to happy to give

you any additional information that you want as well. Thank you. Thank you. Marcel? Perfect.

I have one maybe silly question. I was wondering how folks join the Inkirk network.

Yeah.

Say, Evergreen or the Core or I don't know who else would want to join. How do they sign up?

Yeah. I would I would point them in my direction. Okay. And it's essentially a discussion about, what the value is, what the contribution would be, and what the, what the dues are, essentially. Right? We we have a sliding scale, and so we we don't want an anchor to not be able to participate because of money. However, we also have one seat at the steering committee, a voting seat for each paying member. And I what I should have mentioned is that these are the 11 anchors that are that are the core. But outside of that, we have other, kind of quasi anchors, I would say, like PLU, as an example. And then there's another circle outside of that, which is interested partners.

And this would be folks like Workforce Central or others that have an interest in the the work, but either don't have the workforce to be an anchor themselves or are not place based. So, I I mentioned that just to say that there is an opportunity to partner with anyone that has an interest in these these goals. And I would just point them in my direction, so that we can have a discussion.

Great. Yeah. Because those are the two other ones that came to my mind was Workforce Central and Downtown support partnership. I wasn't sure

if they're involved or not. We let

Yep. And so the question is, like,

not everyone needs to be in the in the anchor piece of it, but it can be Right. Peripheral. And I think my other actual question was how many anchors is too many anchors. Like, I feel like a limit should exist, but I don't know.

Yeah.

I've been involved longer than

being I can It's more involved than the weeds. Can answer that for sure. So we're not the only place doing this work. The anchors are kind of a national model of how to create collective impact across cities. Every city, that does it not every city does, obviously.

But every city that does is a little bit different because we all have different assets. So there's no one answer to your question. But what I will say is in the other really successful examples, generally, you don't see more than 20, but you don't see fewer than five. And, in terms of the diversity, right, it's not one sector that's dominating. Where we would have a gap that I would say we have room to grow in Tacoma is on the private and philanthropy side.

So in places like Pittsburgh, which I love to mention to you guys, they have tons of philanthropy dollars with the Heinz Foundation and others like that. We don't necessarily have the same philanthropic baits, but we do have some philanthropy assets here. And similarly for for profit, you know, we we do not have a premier for profit, locally rooted organization the way that some other cities might, which is both a a gift and a curse because we've seen what happens when there is that that reliance on that, and then they move away. So I hope that answers your question. It does.

Thank you.

I think that's all all our questions.

Thank you.

Thank you

for the update. Great. With that, we will move to our final update, which is topics for upcoming meetings, and I'll call on Emily, community liaison for that. We will be back

in one week, Tuesday of March for a grease interceptor improvement project presentation on April 14 for Central is coming to talk about their 2026 workforce development priorities, impact, and labor market analysis, and we will have another piece of information from council member Scott on the industry. On April 28, we will have an annual update from the World Trade Center, our state cultural vitality, we'll get a quick presentation on what is recharging.

Perfect. Thank you. Does anybody else have any topics of interest? Great. I will if you can find a motion. All over the beavers. Everybody was saying aye.

Aye.

Everyone's close. We are.

Sorry. Went on to that.

No. Nope.

So I