Remarks by John Hines
45 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 55:34
“Council Member Hines. Thank you, Mayor Ibsen. It's great to see the trustees here today. It takes me back to a few years ago when I was on the board myself. I just wanted to say a couple, I'll take a couple comments and have questions. I'm really excited about all the partnerships you all have established. I think that was something when I was on the board of trustees years ago, we had talked about, you know, what does it look, you know, We have these spaces. People want to use the spaces. They want access to low-cost or free spaces. And how are we being a good community partner on that…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 57:04
“I mean, I don't know if you've done this, but a broader question as we start talking to the public about how important the library is is not just what you all do, but how much you're able to leverage the community. Because I think if you could probably do some math on how much is the Tree Foundation, Right 253, the Tool Library, and Remakery saving in rent costs, right? Because they're not paying you the full what they pay for a commercial space. Sure. So there's those benefits. There's the benefits you're providing to the, social work program. So that might be something to be thinking about…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 58:01
“No, I think it's a really good example and definitely a place of growth since when I was on the board till now that your trustees and you all have done a wonderful job with. Great to see the collection and the amount of circulation going up. Hoopla was always an issue, even when I was on the board where we have, it was Overdrive, now it's Libby. We had where we bought a certain number of materials that then had to be rotated through. And then you had overdrive, which was a pay per subscription. And I was always concerned about that taking off, right? Because we had no control over how much…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 58:40
“I mean, you kind of take a guess, but if... While a valuable service to the public, I do see that was a real challenge and something we think about investing in kind of liberty and digital resources.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 59:12
“Something you didn't talk about, but I know this is a recent policy change, at least since I left the trustees board, was we got rid of late fees and fines for books. We sure did. Do you want to talk a little bit about, Are people still returning their materials? Do we see a big loss? I mean, how has that worked out for us?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 59:34
“I have some overdue books in my house right now that I need to get back to the library. So I do understand that part.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:00:28
“It's not quite as valuable as it was in 1975. That's right. No, I mean, I think that probably is another piece of the overall budgeting conversation we can't neglect here, which there used to be a revenue stream that was from fees and fines. While it was small, it was there. And now that is not there anymore. So I mean, it's another way we're it's impacting kind of your overall budget.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:01:22
“Two last questions, and I'll stop dragging this on, though I'm always happy to talk about libraries. The first question for me was just around something probably more fun that's not on the list. What was the top circulated book in the library this last year?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:01:44
“I'd like a written response to the top 10 books that were issued.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:01:57
“That's a joke. You don't have to do that in writing. But I was curious to see. I will email you and let you know. Just what was the number one book. I see that.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:02:08
“Well, you did make a comment about my fixation on literacy. And so it continues to be something that I'm fired up about. I just think the last thing, the last question, probably a more serious note, is I mean, look at your facilities. And this is something that's been ongoing for decades, that we've had a lot of facility needs for the library. And you all are doing the best you can with what you've got. And I've always been deeply impressed with the staff and what people are able to accomplish. I think as we're looking forward to the kind of future potential funding opportunities, I would be…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:02:43
“Which was more than they'd ever asked for in their history. Again, not doing really amazing things for the library. It's about maintaining services, some expanses, some facilities. So I mean, again, the need is so great. But I mean, hopefully those are some of the conversations we're having about how we can best kind of think about setting up a library for the future. Absolutely. And what it looks like, because it has such value here in our community. And also very much thinking about how there are a lot of organizations in our city that are looking at expanding facilities, expanding options,…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:04:56
“But I guess I get to have that. That's where I'm thinking about it. But thank you. Thank you for inviting me to dream of abundance. Well, we should all dream of abundance. But I think those are all my questions, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Hines. Council Member Palmer.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:49:10
“Thank you. Council Member Hines. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, Jacques. I thought a great teaching moment of walking through it with all of us. That was great. A concept attainment lesson is what we would probably call it way back in the day. I thought just two things I would recommend. I think this is good. Lining up with 2035 makes a lot of sense. I have similar questions to what customer ideas brought up, which is usually I get a Word document. I edit on the Word document, put comments on there. I could do the same thing on a PDF, but then I just don't know if that captures. I think…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:04:32
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And so, I mean, one good thing, it seems like in some cases we're exceeding the goals that were established already. It looks like we're already exceeding some of these, correct?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:04:42
“And so I guess my question would be, by signing on to this, will we be reporting across three organizations, the percentages, will the numbers be pushed together, or will we still be disaggregated? Because I, so I come out of an education background, right, where when you take all the numbers of an entire school, and you push them together, you can sometimes lose sight of maybe subsets of the data. So I mean, it's going to be aggregated and disaggregated at the same time?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:05:14
“So you will be able to see across the three organizations how they're doing, but then we'll also see how Tacoma, Parks, and School District are doing separately from each other? Correct. All right, great.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 7:08
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And like Councilor Shidalga, I was happy to go on the tour. Thank you all for being here. You know, I think one of the things growing up as a kid, being kind of a nerd, I watched a lot of modern marvels as a kid, right, which the show was on the History Channel. And, you know, it was great to come out and visit your site and think about all the kind of local modern marvels we have across this community that are related to the work that you all are doing, right? You know, I caught myself driving down I-5 multiple times now and like, oh, I think those are probably from…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:03:24
“Thank you. Council Member Hines. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I'll keep this relatively short. I think Council Member Rumbaugh and Council Member Szilagyi did a wonderful job kind of Outlining the important components of this I was there one of the first meetings we've had and kind of early on with the joint community on homelessness at the county level and I think the thing that we've said multiple times throughout multiple throughout the years I've been involved is that homelessness does not respect any city's boundaries and the only way we're going to address a problem that's as fluid and…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:11:07
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Today, this evening, I'm requesting $6,000 in council contingency funds to sponsor a community conversation about our identity as a city and to find a symbol that unites us. I think we can prompt this conversation and reflection through a flag design competition. And so I want to acknowledge that this conversation has been going on for a while. The idea of what is the symbol of Tacoma? What are the symbols of Tacoma? What is our collective history? What best represents us? This conversation has been going on for many, many, many years. As a lifelong resident, like many…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:20:06
“That would be up to the Flag Commission to determine what moves forward.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:20:12
“I mean, I would say council members are. We are saying anyone can submit a flag design. BUT I WOULD PROBABLY NEED TO LOOK AT OUR ATTORNEY WHETHER OR NOT YOU COULD BE RENUMERATED FOR THAT OR WHETHER OR NOT, BECAUSE SOMETIMES WE DON'T ALLOW CITY EMPLOYEES, PEOPLE TIED TO CITIES TO PARTICIPATE. CORRECT, STATE ATTORNEY? I WOULD SAY THAT'S A GOOD ASSUMPTION, COUNCILMEMBER.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:20:50
“I'M HOPEFUL, WELL, MAYBE, AND I WOULD SAY IF COUNCILMERS HAVE A DESIGN OR A VISION OF WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE, MAYBE TALK TO SOMEONE IN THE COMMUNITY THAT MIGHT BE ABLE TO ACTUALIZE THAT DESIGN WITH WHAT'S GOING ON.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:04:00
“Thank you. Council Member Hines. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the presentation, Hyun, and the rest of the team here. I think what a question I had. To go to the grant funding, everybody really likes to talk about grant funding. Those can only pay for police officer positions, correct?”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:04:21
“And support staff for police. How vaguely can we interpret that?”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026