Remarks by John Hines
45 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 2
- Play at 1:04:31
“Yeah. I mean, I remember the governor being very clear about that when they put this through. So one, so I think that's just something to keep in mind. And if we don't take this grant, there's probably other cities that would take the money to fund for their police officers, or is this already ours?”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:05:44
“I mean, first of all, I want to just give my kudos to Tacoma Police Department and staff here that have got us in a position to get the grant money because I don't want to be lost in this process. Maybe talk about all the things, a reminder of all the things we had to do in order to qualify. We had to have a bunch of our policies in line. We had to do a lot of work on the front end to make sure we were able to receive the money. Yes.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:06:05
“And so I appreciate the human work the police department has done to do that. There's lots of agencies that haven't done that work yet to put themselves in a place to achieve this. And I don't want that to be lost in the broader conversation about whether the money runs out or not over time. Because I think it's really important to think about that. So that was my question about the grant funding. Everything else on here, I mean, I think it makes sense. Everything you listed on here, I mean, absent maybe the Tacoma Public Schools, downtown Tacoma Partnership, this stuff WE'RE PROBABLY GOING…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:07:46
“And just to go back to Council Member Palmer's point, I hope that as we start thinking about where we land with our investments in public safety dollars, we take a broad analysis of the data and not become hyper-fixated on maybe a program or something we've grown accustomed to or attached to and think more broadly about how are we best using these dollars to invest and promote a community where everyone is safe. And I would challenge us to kind of stay fixated on that idea of how do we make sure more people in our community go to sleep each night feeling safe, and not about who the program is…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:14:48
“Okay. Councilor Hines. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Councilor Diaz, for the presentation. This was really great, and I also appreciate the Kind of starting back with what was found in 2018 and then kind of drawing forward and pulling it together. I think having reviewed all of this, I mean, I think you've done a wonderful job of just like talking to a lot of folks that are going to be affected by everything here. So my question was the, just, and you may have talked about this before, but the Sorry if I missed this part, but the estimated increase per project is…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:15:36
“Okay. And then the dual benefit reimbursement for Seattle is only 0.04% of the project cost, or is that just attributed to that part? I'm looking at the fiscal impact down here. I mean, should I see those as, I guess... I would love to know more about where that number is generated. The .04?”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:16:17
“Yeah. No, I agree. And I think when we talk about, you know, the priorities we're trying to look at, which is, you know, how do we get people who live in our community building the future of our community? How do we make sure we're building a ladder for people to move from the workplace, you know, from kind of entry level into the trades and then moving forward and getting higher and better wages and better benefits? I think these are all really valuable. I think the question that I'm coming back to is just kind of FISCAL COSTS AND KIND OF THE BALANCE, I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE TALKED…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:17:21
“Great. And then I think something that I was interested in, maybe you could just elaborate on this a little bit, right? But I think one of the contractors made a point that the compliance costs would be something they would just pass on to us. They said something about the fact of like, if we have to do this, those costs will just go to the, the city will have to incorporate into the cost of the project overall, correct?”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:17:48
“Okay. Well, you know, I think, I don't know, I have many more questions. I thought you did a wonderful job kind of digging into this. I know we're just in the first part of the conversation. And I really thought you did a good job of trying to talk through how do we, the thing that, it seemed, the thing that came out in 2018 when you read the report is this idea of how do, does a CWA PLA function with a city that has these kind of women, minority owned business goals and early program goals and how do we make sure those align to each other. I think for me, that's kind of where I'm thinking…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:19:45
“Yeah. The only other thing, and I would love for Chap, and now we're just having a conversation about this, that I found interesting was that conversation that some of the contractors had mentioned about the fact that they don't just do government work. They don't just do contracts with, say, a city or a county. They sometimes work for private contractors, too. And the challenge of staff being able to move back and forth between the two and remaining both competitive in the private marketplace and the public marketplace is was something that I had not thought about, but it was good that you,…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:20:51
“Yep. Great. All right. Those are all my questions, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:38:38
“All right. Okay. So today I'm here to talk to you about a proposal I have. Mr. Mayor, thank you for letting us have the opportunity to bring forward a $6,000 contingency fund request to hold Tacoma's first official flag competition. So if I look, if you, I don't know if the camera can look, if you look over behind the dais right here, you'll see our lovely blue flag here. And this past year, along with most other years, when we go to the Association of Washington City's annual conference, one of the things they do is they do a parade of flags. And each city brings their flag, and they parade…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:46:56
“I DON'T SEE WHY THEY COULDN'T PUT THIS APPLICATION IN. WE WOULD LEAVE IT UP TO THE FLAG COMMISSION TO DETERMINE IF IT'S ONE OF THE TOP TEN. EXCELLENT.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:47:20
“That's a good question. My thought would be we could have a BUT THE CURRENT FLAG, I THINK, I'VE SEEN SOME OLDER DESIGNS, IS THE ONE WE'VE HAD SINCE THE 90s. SO YOU'RE LOOKING AT ABOUT 35 YEARS ON THAT FLAG RIGHT THERE. I THINK MY THOUGHT WOULD BE THE FLAG WOULD HAVE NO KIND OF SUNSET AND THEN IF A COUNCIL IN THE FUTURE DECIDED, HEY, WE WANT TO RE-EXAMINE AND DO A DIFFERENT DESIGN, WE COULD DO THAT.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:48:21
“Yeah, I think the one, the thing that they said that I think is very, helps me remember is in their keep it simple, their point is a child should be able to draw from memory. So it should be so simple that a kid could draw it. So if you ask my eight-year-old to draw the US flag, she would draw a blue square and then do red and white lines. She could do it. Or Chicago's flag, which is like the blue bar, the blue bar, and the three red stars. And so they want to keep it as simple as that. So yes, more colors. But some cities, if there was a, I think what they would say is if there's a symbol,…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:49:27
“YEAH. THEY WERE NOT AS EXCITED ABOUT THE COMPETITION ASPECT TO IT, RIGHT, AND THOUGHT OF IT AND Encourage as you can imagine, you know, I'm a former football coach the competition is like in my mind Um, but they had said well Maybe it's just invite people in and have a conversation and be more of a celebration of different symbols of the city The challenge is we're trying to get to one like we're not gonna have five total flies. We have one so it kind of That's where we kind of landed on the competition side when I talked to the Arts Commission what I think I came away with was the thinking…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:51:15
“AND WHEN WE THINK ABOUT COMMITMENTS, IF YOU SPOKE VANCOUVER AS ANALOG, THEY HAD FOUR MEETINGS WHERE THE FLAG COMMISSION MET. INITIAL MEETING, SET THE RULES, HOW THEY'RE GOING TO OPERATE. THEY MET TO KIND OF NARROW THE FIELD DOWN. SO IT'S A VERY LIMITED DURATION FOR THE FLAG COMMISSION. YEAH. THANK YOU. DEPUTY MAYOR.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:52:32
“GREAT. YEAH. WE CURRENTLY HAVE IT WRITTEN AS OPEN TO ANYONE WHO HAS A CONNECTION TO TACOMA, AND YOU'D EXPLAIN IT, BUT I'M HAPPY TO, IF YOU ALL HAD SAID, HEY, JOHN, I WANT TO NARROW IT TO JUST CITY OF TACOMA, BUT IF YOU WANT TO KEEP IT OPEN, I'M HAPPY WITH THAT, TOO. YEAH. All right, thank you. Any other questions? All right, thank you for bringing this forward. Yeah, just one final comment, Mr. Mayor, if I have a second. No, and to Councillor Palmer and Councillor Bushnell's point, you know, I think I do try to bring a little bit of fun to the policymaking job here. And I just think this, I'm…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 56:14
“All right. Thank you, Mayor. The Government Performance and Finance Committee has convened three times since the last update. On July 7, the meeting began with a summative finding of the community engagement report, barriers policy considerations for accelerating housing production in Tacoma. So looking at ways that we can address some of the concerns we've heard from folks trying to provide more housing in our city and the way the city can be more supportive of that. An informal handout of the Baker Tilly Moss 2025 audit exit was also provided at the committee, but no presentation was given.…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 57:29
“THE NEXT MJPFC MEETING IS SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 18th AT 10 A.M. IN ROOM 243 OF THE TACOMA MISSILE BUILDING. THE PUBLIC IS ALSO INVITED TO ATTEND VIRTUALLY. THE GENERAL FOR THIS MEETING INCLUDES TWO ITEMS AND THESE ARE ITEMS I WOULD ENCOURAGE THE PUBLIC IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN YOUR SEWER WATER, STORM WATER POWER RATES TO TUNE IN. THE ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES 2027 TO 2028 RATE PROJECTIONS AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE TACOMA POWER, WATER AND RAIL 2027 TO 2028 PROPOSED BUDGETS AND RATES. Mayor, this concludes my report.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026