City Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to call to order the City Council meeting of July 14th, 2026. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

Present.

Council Member Diaz? Here. Council Member Hines? Here. Council Member Palmer? Here. Council Member Rumba? Here. Council Member Sedalge? Here. Council Member Scott? No. Council Member Scott absent. Council Member Walker?

She's on the way.

Council Member Walker? Absent. Mayor Ibsen, absent.

All right. Please join me in listening to the land acknowledgement and flag salute led by Councilmember Diaz, followed by a moment of silence.

We gratefully honor and acknowledge that we rest on the traditional lands of the Puyallup people, where they make their home and speak the Lushootseed language. Please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence.

Agenda modifications. Are there any agenda modifications before us this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on to the Consent Agenda.

I move to adopt the Consent Agenda.

Second. Are there any questions, comments, or corrections to the Consent Agenda? All those in favor of adopting the Consent Agenda, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the consent agenda is declared adopted. Next, we are moving on to proclamations, recognitions, presentations, and announcements. We have one ceremonial tonight, recognizing Sparta Tacoma. For the Sparta Tacoma recognition, I would like to invite Arc Mathias, head coach, Sparta Tacoma, to the podium as Councilmember Hine reads the proclamation. And anybody else that you'd like up there? Come on, surround your coach. Come on, everybody. Come on up.

Yeah. Oh, yes. All right. And so I got to do a quick uniform change. Yes.

Put it behind you so people can see it behind you.

How come only you got one of these?

All right. Despite Councilmember Rumbaugh's request for me to take my shirt off, I'm not this evening and saving everybody that. But I did... I did want to put on my sweatshirt. So whereas the Sparta-Tacoma team with the North Tacoma Soccer Club won the 2026 U-17 Elite Academy League National Championship, marking an incredible achievement for players and the entire Tacoma soccer community. And whereas Sparta-Tacoma's victories against formidable opponents are a testament to the heart, unity, and commitment of their remarkable players, including Golden Glove winner Joseph Mathias III, as well as the talent, of their extraordinary coaches. And whereas in Tacoma, we also know that behind every successful team is a dedicated group of friends, families, and fans that are cheering from the sidelines, and we applaud everyone involved in the North Tacoma Soccer Club for their commitment to making youth sports accessible and for building an inspiring community around soccer. And whereas we are thrilled to celebrate our national champions, and we have no doubt that all Spartans Tacoma players will continue to find that Their brotherhood and teamwork will make them unstoppable. Now, therefore, I, John Hines, council member of the city of Tacoma and parent of two Sparta soccer players, on behalf of the mayor and the over 225,000 residents of Tacoma, do hereby recognize Sparta Tacoma as the 2026 U17 Elite Academy League National Champions. Cementing North Tacoma Soccer Club is a force to be reckoned with. and showing our community the great heights that are possible when you never have to walk alone. Let's give them a round of applause.

All right, please say a few words.

It's got to be red.

There you go.

There you go.

Oh, see, we're good now. All right. First of all, Deputy Mayor Bushnell, council members, we appreciate the recognition. It's great to have a community club like this come to the forefront and do something on a national stage, and it just really is amazing. I know for myself, for Coach Nate over here, it's an absolute pleasure to have this group and be able to do this. And our theme through the entire tournament was just one of the nicknames of Tacoma, which is we're just Grit City. We'll grind it out and we'll make it happen. And with that, I really appreciate it. I'm going to turn it over to one of our captains.

Again, I would like to thank you all council members for recognizing not just us as players and coaches, but as the club as a whole. I know from experience as a player, having the support from my coaches and all of the team members and parents, it is very important that they're there. And... A couple things I'd like to say to our success is, one, is playing for the badge. Sparta is very important to all the players and coaches, and every time we go to play in a tournament, we're playing for the badge. We're representing Tacoma. And the last thing is just playing with passion, and we're playing the game we love.

Is it okay if each of you come up to the mic and just say your name?

Start on one side?

Yeah.

John Cleveland. Taylor Albert.

Miles Ford. Phillip Wynn.

Joseph Mathias.

Robert Avice. Josiah Olson. Blake Weaver.

Kellen Gallagher. All right. Congratulations to all of you. We're going to have some council comments here. So I'm going to call on Council Member Rumbaugh first.

I want to just thank you all for being here. But I also want to recognize my daughter and my family played soccer for a long time. And I know what commitment it takes for all of you. But it's also that commitment as a parent, all of the hours and the things that you choose to do on your weekends. I want you to know that I just think it's fabulous that you guys had that winning spirit. And also just like what you're going to take with you to the next level, what you're going to do next. I'm sure you're all planning that you want to play in college or whatever happens next, but I just want to wish you all the best. And thank you for coming here and being a part of our city. We really appreciate you.

Councilmember Hines. Oh, thank you. I just want to say first of all, congratulations. More importantly, as a Sparta parent and knowing how many hours I spent on the sideline every weekend, I want to thank your families for all the support and effort it takes. I just spent last week in Snoqualmie at the Cascade Cup for a U10 girls soccer game. So my daughter plays U10 for Sparta. My son plays U13. And I just wanted, first of all, thanking your family, but also just make sure you all recognize how much of an inspiration you are to all the kids who wear the badge along with you. So my 13-year-old son and his friends woke up early to watch your game on livestream because they were so inspired about the fact that you all had made it so far. And they really see you all as their heroes in many ways. They aspire to do something similar. And I just want to make sure you don't lose sight of that, especially as you think about the future. and to the members, the coaches here and the club members here, are a good reminder of how important this work is and how important this all is to our community. It's not just about soccer. And I always appreciated Sparta with my son and daughter. It's never just been about soccer. It's been about teamwork. It's about brotherhood. growth and skill development and trying to be the best player you can be and hopefully be the best person you can be at the same time. And so when you all won, I was so excited for the chance to recognize you and your accomplishment because it's not only just about what you all did, even though that is what we're celebrating today, it's also how much you contribute to the community. So thank you.

Thank you again, and congratulations. I don't need to belabor the point, but I think you all have done a phenomenal job of representing Tacoma. And I'm very proud of you, and I know everybody here in the city of Tacoma is proud of you. So thank you so much for all you do, and continue to inspire those young people and look forward to the future. So congratulations again. Please come on up. We're going to take a photo, and I'll present you with the proclamation here.

All right.

Thank you.

Great. All right, everybody, one, two, three, smile.

One more, one, two, three, smile.

We're going to take a five-minute recess so we can allow everybody to move out of the chambers. Thank you. all right I'd like to call back to order the City Council meeting so next up we are moving on to public comment on tonight's agenda there are two opportunities for people to comment. Under public comment, you can speak about motions, resolutions, and ordinances on tonight's agenda. Under community forum, which is held at the end of this meeting, you can speak about items over which the city council has jurisdiction. These forums are intended to give speakers the opportunity to share their viewpoints and feedback with the city council to aid in our decision making. It is not meant to be a back and forth dialogue. Your remarks should be directed to the City Council and not at individual staff members. If you want to speak under public comment period, press the raise hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or start on your phone now so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this evening. If you are speaking in person, please sign up at the back of the room. If you have not done so already, your name or the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak. Public comment. Clerk, will you please read?

This is the time set aside for public comment. Speakers are asked to identify the specific legislation they wish to address.

I would like to remind everyone to please keep your comments respectful, relevant, focused, and on topic. We strive to provide a comment period where people can feel respected while sharing a wide variety of viewpoints and acknowledge that we may hear comments that conflict with our values. To ensure all speakers can express their First Amendment constitutional rights, we ask that you refrain from clapping, cheering, booing, or otherwise being disruptive. You'll have... 90 seconds to make your remarks. Please be mindful of the time frame. As always, you are not required to use all of your time to make your point. If you cannot remain on topic, you will be given two warnings. And if you remain off topic, we'll have to move on and we'll end your time. All right. Clerk, have we received any written public comment?

That is a wonderful question. I don't have the written comment in front of me, but I will find that out for you.

Thank you. All right. Going into the room, first up we have Tyler Daniels, followed by Kelly Robinson, and then Kit Burns. All right. Please state your name for the record and the topic in which you would like to speak on.

Hello. My name is Tyler Daniels. PE. I am speaking to resolution 41958, the multifamily housing credit. I do not consent to these tax credits being given until there are proper review processes in place to track and monitor the rents that go through the development phase and as it goes into habitable spaces. I also feel that the mayoral representative of Mayor Ibsen's election to abstain from these votes in numerous instances over the past show that there is a significant systemic conflict of interest in these tax credits and his personal line of work. I have witnessed him on multiple occasions with abstain from the vote and elect to mouth aye at the same time the others do. I believe that this points to a problematic aspect of these tax credits only being able to serve the developer themselves without serving us as a community, while these communities uproot and disturb toxins from the Osarco smelter plume and toxify and poison the surrounding region of those developments. I thank you.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have Kelly Robinson, followed by Kit Burns.

Good evening, council. My name is Kelly Robinson. I'm the executive director of our sister's house. And I just want to thank the council for considering the authorization of the $10,000 for Beyond the Block. Our sister's house has been providing late nights in this city for the past three years. And so when this summer was approaching, we realized we didn't have the funding to go out and do that, provide services for kids and programming. quickly kind of just figure out what we were going to do next. We knew we wanted to continue to have programming. So we were able to partner with Nikki Davidson and the Bryant Neighborhood Center. She asked, do we want to do late nights? Do we want to do at the Bryant Neighborhood Center? We said, absolutely. We didn't know how we were going to do it. We didn't know how we were going to get it funded. But we knew we needed things in place for our kids for the summer due to the heightened gun violence in our community. And we just know that. The work we do with the juvenile court, we see how kids are hurting. So it was our goal and mission to just provide some fun activities, some food, and just pour into the youth in this community. And so that's what we've been doing this entire month of July, Mondays and Wednesday nights. We're at the Bryant Neighborhood Center from about 5.30 to 8 o'clock, just having good times and just really pouring into our youth. So I just thank the city for recognizing what we're doing and wanting to help us fund it. So thank you.

Great. Thank you so much. Next up, we have Kit Burns.

My name is Kit Burns. I'm speaking on Resolution 41958 regarding the multifamily tax exemption. And I just want to bring to the council's attention I'm not speaking for or against it. I just want to comment on the fact that this still has it set at 70%. And the documents you have tonight, too, I know it's supposed to include the utilities, which I think it does. However, it doesn't say that. So these documents should say that. But I bring this up because the 70% rate is still not what I believe to be an affordable rate that housing authority rents their affordable rates at 60%. State law has codes that say that. Now, you as a council can go higher than that, but I really think if we're going to provide affordable housing, we should look at that. And I'd be happy to have a discussion with that even in more detail, bring up specific projects, and I won't name any tonight. But I think we should look at that and see is that a fair number. I've been in Seattle riding the bus, which I do. I ride the bus a lot. And on many of the buses, they have things that say, hey, rent this place. It's only $1,000. I get a number of Facebook ads saying, hey, you can get this place for $1,200. I think that if we keep giving affordable rates at 70%, they'll be paying more than the market rate, the way things have been going. Anyway, thank you.

Thank you, Kit. All right, next we're moving to online public comment, and the first commenter is Heidi GS.

Good evening, my name is Heidi Stevens, speaking on Ordinance 29114, Critical Areas. It was so discouraging to see an amendment approved at last week's council meeting, rejecting once again the Planning Commission's recommendation for the Critical Areas Ordinance, and instead... allowing industry to override environmental common sense within the Port of Tacoma. As mountain glaciers and snowpack disappear, less runoff to rivers, groundwater and lakes levels dropping all across the nation, your prioritizing industry is extremely short-sighted. Permitting short-term commerce to jeopardize long-term critical aquifer areas, that will be your legacy. The point of a critical area policy is for unquestionable, unbreakable protection, not to be influenced by the pressure from industry and the very practices which harm these areas. But once again, Tacoma has it backwards and this current proposed draft should not be supported. After the mega warehouse disaster, we were promised planning codes would be improved, but Tacoma is continuing with the same weak approaches, allowing for the same destruction. This vote should be delayed, the Port Amendment removed, and more true protections added as per my written comments. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up we have Kathy Irwin.

Hello, my name is Kathy Irwin, South Tacoma resident. I wanted to echo Heidi's comments and concerns, and rather than restate them, I will offer the fact that she has stated this very well and very thoroughly. We do not need to be approving a substitute amended ordinance number 29114. Please vote no to this change and honor and respect what the Planning Commission had put forward for protecting our aquifer. Avoid high impact industries being located within the tide flats area.

Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. All right. Do we have anybody else signed up in person? Anybody else online? Oh, please come forward and then state your name for the record. And if we could get her written in as well. And then the topic in which you wish to discuss.

Hi, my name is Susan Healy, and I want to talk about the tenant-landlord laws. Oh.

So that's not on tonight's agenda. We are going to have community forum later this evening. You're more than welcome to talk about that under that time.

Thank you. Good evening, Council. Albert Godwin, 1314 North Heatherwood, East Tacoma. Regarding Proposition 1.

So we're going to have to, you'll have to be able to talk about that during community forum. That's not on tonight's agenda. Thank you. All right. Thank you. With that, I'm going to go ahead and close public comment. If folks want to talk during a community forum about these specific areas, make sure you sign up in the back room so we can get you on that list. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have a regular agenda before us. Item three, this item will have a PowerPoint presentation. Clerk, will you please read?

Resolution 41958, a resolution authorizing the execution of a multifamily housing 12-year limited property tax exemption agreement with Michael Hopkins for the development of seven multifamily market and regulated rate rental housing units located at 7056 Fawcett Avenue.

I move to adopt resolution number 41958.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded. Oh, we have a PowerPoint presentation, then we'll go to that. Thank you.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor and Council Members. I'm Debbie Bingham with the Community and Economic Development Department. And Paul Bacher is on his honeymoon, so you have to deal with me tonight. Resolution 41589 is for property at 401, I'm sorry, at 7056 Fawcett Avenue. If I can get this to 41589. There we go. This project, Michael Hobbins is proposing to develop seven market rate and affordable units. The project will include three parking spaces. We'll have two affordable units in the project. On the screen is a breakdown of the proposed units, which include, as I said, two affordable units as well as five market rate units. The affordable unit rental rate, this is a maximum rental rate they can charge, and it does include utilities. This is a map of the location. And this is located in the new UR3 expansion areas. And I did want to mention this is the 12th project that we've had come through in those new expansion areas. This table shows the estimated fiscal impacts for the project. We estimate total taxes generated over the life of the projects at $90,000 and total taxes exempted at $29,000, leaving a net positive impact of $61,000. That concludes the presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Are there any council questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting resolution number 41958, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Nay.

All right. The resolution is declared adopted. All right. I just wanted to clarify also for the community forum under our council rules, we cannot have any discussion around support or opposition of any particular ballot measure. But if you did want to talk about tenant and landlord issues broadly, that can be done. So you cannot talk in support or opposition to any particular ballot measure currently on the ballot. Just wanted to clarify that for folks. Next up, we have item number four. Clerk, will you please read?

Resolution 41959, a resolution authorizing the one-time use of council contingency funds in the amount of $10,000 to sponsor Beyond the Block.

I move to adopt resolution number 41959.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded. I'd like to call on Councilmember Palmer.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I'm excited to bring forward my first council contingency fund request for $10,000 to sponsor a great new program called Beyond the Block, which we heard about earlier from Kelly Robinson. I wanted to thank Nikki Davidson and Kelly Robinson for putting this together and making this happen. And thank you for talking about it tonight. This is an important program for kids in Tacoma. It offers culturally informed programming and it's free. It's available to ages 11 to 16 at the Bryant Neighborhood Center. They're taking place on Wednesday, did I get it wrong? Is it Wednesday and Friday? Okay, Wednesday and Friday, 530 to 8. I'm excited to bring my kids coming up. They're talking about some basketball player coming and what was the other thing? Dance night. Dance night. So this is fantastic. Each session of the Beyond the Block program features different themes to help participants gain valuable life skills and support, as well as discussions on conflict resolution, mental health, stress management, self-esteem, and much more. And they get free food. free meal and free snacks. Our contribution would help with the costs of staffing and the snacks and the food and program supplies. And it definitely contributes to our city's goals of the community safety, including preventing youth violence by providing safe and engaging spaces for young people during evening summer hours. I also wanted to thank my co-sponsors, Councilmember Scott and Councilmember Rumbaugh for signing on to this as well. And I hope you all will support. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Palmer. Any questions or comments? Council Member Rumbaugh.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. And I just want to thank all of you for the good work that you do to try to prevent youth violence. I'm tackling domestic violence, and it's really important that you're in this space. And I know you didn't fit with Tacoma Creates Dollars, but the work you do is really important, and we really support you. So I want to thank Council Member Palmer for bringing this forward, and I'm just so happy to support it. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Rumbaugh. Any additional questions or comments? Council Member Scott, online.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. And I just, same as what Councilor Arambas said, just really appreciate the work that both our sister's house and the Brighton Neighborhood Center do to support youth in the community, but the community well-being as a whole. And I really appreciate Councilor Palmer for bringing this forward. And I'm looking forward to possibly being able to drop in and say hi to some of the kids as they experience all the fun stuff you all are putting together for them.

All right. Thank you, Councilmember Scott. And I too will just say thank you for your leadership on this, Councilmember Palmer, and thank you for your service to our community and our young people. It means a lot to everybody that we have these safe places for young people to go, especially in the summertime when there's so many other things that could be done. If it's not for safe places like this, our kids could get in all kinds of activities. So with that, Councilmember Diaz.

Sorry, I just wanted to add real quickly. I wasn't sure if you were going to. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this might be Council Member Palmer's first resolution she's bringing forward. So I just wanted to honor and congratulate her on that because it's a good, meaningful one. Thank you.

Awesome. All right. With that, any final council questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, we have the resolution before us. All those in favor of adopting resolution number 41959, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the resolution is declared adopted. All right. Next up, we have our final reading of ordinances. Item number five, clerk, will you please read?

Ordinance 29114, an ordinance amending Title 13 of the Municipal Code relating to the Land Use Regulatory Code to update the Critical Areas Preservation Ordinance, a periodic update required by state law to incorporate new scientific information and ensure consistency with other policy and laws as recommended by the Planning Commission.

All right, this item was presented last week. Are there any additional questions or comments on the amended substitute ordinance before us? All right, seeing none, clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Diaz? Aye. Councilmember Hines? Aye. Councilmember Palmer?

Nay.

Councilmember Rumba? Aye. Councilmember Sedalge?

Aye.

Councilmember Scott? Aye.

I heard an aye. Aye.

Thank you. Council Member Walker? Aye. Mayor Ibsen absent. Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

Aye. All right. This ordinance is declared passed. Next up, we have unfinished business. Is there any unfinished business before us? All right, seeing none, we are moving on to community forum during which you may speak about items over which the city council has jurisdiction. As a reminder, these forums are intended to give speakers the opportunity to share their viewpoints and feedback with the city council to aid in our decision making. It is not meant to be a back and forth dialogue. Your remarks should be directed to the city council and not individual staff members. At this time, I would ask individual attendees if they would like to speak during the community forum, press the raise hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or your star nine on your phone so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this evening. If you are speaking in person, please sign up at the back of the room. If you have not done so already, your name or the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it's your turn to speak. Just a reminder, community forum cannot be in opposition to or support of any particular ballot measure or candidates. But if you wanted to talk more broadly about any specific issue under the city council's jurisdiction, that is available to you. All right. All right. We're going to start with folks in the room. Sorry. Clerk, will you please read?

The purpose of community form is to assist the council in making policy decisions. Arguments shall not be made in support of or opposition to any matter on this week's agenda, and each person may address the council only one time during this form. And then, Deputy Mayor, we received one written public comment for the public comment period and five for community form. The community form ones were regarding data centers, herbicides, minimum wage, and legal aid and phone cards for detainees at the Northwest Ice Processing Center.

Great. Thank you so much. Community forum will be limited to a total of two hours, and each speaker will have three minutes to make your remarks. Please be mindful of the time frame. As always, you are not required to use all of your time to make your point. If you cannot remain on topic, you will be given two warnings. If you remain off topic, we will move on and end your time. All right, first up we have Brad, followed by Randy Guckstetter, followed by Tyler Daniels.

Hi. I'm here to talk about flock cameras. I know that you guys don't have flock cameras here, but you guys do use ALPRs. And with Washington State, they limited ALPRs to certain aspects. But if you are using a flock camera as an ALPR, It has other things attached to it that you might not know about. It has facial rec. It also is able to be accessed by any agency across the United States. 5,000 plus agencies are able to look at anything they want from a flock camera. So I... commend you guys for not wanting to have them here, but they are pretending to say that it's for safety and it's not for safety. So if it ever comes up to be where you guys want to ask about it or you guys want to implement them, I would highly suggest you guys say no. is the first step to a dangerous police state. And the way our country is going, I would rather us stay free. I did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because I don't believe we are free anymore with the way the government has been doing what they have been doing. So please, if Flock ever comes to you and asks you or wants to be part of this city, please say no. There's a ton of cities around you that have used them and are using them. And it makes it harder for the rest of us that do not want to be tracked on a daily basis put into a database to travel around the state and just do our normal stuff. It tracks every single thing on a car. It tracks license plates. It also puts you into a database. So if your car has five dents on the left-hand side, it will put that down so that if you ever you do anything that is somewhat under, over the law or outside the law, it will actually send cops and it will send people to your house to give you things like tickets and whatnot. So please do not let Flock trick you guys into bringing it into the city. I wish that other cities would get rid of it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments tonight. Next up, we have Randy Gugstetter, followed by Tyler Daniels, followed by Alma Villegas. Please state your name for the record and topic.

Randall Gugstetter from Northeast Tacoma. I'm here to comment about 311, so I call a lot of tickets in to the city of Tacoma. But the first thing the city of Tacoma does once they send it to a person to work on it, they close the ticket. So then it's not really kept track of. So in my records, when I look at my thing, they archive them. So they get archived, nobody ever works on them. One of my tickets says they're gonna move speed sensor down on 509. They move it 100 yards further south, but they never did and they archived it. So it never got fixed in 14 days. It's been there since February 26, 2025. And the tickets, I just called in on the hill, coming up North Point Hill to get maybe some stanchions along it. The minute they got the ticket, they closed it. And the next ticket, they closed it. They're not worked yet. So I worked 30 years at Boeing in maintenance. So what we do is we put them in work. And if we went to engineering, we held them for engineering. They got held for parts, got held for parts. And when you closed it, you closed it because it was done. So then if it doesn't get archived, you don't lose track of it. So that was my only comment. It's just they're getting archived and closed without ever working them. So we're not doing our stuff within 14 days because they archive them. Anyway, thank you. Great.

Thank you so much for your comments. Next up, we have Tyler Daniels, followed by Alma Villegas, followed by Lydia Zabeda.

Hello. Tyler Daniels, PE. I am talking about Westrock Paper Mill's environmental review by the Department of Ecology. I'm not sure if you all are aware that is going on. We are starting to evaluate Tacoma's next Superfund site. So that's really exciting and also extremely concerning because the Department of Ecology's purview is only on the private property. It does not extend to the waters or the sediment of Commencement Bay. That is the EPA's designation. And where does the city fall into this? Nowhere a part of this review other than to permit West Rock, that site, to continue to dump surface water directly into Commencement Bay with known carcinogens and toxins that poison humans and has already been cleaned up once in the 1980s. So my concern is that the Department of Ecology's review does not address the plume zone. If you all haven't been here for 34 years like I have, or longer or shorter to remember the aroma of Tacoma, I remember driving bus from Parkland to Des Moines to go to high school every day. And we would drive through. And we would close the windows not to be gassed by what was going on. All of that, every one of us that went through there or lived here was toxified by that. And if you don't believe me, I ask you to walk down East 26th Street by grief, the paper processing facility, and to smell their emissions and ask me if that feels fresh to you. Because what happened at the port in that amount of volume is still happening at grief at a small operation. We need to address the air quality of our community because that is key on the three-legged stool of our air, water, and our soil that continues to poison us. And all of these young humans here, that's what I do my work for. They're the ones that get to inherit our community as to whether or not you act or whether or not you continue to remain passive in the systematic toxic view of wait and see. Wait for those reports. Why don't we just wait seven years for the reports to find out that the people who recreate in Commencement Bay, that live adjacent to this site, or that consume of the aquatic life, whether here on vacation, because we ask people to come here and play in this environment, What happens to them? Where is the information? If I'm the information, you have my business proposal to provide this. It is on its way out. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next up, we have Alma Villegas, followed by Lydia Zepeda, followed by Aiden Perkinson.

Good evening. I'm Alma Villegas, District 2. I'm here to share Kenny's journey, and I ask that you do not look at your phones, but listen to the story. Kenny is a 34-year-old from Cuba who lived in the U.S. since she was a teenager. She was held at the Northwest Ice Processing Center for 14 months starting in October of 2024. On December 13, 2025, early in the morning, she was transferred from Tacoma to Fort Bliss in El Paso. She was there for two nights, zero sleep, constantly terrified of being attacked. On the third day, she and a group of 30 detainees, all men and three women, were taken to the border and handed over to the Mexican authorities. They traveled for four hours to Chihuahua, where they were placed in detention for two days. On the third night, they traveled 40 hours to Tabasco. They were not allowed to get off the bus at any time, food was limited, they didn't bathe, and all they had to share was one bathroom on the bus. They were escorted by three heavily armed cars belonging to the Mexican National Guard. In Tabasco, they were held for two nights in detention. On the third morning, she was given a document granting permission to stay in the country for 15 days until January 3rd, after which she had to exit the country by the southern border to her country of origin. They were given a choice, stay in detention, find a place in Tabasco, or go to Cancun. Her only contact was in Mexico City, but she was not given that option. She and three others chose to travel to Cancun, arriving late at night on December 26, where they were released to fend for themselves. They had no money, no belongings, and no ID. They were taken to a location where they sometimes rent apartments to reason arrivals. However, there was no room. Aided by the apartment manager, the next day they found a two-bedroom rental for $550. They are still there. As a Cuban, she can request humanitarian asylum, which allows her to stay in Mexico until that process is completed. On January 5th, she waited overnight in line for eight hours at the Mexican immigration office to apply for asylum. She is still waiting for approval. This means she can't work. She has looked for employment under the table, but the only thing available is at night and far from her residence. Too dangerous for a young woman traveling alone. Her family sends whatever help they can. Kenny is only one of a thousands who committed no crime, picked up during a regular traffic stop, Her family spent thousands on a fraudulent attorney who did nothing, so she was deported to another country alone. She cannot return to the U.S. where her brothers and sisters are for 10 years. One week after Kenny was deported out of Tacoma, eight women from her unit were released on habeas corpus. If she had had legal representation here in Washington, perhaps she could have had the same fate. We are all immigrants. All of us. It's time for each of you to choose what is morally right for a community that is being intentionally targeted and executed on our streets. You were elected to make tough choices. If you can approve funding for developers, you can approve this funding. A permanent line item in the budget to support legal representation for detainees. You have your choice. It's a choice that you have to make. Thank you.

Next up, we have Lydia Zepeda, followed by Aiden Perkinson, and then Kit Burns.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Lydia Zepeda, and I am from District 3, and I'm also the League of Women Voters Washington State Immigrant Issues Chair. First, I want to thank you for the support that you have provided immigrants at the detention center in the past. But I want to speak tonight on behalf of a budget recommendation made by the Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, CIRA. CIRA's charge is appointed by you on the council and is charged with providing advice to the council. And the piece of advice they have made is to include $170,000 annually as a permanent line item in support of immigrants in detention at the Northwest ICE Processing Center here in Tacoma for legal services and phone calls. The people in detention do not have right to free counsel. They do not have right to free phone calls. And free counsel is absolutely essential, as Alma has demonstrated, to get justice. Phone calls are essential for peace of mind, to be able to contact your family, your children, I visit one woman named Lilia who calls her daughter every single day because she misses her and she wants to make sure that her daughter is okay. There are over 1,000 people in this detention center. And what CIRA is asking for is really a drop in the bucket. But we need to support immigrants. And we need to show Tacoma's commitment to immigrants who are residents of this city and in this detention facility. Let me tell you about another woman that I visit, . She fled an abusive relationship in Bolivia with her two children. She had a work permit. She was a sous chef. She supported her family. She started a life here in America. She has an active asylum case as well as a U visa application. She was picked up during her regular check-in. Her husband and her children went to a friend, but her husband came from Bolivia, kidnapped her children, forged her signature, and took them back to Bolivia. She hasn't heard from her children since, and she's afraid they're being abused. Meanwhile, she's stuck in a detention facility with no lawyer, no money, no way to contact anybody. She's also a two-time cancer survivor. She's 40 years old and she has survived breast cancer and cervical cancer. And she has had approval for a test, but ICE delayed the transportation, so she missed the test. She's taking chemotherapy and she's afraid for her life. Please support. this line item of 170,000 that CIRA has. And these are some of the letters that we receive every week from people. So please, we ask you. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next, we have Aiden Perkinson, followed by Kit Burns, and then Susan Healy.

Hello, I'm Aiden Perkinson. I'm the Operations Manager for Advocates for Immigrants in Detention Northwest, and I'm here to speak about the importance of phone funds to people in detention. When ICE last released data in April of this year, of the 1,289 people in detention, 987 were listed as non-criminal. That's almost roughly three-quarters of the population, according to ICE, are not criminals. Most of them are unable to make phone calls to their family until someone deposits money into their phone accounts. Calls cost $0.15 a minute inside the US. So as you can imagine, that goes by pretty quickly. And these are really critical phone calls that people tend to make. Sometimes it is the only way for people to access legal representation through calling legal aid organizations until they find one that has room in their caseload to take their case. In other cases, like two days ago, we helped a man connect with his family to let them know when and where he would be deported to. They had been expecting him to be deported the week before. found out when they checked again the next day that he was still in detention and that they no longer knew which part of Latin America he was going to. Without phone funds, they would have had no way to tell him that they'd made a plan to connect him with family in the country. They'd reached out to the consulate to help him and that he needed to look for the consular officers when he landed. So that is just one example of why being able to make phone calls is so critical for people in detention. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next we have Kit Burns, followed by Susan Healy, and then last in person I have is Albert Jodwin.

My name is Kit Burns. I'm here to speak about the South Tacoma Settlement Agreement with Bridge Industrial. I spent a great time over the last two or three years on Bridge Industrial, so I'm really familiar with it. Recently, the city council actually approved the IAA, the Interagency Agreement. between the Department of Ecology and the City of Tacoma. But what I want you to know is that was approved on June 23. And then the following day at IPS, then a presentation was made. That's not normal. That's out of order. First of all, the presentation should be made to the city council so the city council is informed, and then vote on it. So that was one thing that was out of order. There are multiple issues with this, and I'm not going to go into it. I'm not an attorney. But as an architect, I've had experience with contracts. But I'm not going to speak to any of those particular issues tonight. I'm going to mark up the agreement and point out some of the errors that don't comply with the settlement agreement between the Department of Ecology and Bridge Industrial. Because the proposed submittal here, a proposed solution, wasn't really discussed with the citizens in South Tacoma. South Tacoma is a bigger area than what is shown in these documents. So I've looked at these documents, and they leave out everything south of 56th Street. But in South 56th Street during construction, one of the big harms was there was, at least by my calculations, lowball calculation. 150,000 truck trips seems a little bit incomprehensible. They're supposed to have access on the north access road, but that's not complete, so there's no trucks using that. But the people that live south of 56 have been harmed, and they should be included in this. So I'll address that in my documents, and I'll share that with the entire council, and we should all be aware of that. But you should be concerned when the presentation is given after the approval. That shouldn't be permitted. So the other thing is it includes what I would call capital projects. And the capital projects is not listed in the agreement between the Department of Ecology and Bridge Industrial. So since it's not included, since the capital projects are not included, that's one of my major issues. Another issue that many people have been brought up about listening to the citizens in South Tacoma. You can look at this presentation that was done on the 24th, and it lists things that happened in, and I want to be correct about this, presentations were made in 2015 to 2018, well before Bridge even came along. 2018, 2023, 2022, there wasn't public input. Anyway, I'll be talking to you later.

Thank you for your comments. Next we have Susan Healy followed by Albert Jodwin. Goodwin, apologies.

So again, I'm Susan Healy, and I live in District 3. I didn't realize there was pending legislation, although I did sign a petition for something. So if I go into something I'm not supposed to, please tell me. A couple months after I moved into my place, which was 2 and 1 half years ago, I noticed there was some bug activity in the evenings. I had little bites on me. They were itchy and stuff. And I told my landlord. And they told me that, I live in a multi-family unit, they told me that the tenant is responsible for pest control and get a bed bug inspection. Got a bed bug inspection. From then I vacuumed and laundered and steamed everything, got essential oils and pests, got bins for my clothes, you know, the whole thing, trying to fight it. And I did pretty well until last spring. And it is just out of control. I can't prepare food in my house. At night, especially, it's very bothersome. I have carpet beetle larvae that get in your clothes and your hair. They don't do anything to you. But still, it's just disgusting. And she just refuses to do anything about it. So you guys have great laws here, tenant landlord laws, for both sides, I think. But you can't find an attorney in town who will take your case, especially not on contingency or free. I've been at the Tacoma Fair Hall and the Housing Justice Project and Tacoma Pro Bono. But they don't do lawsuits. They just kind of give you advice. And I really want to sue her for damages because my clothes are ruined. You know, nobody would pay that much rent for a place that's full of bugs. I had to have eye surgery because my tear ducts were clogged. They're microscopic, mind you. To get my hair and the honeydew that they excrete. It makes my hair sticky, basically. And when you brush it, it just breaks, breaks. So I have this bald spot kind of over here on my head. And it's just frustrating. It's helped me that there is no back behind this law. So I wouldn't come without a suggestion. My suggestion is that you give them penalties that accrue daily until they start working on whatever it is law they're breaking. She knows that this has no effect. She knows that nothing's going to happen to her because she continues to break laws and harass me and change the terms of my lease and all these other things. And I just feel like there's nothing I can do. And I find that very frustrating, especially with the great laws that you all passed. So I do think that this bill might have something to do with penalties or not penalties, but putting some back behind. And if that's true, I hope you support it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up we have Albert Goodwin.

Yes, Albert Goodwin. Again, Proposition 1.

Sir, we can't talk in opposition to or in support of any particular ballot measure. But if you wanted to talk broadly about it.

Broadly about it. Yes. Very broadly. I did a survey of over 300 people, plus some of the apps out there. And so far, everybody's in disdain. It is so vague. The people that I have spoken to, and over 300, They want the main arterials repaired. You have 167 blocks of gravel road, which equals 13.916 miles. And you're going to do that right off the bat. Fix the potholes. The bicyclists want the potholes fixed. They want a smooth surface to ride on. You don't need more bike lanes. What you need to do is fix the darn streets. having run an engineering and a maintenance budget, if I have one employee that put together a proposition like that to me, they would have been looking for new employment. And I want to be candid, a lot of people feel the same way. So I want to thank you for your time, but I don't see this passing in any shape, manner, or form.

Thank you so much for your comments. Next up, we'll be moving online. If there's anybody else in person that would like to speak, please sign up in the back of the room. So moving online, we have Heidi GS followed by Kathy Irwin.

My name is Heidi Stevens, speaking on multiple topics. First, thank you for three minutes. It gives me time to support those who spoke on West Rock, detaining legal representation, tenant rights, and opposition to flock. And to note that Los Angeles just decided to remove their flock system. The LAPD found it too intrusive on civil rights. So that's saying a lot. Okay. I'm disappointed that Tacoma is becoming known mostly for fake titles like the South Tacoma Tree Enhancement Plan that doesn't include any significant tree planting at all. and an interagency agreement, which refers to resident input as hostile, and the city's support of the Pacific Northwest Climate Week, which is actually sponsored by fossil fuel industry. Regarding the data center statement, since when has Tacoma ever prioritized the health and well-being of our residents, quote, when instead deliberately legally challenging any inclusion of environmental justice in industrial permit approvals? Not only do we need a moratorium, but then a permanent code update, because if not, you're setting us up to defend a lawsuit claiming that nothing says they are prohibited and thus can be allowed. So I am not comforted by the city's assurance that data centers aren't currently mentioned in the code. Well, neither had been auto crushing mega warehouses or private prisons, but we still ended up with those. And speaking of detention centers, GEO Group is in the first step of selling the facility to ICE, which means no more taxes from them and even less oversight. I'll be emailing follow-up information about actions the city must take soon regarding this. And lastly, the housing density in the Tacoma Mall sub-area was based on having nearby green space at Madison School. Now that that school is closed, this council needs to be facilitating a transfer of that land to Parks Tacoma or following your own critical areas code passed just tonight and acquiring green space to preserve. The city and Parks Tacoma also must stop spraying pesticides and herbicides, especially within the Groundwater Protection District. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next up, we have Kathy Irwin, followed by Shauna Franklin-McCann.

Hi, my name is Kathy Irwin, District 3, South Tacoma resident. And I wanted to state that Heidi has covered a lot of the bases I would be talking about tonight as well. But the one thing I wanted to make sure to share with the residents and the city council and staff is that this recent agreement The interagency agreement and partnership that formed between the City of Tacoma and Department of Ecology totally excluded the South Tacoma residents, the people that were supposed to be helped by this agreement and by the use of the bridge industrial settlement funds. According to the paperwork with the settlement funds, the decisions regarding the use of these settlement funds were to be directed by South Tacoma residents. The ones impacted from the operations of this project, yet the residents were purposely not included in meetings, even though we requested being included, we were told no, we could not be included. We were teased with the fact that there was some kind of an agreement going on, but we couldn't know anything about it until after it had been arranged. This has been a very cruel process for us to go through this and only recently realized that this has been going on since 2024, this partnership. It happened immediately after the settlement funds became available. So this is a very irritating situation for us to be having no impact and being told that we can only engage at appropriate intermittent moments during this whole process with no ability to make any decisions with this whatsoever. So even though people seem happy about the whole idea of getting trees planted, none of this is happening right away for South Tacoma residents within that settlement area. Even the tree enhancement project isn't supposed to be really moving forward for another year or two. So how is that helping the immediate concerns with health for the residents of the South Tacoma area? During the construction phase of this project, South 56th Street was an access point for the trucks getting over to do the construction work. Some of those funds were actually even available during that time where people could have had access to air purifiers and weatherization projects along that South 56th Street. Yet all this has been delayed and under very suspicious conditions. So South Dakota residents don't seem grateful enough We're having more trees planted. Please understand that we had no voice in any of this, and we continue to not have a voice until the right moment. Thank you.

Thank you, Kathy. And I apologize if I mess up your name. Is it Shana or Shana Franklin McCann?

It's Shana Franklin McCann. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. My name is Shanna Franklin. I am a community member and also a visitor at the detention center here in Tacoma. I just wanted to speak a little bit about my concerns around the lack of legal representation that I'm experiencing. kind of hearing from the detainees that I speak to pretty regularly. During my visits, I hear ongoing concerns about the lack of legal representation and their ability to pay for legal representation. Many of the detainees are losing jobs while they're detained. They're losing their homes. They're losing their cars. They're losing their connection to their families, their connections to community. And a lot of it, I think, could really be helped with a budget line dedicated ongoingly for legal representation, to provide legal representation for these detainees that can't afford it. That's really all that I would like to speak about tonight. And I thank you so much for your time. And I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next, we have Onita Arnold. And that's my last speaker online. If there's anybody else online wishing to speak, please raise your hand.

Am I being heard?

I can hear you.

Oh, OK. It's hard to tell from this end. So, yes, my name is Oneida Arnold, District 2. And I can't add to the stories that Alma and Lydia told you about the detainees at the Northwest IPC. And I'm just going to throw my emphasis behind prioritizing legal representation for detainees in this year's budget. $170,000 is such a small amount to ensure legal counsel for them. I don't think any council members are in approval to what's happening at NWIPC, which the city unfortunately hosts. And so I don't think that's an issue, but I think you have to push for that prioritization. You've heard the stories. It's horrendous. So please push that in. Once again, it's such a small amount. And also being able to speak to family and their counsel by phone. So that's what I'm hoping that you all will do. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to speak for community forum? All right, seeing none, I'm going to close community forum. Next up, we have reports by the city manager. Since this is community forum nights, there is no report by the city manager. So next we have council comments and committee reports of the city council. We have the infrastructure planning sustainability committee. I would like to call on Councilmember Walker, chair of the IPS committee, to give a report.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. We have done a lot of work at IPS. This is going to be a long one. We've met three times since our last report out. On June 10th, the committee voted to recommend candidates to serve on the Planning Commission, which we already voted on. And Council confirmed these appointments on our June 30th meeting. Public Works updated IPS on a new framework for parking citation rates and potential improvements to the adjudication process. And Parks Tacoma informed IPS of their grant application to purchase a portion of the former Galt Middle School site in fulfillment of the grant's application requirements. On June 24th, Environmental Services and the State Department of Ecology staff provided an overview of a $1.75 million interagency agreement that will expand South Tacoma's urban tree canopy through the end of 2028. And, on July 8, the Environmental Services staff briefed the Committee on the operational and financial performance of the City's renewable natural gas facility. Public Works and Planning and Development Services staff summarized the most recent right-of-way design manual update, described the work that's being done thus far for the current update, and outlined plans for finishing this cycle. Since our last report out, the committee has received two policy letters, one from our Climate and Sustainability Commission on Climate Action Plan Progress and the second letter from the Planning Commission on the Sound Transit Enterprise Initiative. Both those are available on the IPS webpage. Our next meeting is scheduled for July 22nd. Tacoma Water will provide an update about groundwater supply and regulations protecting the public from PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals. Deputy Mayor.

That concludes my report. Thank you so much, Chair Walker. Is there any council comments?

I actually have another.

Oh, please continue.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I just wanted to share a great success story with everybody tonight. I have been working, as you know. You all helped pass a resolution finding ways to enhance salvage and deconstruction in our city with the goal of diverting more waste, especially demolition and construction debris from our landfill and increasing the reuse and recycling of items. And so this is about a year and a half ago, we had meetings with stakeholders, many of our local salvage and deconstruction industry leaders, and one of the items that came out of those discussions was the idea of, as a first step, encouraging more salvage assessments for buildings that are being demolished. So we passed a resolution, and then city council, And IPS at that point sort of set the vision for this new program. And then one of our PDS staff, Lucas Shattuck, brought this vision to life. And we have just released it. And I think everyone saw the press release. But we launched the new program, which is a voluntary salvage assessment program. On July 1st, and we had our very first demolition permit already that request came in right after launching the program They did the voluntary assessment and it resulted in a ton of quality building components being salvaged high quality kitchen cabinets a door windows plumbing fixtures fencing kitchen appliances a new furnace and a water heater and So really proof of concept already that this is possible and making a difference. All of those things would have been lost if they went straight to demolition, and it would have ended up in our landfill. So we're really excited, and I've gotten a ton of emails already from folks who are looking to do this, but I just wanted to highlight that and thank PDS staff. And then I also want to thank Councilmember Palmer, who has jumped in on this and will carry on this good work after I am no longer on council. So very exciting success story and more to come, I'm sure.

Thank you, Council Member Walker. That's awesome news. Council Member Hines.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Mayor. And I have another success story I'd like to elevate. I think this is one we all saw, and it's one about our police department. So Chief Jackson recently shared that Operation Guardian, which is a multiple agency operation led by the Washington State Patrol, to identify those allegedly involved in exploitation of children has recently led to 21 arrests of individuals. It's a really important collaborative effort. involved more than 30 dedicated law enforcement agencies, agents, and staff. And I'm so proud that the Tacoma Police Department played a role in this effort. Chief Jackson shared that protecting children from exploitation is one aspect of law enforcement that often happens behind the scenes, but its impact is immeasurable. As someone who works in schools and has been involved with schools my entire life, I know that these exploitation of children does not just impact the children that are involved, though that is horrific, but it also impacts our families and our communities. And so the work that we do to try to stop this from happening is critically important to everyone involved. I want to applaud our detectives and our team for representing Tacoma Police Department's operation with great professionalism, and your hard work is very much appreciated. Congratulations, Chief Jackson and all of our Tacoma Police Department officers for this important work in protecting some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that, Council Member Hines. Council Member Walker. Oh, sorry. Very well. All right. Any other final council comments? All right. I'll obtain the second to final motion.

Move to excuse Mayor Ibsen from the meeting.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to excuse Mayor Ibsen from the meeting. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The motion is declared adopted. Move to adjourn.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? When the motion is declared adopted, we stand adjourned. Everybody have a good night.