City Council - workshop

I'd like to call to order the City Council study session of July 21st, 2026. Clerk, please call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell.

Present.

Councilmember Diaz. Here. Councilmember Diaz is here. Councilmember Hines.

Here.

Councilmember Palmer. Absent. Councilmember Rumba. Here. Councilmember Sedalge. Here. Councilmember Scott. Here. Councilmember Walker. Here.

absent mayor Ibsen here our first agenda item is the Tacoma streets initiative 10-year report I'd like to call on Public Works assistant director Cory Newton to begin the presentation welcome gentlemen good afternoon mayor deputy mayor and council members my name is Cory Newton I'm the Public Works deputy director in the city engineer and we're here today to celebrate some successes of the street initiative and a decade of progress next slide All right, so today's presentation, it's a little bit long, but we'll try to go through some of the slides rather quickly. But we definitely want to chat with you about a lot of different things that were a real example of success as part of the Street Initiative. So we'll go over background, the important stuff, the community impact, and the accomplishments we achieved, our financial stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and an economic analysis of the great work and the examples of success on the economic analysis front. And then we'll talk a little bit about remaining needs and then what's next. Next slide. All right, so I always like to start off with a question of why. So why was the street initiative created? Well, basically, if you remember the condition of our residential streets in particular, at that time, they were basically some form of deteriorated street. The PCI rating overall was very low, which is the pavement condition index or how we evaluate our street system. And then Council started passing lots of policies around the right-of-way and different modes of travel. And so in order to meet Council's transformational goals, as well as the infrastructure status, and create a predictable and dedicated investment, we developed the Street Initiative, and voters passed that in 2015. Next slide.

With that, I'll turn it over to Joe. Yeah, thanks, Corey. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. My name is Joe Franco. I'm the Special Assistant to the Director for Public Works. We're going to go over background. So in 2015, Tacoma voters approved Proposition 3 and Proposition A. Together, these measures funded residential street maintenance, capital improvements, and also safety enhancements along Tacoma streets. At the time, the measures were expected to generate about $175 million in new local revenue, which supported roughly $325 million in total transportation investments. Importantly, the funding was always intended to sunset after 10 years and was supposed to be used specifically for transportation purposes here in the city. And looking back, the investment really has exceeded many of our original expectations. So next slide, please.

I'll just add on to that. The 10-year thing was really important. We did a few community surveys. And one of the things that we really heard from an accountability standpoint is that 10 years was really important to our community. And so we made sure we made note of that.

Yeah, thanks, Corey. So moving into community impact and accomplishments, the Streets Initiative became much more than just a residential paving program. For every dollar that we've helped attract, approximately $3 were made in grant funding. So we've been very successful in the grant match arena. Also, we've secured more than $144 million in state and federal grants, which has been well above our original goal of $90 million. And also, we've been able to build really great intentional partnerships with our local partners in environmental services, Tacoma Public Utilities, Pierce Transit, Tocoma Public Schools, private developers on a lot of our capital and residential projects. 83% of our expenditures were directly supported through the contract of maintenance and construction work, which really generated jobs down here in the Pierce County space. And then also, we've really maintained strong financial accountability. We had no findings from the state auditor's office. We're also producing a community impact report, which will be posted here in the next month, which is a written report with all this information that you'll also be sent. Corey, anything else you wanted to add?

Yeah, I just want to touch a little bit more on that partnership. I guess me personally, when I think of good government, this is the exact type of partnership activity that I think of. When there's different agencies in our community that we're able to partner with and do, I guess, use taxpayer dollars very efficiently and build amazing projects for our community, this street initiative has allowed us to have that success and really build those partnerships and those relationships with our affected stakeholders.

And I'm going to pass this over to Eric Sloan, our pavement manager, for this next slide.

Mayor, members of council, I'm Eric Sloan, pavement manager in the public works department. This slide represents kind of what we delivered through the streets initiative. Most of the lines there are green because it's work that's been completed, though we still have a good amount of work in progress and some future work that's planned, both maintenance and some capital projects. Most of this work is in the maintenance and preservation area, so lots of seal coats and maintenance on streets to keep them good, but 30% of it has been actual paving. And so that covered about almost 100 miles throughout the city. And one of the things that you won't see on the map here, just because it kind of clutters it up, is we also had a lot of little projects that had a big impact, safety improvements and things like that that are corners and corridors and things like that that we can't really represent on this map, but they're out there and we're working on better ways of representing that to you and the public.

And I'll just add, and that's a good example, like a curb ramp project, for example, doesn't show up on this map, but that is extremely impactful to safety for pedestrians, for example. Also, just to add on to this a little bit, Eric, sorry to steal your thumb, but about 70% of our residential street system we were able to touch as part of the last 10 years.

Correct, yeah. We're on track to meet our goal of about, well, it's about 5,600, so we're almost there now, and we will exceed that. given that we have funding left over for next year and those other projects that are coming. So about almost 80 capital projects supported so far, and yeah, more to come.

Next slide. So Corey, I guess we'll go into our capital project accomplishments. So while residential maintenance formed the backbone of the streets initiative, major capital projects transformed key corridors throughout Tacoma. These next several slides highlight some of our examples from different council districts and also demonstrate the variety of different improvements that were delivered through the streets initiative.

All right, so East 64th, just an absolutely outstanding example of a great transformational project that we can do for our community. I actually just walked this corridor with one of our constituents. They were asking me questions about it. I was like, hey, let's go out and meet on site. Let's chat through everything. And just walking it, I mean, honestly, I was absolutely amazed with what we were able to do. This is a three-phase project. Some of the reasons we break these things up into phases, just if anybody's curious on why we don't do one big project, you know, when we go after grants, a lot of the grants have dollar restrictions or caps on them. And so we, you know, we couldn't necessarily go for one big project because we wouldn't get enough or we wouldn't be able to maximize our state and federal dollars. And so a lot of the strategy around the street initiative has been maximizing local resources and leveraging those to get more state and federal dollars and so this is just a good example of that so we split this up in three phases so we have done phase one and two and phase three I'm happy to announce we should be going to design work here in about a month next slide And then just that picture really just showed a lot of the examples of what we can do. Again, picture speaks a thousand words. But again, able to leverage different dollars, partnership dollars, with both Environmental Services and Tacoma Public Utilities. Next slide.

Yeah, so this is the Lincoln District Streetscape Project. Hopefully some of you are familiar with this. But this demonstrates how transportation improvements can also support neighborhood revitalization. If you could hit the next slide. So this was one of our capital projects. One of the main sources was also streets initiative funding. We invested about $9 million in this corridor for the Lincoln District, which has also sparked a lot of capital development along this corridor. Some of you are familiar with the Patsy Sur Place, which is right along Lincoln District, along 38th there. So there's opportunities there for folks. When we're able to invest in transportation projects, we're able to bring in additional investments in a lot of these neighborhoods. But some of the project improvements that you'll see, you know, new pavement, crossing, curb ramps. My favorite portion of this is the Yakima Festival Street. Some of you have been out there. But many businesses are also located around there, too. Many BIPOC businesses. So, you know, very great corridor for us.

Can we actually go back to the previous slide? I just want to make one comment. You know, this picture, obviously, there's... a huge difference. And some of the things that don't show up easily on this picture is you can just see from the condition of the infrastructure that this was an underinvested area. So there's cracked sidewalk, there's moss growing. But what's harder to pick up on is that you see there's poles scattered throughout this, and then there's trees scattered throughout this. And when you think of when we're trying to activate pedestrian spaces, these types of obstacles prevent that. And so basically creating the corridor that we did, allowing these vibrant pedestrian areas. And really, as part of this project, we know that we created kind of a design corridor and a feel for this area. And that type of activity or design really helps activate these types of projects. And so just another example of an outstanding project we were able to do as part of Street Initiative.

Next slide.

One more. All right. Go ahead, Glenn. Yeah. All right. So this is actually a Combination Street Initiative LID project. But again, you can kind of see the status of our infrastructure back in 2015. So if you look at that street, you kind of see the before photo. You kind of see the failed street. It's a mixture of oil mat and some asphalt patching. There's no sidewalk. And what we're able to achieve with this type of project, you see, obviously, a new paved surface. It's smoother. It's safer. You see curb and gutter installed, sidewalk installed. Again, when you look at the before and after of what's possible with the street initiative, this is the type of investment that basically improves the quality of life for our community. Next slide. And again, like every slide, you kind of see the same theme over and over again. What we have been and Public Works has been really successful at doing is leveraging these local dollars. We multiply some. It's basically a force multiplier. We've been able to maximize the dollars we've received from our partners and leverage that and build more for our community with the dollars we received. Next slide.

So this is East Roosevelt Avenue. East Roosevelt was really focused heavily on safety improvements. These improvements included sidewalks, crossings, curb ramps, school beacons, landscaping, and storm water upgrades. This project really improved access for students at the local elementary school, families, and also everyone traveling through the corridor. Eric, was there anything you wanted to add to this one?

Yeah, one thing I would like to add is that It's a great example of how the Streets Initiative presented opportunities for us. So this kind of started out as a residential project, as most of the Streets Initiative projects did. knowing that the utilities needed to get into Roosevelt to tie things in for those residential streets, we started looking beyond that and even into the further safety improvements and working with the Safe Routes to School program and all of that. So it expanded from what it was to get, and we were able to obtain a grant to get these more comprehensive improvements.

Thanks. Next slide. And here you can see more of the funding sources and project improvements that we've been able to do. Next slide.

All right, and then the last capital project that we wanted to highlight as part of this successes presentation is the Larchmont project. So this is just a really good example of a partnership project. So Environmental Services led this and partnered with Public Works as part of the street initiative dollars. We were able to go after ecology grants. This is actually a porous asphalt roadway. And so we were able to implement some green infrastructure. And then part of the design work for this really sets us up for a future Greenway. So again, just a forward-thinking, strategic way that we've been able to leverage local dollars to build these amazing projects. Next slide. And then again, it just highlights the type of funding that we were able to utilize. And again, you can kind of see every project is slightly different. There's different grants that we can go after. There's different funding sources. But what we have public work staff doing is really looking at the different opportunities out there. And when we see an opportunity to build a project, we go for it. Next slide.

Go ahead, Corey. I was just going to turn it over to Eric. Oh, Eric, anything else? No, I think I'm going to take on the street maintenance accomplishments now, though. Go ahead. Next slide, please. First, I want to talk a little bit about Pothole Palooza. So it's something that we've been able to do for the last few years. And it really gets to the heart of what maintenance is. This year, we were able to take on repairs at 10 locations throughout the city. Nearly 16,000 square yards of pavement was replaced. And that is equal to 9,000 individual pothole repairs, so four by four repairs. What I find kind of cool about that is that back when I was a street maintenance worker, we were doing about 8,000 of these a year. So our program has allowed us to expand and we're doing that on top of these 9,000 individual repairs in one shot. And we covered ground all over the place. And they're not full improvements or anything, but it's the maintenance that we need to do to keep things going. So on your you can see North 21st Street section that we did, and then North Point Way, we did the uphill lane up to 29th. Next slide, please. So our residential programs out of street operations have covered a lot of ground. And one thing I do want to point out as I'm talking about all of the work that they've performed is that This is the maintenance, again, that we need to do to kind of keep things going. So this is low cost and high impact as far as longevity for your streets. And the bulk of the money from the streets initiative, over 80% of it actually went to capital projects and contracted work, which is great because we're keeping our contractors busy and keeping the community employed. Again, our residential programs down at Street Operations cover a lot of ground. So they do like maintenance paving. We partner with Environmental Services and the other utilities on those to get the basics updated. And you can see the transformation from the left to right on these before and after photos. But the other thing I would like to point out is that every dollar that we spend on maintenance today, it kind of it prevents us from having to spend $250 in maintenance in the future. When we let something go all the way to failure like that and have to reconstruct it from the ground up, it costs 250 times more to do it.

And I just want to add on to that a little bit because I think that's a really important fact and there's a reason we put it here. So sometimes if you see a road that we haven't completed, but you see public works crews doing some maintenance activity on a road that was recently paved, it's because of this fact right here. If we're able to maintain our infrastructure, and that's part of good government too, is making sure that we maximize our investment. So if we're able to maintain that infrastructure, we can extend the lifespan and the longevity of that. And so there's a reason that you see those maintenance activities occurring.

Next slide. So next couple slides, we're going to go over financial stewardship of the streets initiative. So beyond delivering projects, we've really focused on how can we best steward the taxpayer dollar. So this will summarize a lot of our revenues and how they were generated and invested here in the community. So over the life of the initiative, revenues exceeded original projections. So with these higher than anticipated tax collections and other revenues, they helped strengthen our program and helped leverage us for more additional projects we've been able to perform out here on the streets here in Tacoma. In total, the streets initiative has generated approximately $231 million in local revenues, which is about 113% over the original projected revenues that we had come up with back in 2015. But these local revenues became the foundation for attracting substantial outside funding. Like I talked about earlier, our grant match programs are really key to us delivering a lot of the improvements that folks will see on roadways. Next slide, please. And then for expenditures, so the largest share of expenditures supported our residential maintenance and also capital projects, as you can see here on the screen. Capital investments continue as multi-year projects progress through design and construction, and some of our capital funds remain committed through existing contracts and future construction. Overall spending has remained consistent with council priorities that were laid out and established when the initiative was first approved. So we have continued to found there was no audits through state auditor's report. I mean, we've been able to spend these monies specifically on transportation projects. Eric was there. Things you wanted to add here?

Yeah. Couple things, just the residential maintenance category. Again, I just want to point out that a lot of that work was contracted out. It's just lumped together because it's the maintenance portion of it. The active transportation bucket is getting caught up I mean, because we're getting to the end of this. So, you know, as you go for grants, I mean, it takes time to design, get into construction and things like that. So that's why you see that kind of lag there in the arterial and freight category. We've just got a lot of bigger projects out there still in design and that are ready to go.

Thanks, Eric. And turn it over to Corey for the next slides. All right, so how did this, I guess, affect our local economy? So we generated an analysis. And then basically, after all the economics was analyzed by a consultant, this program basically generated a net positive for our community. So some of the facts that I was absolutely astounded by is it generated an additional $26 to $31 million in economic activity. And then again, households earned a cumulative $5 to $6.5 million more in household earnings than without this. And so when you add that all up, the benefits for our community for a package like this, it was a great success on an economic front as well. Not only just our infrastructure, but also on an economic front as well. Next slide. And then just a little bit about this. So council's aware that we have various programs in place as part of our capital projects, including LEAP. And so you can kind of see that how when we have these funds available and we go and build these projects, these projects have requirements placed on them. And we're able to really generate some great action as part of that. So you can see 41,000 apprentice hours as a result of the Street Initiative, 9.3 million in local wages, 144 million and counting in grants that we've been able to pull into Tacoma as part of the Street Initiative. And again, 136,000 hours of local employees working on our capital projects as part of this. Next slide. All of that was tied together in the report. And so that was just some of the highlights for you all.

So a little bit about our remaining needs. This may look familiar to you, but we still have about $680 million in deferred maintenance. And what I mean by that is that every street is going to need some sort of maintenance at some point. And if we take that snapshot in time right now, we have about $680 million of work that needs to be done just to maintain what we have. On top of that, we have about a $1.4 billion reconstruction backlog. And that is the streets that are, well, they have a PCI of 40 and lower generally, and they're beyond general maintenance, so they have to be reconstructed. So it is a big number, but things are costing a lot. And the other thing I want to point out is that this represents a one-time cost. I mean, you can't really effectively just throw that money at it and fix the problem all at once, because you just couldn't be able to do that logistically. But it is focused mostly on the pavement as well. So what I don't have in this is street trees and things like that. We do include some sidewalk connections in the mix on our capital work, the number that we use. But it's not like full improvement. So those would be on top of this.

All right, next slide. So what's next? So you've kind of heard from Eric that there's a need for more infrastructure funding. We've demonstrated as part of this presentation that there has been some successes as part of the street initiative. And so the next step is, as you all know, council voted to place a resolution on the ballot August 4th. the Connect Tacoma Safe Streets and Sidewalk Levy. That levy we have distributed information on, facts and data for the different investment themes. We have better neighborhood streets, safer streets for everyone, and improved connections. As part of that, we will definitely have oversight committees for the levy. And then one of the lessons learned in general regardless of the August 4th levy, is we've heard a lot about outreach, communication, and reporting. And Public Works is embarking actively on improving our outreach and engagement activities, better communication, and really just responding to the needs of our community. Next slide. I'll turn it over to Jill.

Yeah, so we do have some continued projects that are going through the end of the year. So this is the list of projects that we're planning throughout the rest of the 2026 construction season. So there's a list right there, but we do still have additional projects that are scheduled through 2027 and 2028 because STREETS INITIATIVE STILL HAS MONEY IN IT. WE STILL NEED TO INVEST IN THE COMMUNITY. AND WE'LL CONTINUE TO DO THAT UNTIL THE PROGRAM AND MONEY SUNSET. SO THIS IS THE ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION LIST. ERIC, WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANTED TO ADD TO THIS ONE?

Yep, sorry. Yeah, just that we have a lot of, I mean, we still have a lot of work that's planned and in design. And if you go to the next slide, we've got a couple of projects that we pulled out that we wanted to highlight. This is Streets Initiative Package 18. Again, another one of those that kind of started as a residential project that kind of grew on us just based on utility work and things like that. And it has experienced some delays. We kind of put this together back in COVID, so it kind of got slow rolled out. But as you know, that's a boundary street for Tacoma. So we've got other agencies that we're working with. And with the streams and everything down there on the West Slope, we also have a lot of permitting and things like that to take care of. But that is coming up and should be put out to add this year. Next slide, please. And another project that we're excited about is South 12th Street. This honestly started as an effort on my part to get more arterial work done as part of the streets initiative. Environmental Services had a couple of sections of pipe that they needed to replace, and it kind of grew from there. We also did some work in phase one of this around Peck Field, partnering with Metro Parks Tacoma. But we expanded the South 12th work and obtained a grant. And as you can see from the rendering up there, it's going to be transformational. So we're excited about that one as well.

Next slide. And then we just wanted to close with a big thank you to our community. You know, we were able to put out a lot of projects, really change a lot of different infrastructure and transform our community. We also today provided some little handouts for the street initiative and celebrating the 10 years of successes as part of that. And with that, we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, team. Any council questions? Council Member Scott.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for this update. It's always cool to see what's been done. You know, we get a peek at various things, either when you invite us out to Potholepalooza or just in the neighborhood. I live on the hilltop, so I've seen quite a few changes. So just appreciate the hard work, and I appreciate the update. But I was going to ask on slide five, the lines, so you have completed work, work in progress, plan in future work for the plan and future work are these specifically projects that are tied to The dollars from this from this initiative, okay? It's not like we want to do this in the future and that's going to depend on Okay, just wanted to check out tomorrow.

Yeah, just there's some residual funding that's left over and so we're broke We're in actively programming that right now, so yeah cool, and then the last question is about

Looking at the upcoming work, the links to opportunity, is that along the T-line, the link? Is that what those are? Okay. Do you have any insight on, like, what we can expect from that?

Councilmember, so LTO4, I think, is what you're referring to. And, yeah, I mean, so we've awarded it.

Yep, it's been awarded. And so, I mean, that process will take a little bit, and then we'll get into construction in it. Kind of more of the same of what we've seen, so just more. I can, Eric, do you know the NTP or no?

No. Okay. I don't. We can follow up, Council Member.

Yeah, I don't need it, Amelia, just being nosy. Thank you.

All right, Council Member Sebelke. Thank you. I only have a couple of questions. First, a comment. You may not know this on slide 13. I am actually in that picture. on East Roosevelt Avenue. I'm all the way to the right of a little orange dot. But that is not why I call attention to this. I call attention to this. It's one of the ones that shows how much community really appreciates it. Because I was there for the ribbon cutting when we walked down East Roosevelt. So many parents talked about how appreciative they were to have a safer road for their kids young children to be able to get to school and feel safer. And that's a really big portion of this. And that actually only shows a small percentage of the individuals in the neighborhoods that came out. The only real question I have Second comment, I know there's a lot of economic impact. I do also want to point out there's the economic impact is really difficult to put a real number on, but which is when you improve the look and feel of a neighborhood. you have greater economic kind of activity occur. For example, the Lincoln District, right? And many other portions of this project, when you improve the look of that community, it raises property values, it gets people to want to come there, it gets investors, and by and large, most people small businesses in Tacoma are owned and run by people who live in the community, want to invest and open up a shop, open up something there. So that's also an important consideration. But really what I would love for you to do is sing the praises of the team that has come together over 10 years because I think one of the biggest successes is the grant matches. And that is so, so, so important to talk about because When we go to these conferences and talk to our peers, whether it's in Washington or nationally, they don't have a way to even present some of these ideas, let alone apply for these grants. And we've really created, and quite frankly, The city has created an amazingly talented group of individuals collectively who've been able to apply for and win grants. Can you give me more color around how that came to be over 10 years?

well council member i'll just have to say it's no coincidence that we are being awarded grants and also receiving awards for various projects that we're doing on our public works operations absolutely amazing the staff involved the dedication the commitment to their jobs in our community is absolutely amazing and you're absolutely right it takes time to build that level of talent and that level of workforce to understand where to go for grants, how to apply for grants, and most importantly, how to be successful for that. So again, this is part of a continuation. And in order for us to continue to be successful, we continue to have to have the right, I guess, I want to say players, but it's not right. I'm using sports. The right mix of experiences and skills.

Yes, the right mix of in-house and to be successful on these things. And that's really important because we employ engineers with stamps. Whereas when I've talked to other jurisdictions, they have to rely on consultants to come in and do things. We employ people who can write grants, whereas other municipalities don't even know who they can go to to write their grant for them. These are all really amazingly important considerations in how we have run this program to be able to win all the funding we have. I do want to point out a double-edged sword in doing that. Often, and one of the criticisms that I have gotten from residents, and it's really about explaining and educating, is why are you spending all that money on these fancy things? It's just a road. Fix the potholes and you can do more roads. But ultimately, in talking to you and others, we realized that those additional features that we put in are, one, the way we win grants, and two, free for us, for our coffers, correct? There's a lot of design features that grant reviewers are looking for municipalities to incorporate.

Absolutely, Councilmember. And I'll just tie it to your earlier comment, too. It really becomes about a quality of life issue. So you kind of talked about how we transform areas or whatever. So we're improving the quality of life. And so when you see those new projects in Larchmont or Roosevelt, I'm just thinking some of those, When you walk down those streets, it's a whole different field today than it was 10 years ago, for example. And so that quality of life component is absolutely a huge part of this.

Thank you. And it is a small, small minority of my constituents who complain that we have too many nice things. And usually I can win them over by saying, but they were free. So, OK, thank you.

Who doesn't like free nice things? Thank you. Council Member Rumbaugh.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you so much for all the good work you've done on our streets. And I think being good stewards of the money that we get from taxpayers, I really appreciate that. I just was curious if you could just delve in a little bit more on Safe Routes to Schools and talk about the partnerships that we have and how we've worked with partners to also get a lot of this work done. And if you could specifically talk to Crosswalks. I've had a lot of questions about Crosswalks.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember. So just a little bit about this. So a lot of these Safe Routes to School projects that we've completed are not possible without Street Initiative dollars. But even more important than the Street Initiative dollars, or I guess equally important than the Street Initiative dollars, are the partnerships that we've built with our agencies. Exactly what you said, Councilmember. Parks Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools. I can't tell you the difference in the relationship the city has with those agencies today than 10 years ago. And a lot of this has... with any kind of infrastructure, there's the potential for conflict points, right? And when the city has dollars available to partner on something and really improve it. The school district, for example, they get great feedback from children who attend the school. And when they're able to reach out to Tacoma, us, and say, hey, is there an opportunity here? And we have our Safe Routes to School program, which we can assign someone to that and then work with them to find an opportunity to do a project. Absolutely amazing.

Yeah, so I think there is a component there that talks about jobs. and these other partners that are also tied to jobs that we have. And so I think I wanted to show people that it's not just about the city having a job. It's about private industry having jobs that's related to the street initiative, to the funding. and also to these public entities that also are part of this. So we are all like a system. And everyone benefits when we have good roads and we have good crosswalks and sidewalks. It all works together. So I just want to say thank you. And then last week, I made a statement that we had fixed something. But actually, it was the public schools that had actually fixed the issue. And I wanted to just call out the public schools for being such great partners with us.

Thank you. Yeah, agreed. I'll just say, Morris, I love the relationship I've built with him over the years and solving problems. So definitely agree. I will also call out Tacoma Public Schools as an amazing partner. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you.

Council Member Palmer.

Thank you, Mayor. Bravo. This is so cool for Tacoma to be leading in a lot of these. As somebody who grew up here, I'm looking at a lot of these Like, the before pictures is what I remember growing up with and just looking around and seeing all these amazing projects. Now, like, I'm super proud of my city and super proud of, like, thank you. Thank you for all the work that you put in. Thank you also for the updated outreach on the New Streets Initiative or placements, however you want to word that. I was out there this weekend with Porch Fest and hanging out. We had a booth for the initiative, and then we had a booth for Public Works just out there answering questions for people. And I think that that was huge to just have that access and availability to answer those questions. I'm really interested in this Larchmont project with the new permeable pavement. I'm guessing it was maybe part of the grant process. But how do we see learning from this and maybe continuing using these materials in future projects.

So Councilmember, that's a dangerous question, because I absolutely love pavement design. And I could go on and on about this. But honestly, just green infrastructure in general. So what's the benefit of us doing a porous asphalt residential road, for example? Why is there even stormwater rules in the first place? It has to do with urban flooding, right? And even more than that, it has to do with how we can do things differently for our environment. And so these porous asphalt roads, we're learning, and we've built a lot of them. we're learning, they're really effective in a lot of residential areas. You know, there's some alternative and different maintenance, so it's a little bit of a lessons learned for us in public works about, okay, we have to do operations differently, we have to do maintenance cycles differently, but these are really good roads, and again, yeah, when we're able to receive ecology grants, for example, and bring dollars in from the state to our community to help build these, really good opportunities for us.

That's great. The other question is, I love that we have information on the revenues and the economic benefits of Like to the areas and to Tacoma there has to be benefits to surrounding areas too and like visitors coming in from Pierce County and that and so I'm wondering can we Put numbers to that or is that something we have?

Yeah, council members. So the report actually is, I think, a regional impact report that we did. But we just tried to highlight some of the things out of this report. I think the ones that we selected were the specific to the city of Tacoma. But some of those might have included some regional impacts, too, as well.

Because I know that this is a tax or would be a tax that maybe involves folks maybe outside the city. And so I think it's important to highlight that. it's still a benefit to them as well.

I will also chime in, Council Member. It was regionally surrounding about Pierce County and the South Sound area. So it wasn't necessarily just the city of Tacoma itself, but we saw the effect that households had around the city itself too.

Thanks. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you. Council Member Hines. Thank you again for the presentation, gentlemen. This is great. I do think that the best graphic is the one that's on page 5, which is all the work that's been done. You can kind of clearly see everything you all have done to kind of improve the streets in our city. And I think the before and after pictures are really good. One thing I would just continue to say, and I've been really appreciative, is just kind of how much you all are being real proactive about kind of explaining what the city is doing, right? Because I think There was a period in time where just having a well-run, effective, efficient public works department that fixed the roads in a timely manner was sufficient. I do think we're in a place where we not only have to do the work of public works, but also tell people we're doing the work of public works so that once we've told them, we have to remind them that we did the work that we said we were going to do. And so I've been really excited about what I'm seeing as more outreach and awareness and communication about what we've done, and where we're going. We've come a long way from just putting a little sign up next to the project on the street. So I just want to say kudos to all of you for that work.

Council Member, I'll just add on to that. I don't know if Director Chavez is here, but a shout out to him. So we're currently working on a strategic initiative related to this capital projects outreach effort. And you're absolutely right. Maybe previously just doing a good project was enough, but that's not enough anymore. And so we've learned over the years that we have to engage differently. and we have to engage more often. Before, we may have just held a town hall or something, but we're looking at how do we do things differently? How do we actually meet with people individually and really solicit that feedback? So make sure our community feels heard. Thank you for that.

Yeah, and you all have the benefit of I don't want to say selling, but selling a product. I am going to say selling a product that is clear. The road was broken, and now it is fixed. There was a pothole, and now it is gone. So much in our world is there's an objective reality that's hard to communicate, but this, what you all are able to do, I think is great. So I really appreciate that. I also just really appreciate the leveraging of the, or pointing out how much we've leveraged local dollars to bring on additional dollars. So that, I think, has been really a good thing to explain to the public, is it's not just about what you're paying, but how much we're able to leverage what you're paying to get more out of it. So I think that's been really good.

Yeah, Council Member, I do want to add that we're doing a lot more storytelling. I think that is what we're trying to accomplish. What I passed out earlier during the study session is a mailer that is actually going to be sent here in the next week or so detailing the streets initiative, celebrating the success that we've been able to to have through this. So we're doing more of that. We're doing a lot of social media as well. So more posts online about the successes and your more before and afters. Because like you said earlier, it is pretty dynamic, the story, that this has provided for the community. Yeah.

We hire public works employees, business engineers, and they build really good roads. And they're very technically strong. And I know sometimes we're asking you to get out of that lane a little bit and talk more. Pardon the pun. Get out of the lane a little bit and start talking about all the stuff you're doing. I think that's been really good. And I think, Joe, to last point, the narrative, I think, is the critical component of this, right? Taking the disparate pothole that was filled quickly, the road that got paved last year, the chip seal that happened two weeks ago, and how do we craft that into a story, and a positive story that talks about all that we're doing to the public. Because to our detractors in the world, they have a narrative too. And they're constantly looking for evidence by which to fill that out. And I think we just have to, on our side, also continue to tell our story and be the source of that. The only question I did have, other than just talking about how much I appreciate the work I'm seeing here, and from everyone that's here, is the street initiative project not to be just like a local politician, but South 19th, SI18. So that is funded through Streets 1, even though the work will continue after Streets 1 is concluded.

Yep, that's correct, Councilmember.

And part of this a while ago was that Walters Road, it looks like it's part of this conversation too. Am I reading correctly on the map that Walters Road is part of? No, that's Seashore. Seashore, okay. Okay. Because there was a Walters Rose project that was related to environmental services a while ago, but is that still – did that happen?

Is that still there, or is that – No, that one, the funding wasn't secured fully, and it was around COVID. And so we didn't move forward with that, which – Part of it was maybe a blessing in disguise just because, I mean, that's a good street to take a better look at, like holistically. There's a lot of stuff going down there right of way and things.

Yeah, and I think you're right. When we first talked about that project, it was just going to be a repaving project, some stormwater. But if you talk to the neighbors down there, they want sidewalks. Correct. And that is going to be a very complex street to add sidewalks because of all the right-of-way encroachments.

Yes, that was a big part of it is that, I mean, we kind of, In the early phases of design, we're trying to figure out some alternatives to get a pathway or something into it and kind of just figured that, hey, look, let's wait until the right opportunity comes at this point and get it built out the whole thing.

Yeah. Well, I think that's great. I know I've talked to a few residents who are very eager to see what's going on here. So if there's ways to communicate or help continue to bring people on board, make sure they're aware, I'm happy to do it. Otherwise, those are all my questions. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to all of you and the team, and just ditto and echo all those things. I don't have any questions, but I did want to just kind of talk about, you mentioned quality of life improvements, and I just wanted to kind of highlight how impactful these projects are throughout the city, and Larchmont in particular. When I had first visited with neighbors in that area, they were very, about the state of the streets in their neighborhood. And a large amount of elementary is right there as well. And so there's a lot of significant use trying to get kids there. And then after this project, I've had an opportunity to meet with the neighbors again. And just to talk about some of the transformation, not only is it safer for the kids to get to the school, but there's also more people playing out in the street as well. I travel down there pretty often. I see kids on bikes. And also talking with some of the neighbors down there, they're meeting with each other more often because they are utilizing those sidewalks. They're like, oh, yeah, I live down the street here. Those connections that never would have been made before are being made. And so not only are these making connections safer for people to physically get to where they are, but they're making neighborhood-level connections happen organically as well, which improves the quality of life of the areas. And so I just wanted to highlight that because neighbors are meeting each other on the sidewalk and talking to each other, and that's That's something that, you know, amorphously, I think a lot of folks have talked is that the feeling of community has kind of been felt disconnected, especially, you know, exacerbated by COVID and things of that nature. But this provides more opportunities for connection on an individual level and building community. And so it's just super important. And I wanted to highlight that and just thank you for all the partnership with the grants, all the different environmental services. And then the permeable pavement stuff is really fantastic. And I think there's a lot of great opportunity to utilize it. And I do know there's a different repair and maintenance regimen that is required of that as well. And so I think we're going to definitely do a good job in staying on top of that. So thank you.

Deputy Mayor, I'll just add in, I totally agree with you. So when you build infrastructure that's inviting, it really changes community. You really start to build community. You invite people in, and you start to have conversations. I'm a people person, and I definitely notice that, is when you have an inviting space, people tend to engage with each other. So absolutely agree, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you. Corey, I'm very grateful for your presentation and all the great work that's gone into the accomplishment of these past 10 years, as well as the outreach we've been having with the current effort. So building on Councilmember Rumbaugh's question about local partnerships, you did a really detailed analysis in this presentation about the direct deliverables that we've seen, like the three-to-one ratio of matching grant dollars, for example, to the local dollars. Can you explain just a little bit more high-level about not just the grants, but also the local partnerships? So, for example, Safe Routes to Schools, partnership even just in-house with our environmental services utilities and TPUs. So, for example, if... If TPU happens to be tearing up a street to put in a new main, for instance, then why not complete the other half, for example? So what's been going on there as well as what opportunities there might be in the future down the road, like further partnerships, maybe more depave projects with the conservation district and others?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor, for that question. I'll highlight a few different things. So first off, Tacoma Public Schools, Council Member Rumble pointed this out. I just think it's worth mentioning again. So when they go to do a school construction, either a rehabilitation or a reconstruction or a new building, they often have improvements, and they have to mitigate some impacts that they create. And so what we have been able to do as part of that partnership effort has really been to partner with them and do more. Rather than seeing an incomplete set of crossings or partial paving, we've been able to partner with them and build full roads out, complete crossings, enhance our safe routes to school. All of those type of infrastructure improvements are really possible because of the street initiative. In addition to that, much appreciated TPU Water Carrie, for example. I've had a lot of great conversations with her about what we can do with Tacoma Water to partner more. And you're absolutely right, Mayor. the community really likes to see these complete projects built. And it would be inefficient for us to let half of a road be paved without the full road being paved. And so we have established great partnerships with both Environmental Services as well as Tacoma Public Utilities, and specifically Tacoma Water, TO REALLY PARTNER MORE AND BUILD THESE COMPLETE PROJECTS. SO YOU'LL SEE, INSTEAD OF SEEING HALF A STREET REPLACED, YOU'LL SEE A FULL STREET REPLACED. YOU KNOW, THAT'S IN THE COMBINATION OF WHERE WE CONTRIBUTE TO ONE OF THEIR PROJECTS OR THEY CONTRIBUTE TO OUR PROJECTS. AND SO, YEAH, THIS STREET INITIATIVE HAS REALLY ALLOWED US TO LEVERAGE THOSE DOLLARS, EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID, MAYOR, MAXIMIZE THE LOCAL USE OF DOLLARS AND REALLY JUST, YEAH, A GOOD, EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT.

FANTASTIC. ALL RIGHT, WELL, SEEING NO FURTHER QUESTIONS, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRESENTATION AND KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK. THANK Moving on to other items of interest, our second agenda item is a council consideration request for Eastside Community Center Wayfinding Signs, for which I'd like to call on Council Member Sedalge.

Thank You mayor and thank you everyone for considering this contingency fund request and especially to my co-sponsors councilmember Diaz and councilmember Walker So this council consideration request is for one thousand two hundred and twenty five dollars a very specific amount to fund production installation of up to three wayfinding signs near East 56th and Portland Avenue and specifically for the Eastside Community Center. As you know, the Eastside Community Center was built through years of grassroots advocacy and shared commitment to creating a safe and welcoming place for youth and families. The center reflects the resilience, strength, and aspirations of a neighborhood that worked tirelessly to secure greater access to quality public amenities. Today, it is more than just a recreation facility. It's a cornerstone of Tacoma's Eastside community. And ensuring more residents can benefit from this vital resource will strengthen neighborhood connections, improve health outcomes, and continue division that brought the center to life. So why do we need this? And quite frankly, this has come from community. I've had scores of individuals at events at the Eastside Community Center tell me they had Either A, no idea it existed because from Portland Avenue it is basically obscured by a grove of trees. And two, several people have told me most recently even at the community event, outreach event for Portland Avenue redesign of instances where they have missed the turn got into the wrong parking lot, for example, the one next to the armory, and it's very dangerous to make a left turn back out of that. And if you go further south, it's also really hard to kind of come back around. So these wayfinding sites would add greater visibility right where people need to take a very important turn to get to the Eastside Community Center. Parks Tacoma has also expressed support and excitement for the installation of these wayfinding signs. Their long-term goal is to identify funds to erect a monument sign similar to the monument signs outside of the Star Center and the center at Norpoint that helps people kind of identify that it's right there. And these wayfinding signs would be an absolute great start. So I look forward to any questions you guys might have. Thank you, Council Member Sedalge.

Council Member Rumba.

Thank you so much, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member Sedalge, for bringing this forward, because I've had the same issue. And I don't live on the east side, and I come there, and it's easy to miss. And we do have one at North Point Community Center, and I feel like this is an equity issue. and that there should be one. So I really appreciate you bringing this forward. I would have loved to have co-sponsored this. This is just right up my alley. I think wayfinding signs are so important. I don't know if you have other wayfinding signs all over the east side, but we have them in North Point out in northeast Tacoma. And I think it's really helpful for a population that's coming there. First off, it's really fun, because if you live there, it just is sort of celebrating what's really great about where you live. But also for people who visit, it really gives you the markers for where the library is, the community center, some of the schools. Those are like basic things that people are trying to get to. So I really appreciate you bringing this forward and really support it. Thank you.

Thank you. And I, too, am very supportive of this. Thank you for your leadership to bring this forward. So with that, seeing no further comments or questions on this, it seems really straightforward. Thank you, Council Member Zafalke. Thank you. Moving on to our additional council consideration request, Council Member Rumbaugh has a CCR to bring forward about the Grit City Gala.

Thank you, Mayor. I just had to get organized here. Sure. Okay. All right. So I'm asking for your support for a council contingency fund expenditure of... $7,000 to sponsor the Tacoma Farmers Market Grid City Gala. And I'd just like to say that the Grid City Gala has been going on, I think this is their third year. And it's a fundraiser for the Broadway Farmers Market. And they have it. And the idea is that they cook a meal. They have a chef who cooks it, a special chef who comes out and different vendors volunteer their time. And this event allows small entrepreneurs, many of whom are underrepresented in our business community, a place to shine their talent and showcase what they do best. The support of the Grid City Gala aligns with our 2025 strategic goals through placemaking and cultivates Tacoma's unique identity and cultural diversity by enhancing public spaces, community experiences, and neighborhood character, fostering a sense of belonging and civic pride. Okay, so the support of the Great City Gala, let's see, okay, so the city will receive for this benefit a 10 by 10 booth at the Broadway Tacoma Farmers Market for six dates in 2026 and 27, which is really great. The city logo listed on this Grid City Gala event signage and event website. The city logo linked on the Tacoma Farmers Market website through 2026 and personalized post on Facebook and Instagram. And I just like to say that I just think this is such a great event. I don't know how many of my council members have been to this. But it really showcases how placemaking is extremely important in our city. Once a week, from April to September, the market is there on Thursdays from 10 to 2, really helping small, sometimes home-based businesses shine by allowing them to have a booth there and sell their... Usually it's... They're farm goods or smaller projects like candles or other things like flowers. And I think that this is an important part of what makes Tacoma special. And I love that the farmer's market happens downtown. We do have a farmer's market in Proctor as well. And I think that these are really great places for community to come together. So I really appreciate what the Grid City Gala means to the farmer's market. And I'm really hoping that you'll all support this. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Barumbaugh. Councilman Walker.

Thank you, Mayor. Just want to quickly say thank you, Council Member Rumba, for your leadership on this. As you know, I'm a huge fan of this event for all the reasons you just said. But I think I just want to reiterate the point that you made, that it's about this event, but it's also about supporting the farmers market so that they're successful all year long. And that makes a huge difference in downtown, which makes a difference for everybody who's live, work, and play downtown. It's not just about this one event or the one market. Really appreciate it and glad we can support them this year. One question, and I can't remember, we might have talked about this. This is the first time we've done council contingency for this particular event. Yeah, that's true.

Thank you.

Great. Thanks. Okay.

Can I add one more thing? I'm sorry, Mayor. I forgot to mention that I want to thank Council Member Diaz and Council Member Walker for co-sponsoring this with me. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for bringing this forward. Seems like a great cause. All right, moving on. Our fourth agenda item is an additional council consideration request. This is also from Councilman Barumbaugh supporting the St. Leo Food Connection pilot partnership.

Thank you, Mayor. And I just want to say thank you so much for this opportunity to bring this forward. And I've been talking a lot about food access in Tacoma, and especially in places where kids are located. And I've done a lot of research on, talked to a lot of partners, and I'm excited to share with you all, how this year I've been really looked out and I found an opportunity at the Tacoma Public Library for St. Leo's Food Connect to pilot a partnership there. I've been meeting with stakeholders across Tacoma to learn about the great work happening to enhance food access for youth. I'm so deeply thankful to the amazing people who dedicate themselves to this cause. It's essential. It actually reaches outside of Tacoma into our county, which has been really interesting to learn about different models that are available at our Pierce County libraries that happen with physicians, pediatricians who actually come and support with food as well. Also, know that there's more that we could do. And one key problem I've heard and seen has been in our libraries. It's been so great to have these libraries, but one thing that I noticed is that there's a lot of young people at the main library, and it's a safe place to be, and they spend a lot of time there. But I noticed that there wasn't any food. And so that's been an issue. And I want to thank Amita, our library director, for engaging in this conversation and exploring options for how we can address this issue. It's taken a while. I also want to thank St. Leo Food Connection for leaning in and bringing creative solutions to the table. I actually wouldn't have found out about this if I hadn't been a speaker at a hunger summit that there was here recently. And I went and I posted about it. And then St. Leo's reached out and said, we could help you with this. Together, they've launched a pilot partnership that includes serving summer meals at the main library, providing healthy snacks at three library branches, and exploring the feasibility of a pop-up pantry at the main library to increase access to nutritious food for children and families. This contingency fund request invests in this work and helps address unanticipated costs of setting up a new pilot. Thank you to my co-sponsors, Councilmember Hines and Councilmember Scott. This will be coming for a vote on August 4th. And I also just want to say that I did try to find every other way I could do this before I came to you with this ask. I really thought I could find something else. And I just think it's so important that we stand this up to see who next can help us make this sustainable. But thank you so much for your support.

Thank you. Council Member Palmer.

I love this. Thank you for doing all the work and putting this together. Thank you to St. Leo's for stepping up when they saw or seeing a need. I think this is really important as also a call out to how libraries are becoming these communities. They're more and more becoming even more so than they have been in the past. Community centers, community hubs. And I think that this is just a natural progression of people are not just going to libraries for books. They're going for services and for community. And so I think it's in the city's purview to look and see that that's a trend and how can we support the way that people want to get together and have access to the resources that they need. So I love this. Thank you for bringing this forward. Thank you.

Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for bringing this forward, Council Member Rumbaugh, and for supporting such a great cause. With that, are there any committee reports to share? Seeing none, I'd like to call on Deputy City Manager Allison Griffith to begin the weekly City Manager's Report.

Thank you, Mayor, Mayor and Council, for your awareness this evening. There are two ceremonials on tonight's agenda. The first is proclaiming July 2026 as National Disability Pride Month, and the second is recognizing our fellow creatures by Teruko Nimura, which is our new artwork here in the chambers. There are no modifications to tonight's agenda. There is one opportunity for public comment this evening. That's under approval. public comment, which is regarding motions, resolutions, and ordinances on tonight's agenda. Please let us know if there are any questions related to tonight's agenda, and attached to the study session agenda is the weekly report to council. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. I'll now entertain a motion to convene to an executive session pursuant to RCW 42.30.110, subsections 111 and 2, to discuss potential and pending litigation, not to exceed 30 minutes. So moved.

Second.

Move in second. All those in favor to convene to an executive session, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed to say no. We are in exec.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Calling back to order the city council study session. We are going to be extending for an additional five minutes for exec. We stand in exec. Call back to order study session. We are extending executive for an additional five minutes. Thank you. I'd call back to order the city council study session to adjourn. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day.