Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Great.

Let's go.

Ready? Great. I would like to call to order the Economic Development Committee meeting of July 14, 2026. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Thanks for the motion. Present. Council Member Palmer? Abstent. Council Member Scott?

Here.

Here. Here.

Moving on to public comment. If folks would like to sign up for public comment, and you haven't yet, please sign up on the clipboard here in the back. With that, I will let the clerk read a little public comment for me.

To request to speak during public comment for items on the agenda, please sign in for the room to that is already. If you can't, please click on the green hand button. Your name is Alaska, and you're going to receive a letter.

Perfect.

Thank you, Claire. Let's go ahead and start with folks in the room, and then we'll go to folks virtually. Are there people virtually? I'm just assuming there are.

So far, we do not have any against. We did receive four written comments, like, you know, just four or two. All right.

Well, let's start in the room. And as Helene calls your name, you'll come up, have a seat in the hot seat so you're close to the mic, state your name for the record, and we'll run.

So we have Yolanda. My name is Yolanda Kinglow.

I'm Secretary-Charger of SEIU Health Care 1199 Northwest. speaking on behalf of the wage of $20 for Tacoma. I think for me, this is really about values. It's about dignity. It's about respect. It's about honor. For people that are in the workforce that do the work, we have a lot of organizations and companies, right, that are making billions and billions, sweat equity off of the work of folks that actually do the work. And we were actually a part of, when we started our $15 for minimum wage, that was a big push apart from the union labor movement. We see what is done in Seattle, in Tacoma, people don't go bankrupt. Actually, it allows people to be able to put more dollars into the economy to be able to circulate the dollars. But I think at the end of the day, people need to be able to have a wage where they can live. One of the things that we talk about eliminating poverty, we have to be able to respect the work that folks do. $15 was years ago. People cannot longer make it at $15. One of our things with our union is that most of our employees have at least 25 minimum wage. And one of the reasons why is because we see that people that make the less are either people of color or they are immigrants. And folks deserve to have a living wage, right? And so I am support of the $20 minimum wage. I think it's the right thing to do. We have folks that are not able to work in areas where they live. So we have a lot of folks in our union that live in Tacoma, but they're going far out to Tacoma. They're going to other areas. And I think that people should be able to work where they live.

Thank you. Thank you. My name is Rose, and I happen to work as SAR at Tacoma. And I have a family of five, and I think that we in a way should be able to help us have more to kids to support us. $20 for the gas, the food, the electricity, whatever it is that we need, that would be appreciated. And a lot of us, like she said, work minimum wage, and we do a lot of the work that most people don't. That's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Patrick? Thank you, Dr. Thompson.

Hello, my name is Patrick Lowry. I'm a Spur with UFCW 367. I've spent the better part of the last four years in grocery retail. Through that time, I myself have been fortunate, but I have watched countless of my fellow employees, coworkers, bosses even struggle through hard times, her losses, and to make that better, we get This could be the difference in getting diapers for your children, getting formula, getting gas in your car, not having to drive to Seattle to go to work. Like I stated earlier, people should be able to work where they live. They shouldn't have to be looking at an hour and a half to an hour and a half commute every day. These people are the backbones of our economy and in our neighbors. These people are going out of their way, even through COVID, to go through and provide you people with groceries and to provide us with a place that all of us know that we can get the things that we need to survive.

Hi, I'm Lori O'Connor, and this is the Olympics in the Near Region.

I serve as the President and CEO. Our organization has served the Commonwealth for 104 years by providing entry-level jobs and continual training, development, and promotion opportunities for our 1,300 employees and providing free job training programs for over 35,000 people in the Near Region. We are very concerned about a potential jump to a $20 minimum wage in Tacoma. As a nonprofit focused on workforce development, we understand the need for individuals to make a living wage. Indeed, our three job training programs are designed to exactly that purpose, to help people access the skills and credentials needed to secure a living wage job and build a successful career. If there's an immediate jump to $20 minimum wage, our ability to provide programs to thousands of people across our region would be significantly compromised. Every year we adjust our wage according to the annual CPI adjustment. And if that were to change instead to a $20 minimum wage jump, that would cost us $1.8 million every year. That's four times the amount of a straightforward CPI increase. And we would have to run a budget deficit to cover those costs and beyond in 27 and beyond. That's not sustainable, and we would be forced to make decisions such as laying off employees, reducing benefits, ceasing our free job training programs, and closing our retail stores. So, therefore, an immediate jump to $20 an hour here in Tacoma would spread an hour under point of existence and many of our services to the Tacoma community here and across the region. Thank you.

Morning.

So my name is Jason Van Boy, a longtime Tacoma resident. I've got roots that go back to my great grandparents meeting here and my grandpa getting a good job at the shipyards. And, you know, he built a family and a home and This dream is why I'm speaking to you today. It's a dream that seems further away from reality for more and more families. Rather than a good life on one income, more than 60% of households are struggling even when there are multiple paychecks. So insuring a $20 minimum wage across Tacoma will make better housing options once they're closer to transit and rail and people's workplaces available and in reach for more families. Research from Upjohn that looked at decades of real data showed that a 10% increase in minimum wage only affected restaurant prices by 0.36%. That says a $7.49 Big Mac would cost $7.52 if you round it up while lifting thousands of families out of poverty. And in California, jobs that were affected by a $20 minimum wage saw a 7% to 12% wage increase and a 2% increase in employment. Wage increases in SeaTac and Tukwila have seen very similar improvements. And I'm proud to be from Tacoma. I want lots of people to be able to say that, people that had a chance to grow and flourish because they had good, stable, safe jobs here. And, you know, we want people like that to build this strong and amazingly diverse community. So that's why I'm here talking to you about the $20 minimum wage. Thank you. Thank you. Next.

i'm a union representative for ucw 367 i'm speaking for the minimum wage proposal um primarily people i speak to are all residents of chicago are working in the city of tacoma and just from the story that i hear from them raising the minimum wage would be an amazing things for their families. The stability, did not have to worry about paycheck to paycheck, not being able to take care of their families. And also being able to go home. We've heard a lot about people having to find different jobs when we should have to go to work. And the state of Tacoma actually knows to work and afford to go home.

All right. My name is Mercedes.

I'm a union representative with UFCW 367 and I'm a Tacoma resident. I lived over half of my life in Tacoma and all of my children were born at Tacoma General Hospital. I'm a proud member of this society and I believe with inflation, the cost of living, increased electric bills and the cost of rent, and groceries that single moms can't live off $17 an hour. $20 an hour is where the bar should be set that can be lifted over time. I don't think Tacoma families should have to choose between feeding their families and making sure the lights are on and a roof is over their head and provided. We need to stand together in this community to build each other up and work side by side to help each other succeed, not just barely survive. I'd like you to take into consideration that one can of formula or a box of diapers is $40 or more. A single mother will have to work almost three hours with the current wage just to provide those things. That doesn't include clothing and anything else the baby may need. Please let that sink in. Thank you for your time.

My name is Kalinda Flores and I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. in support of raising Tacoma's minimum wage of $20 per hour. Every day, I meet hardworking people who do everything society asks of them. They work full-time, show up on time, and contribute to our community. Yet, many still struggle to pay rent, buy groceries, fill their gas tanks, or afford basic necessities. Okay, working full-time should now mean living in constant financial stress. The cost of living in Tacoma continues to rise. Housing, utilities, food, and healthcare have all become more expensive. Wages need to reflect today's economic reality. A minimum $20 wage is not about luxury. It's about giving workers a fair chance to live with dignity. When workers earn more, they spend more in the local communities. They shop at the neighborhood business, pay their bills, and strengthen Tacoma's economy. Investing in workers is also an investment in our city's future. As a union representative, I have seen firsthand the challenges faced by grocery workers and other essential employees. These are the people who kept our community running through difficult times. They deserve wages that recognize the value of their work. I understand that some businesses have concerns, and I believe we should continue working together to support a small business while ensuring workers receive fair pay we can build a stronger community where businesses succeed and workers can afford to live in the communities they serve. I respectfully ask you to support a $20 minimum wage for Tacoma. This is an opportunity to lead with fairness, compassion, and commitment to working families. Thank you for the work you do for our community.

Thank you. Yeah, Lori Harnick-Goodwill. Good morning. Yes, I'm nervous. I work at Safeway and I run the drive-up and go department and I have a lot of employees that come to me daily wishing that they could get even just a little bump for a raise. And so, talking with all of them, they were excited that I was going to come today and, you know, speak for them. And I would ask them, you know, if you got $20 an hour, what would you do? They were so excited. I could move out of my parents' house. You know, it's just a little bump, you know, but it would help pay for things and pay for the groceries that they're needing. I'm all for, you know, having it equal, there's all the bills arising, you know, can't stop that. So kind of make it a little bit equal so that people can work. Thank you. I didn't have it.

This is the hot seat. I think you're enough. I'm Harlan Shoup. I'm one of the pastors of Trinity Presbyterian Church. We've had outreach programs on Hilltop for a number of years. I'm also a member of Tacoma Ministerial Alliance and have been for 30 years. So lived on Hilltop and loved Tacoma. And I speak in favor of this. I don't think 20 is enough. A friend of mine, Dr. Humphreys has written a book called The Wages of Peace. And he says, we need more for families to survive than just $20 an hour. So I think we really do need this to start somewhere. And I want to just read what we did last year. We handed out 450 bus passes, 50 tents, 60 sleeping bags, 10 to 15 blessing bags, that's hygiene items, per week. Rent assistance to the tune of $16,247. 15 utilities paid for $3,845. Nap relief, $4,400. 35 families received Christmas house help, which represented 104 children. and we put out 220 backpacks back to school. So people are struggling, and that's sort of the front line of how it happens. I was reading the candidates who are running for office in the Senate representatives, and they all say families need help. This is one way to start doing it. And so I really speak for this happening. People need it. Thank you.

Thanks.

I did it.

Okay, we have Aria Jocelyn.

Hi, my name is Aria Jocelyn, and I'm a longtime resident of Tacoma, and I am a cashier at Fred Meyer. We've had everybody speaking on the difference that it would make for the workers, right? So there's enough people speaking on that. I want to speak on the difference that it would make for our city. You guys represent our city and our city is falling prey to the wealth extraction that is happening all over our country. Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living and people are falling behind. Um, there's a heuristic in, in, um, the systems theory. that is posited by Stafford Beer, that the purpose of a system is what it does. So what does the system of keeping our minimum wage where it's at, not meeting the cost of living right now, what is it doing? What it is doing is it is suppressing wages at all levels, not just the people at the bottom, it's suppressing the wages of everyone. It is accelerating the extraction of resources from our city. We have so many people here speaking on What are the needs of the people of our city? Why are we providing those? Why are we not holding the corporations to account to be providing those to their workers instead? It also keeps the population desperate and on the brink of economic disaster. And desperate people don't stand up for their rights. And our city's better than that. We are a grit city, right? We're better than that. And we deserve better than that. And I know the concerns with small businesses and other economic structures. I get that. So raise the minimum wage immediately. 20 isn't enough, let's be frank. But raise it immediately on these big corporations. Slow down the extraction of resources from our community. I live on Hilltop. We cannot return to the 80s. I lived there before. We have to keep what we built. We cannot let it crumble. It would slow the extraction of resources from our city. It would put more money into the hands of people. If we raise it on corporations right away, it would put money into the hands of people who could then go to take their, you know, a Walmart cashier or Fred Meyer cashier could then take their wife out to dinner at a local restaurant. It supports the small businesses, maybe phase in an increase for small businesses until they actually get the money in their hands. But a dollar put back into the economy is, produces far more than a dollar that's put into another mega yacht, a fifth mansion. We have to stop the extraction. This is Great City, and you guys owe it to your people. Thank you.

We have Alex Phillips.

Council Chair, Council Members, thank you for having me. My name is Alice Phillips. I'm the president of the Pierce County Central Labor Council. We represent 144 affiliate unions with over 44,000 workers in the greater Pierce County area. Most of them would be here today, but the timing's kind of off if you're a working family, right? So I'm their voice. Working people are the reason Tacoma's economics work. Too many of those workers are not making enough money to live in the communities that they serve. We'll hear warnings about high wages will drive out business. Our neighbors, cities, neighboring cities have already challenged this belief and their economics, their economies have grown. Because when workers earn more, they spend more. You know, I agree with the working with dignity. This is a matter of survival and freedom. Every working family in this city and beyond is one emergency away from bankruptcy. That can't stand. So because a $20 minimum wage is good for workers, it's good for Tacoma, it supports family, it uplifts local businesses, and it helps build the kind of city where our hard work is rewarded. So we ask you to move this proposal forward and I thank you for your time.

in the area, forming kind of a religious voice that can talk about these issues in Tacoma. I just wanted to get to some facts. Over the last five years, inflation has gone up by 26.7% nationally. Estimates range from 16% to like 26% living in Tacoma, that much higher nationally. cost of living. It's really expensive to live here. Last year when we were trying to get the minimum wage or the workers' rights put on the ballot, that $20 has now sunk to only about $18.62, which for a full-time job is a loss of $2,870. The difference between the state minimum wage at $20 now is a whole almost $6,000. So when we hear this talk about creeping inflation, it's moving to me. I understand the reality of it. The question is how many years will go by while business gets to extract that from its employees? Every year is a huge amount of money for people who make that small an amount of money. We're hoping, we're asking, that this be the year we put some sort of stop to that. We need to be indexed for inflation. Like I said, it's already significantly less money for a working family than it was just one year ago. we have submitted a policy position to you all from the faith community. So that's there for you to take a look at. We defer to the Pierce County Labor Council. And any differences there might be, they're in the expert's office in my view. However, if you decide for whatever reason that you can't include small businesses and nonprofits, and you can't include them to ramp up to this wage. My opinion is we should do it anyway. Councilman Bushnell, if your findings are correct, that the folks who are talking to you saying that they will have upward pressure on the market for small businesses and nonprofits, then good. Let them be raised by some extent by whatever force works through the market, but Our plea is that you just don't let another year go by without setting a $20 minimum wage index for inflation.

Thank you. Good morning.

My name is Melandre Themer. I have the privilege of serving as the president of the Tacoma NAACP. I also come before you as a resident of Tacoma and a member of clergy and a former labor organizer who negotiated contracts for healthcare, grocery, and other essential workers across Washington. As a labor organizer, I sat at the bargaining table and listened to workers share the realities of struggling. to afford housing, groceries, child care, and other basic necessities while working here in Tacoma full-time. As a minister, I continue to see families struggle to afford rent, food, utilities, and other everyday expenses. Those experiences are why I support a $20 minimum wage. This is more than an economic issue. It is a civil rights issue. At DeFoma Grows, the people who keep this city running should be able to afford to live here. Economic development should create opportunity for everyone, not just those at the top. Fair wages are good for workers and good for business. They reduce turnover, improve retention, and strengthen our local economy. Black workers and other workers of color continue to be overrepresented in low-wage jobs, while $20 minimum wage will not serve every inequity, as we've already heard, is a meaningful first step towards expanding economic opportunity. I believe people work to live, not live to work. A full-time job should provide an opportunity not just to survive, but to thrive. So on behalf of Tacoma NAACP, I respectfully ask It is a meaningful first step towards putting Tacoma where everybody has opportunity to succeed and thrive. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to pause for one minute and ask you a couple questions. How many people are left? We have five. Okay, let's get through those. I was a little worried we were going to lose anybody on camera because Nicole started setting it up so last year. Let's get through our last slide, and then we'll get to Alexis. I want to have somebody on the interview panel to have a hard time. Thank you. Welcome.

Hello, my name is Alexis Panetta. I'm a union member over at Good Samaritan, SEIU, and I'm just from the hospital over there. I've heard many stories from my coworkers who live in nearby cities and here in Tacoma who are struggling. I myself struggle when half my monthly income goes to rent, and while the other rest goes to bills, food, and gas. Pennies go into my savings, and if a surprise expense comes up, it could be life-changing. I'm a missed day away from not making rent, and I can only imagine the stress and hardships others are experiencing too. I'm for the minimum wage increase for a couple months, and that way my neighbors and I can, hopefully we can all start thriving instead of just surviving. Thank you. The last time we passed a significant increase to the minimum wage was the Key Now campaign in 2015.

Since then, the real wage in Tacoma for the wage floor has fallen significantly. It's fallen around 15% overall. $15 in 2015 would be about 21. So if you pass a $20 minimum wage today, that would still represent a wage cut for the lowest paid workers from 2015 levels. We need a living wage in Tacoma for the MIT living wage calculator. That would be around $25 an hour today. That's what our target should be. $20 is a good first step in that direction. This is something that a lot of other municipalities in the area have already done, from SeaTac to Willow to Renton. All of those cities, all of the campaigns, I've worked on a couple of those campaigns that successfully raised the wage. They were threatened with, oh, if we raise the minimum wage, it's going to destroy the economy and it's going to stop businesses from working. There's going to be capital flight. A few years later, those economies continue to operate. Businesses still run, workers still go to work, and they do it with a better wage. This is the time to raise the wage coma to $20 an hour.

Thank you.

David.

Okay.

All right. My name is Malika Antonio. I am a resident of Tacoma. I went to high school here. My first apartment was here. My first apartment actually cost me $500 a month. Today, that same apartment actually looked it up recently. It is $2,000. And I am not old. So that says a lot about inflation at this point in Tacoma alone. Paying $2,000, $3,000 in rent, I have kids that are in high school and their parents are struggling. Anyone who works in Tacoma and lives in Tacoma is struggling. If they don't go up to Seattle, we have, I work for SEIU, we have members that live right here in Tacoma and drive and take the bus all the way to Seattle to go to Swedish, all the way to Cherry Hill. Because if they worked in Tacoma General, they would make the floor hard. Alexis right now is fighting to get wages at Tacoma General, and she works at Good Sam. Same corporation, same company. They do the same work, and they get paid anywhere from 5% to 20% less than their counterparts at TG. That's why we need to look at it.

Now we got David. Yes.

I'm not young, I'm old. My name is David Elder, and I'm former Director of Associated Ministries. I've served there for 30 years. I've served on numerous boards and commissions for the city over that time. I first began working on this issue in the early 1980s. Just to give you some perspective, I was working back then on a living list, $20 notes. But we've worked on that very hard, made very little progress. Meanwhile, the city's making tremendous progress. The city looks great. We're doing a lot of things the right way. Thanks to your leadership, and I'm here to commend you for considering this $20 million wage. I wish it was higher, but it's good that you're looking at it now to make a recommendation over the cost of the house. So I'm here to thank you. both for taking up this issue and hope you'll push it forward. It's been a long, long, long time. So thanks very much.

Thank you. And the last person in the room, Catherine. Good morning. Thanks for having us. Welcome to the community today. I'm Catherine Lee. I'm a caregiver with RCIU 775. care for folks with disabilities, and our wages are set starting from the minimum wage. And when that increases, that lifts our whole workforce up. And the work that we do is essential, but the caregivers, like myself, barely can make it to me. A lot of folks end up living off their car or using their healthcare. because they can't afford to work the hours they need to keep it in a vicious cycle of trying to push and pull with the limited resources that are given to the caregivers and the people that they're caring for under the Medicaid system. I hear small businesses say that if they had to raise their own wage, it would be more stable then. But that reflects a policy issue where we're blaming workers for asking for too much instead of blaming the high price of rental spaces and other policies that the city could be impacting that would make it easier for small businesses to be open rather than the only lever that we have being the minimum wage. And to the point that so many of these folks have made today, the corporations and the major large businesses in our area that are also paying these low wages can definitely absorb it. But I think that to reflect on some angles we hadn't heard as much of, that if we are going to say that we can't make this change because of small businesses, that that is a cop-out, that is blaming the workers and not the policies and the systems that our city puts in place to make it possible for small businesses to thrive. So please, into consideration all the workers who have said what if the princess would make it again that twenty dollars it's not overpriced but it's a really important floor that we need to set online last call for anyone online who wants to raise their hand

If there's time at the end of the meeting, we'll call again, but I wanted to make sure. Perfect. Thank you, Hollyann. And with that, we've gone closed public comment. Now we're going to move to Equity and Contracting Advisory Committee interviews. You're welcome. Do you want to come sit with us? It's truly your prerogative.

Thank you.

I just want to make space for you. I will call on Clerk Nicole Emery to get us going.

Good morning. Good morning, Chair Diaz and members of the Economic Development Committee. My name is Nicole Emery. I'm your city clerk. And today you'll be interviewing one applicant and reviewing the applications of three, oh, sorry, two applicants, live change, and reviewing applications for three committee members seeking reappointment. Staff requests the committee consider these reappointments based on their prior experience and submitted applications. In total, there are six positions open on the committee. However, no qualified applications were received for the council district number four position or the open shop firm position. So those will remain vacant at this time. For interviews, they will provide a two-minute presentation and will include answers to the following questions. Number one, what is your experience in contracting procurement and how has that influenced your decision to apply? And number two, why do you want to serve on the committee and what are the two to three issues you're interested in addressing if appointed? After the presentation, you'll have the opportunity to ask additional questions and then you may make motions to the full city council. And Casey and myself are available if you have any questions. And just a heads up, one of the applicants does need to leave. So I tried to make that as fast as possible.

Great. Let's start them first.

Awesome. Okay, Maria is going to be first. Hi, is it Maria? Are you okay? I can. Thank you for your patience. Welcome to the Economic Development Committee. I'm going to pass you to Chair Diaz to begin your interview. Great, thank you.

Good morning, Maria. Thank you for hanging on with us. I mean, a lot of good public comment this morning. I want to go ahead and let you start. You should see a timer up there. You can start whenever you're ready. Once you see the timer, you'll have, I want to think, two minutes. Two minutes to answer the questions that were sent to you. And then we'll do another two minutes. Another three minutes for us to ask you questions. And then we'll close you out and let you know.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. So whenever you are ready, the clock will start.

Wonderful. Thank you. I'm ready. Yep. Okay. Sorry. It's not start. Okay. Great. Okay. Hi, my name is Marie Manilac, and for over a year and a half, my practice area as a government lawyer has largely involved contracting and procurement. My day-to-day responsibilities include working with contracting staff in the design and compliance review of requested proposals and solicitations, overseeing source selection and award of contracts to ensure fair competition and evaluation, litigating any bid protest, and providing legal advice and contract administration claims. My experience has influenced me to apply for the committee because I have found this practice here to be fulfilling on both the professional and personal level. I am able to contribute my legal skills and education in ensuring that the government's projects are underway, taxpayer funds are used accordingly, and both government and business concerns are resolved fairly, improving the relationship between the public and private sector. Having said that, I would like the opportunity to serve on the committee so that I can give back to the city that I now call home. I am a recent transplant to the city of Tacoma. My husband and I bought a house here in 2022 and have enjoyed our time. Admittedly, I'm not as involved with the city, so I found this to be a good opportunity to be a more active resident. Two issues I would be interested in addressing, if appointed, are as follows. First, in the past year or so, there's been a lot of outspoken withdrawal of support for diversity, equity, and inclusion in both the public and private sector. I believe this backlash has been largely based on myopic misunderstanding of those terms. If appointed, I hope to ensure that the city maintains its stance so that these terms are not just buzzwords, but goals that, if achieved, can benefit the entire Tacoma community. Second, I would like to help ensuring that small and minority-owned businesses have access to more opportunities to compete in the city's projects. They're often put in a difficult position, and so I'd like to see if there's some way for that city to further narrow the gap in opportunities between large and small businesses, whether that is pushing for higher threshold or advocating for more contract-type eligibility. Thank you for your time and consideration. I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you so much. With that, I'll look at my colleagues to see if folks have questions they want to ask.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for your willingness to apply and serve on this really important committee. My question is, because it is a group, what is it like for you to work in a team and work through and solve problems? I think you're on mute.

Yes. I often work in project delivery teams in my everyday job. And so part of that of my role actually has been kind of like an almost program management style where I work with people from different sectors. For example, like engineers and contracting. So I'm often kind of trying to mediate and see where people's perspectives are coming from, because I think ultimately, for the most part, everyone has the same goal, but they're kind of trying to reach about it differently. So when it comes to kind of these group dynamics, I think the big part of it is just learning to understand what each other is really saying. Because, again, it's all about kind of like a meeting of the minds, like looking at the bigger picture and making sure that that the goal that we are all working towards the same goal. But it's all about most of the time. I feel like it's all about misunderstanding and really learning to understand what the other person is saying. Yeah.

Great. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Great. Well, with that, thank you, Maria, for your strong interview and for giving us your time this morning. Do you have any questions for us? We have a couple minutes left.

I guess I would like to inquire about, like, what the expectations are really for the committee members, whether that's, you know, big picture or, like, you know, every meeting or whatever it is that kind of what you're all expecting from the committee.

I will lean on her real quick for Casey Woods here behind me. She can come up and help give some staff perspective on that. She can speak with better authority. Thanks.

Good morning, Maria. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay. Applications of the committee we currently meet on a quarterly basis with subcommittees meeting on a monthly basis. Our quarterly meetings are about two hours, and then the subcommittee meetings are about an hour. In between that, we may ask committee members to read materials, be better informed on the equity and contracting program.

and or provide feedback and perspective as we make policy and programmatic changes.

Okay, so is there a lot of like collaboration between the committee members or is it how much?

Yes, there are opportunities for discussions during regular meetings as well as during subcommittee meetings. There are currently three subcommittees, an internal processes subcommittee, an outreach subcommittee, and a workforce subcommittee.

Okay, just one more like kind of mini questions. Like how much interface do you expect for the committee members to meet with like the public sector or like the businesses or the private sector in general? Like, is there an expectation to be like client facing or public facing or just any?

Great question. We do not expect committee members to have public facing roles. We do, however, have an outreach event coming up towards the end of August, which is going to be hosted by our EIC Advisory Committee. That is co-led with city staff, but by no means is there an expectation that committee members would have a public-based goal.

Okay, great. Thank you. Those are my only questions, so thanks for answering them.

Thank you so much for entering, Lauren. Thanks for talking to us. If you feel free to disconnect or stay online if you'd like to listen. But with that, we're all done here.

Awesome. Yeah, great. Thank you so much for your time. Bye.

Yeah, have a great day.

You too.

Excellent. Nicole, I will look at you for our next interview.

Interview will be Veronica. Is it Veronica? Veronica, we show you as muted on our side. And I don't know if you are getting to just the top part of your camera. Can you hear her?

Yes.

I'm going to pass you to Chair Diaz to begin your interview.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate you applying and seeking this committee appointment. We will put up a clock there that is for two minutes for you to answer the questions that were sent to you in advance.

Okay.

After that, we'll set a new timer for three minutes where we can ask you further follow up questions. And then we will finish up the interview and get to some decision making. Does that sound good for you?

Sounds excellent.

Thank you so much. With that, the clock will start whenever you are ready. And just feel free to start talking and she'll start the clock.

Okay, so your first question is what is my experience with contracting and procurement and how has that influenced my decision to apply for the Equity and Contracting Advisory Committee? So back in about 2009, I worked with Highline Community College to help start a janitorial co-op called Green Cleaning Alliance. So with that, I learned a lot about securing contracting as a minority owned business and also working with other organizations to help us figure out how to actually gain some contracts. We did get a contract with Tacoma Parks. Didn't last very long, but we did try it. I started it with two other gentlemen and we were basically trying to start something that would benefit the community of people of color. Unfortunately, the other parties that started with me, we weren't quite alike in the necessity of making sure that they were timely and handling stuff. So the alliance, just became just basically. And the website is still up because it's on the Shoreline Community Colleges server. So if you want to go look up Green Cleaning Alliance, my janitorial company is the one there, environmental cleaning organization. So I don't any longer have a janitorial company. The reason why I want to do this is because of my experience, and I think also I'm the demographic that you guys are looking to serve. I'm a low-income Black person that has experience in Down syndrome, possibly might want to get back into it. I think that the services need to be more focused on mentorship, education, and resources. A lot of times the resources in Washington State are very readily available, but connecting the dots to them is very difficult. So I think that my focus would be more in trying to figure out how to connect dots for people and helping them get to the places they need to get to, to get the service they need to be successful.

Thank you so much. With that, we'll go here in the room for questions. Deputy Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you so much, Veronica, for your willingness to apply for this important committee. My question is for you, since it is a group, what is it like for you to work in a team and work through problems?

I'm an excellent team player. I can fall back and listen and handle whatever is assigned to me. Either one works fine for me. I don't have any problems with working in teams and I am a problem solver by nature. You kind of have to be that as a person that's low income, you gotta figure out how to make stuff happen. So for the most part, I think I'd be pretty good at this. I actually, I think I'd be excellent at this because this is something I'm passionate about. I'm not doing this for anything other than to help people get to a better position in life.

Great, thank you so much.

Perfect, thank you. Anybody have some other questions? Excellent. Well, with that, I think we will go ahead and close out the interview. Thank you so much for your time today, Veronica.

Thank you so much. Nice meeting you all.

Yeah, we will make some decisions here today, and then you will hear from the clerk's office as soon as they are able on what...

I can't hear you.

Oh, we will be making some decisions here on appointments in the room, and then the clerk's office will be back in touch with you when we know what those decisions are.

All right. Thank you so much. You guys have a wonderful day.

You too. Thank you.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye. Excellent. With that, those are the two interviews we have, right, Nicole?

Right.

The two we had today. As folks will see in their packet, we also have three people seeking reappointment, so they're not required to interview, but you should take a look at their application packet materials. Do you folks think of any, want a minute or two to get yourselves orientated and maybe think about any comments you want to make or arguments for and against what appointments you're thinking? Would that be helpful?

Or are folks ready to go?

Great. Chair, did you have any feedback you wanted to give us?

Well, yeah, I think it's great that we're getting this committee filled out. Number one, that we're raising the profile of it and generating more interest. And I think we've got really good candidates. So it's all a positive, I think. Yeah, agreed. This is the heroine.

Perfect.

So do folks want to share any feedback? It looks like David has some motions he's interested in making, so I'm happy to entertain any feedback y'all want to give before he does that, or we can just vote on his motions. We'll see what happens.

sure um all right i'll just the floor is yours yeah thank you thank you i'll just give some i see your worksheet filled out i just want to say thank you to the folks that have applied and especially thank you to the folks that have reapplied um there's a lot of technical things that go on in these uh committee meetings and so i think it just really goes to show that um the folks that have reapplied have found this valuable for themselves and supporting our city so just really appreciate the work and the efforts that have gone into it um of of the candidates that we did interview and so i i am i'm going to be wanting to reappoint those that have been in the positions uh so of that we do have one position open up the two that we did interview um i i appreciate both of them for their willingness to serve in this capacity um i particularly um believe maria rose to the top for me in um in filling the open council district one position um i think she's really well qualified and has a lot of experience

um and i think she'll be able to be able to bring some really good perspective to the committee um and so that's my suggestion uh but i can start going through uh if anybody has any additional feedback perfect thank you um i think i would come to agree um margaret also rose to the top for me she's also um the only person qualified for the district one position so that makes that decision easy um and looking at the full roster of the committee. I think we're in a good shape if we did the re-appointments. I don't see a strong balance that needs to be adjusted or corrected or anything, but welcome to South Virginia's 21st.

I can start with most of them if you would like.

Have at it.

All right. I move to recommend the reappointment of Katina Patton, Certified Business No. 1, positioned on the Equity and Contracting Advisory Committee to serve a three-year term, effective September 1, 2026, to expire August 31, 2029. Excellent.

The motion is moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. So moved.

Next, I move to recommend the reappointment of Angela Michaelis, certified business number two position on equity and contracting advisory committee to serve a three-year term effective September 1st, 2026 to expire August 31st, 2029. Thank you.

Motion has been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. No one is opposed. The motion is adopted. Next motion.

I move to recommend the appointment of Maria monologue to the council district number one position on equity and contracting advisory committee to fill an unexpired term to expire August thirty first twenty twenty six followed by three-year term to expire August thirty first twenty twenty nine.

Second. Perfect questions moved and seconded all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. No one's opposed. Motion is adopted.

I move to recommend the reappointment of Catherine gin to the council district number 3 get excuse me on the equity and contracting visors ready to serve a 3 year term effective September 1st 26 to expire August 31st 2029. Motion is adopted.

You have a final motion you'd like to make.

I don't at this moment. I do know that our other final applicant had also applied to other advisory board and committees as well. So hoping that they'll also be able to be considered in those committees.

Perfect. Thank you so much. With that, we'll let the clerk's office take it from here. I'm really excited to get this committee rounded out, especially because we've been tapping into them for a lot of our other work in this committee. So it'll be nice for them to have some extra capacity there and certainty. With that, I will close out this one and we'll head into the next topic, which is the $20 minimum wage support discussion with Deputy Mayor, Chair, my Chair, Michelle. Thank you.

All right. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us and folks that have stuck around. I'm sure there's going to be more folks online or listening to the recording later. Just really appreciate all the work that's gone into this so far. There's a lot of folks all across our community that have provided input. And today I really wanted to set the stage for some policy proposal discussion with the committee here. There's nothing final in this. I'm really trying to get reactions from both the public and as well as folks from the committee here so that way I can help develop a policy to what a minimum wage of $20 in Tacoma could look like. later this year. So I've titled this, so I'll, sorry, I'm gonna go ahead. So just a quick recap with folks that are just tuning in. Over the last few months, I did some significant outreach to folks all around our community, both labor, nonprofit, small businesses, students both in high school and in college, those that are entering the workforce, as well as healthcare sector through a workforce roundtable, our Tacoma anchor network, as well as childcare providers. And so this really makes up a very diverse, of Tacoma's economy and certainly not all encompassing, but we did go in depth on all the feedback that was collected in the last Economic Development Committee meeting on June 30th. Those folks that are interested in what that report looks like, it is available online as well. But don't let this be the last time you do provide input. Please continue. All these folks that have been a part of these different industries and broader, please continue to provide input and share your thoughts on minimum wage as we move forward as well. So the purpose of today's discussion, as I mentioned, will be to move on to what the different pathways we can take to get to $20 an hour in Tacoma. And we'll go through some of the different recommendations the various stakeholder groups had mentioned during my outreach. And then we'll also have considerations on timelines, what budget impact there may be, and how we move forward as a council and as a community. So next up, so... I really wanted to break this out to like a kind of a multi-decision tree that the council can consider. And so we have multiple different options and I think it's important that we're considering all options when it comes to our minimum wage here in Tacoma. The first option, option one, it would just be immediately raising the minimum wage to $20 per hour. And we had heard some feedback from many folks that that might be very difficult for them to adjust their budgets if it's an immediate increase. So it might not be something that we look to do, but it is an option. Another option we have is to phase in an approach over multiple years. Historically, that's something that's been done in other cities as well as Tacoma itself in the past, kind of a phasing approach. Another option we have is raising the city's minimum wage above a certain amount over the state's minimum wage. So as the state adjusts, the city adjusts over time as well based on different criteria we can consider. And then the fourth option is to continue to maintain the state minimum wage as it is and let it go increase with the current TTIP. So those are kind of some options. These are not all inclusive. Oh, I should say option four instead of option three in there. So this is not all inclusive. If there's other options that we consider, I'm happy to hear it from both stakeholders as well as you guys here on the committee. So here's kind of a table that we put together on what it could look like if we were to... peg the minimum wage based off of CPI. And so we also, based on the previous slide I mentioned here, what it could look like based on the options. So if we were to do option one, which is an immediate $20 at 2027, with the CPI increases from there, we reach in the teal there, the $20 minimum wage goal. If we were to do option two, as you saw earlier, which is a phased-in approach over multiple years to $20 an hour, that's another consideration we can do. 18 and 27, 20 and 28 would be 19, and 29 would be 20, and then a CPI increase beyond that. And so on and so forth through the different options, that's kind of how the table is laid out. um so another option option three has been mentioned is raising the wage uh to twenty dollars and then setting it uh at above a state minimum um and so like for example the states at 17 um a little over 17 an hour plus one dollar and then by 2028 we'd have uh twenty dollars an hour minimum um at the state plus two dollars um And then also because the CPI is increasing via the state, we have to think about how we're going to calculate that into the different option that we have before us. And then obviously option four is following the state's CPI increases. And in 2030, it's likely that we'd be at a $20 minimum wage if we were just to stay as fast as possible. So those are just some options over time. So in the last report, the national CPI has been increasing at about 4.2% between 21 and 2026. And we've seen the CPI increases between 1.4% and 8.6% over the last about decade. For the purpose of this graph, as I mentioned, the projections are based on about a 4% CPI increase. And for option three and four, the tech piloted blues when Tacoma would hit $20 minimum wage based on the 4% CPI projection. However, the green shows options that are in the realm of possibility depending on how inflation pans out. So the green is like, it could be that way as well. Because we can't really predict where CPI is going to go over time. But if we're looking at historical data, we have a pretty good idea of where it could land. And so... As I mentioned, I went over each of those portions. And so if folks have any questions about that later, I can circle back. So option three in particular, I wanted to highlight the minimum wage is, that would be similar to how the city of Bellingham set their minimum wage. And they set it $2 higher than the state minimum at Bellingham. So that's just an example of what's been done in other cities. And all right. next uh sorry i'm looking at my notes i kind of start rambling and i i have to recheck myself there um so looking at these different options i'm going to go ahead and pause and and solicit some feedback slash reactions from my uh committee colleagues here so i'll open it up to any ideas on the different approaches and or if this is if it's wrong please let me know as well and we'd love to hear your comments

a quick clarifying question. Did you say that option three is from Bellingham or just option three that's that blue highlight piece?

Option three is based off of the Bellingham model. So right now the way Bellingham has it set is they go off the state minimum plus two dollars. And so that's something that we could consider doing as well. And so we wanted to have that as an option.

Great. I have other questions. So the The state is at $17,000 and change. And so the minimum wage over the fall, this would start off at $17,000 and change, so it would be $18,000 and change. Correct. And then we'd move to $19,000 and change. Correct. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was fully understanding what you were saying there.

Okay.

Do you have some questions? I have a question on that option three. Do you know why Bellingham chose the $2?

I do not.

Okay. Yeah.

That's a really good question.

I'd be interested to know how they came up with that as their number and what we would consider in Tacoma for that number. And then I wasn't seeing an option five maybe because maybe I have an option five that I heard today where some folks were suggesting like a based in minimum wage for certain industries or small businesses and nonprofits versus the other businesses that we have. I know that probably doesn't fit in well with this chart, but I think that's another option to consider.

Yeah, we'll definitely highlight that in our work. I'll say during the outreach report that I had done, a vast majority of the folks in the industries would have preferred it to be something that was phased in over time for everybody. And so the only folks that had mentioned to me that they would like to see it based or potentially see it changed depending on per industry or, you know, different groups was one nonprofit organization and our folks in the labor groups.

Yeah, I remember that from the last presentation. Thank you. I think I still have questions around that, though, because a minimum wage would be offered I guess I don't understand the phasing in of trying to be competitive because my understanding is that they thought it would put them at a disadvantage of being competitive with other industries. That is optional. They could raise their minimum, or they could raise on top of the weight. If the minimum weight was set at 20 and others were higher, they could raise it to meet that. I've still seen them I have questions about that logic and that concern.

Yeah. So I'll just echo what I've heard during the groups that I've heard. And part of it is a perception that if you are working for this specific company or this specific group, even if you are setting your wages higher than the minimum already, and believe it or not, a vast majority of them already do, the perception in the community is that, oh, working for them is going to be a lower wage. regardless, even if they do pay higher. Because you'd have to go through the whole interview process. You'd have to look and see what the wages are online, all these things. A lot of folks don't necessarily assume that they're going to be above minimum wage, even though they could be. And so it kind of, if it steers the applicant pool, the job applicant pool, dwindles because of those assumptions. And so that is an area of concern.

I am wondering if there's anything, if that's a feeling or if that's, I think, Remember Scott brought that up last time. Is that a feeling or is that like something that we can see that actually happens in the data?

Well, if there's any companies out there or folks that run organizations that want to share that data information, maybe the size of their applicant pools based on their wages, that'd be helpful. I don't have that data specifically. That's all information that people keep internally usually. But if folks are out there willing to share, I'm just, you know, letting you know what I've heard. Yeah, I appreciate that.

One more thing kind of came up during the question, I guess. No more thought into this besides what I heard today. I am curious about the option of possibly exempting job training programs from a minimum wage increase.

That's a good suggestion.

I think the other thing, and maybe this is something that comes up later in the process, but I think one of the other things that I'm concerned about is how we define big corporate business versus small business. prior conversations around this, you know, franchisees got looped into there and that doesn't take into account that like, yes, they're using branding of a big corporation, but it's owned by a local person. It's just them and their partner and a few employees. And so I just kind of making sure that we have a good understanding around the definition of the delineation between the types of businesses and their size and how that plays into any type of basic net.

I will have a slide later about that so we can discuss it for sure.

Great. I think my thought, I had the Bellingham question just for technicality, but also It seems like the wildest option up there. I'm shocked that that's the L&M's model. So that one just seems very strange to me. If we go down that path, I'd love to learn more about why. I think for me, the one that makes the most sense is just a straight up option one. It seems the least complicated and the most urgent. I did really feel a compelling argument made today for actually higher than that, like a 2150, because if we did 15 as a city in 2015, and that's the number now, that makes more sense to me. We're going to go the distance of raising it. I feel like raising it to what it should be, should be the, if we're going to bite the apple, let's bite it. I don't really see the reason to not. The other thought I have is around the exemptions piece. I am curious about what state law lets us do around exempting small businesses and how we define small businesses.

I know a lot of times the state likes to have us define things based on gross income, and that is not a very big number for a small business that does something that's very expensive. So we're moving bigger amounts of capital, but it's still just three employees or something, right? So how do we figure that piece out? I think I'm really interested in that just because a lot of times you have a small business and you don't have the overhead of executives that you could cut salaries out. The money doesn't exist. So how do we get to that place to accept those folks? So most interesting.

Great. Thank you for that feedback. And so speaking of, so one of the stakeholder proposals, had talked about categories of different prison sizes. And as I mentioned, there's different options for minimum wages based on business sizes. We also have a minimum total compensation approach in lieu of a minimum wage, establishing a training wage. And we don't know the legalities of all this. I haven't gone down those rabbit holes yet. I just wanted to get reactions from folks. Then also strategically applying specific minimum wages instead of a blanket minimum wage. Those are some things other cities have done as well and some stakeholder feedback. So here's some options that we looked at that other cities had done when it came to business size category. And so these are certainly things that we can consider. And as I mentioned on June 30th, more than 50 businesses, nonprofits, employers I spoke with, including local small business and child care providers. No one really identified this as a desired policy for Tacoma. However, most municipalities with a minimum wage higher than the state do employee size based minimum wage alternatives or phase in options. And so there's two examples that I have up here. And then the handout that I gave to you guys last time has more in-depth from a bunch of other cities. So do you think this is an approach that's right for Tacoma? And where are you hearing that outreach from and or is more targeted? Do we need more targeted outreach on this topic? Because most of the folks that I had talked to in the stakeholder outreach wanted us to keep something simple and do a phasing approach over time. But there are these options. So we'd love to hear any additional feedback on different category and size considerations.

Oh, I was just going to ask a question. No, I was just like, so the number of employees is that, how is that counted? So if you have, we heard someone earlier who's a clerk at Fred Meyer, clearly nationwide Fred Meyer has way more than 500 employees. Is that in the city limits or would it be their own corporation?

That's a really good question. It's a good technical question. I wish Linda was here. She's out today, which is fine. I do believe it's, these are based off of like company wide, like,

because I was thinking like just at one location we don't have businesses that have more than 500 employees at all within the city but so thank you helpful context yeah and that was part of the question that I had as well and so I guess yeah but that's my main thing is just figuring out you know is it do we do these tiers based on you know national employee number or um because i think one of the sentiments we've heard is like yes we want uh you know the minimum wage yes we want to see some changes things like that but we want to we don't want it to just be let's take what somebody else did and just imprint it here like how do we um kind of the same with the bellingham question like maybe whatever bellingham like Decided on, it's not necessarily based on like a big national thing. It's like they figured out what's good for the cost of living in Bellingham. So really just looking at what is good for Tacoma and do we need to rework these tiers knowing that, you know, we don't have very many businesses that have 500 plus employees. Do we need to look at it a different way? Do we need to change the numbers up a bit? I'm not opposed to classifying businesses between big and small different tiers. I just think making sure that we're doing so in a way. So I think that, again, the problem that we got into is that, you know, it's not just about, you know, little Caesars. It's, you know, it also includes United Way. It includes the YWCA in Pierce County, which provides a great service, doesn't have a ton of employees, but would fit into a tier that would make them have to make that change a lot differently. And so just I think that's kind of the main thing here. I don't have the answer. And I guess I don't have one specific question. I just just noting that that's a concern for me.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that we're still considering this option. I feel like one of the things that came up in previous conversations was the thought around franchises and questions about if they're included or not. So that would be something to also consider if we are looking at this option. Yeah, there's a lot to kind of take in.

Yeah, it's a little complicated. And if it's complicated for us, it's also complicated for everybody else trying to implement it too.

Yeah. I mean, if it's implemented, it's implemented. But I guess it's a The question of, you know, how far into the week can we go to figure out what's right for Tacoma as well? And are we giving ourselves enough time for that? Do we want to take, I feel like we're behind the ball already. So, yeah, just lots of questions still there. I'm glad to still consider this option.

Yeah, absolutely. I would just kind of do it. My response to that is I don't,

I feel that these tiers make sense for our city, so I'd be interested in tiers that make sense for us with a focus on those tiny businesses and how do we figure out that piece around the franchises that we're looking at. Parsing out a small business that's located here versus got somewhere else. And then Yeah, I think I'll jump ahead if I say more, so I will let you go through your slides.

Thank you. All right. So something else stakeholders had mentioned was looking at what is a total compensation philosophy, particularly those in the restaurants and hospitality businesses. And there was an example of Seattle doing a total compensation ordinance, but it is no longer in existence now, but it was something that had passed through at that council level. And the reason why this topic came up repeatedly was the idea of around a tip credit option. That acknowledges how tip earners make more than the minimum wage. But I will say state law preempts what you might think of as a tip credit approach specifically. And as I mentioned, the city of Seattle took a different approach that regulated total compensation. uh this does get very complicated very quickly but a high at a high level their total compensation would be met through wages tips and money paid by an employee towards an employee's individual medical benefit plan and this was mostly recommended by the restaurant and hospitality industries there could be a structure that is similar to what UW Tacoma students suggested which is a higher minimum wage threshold for employers who don't provide health benefits So if you don't provide health benefits as an employer, then you might have a different threshold. So I wanted to ask, what are your thoughts on a potential total compensation approach and whether that would be a good fit here at Tacoma?

Is there, I think when I was younger and working in spaces where I would get tips, like from one space to another, there might've been a different thing like, tips go in and then they just go evenly at the end of the night. You can front of house, back house that. Some of it was if you're working your section, those tips that come in, those are yours. You're not splitting them. Since I haven't worked in the service industry in a while where tips are part of my income, has there been some sort of regulation or I guess streamlining of what that looks like? I guess my concern here is that if we put something in about tip credits I guess is there a difference between like what somebody because you're like oh yeah like I'm making this much money but I can also on a good night maybe I'm getting like another $200 in tips so that's going to put me over but if I'm doing this and I can only expect to get like 10% of those tips does that factor into this is that like another layer of like policy we'd have to add in there to help balance that out or

Yeah, that's a really good question. I do know that I believe it's called tip pooling where everybody kind of puts the pool together. And then because, you know, bussers and slash, you know, dishwashers, they don't necessarily are food out there. um you know doing some work as well for the overall the whole operation um i don't recall the exact legalities behind tip pooling um i do know that there is some federal law that changed around tipping during the last year up to 25 000 is no longer taxed as income anymore so that is something that's different than than has been in times past um and so that kind of i think potentially some kind of total compensation they would um kind of uh recognize that that is a reality for a lot of our tip workers in the States as well. But I'd have to do a little bit more research on what the legal hours are and how far the policy is going to have to go.

particularly and specifically how it might be deemed out. Yeah.

I appreciate that. And then the other thing, just a comment, not a question, is that I don't think that this is necessarily a bad idea. Like you said, it can get very complex very fast. It can probably put us in the weeds a bit, which I think is okay. I think sometimes you need to get back into the weeds to kind of clear things out and create a better foundation for things to grow from. But I think that depending on where we go with all of this, this is in my mind, it's not true about the people.

Um, this one, I feel like we may just heard a lot from like business owners, but I would love to hear more from the folks who are in these industries, the workers to see if this is something they would welcome or if this would be a challenge. Um, I, I don't know where to land on it right now because I, I don't want to have some unintended consequences of something that I think is a good idea, but. I'm not in these jobs. I think that that's kind of come up in the past with like raising minimum wage, but removing tips that a lot of the workers didn't appreciate that. So yeah, I'd be interested in hearing more from folks in these industries.

Yeah. Me too. Thank you.

I'm going to try and, I apologize, we do have time, so I'm going to try to go a little bit faster. So colloquially, there was a great deal of discussion about setting up a training wage. This came from a lot of directions, including nonprofits, businesses, and institutions of higher learning. And it was used to apply to youth and student employment, employees new to a position with no or little job experience, and employees in workforce development programs. And across the stakeholder groups, there was a specific discussion about the fear of pushing youth out of the workforce in a reduction in entry-level jobs. There were no examples in the state of Washington of local municipalities setting up a wage system like this. And I'll say that the closest definition to a training wage that I could find was at the federal level. And the Fair Labor Standards Act sets up what they call the minimum wage. And the slide outlines what that applies to just as an example. So that includes student learners, vocational educational students, full-time students employed by retail or agriculture or institutions of higher education, or individuals whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those related to age or injury for the work to be performed. So again, this is the federal definition. I just wanted to point that out. That's what the Fair Labor Standards definition is. And so more work would need to be determined, the legalities of something like this at the state level. But I wanted to check in and hear from all of you on your thoughts on pursuing a potential pursuing of further policy development on a training wage. And obviously, I don't think we'd use this exact definition, but it's something that we'd probably consider.

Yeah, I think this depends on my question about... maybe not exempting, but we're changing the wage for job training. I think it needs to be considered not just students or youth. It should be considered for all job training programs. Job training wages are meant to be temporary. And I feel like the most, if we can, if the wage dictates how many people get into those programs, I would, I would probably be in favor of more people in the program so that they can get to a living wage when they're in their next, their actual permanent job. So I'd be interested in exploring this.

My question around this is, is this just people who are, because it looks like, at least from this definition, so are we just talking about people who are going through a retraining program, training program, or is this like, because when it says like individuals who are earning or productive capacity is impaired, does that mean that like ongoing, if somebody has a physical or intellectual disability, even if they are in their permanent job, you could pay them less?

I think per the federal definition, that is the case. That's why I said that. I'm not necessarily agreeing with them.

I just want to make sure that I understand.

I just want to be clear. We can take some ideas out of this, but then tighten it up at a local level. But again, I don't know the legalities at the state level, so I just want to know if folks are interested, because then I can explore, is this actually legal? I don't want to go down a rabbit hole and send staff down a rabbit hole. That's just, we're not, if the council's not interested.

Yeah, I mean, I think it could be useful because I think, you know, and then I guess the other piece of it is not just the, is, would an internship be considered job training? Like a college student going to an internship? Okay. And so I guess that was my main thing is that understanding who it all entails and like who touched there, I guess, and Yes, I guess, yeah, the short is that I'm interested in this, and I think that it could be useful, but I think just making sure that we're not relegating people to this wage long-term based on things out of their control, because just because you have a some sort of like impaired capacity to, for your earnings doesn't mean you don't need to earn a living wage. And so I don't, I want to make sure that there's a way for people who, for whatever reason, if it's an internship that ends and they're getting up from your job, but for somebody who has, whether it's, you know, they're on disability, they are elderly, they are younger, that they're not stuck at that wage when, you know, they're, are going to need more money to survive.

Yeah, I mean, something that we could consider based on that is like, okay, you can only be in a training wage status for X amount of time, right? And so that way it doesn't leave someone permanently in that position. Or maybe you have to have a very clear graduation of your training in order to, you know, so they can't just be in perpetuity. So I think there's a lot of ways we can finesse a policy that would make sense. So that way folks are perpetuating some sort of training wage status. And, you know, because I could see it being right.

I have a visceral opposition to a training wage. I think it's gross. We're setting a minimum. It's a minimum. A floor is a floor. Not hiding a bunch of workers in the basement. Based on them being young or new or physically disabled.

That sounds gross.

And I think for me, the thought of trading. If I'm hired, I'm multi-care and I'm hiring a CNA, whether they are fresh out of high school or someone who is just transitioning into that work and they're like 50, there shouldn't be one gets paid less than the other doing the same work. It breaks my brain a little bit too.

Okay. Thank you. That's good feedback. All right. Any additional feedback on this? All right. Thank you. All right. Next, we have industry minimum wages. This was another topic that came up in a variety of different ways. One direct request was to exclude nonprofits from a higher minimum wage. However, there was also indirect conversations such as when the healthcare industry discussed their high demands for workers and their competitiveness with other industries. There's one clear municipality that took a strategic approach to raising their minimum wage by industry, and that's the city of SeaTac. SeaTac has a geographic-specific economic driver, which is the airport, which does have many low-income workers. The minimum wage increase targeted those specific industries on the basis that raising the minimum wage of those industries would have a wider community benefit. I will say Tacoma is not necessarily in the same position. The port is the most similar resource to the city of SeaTac's airport, and most of the employers there already are earning much higher wages. However, I want to open the floor and ask if anyone had thoughts on whether there are industries in Tacoma that we could specifically target that would have a significant impact on the entire community here economically. And if you don't, that's okay.

I mean... like, things that come to mind are the, like, where we're seeing shortages at, specifically, like, we need more people in our medical field, more nurses, we need more nursing assistants, just, we need more people who are staffing our medical facilities, I think, between Franciscan and MultiCare. We have, like, that is a big provider of jobs here, and I think that, one, two, encourage more people to go that route, but also to fill it out, make sure they have a living wage, when people are in need of those services that there are adequate people there to provide a capacity for that need. Obviously the port's a big industry, but just our industrial side of things in general. So those would be two of the ones that I'd be looking at for sure, and there might be others, and that's not necessarily an exhaustive list.

From my mind, those are two of the industries that come to mind for sure.

that just jogged something for me as well. I think looking at possibly who we want to attract to Tacoma, if there are certain industries that make sense here that would fill in the hole that we don't have in Tacoma, that would be another industry to consider.

Thank you.

All right. So some areas of further discussion. As we talk about the minimum wage, and we've heard it all over the place, we want to consider CPI, franchise agreement, as you had mentioned earlier, how we might look at that holistically. What does enforcement look like? So these are all things that we need to have discussions on. And they have come up during all the different conversations around minimum wage. And I don't have any specific recommendations, and neither do our stakeholders on these specific topic areas, but I wanted to make sure that you guys had an opportunity, if you did have some ideas on each of these, and we've heard a little bit about franchise agreements and how it's separate, so we're definitely going to make sure to include that, but do you have any considerations or thoughts on these specific topic areas?

I mean, enforcement has come up by itself, it's going to be, I assumed it would be in here somewhere, so I didn't bring it up immediately, but that's my main thing, is that it should you know, whatever we put together, somebody is going to have to monitor, are people following that rule? Are people, you know, are people keeping up with the phasing in? So, and how much of that is enforced by us? How much of that falls to the state? And what essentially, like it says there, there's a fiscal impact to it. So what would that look like on our, what type of things would we need to consider about creating that enforcement, like, that and how that will impact how we can, like, roll it out. Do you think it's going to cost us, you know, $5 million a year ongoing? What does that mean that we can still start this in 2027? Like, what is that? What does that look like?

I think, you know, kind of entrenched in the rental property conversation and compliance there, there would live big need for education and ways for our residents to self-report. And so I think that that's something to look into here as well, is how can we make sure that people know that if there is a violation, how they can report it. This is something that we put in our 311 system. So I think that those could positively impact the fiscal bottom line. And so I think that those are worth pursuing as well.

Thank you. Is there any additional topic areas that you think I should further dive into that I haven't discussed so far?

I don't know that I have an additional topic area, but I just wanted to add a piece around enforcement processes. I thought I heard Linda say in the policy report that there was, Bellingham just points people to the state, Bill and I, so there, in my mind, there might be a way to do enforcement processes that doesn't cost the city dollars, because I think that I have all the businesses on the up and up so that folks aren't just not paying, exploiting workers who might not know that storm has a higher minimum wage. So how we make sure that there's some sort of a reporting mechanism. And I don't know if that would have to go, at some point we will have some sort of a cost to at least our business license folks who are doing that education piece around telling people, employers, that that is our minimum wage, but the enforcement side, I think the part towards the collection enforcement mechanisms at least.

Absolutely.

And did I just do your next slide?

Yeah. Thank you for that. Sorry about that. No, you're great. That means that we're on the right track. So upfront, this is an estimated annual fiscal impact. Upfront, I do want to say that this does not include how a higher minimum wage will create wage compression that drives up wages higher than minimum wage workers. Wage compression is something that we heard commonly across the board. Both our labor partners, felt wage compression was good because it does set the floor a bit higher. So it helps them with negotiations. Other folks in the different other industries talked about wage compression in a more negative sense. And so, because it increases cost across the board for them as well. So it also does not include how a higher minimum wage could increase business costs for folks, which is potentially reducing the purchasing power of the funds and reducing services that could be offered to the community. It also does not include any projections of revenue changes. Should people with more money in their pocket spend more and increase our sales tax intake? Should people with higher wages need fewer public services or businesses close down and decrease our business license revenue? What I can't focus on today is the cost of enforcement. Our tax and licensing staff have been very helpful in providing some information on how the city can approach enforcing a minimum wage higher than the state's. The first option that we have before us is no enforcement. There would still be civil remedies for individuals, but the city could choose to do nothing. So that's something that could be under consideration. Further research would need to occur on whether a community could ask the state for support and what service level the state could provide if that were the option that we look for.

So we don't know what level of service that state will actually provide if that's the case.

The next option we could do is work with the state's L&I and enter into a formal agreement for them to enforce. We would need to have customer service staff to help intake and direct people with concerns. We'd also need to investigate if the state is the state would charge for this service or not, which is very likely. And any contracted amount is not yet fully identified. We'd have to negotiate that with the state of Illinois. The final option is for city enforcement. And I think of this level as the amount it would cost to structure a program that meets the community expectation around how this could be enforced. This means enough staff to do investigations and the capacity to do company-wide investigations and not just at an individual level. We would discuss if it's possible to decrease the cost by lowering the service level provided to community, but that might look like a very long wait times for investigations or narrow investigations. But we need to look at those tradeoffs very seriously and understand where they may, that there may be a lot of community dissatisfaction if we were not up to a certain service level standard. So with that, do you guys have any thoughts on these enforcement options? Are there other enforcement options I didn't think of? And does the looking at the cost of enforcement change how you think about any of the information I shared previously?

I don't think it changes my feeling about this topic in general, I think we need to raise our minimum wage. But I think mainly it just makes me, if we were to, like, say we started off and we're like, all right, the best way for us is kind of going to lean on the state for it and just go from there. We would have the option that, say, we were in a better position later as a city, whether with our own budget or just capacity and things like that. We could always switch to a model where we enforcement like it's not obviously probably won't happen right away but that's an option right that at some point we can say we're going to lean on the state we're going to make sure we educate people as best we can here and but maybe in our head the goal is and I don't know I guess if we figure like, well, I don't know which is better. I don't know if it's better for us to enforce it locally or if it's better elsewhere. But if at some point in this we're like, actually, it is better that we do it, we could be set out on a process of like, this is what we need to do now to kind of get the ball moving. But have it in our mind that like the goal is ultimately to get to a point where enforcement doesn't necessarily. So I, yeah, that would be my, I think whatever is kind of physically best for us in the moment, to kind of get people moving towards the way that's better for them is the best thing for us to do. And I think that if the data shows, whatever it might be, that it's better for us to handle it, that somewhere in whatever we put forward, that like just acknowledging and not necessarily putting the time limit on there, but acknowledging that our ultimate goal is to ultimately come back and move to us enforcing it as a city, because I imagine

with term limits and how long things take we might not be here but i'm if that's our goal eventually putting that in there so that people come after us i would be interested to know um what would be possible repercussions like that could be implemented um like through the state what happens if there's a violation do they just are they just ordered to pay back wages or is there anything that versus a more of a deterrent? And if we did it through the city, would that be something that we could look forward to put measures in place that are deterrents from that next behavior, which would ultimately end up saving us money in the long run, I would think.

Yeah, I mean, I know that there's obviously the state goes through all their investigations and levies fines and things of that nature.

and other stuff so um we'd have to look at that we can get you that information yeah all right oh i thought i shared my piece where i just i like i said i'm just worried about the enforcement side of it making sure that we have some mechanism i i would lean on the state but i think um open to what that looks like for us. I don't think we have the best resources for it, but we have to have some enforcement arm.

We can't have none because, like I said, I think there will be businesses who try to exploit the work.

That's good because then I can start building out what that might look like. All right. Next is process options. How do we get there? There's two process options, and this is not exhaustive if there are pros and cons to either, but I'd love to hear them as well. The first is the option to create and pass an ordinance to update the minimum wage. This has a quicker timeline. It's not bound by the two-year limitation that is placed on ballot measures. However, previous minimum wage increases did happen via initiative and a vote of the people. And in my outreach since releasing the report, I've heard a lot of advocacy against raising the minimum wage due to concerns that will harm the local businesses, nonprofits, and child care providers. Another option that we have is we could create a minimum wage proposal and send it to the public as a ballot initiative so that the voters of Tacoma can confirm if a higher minimum wage is something that they would like. And so are there any thoughts on the different processes? I will mention that if there is a ballot measure, just like initiatives, it cannot be amended for two years. But it also does cost us in order to put it on the ballot as well. So it costs us money to do that. But if we do do a ballot measure, it's going to take us a little bit more time to get it on the election cycle and things of that nature. So any thoughts on the two different options here? And this is not an exhaustive list. This is just what I could think of off the top of my head. So if there's any other pros and cons to either one, I'm happy to answer.

I think that representative democracy, they vote, people voted us in to be their representatives. I think from this conversation being, having been as long as it's been, you know, this has been something that we've heard feedback and input from a lot of different folks over a couple of years now. Let's just get it done.

Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, I'll just sit down.

Yeah, I don't see a benefit to going to the ballot for anyone.

Okay, great. Thank you so much for that. All right, next step. So over the summer, I just wanna thank you all so much for your thoughts and consideration on this very complex and critical policy topic. So in addition to all your feedback, I'm continuing to call on the public to send me their perspectives on the minimum wage. If you're doing your own outreach, I would encourage you to share that information with me as well for consideration. And this summer, I am taking all the feedback I've heard from key stakeholders, from you guys here at the committee level, and everyone else reaching out to me. And I'm working with staff to develop a complete proposal with specific code language changes and comprehensive fiscal impact statement. And I will introduce this full proposal to the council in the fall and hope to see the city council take action before the end of the year. And so I really appreciate everybody's feedback. And I'm trying to make sure that the next so the next time this comes before us will be at a full council. So everyone will have a chance to weigh in. I'll be having individual conversations with more stakeholders as well as folks on our council. So that way, whatever proposal comes forward tries to maximize as much of the input as I can gather. And we're going to be doing a lot of research in the next few months in order to get a good proposal for everybody. With that, Yes.

Are we going to have a recommendation from this committee to go to the full council? Or are we just kind of taking information that you can go to the full council?

I'll be taking the information that I've gathered here to the full council for a study session. So I'm not going to run through EDC again.

Is it possible that we could? put a recommendation together from this committee before it goes to the school council?

I mean, anything is possible, but I have endeavored upon this process, and I want to make sure that the rest of the council has input as well. I haven't engaged them at a level where I've engaged that committee yet. So that's why I want to bring it to the study session.

Good. I will say that's the same way I'm going to do this. Great. Thank you, Deputy Vice Chair Bushnell. For that, we are all done. We're going to wait for today. We're going to go to topics for upcoming meetings with Debbie Bingham, Executive Leader of Take us away.

Let's look at the future. The July 28th, 2026 meeting will be a SpaceWorks diploma annual report. And on August 11th, we will have the Diploma Creates Advisory Board interviews. And on August 25th, we will have Arts and Cultural Vitality Strategic Plan update.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Does anybody else have any other topics in mind?

Move to adjourn.

Second. Thank you all. I'm saying that we are good.