City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 12/11/2023 12:12 PM PST
Dear Neighbors,
It has been a great month in my favorite season, starting with Halloween and ending with the Tacoma Turkey Trot and so many other exciting events in between. Hopefully, with the holiday season continuing, I will see many of you out enjoying all that the City of Destiny has to offer!
Come join me for a cup of coffee or tea and share your perspective!
I hope you will come join me for a Coffee Chat on December 16 from 10:30 AM to Noon at the Wheelock Library! I'll be speaking with residents about my work and answering your questions. Come share your thoughts with me!
I want to start this month's newsletter by taking a moment to address the concerns I have heard from many of you about crime and public safety. This is a priority issue for me, and I know that city government's most important responsibility is public safety. To become the city that we all hope Tacoma will be, we need to ensure that this is a safe place to raise a family, start a business, and enjoy all the amazing amenities we have here. For that reason, I want to use this month’s newsletter to highlight the important work the City is doing to ensure that our community is safe for all our residents. I am confident that with our continued efforts and investments, we will become the safe city all our residents deserve to live in.
Scenes From the City of Destiny
Public Safety
Violent Crime Reduction Plan
At the November 7 Study Session, the City Council received a briefing on the latest data and results of the Tacoma Police Department’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan. The results show a continuation of the overall downward trend in the number of violent crimes compared to one year ago. Specifically, we saw a 17.5 percent decrease in violent street crime incidents in the first year of the Violent Crime Reduction Plan (July 2022 – July 2023) compared to the previous 12 months. You can read more about the impact of the Violent Crime Reduction Plan here and access past presentations.
While I am proud of these results and the efforts of the Tacoma Police Department to address violent crime in our city, I recognize that we have more work to do. Yearly violent crime rates remain higher than they were before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond violent crime, I also recognize that we need to further address property crimes in our city.
To do this, I am looking forward to moving into the second and third phases of the Violent Crime Reduction Plan and the problem-oriented, place-based policing and long-term focused deterrence of criminal activity. The Tacoma Police Department has already begun working on the mid-term strategy, including identifying initial locations and developing an operations plan for the areas. The goal is to continue reducing criminal activity and address some of our neighborhoods that are most impacted by violent crime.
Community Safety Action Strategy
At our November 21 Study Session, the City Council received an update on the Community Safety Action Strategy. The Community Safety Action Strategy is meant to create a community vision for how we make Tacoma safe for all our residents. It will also help us organize our efforts and determine how each part of the city, including our Police Department but also all the other Departments, help contribute to a feeling of safety in Tacoma.
In 2021, Tacoma worked with 21st Century Policing to develop recommendations and reforms that the Tacoma Police Department and the City could implement to strengthen the Police Department’s relationship with Tacoma’s community. One of those recommendations was to create a written, strategic plan regarding the Tacoma Police Department’s approach to collaborating with the community, responding to community needs and issues, and fostering community relationships. From that, we recognize that while the Police Department is a critical partner in addressing crime and safety in our community, community safety is broader than policing and crime alone.
While in its early stages, I am excited that we are looking at investing in neighborhoods and residents, developing a response model that meets the community needs, and looking for ways to build trust in our city. To learn more about the Community Safety Action Strategy, I would encourage you to check out the recent presentation.
Closing Public Safety Thoughts
I want to stress again that I recognize that we must continue to address crime and public safety in our city. Public safety comes up in every public forum, meeting, or causal conversation I have with residents. My hope is that with the efforts of the Tacoma Police Department and the Violent Crime Reduction Plan, the Community Safety Action Strategy, and the support of residents like all of you, we will get closer to ensuring our city is safe for everyone.
Mid-Modification Budget Highlights
At our November 28 council meeting, the City adopted modifications to the 2023 – 2024 Biennial Budget. This came after numerous presentations, discussions, and public hearings about the priorities of our residents. I was very happy about some of the new and continued efforts of the City and I wanted to highlight how some of my priorities were reflected in the budget.
Supporting Community Safety
Throughout the last year, I have heard from many of you about your concerns about safety. In approaching this budget modification, I was committed to ensuring that we continue to have the first responders in Tacoma’s Police and Fire Departments available to keep our community safe.
For the Tacoma Police Department, this budget modification includes funding for police overtime to support the efforts of our Violent Crime Reduction Plan, hiring incentives to attract new officers, and additional equipment (like dash cameras) to support our transparency efforts.
For the Tacoma Fire Department, we are continuing to provide for additional overtime to support our Emergency Medical Services response and expansion of our Basic Life Support transportation efforts.
I have also heard from many community members who are interested in a non-police response to those experiencing behavioral health crises and for non-emergency criminal activity. To address this, the current budget modification includes expanding the Holistic Outreach Promoting Engagement (HOPE) team’s services and funding for twelve Community Service Officers to respond to non-emergency calls for service.
Addressing Homelessness and Affordable Housing
Along with my policy work to address encampments last year, I am also proud of the investments the City is making addressing homelessness and supporting the creation of affordable housing. As I said from the beginning, removing encampments could not be examined in isolation and required shelter and housing options for those moving out of encampments. This budget modification includes continuing the support of current shelters and expansion of more options, including maintaining current emergency shelter options through December 2024.
Beyond shelter, we have committed millions of dollars to supporting the development of housing. A few items I have championed that I am particularly excited about include support for the accessory dwelling units and detached accessory dwelling units accelerator program, enhanced support for permit services to speed up permit processing, and a searchable building code for permitting services. All these efforts, along with the work for Home in Tacoma, should make it easier for people to build housing in our city.
Tacoma Public Library
As many of you know, I am a former Tacoma Public Library Trustee and book lover. One item I want to call out in this budget modification is the continued funding of the Main Library remodel. Libraries continued to be a valuable part of our community and we need to make sure they innovate to continue to serve those needs. I am excited for our contribution to continue to ensure the Main Library serves our residents' needs decades into the future.
Home in Tacoma Update
Along with the Community Safety Action Strategy, the City Council also received an update at our November 21 Study Session on Home in Tacoma. The discussion was focused on building design standards, ownership and affordability, and future outreach efforts. Along with hearing from City staff, we heard from a consultant with ECONorthwest about the financial feasibility of the City’s density efforts.
I share the concern with many of you that few affordable home ownership opportunities exist in our city and that many residents may not have an opportunity to build the equity and generational wealth that homeownership brings. I am hopeful that as we move forward with Home in Tacoma, we will have more opportunities for our residents to become homeowners.
The presentation also included an updated timeline and a discussion of further public outreach conversations. This is a valuable community conversation about the future of our city, and we want to include everyone who calls Tacoma home.
As many of you know, I serve on the Finance, Administration and Intergovernmental Relations Committee (FAIR) for the National League of Cities (NLC). This year’s annual conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was proud to serve as a discussion panelist again. The session titled, “Government Strategies to Improve Local Homeless Response Systems,” allowed me to discuss my work on the City Council and our efforts to address housing and homelessness during the past four years.
The conference was a great opportunity to meet other local leaders from across the country and learn more about how other cities are addressing local challenges. It was great to share what we have been doing in Tacoma, but also to hear ideas from other local leaders about how we might address the issues we face in our city.
Pierce County Village
This past month, my children and I joined Council Member Sarah Rumbaugh for a visit to the site of the Tacoma Rescue Mission’s future Pierce County Village. As many of you know, I have been a large supporter of the Emergency Micro Shelter Site in my neighborhood at 6th and Orchard, and I have been interested to learn more about the Pierce County Village.
I think that a model like Community First! Village in Pierce County could help serve many experiencing homelessness in our area. I look forward to continuing to work with the Tacoma Rescue Mission and Pierce County on this project and implementing Pierce County and the City of Tacoma’s Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness.
I hope to see you on December 16 at the Wheelock Library!
Please be sure to check out cityoftacoma.org for City updates and resources and, as always, please feel free to share your thoughts and concerns with me directly at john.hines@cityoftacoma.org. You can also call me at (253) 312-5620 if you have questions.
I invite you to tune in to the City Council’s Study Session or Council meetings every week on Tuesdays via TV Tacoma, Facebook Live, or Zoom. Access information is available at cityoftacoma.org/councilmeetings.
Also, if you enjoy getting this newsletter and regular updates from me, please feel free to share it with others who you think might find it valuable and encourage them to subscribe.
