Council Member John Hines - District 1 - December 28, 2023
City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 12/28/2023 10:00 AM PST
Dear Neighbors,
While winter in Tacoma means cold weather and fewer hours of daylight, I have been enjoying time spent indoors (and a few moments outdoors) with family and friends. This year the Hines Family has even more reasons to be outside with the recent addition of our new dog, Atlas, to our family (you may recognize him from his recent debut on the Tacoma Pierce County Human Society post). It has been a busy time for us, but we are so happy to have him join us this year!
We hope you also find a few moments to spend some time with those you care about this holiday season!
Also, thank you to everyone who joined me for my recent Coffee Chat with a Council Member at Wheelock Library. It was great to hear from many of you about your concerns and share what the City Council has been working on. Looking ahead to 2024, I plan to continue to hold Coffee Chats each quarter and I am planning a larger Townhall meeting next summer. Hopefully you can join me at one of those events!
Scenes From the City of Destiny
Updating Our Animal Control Laws
On December 5, I was able to bring forward two changes to the City’s municipal code related to animal control.
Animal Noise
I proposed, and the City Council unanimously adopted, a change to the City’s animal noise code that increased the number of people required to submit complaints about animal noise from one person to three people and removed the criminal misdemeanor penalty for violations. I believe this change will ensure a more efficient use of the City’s Animal Control resources. Prior to these changes, it only took one person to issue a complaint and potentially lead to Animal Control enforcing an unlawful action. This created a high volume of invalid complaints that reflected personal conflicts between neighbors rather than genuine and unlawful animal noise events.
I want to stress that none of these changes impact Animal Control’s ability to evaluate or enforce animal cruelty cases in any way and residents can still face a fine if they violate the animal noise ordinance. The goal is to make sure that our Animal Control officers can focus on animals and owners that have become a true public nuisance.
Non-therapeutic cat declawing was first introduced in the U.S. in the 1950s, mainly as a way for cat owners to protect their furniture from being scratched. However, what we know today is that cat declawing is a major surgery that is widely considered inhumane due to the debilitating life-long medical and behavioral consequences the animal can suffer. Today there are also many safe, affordable, humane, and widely available alternatives to declawing.
As part of my outreach around the development of this policy, I had the opportunity to meet with Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County Chief Executive Officer Leslie Dalzell (pictured above). The Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County told me that they see declawed cats abandoned all too often because they develop behavioral problems. For me this policy was very straightforward. There are many practices that people introduced into our society in the 1950s that are just simply not acceptable today. Declawing cats without a therapeutic purpose is among those practices.
As I said at the City Council meeting, I felt it was time for our city to choose cats over couches and further support pet owners and the welfare of beloved pets in our community.
The first change was to narrow the Green Job tax credit to provide a more targeted incentive that aligns with the objectives of Tacoma’s Green Economic Development Strategy. This change focused the tax credit on companies working in Clean Energy, Green Products, Industrial Symbiosis, and Maritime who are selling products and services outside of Tacoma (“traded sector”) as highlighted in the strategy and increased the value of the credit from $250/year to $1,000/year.
Tacoma Work Opportunity Tax Credit
The second change was to create the Tacoma Work Opportunity tax credit in the amount of $1,000 for employers adding a new position and filling the position with an individual with a disability. People with disabilities can face substantial barriers to finding a job and I believe this tax credit will help advance disability inclusion in our workforce. This credit will also advance the strategic goals of vocational rehabilitation in Tacoma, including reducing poverty in the disability community and ensuring successful transitions into the workforce for students with disabilities.
I was very excited to support both of these changes to the City’s tax code. Tacoma continues to need further business investment and opportunities for our residents to find good jobs. I am hopeful that both of these will get us closer to our goals of a greener economy that is inclusive for our entire community.
Catching Up with Council Member Hines
My Favorite Books of 2023
As many of you know, I love to read and before joining City Council, I was a Tacoma Public Library Trustee. My loves of books and libraries goes back to the day I got my first library card at the South Tacoma Library Branch decades ago. Keeping a December tradition alive, here are the books I most enjoyed reading in 2023 (and again as the former history teacher, they are largely non-fiction):
I hope you will visit one of our Tacoma Public Libraries and pick one of them up today!
Trash Talk
As many of your know, one of my passions is addressing litter, trash, and graffiti. Looking ahead to 2024, I am going to launch another section to this newsletter called “Trash Talk.” This section will appear each month along with “Scenes from the City of Destiny” and “Catching Up Council Member Hines.” This month, I wanted to share some great news about our Environmental Services Utility. Be on the lookout for more Trash Talk in the year ahead!
Grants for Environmental Services
The City of Tacoma’s Environmental Services Solid Waste Utility was recently awarded more than $2.5 million in grants by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington State Department of Ecology. The grants recognize the City’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability and responsible waste management, as well as its dedication to sustainable practices and environmental stewardship.
As part of the larger grant, a $1,999,806 grant was awarded by the EPA through its Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program, a key initiative under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, that will support the City of Tacoma’s expansion of its nationally award-winning Community Ambassador Program and increase equitable education and outreach to Tacoma’s diverse community. Out of more than 300 applicants, the City was selected as one of 25 recipients, representing 8.3 percent of successful applications.
Keeping Tacoma beautiful is one of my top priorities and I am thrilled that Environmental Services has been recognized as a leader in environmental sustainability and responsible waste management. I am especially pleased to see the expansion of the Community Ambassador Program and look forward to their efforts to further engage and educate our residents on how to increase their recycling efforts and expand our circular economy.
On December 4, the Tacoma Rescue Mission unveiled the photographs from the Pictures of Hope program. I was very excited to share this moment with my mentee and for the chance to help show these young people that their dreams matter.
I want to thank all of the mentors and the Tacoma Rescue Mission for their participation in this important program! One of the things I love about Tacoma is that our community knows that when we all work together and support each other, we can make any dream come true.
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.
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