Deputy Mayor John Hines - District 1 - January 31, 2024
City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 01/31/2024 03:27 PM PST
Dear Neighbors,
I hope your new year is off to a great start. At the beginning of this month, I was honored by my City Council colleagues with being appointed Deputy Mayor for Tacoma in 2024. As a life-long resident of Tacoma, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve our broader community this year. I look forward to engaging with residents in the Eastside and South End neighborhoods that I grew up in, but as always, I am deeply committed, first and foremost, to serving the residents of District 1!
This year has already been filled with activity for the Hines Family, including Tacoma’s Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration (which you can watch here). Throughout 2024, the City of Tacoma’s Events and Recognitions Committee voted to approve $90,000 of special events funding for 39 organizations to produce events throughout Tacoma in 2024. These are free, inclusive, and all-ages events that reflect many of the diverse communities and cultures throughout Tacoma. I hope to see you out and about in District 1 or around our city in 2024, a year full of possibilities!
Also, as many of you have noticed, we have entered pothole season. Whenever you see (or feel) a pothole, I would encourage you to report it to TacomaFIRST 311. The City has many of miles of roads to maintain and 311 reports are a great way to make sure potholes are addressed in a timely manner.
2023: A Year in Review
I like to take time each year to highlight some of the accomplishments I had in the past year. While I am very excited to share more about what is to come in 2024, I think it is also helpful to share all that was done in 2023!
Investments in Community Safety
Throughout 2023, I heard from many of you about community safety and the critical importance of ensuring all neighborhoods are safe. This year, the City Council continued our efforts to invest in safety including:
Tacoma Fire Department: Supporting the Fire Department with additional overtime for Emergency Medical Services response and the expansion of Basic Life Support transportation efforts.
HOPE Team: Expanding this alternative response model that is specifically designed to support Tacoma and traditional first responders, particularly regarding cases involving individuals experiencing behavioral/mental health and substance use disorder crises and crimes that are not in progress.
Community Service Officers: Establishing the Community Service Officers Program to address non-emergency service.
Community Safety Action Strategy: Building the Community Safety Action Strategy to create a community vision for how we make Tacoma safe for all our residents. It will also help us organize our efforts and to determine how each part of the city help contribute to a Tacoma that feels safe.
Along with the work of the City Council, I continue to focus on other ways to address community safety in our city. I will continue to be the Executive Co-Chair of the Pierce County Opioids Task Force and I have been working with them to develop our strategic plan for the next three to five years. Addressing the impact of opioids in our community is a regional effort and critical to our promotion of community safety.
Affordable Housing and Homelessness
This past year, I continued my focus on housing and homelessness while on the City Council. In our 2023-2024 Budget, the City of Tacoma has dedicated more than $101 million to support housing and homelessness. This year the City Council continued its work on the following issues:
Supporting Shelter and Services: The City allocated $34.1 million to homelessness services and programs in the adopted 2023-2024 Budget, as part of its broader Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness. This included the re-authorization of 6th and Orchard Tacoma Emergency Micro Shelter (TEMS) currently slated to operate through June 2024. The 6th and Orchard TEMS, along with the rest of our City Authorized Emergency Shelters and shelter partners, are critical to getting people into stable shelter in order to move into housing.
Addressing Encampments: Second Amended Substitute Ordinance 28831, prohibiting camping and storage of belongings near shelters, has shown positive initial signs of progress in ensuring support for vulnerable populations and addressing the health and safety impacts of encampments. It has allowed us to continue managing encampments while prioritizing support for vulnerable populations.
Expansion of Housing Options and Investments: The City continued its work on Home in Tacoma and expansion of housing options. Along with Home in Tacoma and the Affordable Housing Action Strategy (AHAS), the City has millions of dollars committed to housing development, including the accessory dwelling units and detached accessory dwelling units accelerator program and enhanced support for permit services.
While we have seen some early progress, I recognize that addressing homelessness is a long journey. I do believe that, with ongoing efforts to provide shelter options, services, and long-term housing, we can make an impact and make sure more people can find a home in Tacoma.
Keeping Tacoma Beautiful
Tacoma is in one of the most beautiful parts of our country. From the Puget Sound to the Cascades Mountains, we are lucky to live in such a special place, and that is why I have been very committed to ensuring that the City is doing its part to take on litter, trash, and graffiti. Tidy-Up Tacoma continued its work and I am excited about the future work of those efforts.
I have been working with my City Council colleagues to update the City’s litter code and to address some of the large-scale illegal dumping we are seeing in Tacoma. I am eager for more support for citywide litter clean-ups, rapid removal of blight, murals as an anti-graffiti program, and a renewed anti-littering campaign.
Animal Welfare
This past year I took on two animal welfare issues that my constituents brought to me. While animal welfare may not seem as pressing as some of the other issues facing the city, I think these were two common sense changes to our City code.
Animal Noise: The City Council, including myself, approved a code change requiring three people to submit animal noise complaints, preventing personal conflicts from leading to unwarranted enforcement by Animal Control. We have seen animal noise complaints too often used by neighbors in a retaliatory manner, sometimes completely unrelated to the animals, and this adjustment aims to optimize Animal Control resources for genuine noise concerns.
Cat Declawing: Recognizing the inhumane nature of cat declawing, I proposed, and the City Council adopted, a ban on cat declawing in Tacoma (the first in Washington), except when performed by a licensed veterinarian for a therapeutic reason. This decision aligns with evolving societal norms and the increase in humane alternatives, and it prioritizes the well-being of our feline companions and their owners over outdated practices from the 1950s.
Again, while these were not policies I championed when I arrived on the City Council, I was very happy to help put these common place measures in place and bring some peace of mind to many of our residents, furry and otherwise.
Community Engagement
This past year was a great one for community engagement. I unfortunately spent much of my early time on City Council unable to meet with many residents due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The issues that we are addressing in Tacoma now require extensive community conversations, so I was happy that more of them were able to occur this year.
From Coffee Chats with a Council Member to the Historic Cushman Street Fair and the West Slope Oktoberfest, I had a great time meeting many of you in person and hearing your perspective. In 2024, I have some great community engagement opportunities planned, including quarterly Coffee Chats, my first Town Hall, and a surprise for later this summer (check out later newsletters to hear more!). Hopefully I will get a chance to see more of you soon!
Thank You
While I was happy with what was accomplished in 2023, I am very excited for what is to come in 2024. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you. It has been an honor to serve as your Council Member and I look forward to many more years to come. While I have heard from many of you wondering why I do it, I find it deeply meaningful to serve the city I grew up in. Here’s to a great 2024 for us all!
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.
