Accomplishments

Over the past four years, Tim has successfully brought solutions to challenges faced by the Gig Harbor City Council. Here are some of his accomplishments:

Maintain The Charm & Preserve The Heritage

Tim and Stephanie have lovingly brought back their beautiful Gig Harbor cottage and rediscovered the story of the Erickson and Austin families. Stephanie is even writing a book about this story! Says Tim, “From working to preserve the heritage of my own home, I have also worked hard in this term on the City Council to support many community efforts.”

Preservation & Restoration

• Leader in the effort to help fund the new Harbor History Museum.
• Strong advocate for a Maritime Pier to highlight our fishing heritage.
• Pushed to defend the Millville District of downtown from a commercial development that blatantly violated our intent for this District.
• An early and strong supporter for the Boat Shop at Eddon Boat.
• A strong supporter of Coastal Heritage Foundation and their efforts in the Harbor.
• Led the effort to create a conservation easement for the restoration of Donkey Creek.
• Strong advocate when Mayor Hunter created a position to pursue heritage/special grants.  As a result, Gig Harbor has been awarded over $4.7 million in preservation/restoration grants.

Encourage Families

Tim and Stephanie are raising their two young boys in Gig Harbor. “With every decision I make on Council, I am thinking about the impact to families”, says Tim. “I want our children to have that same wonderful experience growing up in the Harbor as generations before did.”

Parks

• Fulfilled the promise of a neighborhood park on the West Side of the City (KLM Veteran’s Memorial Park).
• Worked in partnership with County Council Member Terry Lee to insure the success and completion of the new Cushman Trail extension.
• Pushed for the acquisition of additional lands (3.5 acres) for City Park. Allows for future expansion & preserves the shoreline of Crescent Creek.
• Personally worked with Congressman Dicks to get $800,000 for restoring and daylighting Donkey Creek. Their efforts have led to Senator Murray proposing another $1.5 million for the pedestrian bridge necessary to complete the restoration.
• Led the effort to name the Estuary Park after the Austin Family.
• Along with Council member Franich, Tim advocated for our parks to be more accessible for those who are mobility challenged.

Traffic Safety

• Pushed for and completed a Master Plan for safer streets and broader sidewalks in downtown with public input.
• Led the push for “Your Speed” signs to be placed on our steep streets leading into the Harbor. This has slowed traffic and made our streets safer.
• Worked directly with neighborhoods concerned about specific street speeds and brought in City staff to participate.

Strengthen Businesses

With the building of the second bridge, Gig Harbor is more accessible, but we are also becoming more of a hub of commerce. Tim lives and works in the Harbor. He has advocated for, and will continue to advocate for, opportunities to create family wage jobs right here in Gig Harbor.

Taxes – Stopped effort to create a B&O Tax in the City.

Cooperation & Jobs – Worked closely with Franciscan Healthcare to encourage and insure the successful opening of St. Anthony’s Hospital. 450 family wage jobs were created.

Jobs – Sponsored an effort to lift the recent sewer moratorium and allowed new businesses to open creating over 100 jobs.

Downtown – Along with Council member Kadzik,  Tim advocated for the development of a Main Street Program to stimulate economic development and preserve the charm of our downtown commercial core.

Communication – Meet one-on-one with Chamber of Commerce leaders, Main Street members, business leaders, property owners & key associations on a regular basis.

Stay Ahead of Growth

Tim grew up in Federal Way and watched 320th Street go from a back country lane to a massive mess. He and Stephanie bought their first house in a quiet area in Puyallup known as South Hill. Within two years, their commute to get to the freeway went from 6 minutes to 20 minutes. Tim has seen what growth can do when not controlled. “I will not allow this to ever happen in Gig Harbor!” states Tim. “Fortunately, we have great design requirements and balanced zoning controls. Growth will happen…we just need to be smart and proactive.”

Character –The Council as a whole has charged our citizen commissions to review zoning, setbacks & design requirements and define the character of each district or neighborhood in our community. There are unique characteristics to Gig Harbor North, the West Side and downtown, and they must work together.

Downtown (Millville) – Tim had the pleasure of joining the Council in time to pass commercial building size restrictions in our historically sensitive district.

Public Outreach – In conversations with both citizens & developers, Tim has encouraged dialogue. Citizens and developers alike must communicate with each other. This is why Tim introduced a new public outreach requirement for developers that recently pass the Council.

Pay as you go – Development fees were inadequate to cover the cost of Gig Harbor’s growing streets, sewer and water needs.  Some fees had not been raised in over 10 years. Tim has worked hard to insure that our fees accurately reflect the fair cost of growth and has insured that they are adjusted or reviewed annually.

Insure Basic Services

“We all expect that when we turn on the tap we will get safe drinking water. We all expect that when we flush the toilet that the sewer system will take care of the waste.  We all hope that our roads will handle the growth and are safe to travel. We all expect that when we call for help from the police, they will answer the call. To not meet these expectations is a breach of the public trust.”  Tim Payne

Streets

• When Tim came into office during a period of strong revenues for the City, he discovered that we were 5 years behind on street maintenance and repair. The city worked hard during the good times to make a dent in the backlog.  Now, we are in lean times. “38th, Foster, Uddenburg & others are falling apart. As revenues come back, I will insure my number one priority is restoration of our streets” says Tim.
• With all the growth in Gig Harbor North, the freeway overpass at the Burnham/Borgen Interchange must be expanded. This is a huge fix that this community cannot afford. Tim has personally been working with Congressman Dicks & Senator Murray for several years to seek assistance in the design and build of a new interchange.

Sewer

• After discovering our sewer fund was woefully inadequate, Tim has worked to approve a financial plan that covers the needs of today and tomorrow.
• After discovering the horrid condition of our sewer system, Tim set out to prioritize a list of emergency needs and worked with State Representatives Sequist & Angel and Senator Kilmer to seek State funding to provide immediate repair.