Pierce County Council adopts $5 million Community Needs Grant program with member allocations and capital carve‑out

Pierce County Council adopted ordinance O2025‑507 on April 15, 2025, creating a new Community Needs Grant Program in county code and authorizing up to $5,000,000 in biennial grants to nonprofit and public entities that serve Pierce County. The council approved the ordinance, including three council amendments, by a 7‑0 roll call vote.

The new chapter 2.113 of the Pierce County Code establishes a $5,000,000 biennial funding cap. Council staff described the proposed distribution as up to $3,000,000 for discretionary grants (split between the executive and council) and up to $2,000,000 reserved for capital projects and property acquisitions. The ordinance sets per‑recipient limits of $75,000 in a single year or $150,000 over a biennium and directs that funding generally be distributed on a reimbursable basis under a written grant agreement.

Why it matters: The ordinance creates a formal legal framework for direct allocations that the council has made in prior budgets through the miscellaneous current expense (MCE) line. Council staff and the executive’s office told members the change is intended to make those allocations transparent and to place guardrails around how and for what purposes county dollars can be distributed.

Council staffer Paul Boehke summarized the ordinance’s structure during the meeting: “This ordinance proposes to establish a community needs grant program by adopting a new chapter 2.113…