Remarks by JC Harris
102 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
- Play at 9:28
“I don't want to be that guy, but basically anything that doesn't start with numbers is a non-starter. In other words, you can go a couple of years and then say, well, we did this or we didn't do that. But gosh, if only we'd had the money, if only we'd done, you know. And because I'm just, if I were doing this as a business, you would start off with, you know, how much money do you have to work with? And then work back from, you'd talk to your investors and say.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 10:04
“here's the funding we need and here's what we're going to be able to accomplish. We do it exactly backwards in local government. It's just a funny thing for me.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 10:25
“That'd be good, you know, but I don't know how to, you know, I was at the port commission and you know, it sounds like I'm a fan boy for that, but they always start off with here's how much money we expect. They're just, they do economic forecasting like a boss and then they work back from there. They revise all of their planning based on the money and they're doing this constantly. It's just, it's normal to me. You know, it's like I go there and it's like a warm bath because it's just what I'm used to. Okay. Right.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 34:55
“There are no measurables to this. And I couldn't follow along, but I noticed that there was this thing on one of the slides that said, keep the city financially on track and sustainable and so forth. And I think that many of the residents would question whether this entire thing the public would read it as steady as she goes, that this is, you know, things are being sensibly managed and things are as good as they get, you know. But without targets, you get to the end of the year, you get to anything and you say, well, you know, we did our best and gosh, you know, that's swell. And I'll do my…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 37:53
“No. What I'm saying is that if people really felt the urgency in the economic thing, that would be the first discussion and then the zoning thing and you would go wait what revenue does this bring in and so forth people just at that last meeting they're like they just want to do what they want to do and so that's it all right can you clarify what people at what meeting do you mean our last meet what went last week the combo city council planning commission meeting.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 44:48
“Not a fan of the thank you the KPI thing and as was just said it's just I Need another spreadsheet to look at like I need to you know fish needs a bicycle and and by the time you established metrics All I was driving at was a sense of urgency and and just as a overall just like not necessarily you know hiring six more police officers or whatever the thing is but just having something concrete that says we did something we had something not see just saying redeveloping the downtown is you know at some or let's do something about the airport let's do something about at some point it has to be a…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 50:24
“That's the first question. So regarding the KPI thing, one word question I have is why? In other words, you say with the downtown, if you think about how many bazillion dollars of sales it would take to move that number 100,000 bucks or to shift it to provide the same value as the business part now with the square footage thing I'm trying to think of what type of businesses that would and you know in other words the most efficient businesses that would generate that kind of revenue card rooms I mean just and so I'm just being just if you if you set a metric like six more police officers or…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 59:19
“So KPI-wise, you had 37 people at the budget town hall, correct? thinking in terms of Old Testament a goal might be to obtain five people from each of the nine neighborhoods pick a number but just X number of people from each area of the city rather than just because you could have a hundred and fifty people at a meeting and 91 of them would be within this three block area. But can you get, and it doesn't have to be five, it could be three, it could be one, but pick a number and say that's the goal. We are going to get a useful comment from a couple of people in every area of the city.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:00:25
“I'm not discounting. I'm just saying that, you know, if you want to have goals and people are always going on about community engagement, have a metric.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:04:30
“Please. People can want what they want. They can morph it into, but... This is marketing, and I don't care how many postcards I send out, it's how many returns I get. And my ask was, can you create a message so compelling that at least a few people from each area of town are willing to schlep That's the mission in marketing, is to get people to return the postcard. I've just heard that since I've lived here. We put out information, we put out information, but that's not the mission in sales. The mission in sales is people willing to return the postcard and engage. It's a tough gig. It's…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:15:46
“talk about like parks and rec and so on and staffing okay and that's kind of and that's traditionally how we'll do budgeting in terms of staff and that sort of thing what parents and people you know care about is okay what are the programs and so You can talk in terms of, like, if we add this body, we get this thing. But it's not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence. And so what I'm suggesting is that, you know, and I'm not trying to make people's faces drop, but, you know, in terms of success, you'd want to think, like, customers served, or programs, um, or the demog, the demographics,…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:32:26
“You bet. Speaking as that Catholic guy in the room contrition I am struck by the poor Seattle you know it's scandal ridden since forever. And they have done a job that is, there is not a presentation that happens where somebody doesn't say, how could I have done better? A commissioner will ask, and it may be completely performative, but a commissioner will ask a question and express confusion. And it will invariably be almost, maybe it's the old British obeisance thing, but it's just, you know, I'm sorry, and how could I have helped you? And just speaking as that customer service guy, I just…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:35:11
“Just, you know, humility is, I mean, just, you know, in the old Catholic thing, pride is the root of evil, not money. And just assuming, like, I could be wrong. I walk into every conversation with, like, I could be completely wrong about this kind of a thing. And it's really hard to do. But, you know, I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, but that's just...”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:36:09
“rather than saying well that's a dumb idea or even thinking that to ask the question no you can't fake it it's like in other words there is the face of customer service and then there's the and then there is the genuine i want to help you agree to the thing and it's it's just yeah i think they detected a mile away”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:44:58
“you know in watching i i am that guy who have watched thousands of these things and i'm always shocked by other councils that say they just hold something over for a couple of weeks simply to indulge someone who is uncomfortable i've never seen that happen here when you have the votes there's a value in the relationships it was like I knew it would piss off Ed. And so I knew it wasn't urgent. There is this sense, since I've been at, you know, many of us have met, there's always some deadline. If we don't vote today, you know, the ordinance won't hit the state, the bomb will go off or…”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 20:59
“Just thank you. That's really it. It's just I have just – There's been this notion that the airport is this intrinsic good, so much so for, like, when I talk to your colleagues, you know, the county, the state, the planet, and so on. And I'm just, there is something about the Pacific Northwest. It would just be a given back east with any factory, any large system to consider impact fees. And since I've lived here, it has been stunning to me, this notion of like the airport just does it for you, you know? And I appreciate the fact that you have just worked at this for a long time to change…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:00:21
“I'm sorry, I can't see this. So is this it, or is there like a part two? Because I thought I didn't should catch the stuff like on the marina and”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:00:37
“Okay, well, okay, so the thing regarding the B&O, it was really high, and so could you explain why it was really high, just for the... Yeah, that was a good catch.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:01:44
“And just to be clear, normally you hit these things within – MOST OF THE KEY ONES PEOPLE TALK ABOUT A GENERAL FUND, JUST FOR THE PUBLIC, THEY'RE USUALLY REALLY NAIL THESE THINGS. IT'S SOMEWHAT PSYCHIC ON THAT. SO WHENEVER THERE'S SOME BIG VARIANCE. AND THE OTHER TWO THINGS, I NEVER CAN UNDERSTAND THAT NET CHANGE IN THING. IS THERE SOME SHORT EXPLAINER THAT I CAN JUST ON THE TWO ENTERPRISE FUNDS OR IF IT'S not, I can take it off.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:02:55
“No, no, no, no. That's my sense of humor, but I honestly, I'm expecting a starting number. Yeah. And when I look at the marina, it looks like the thing went 300 grand over budget, and maybe that's my mistake.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:13:16
“I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHEN IT'S GOING TO END, YOU KNOW, JUST AS SUCCINCTLY AS POSSIBLE. You know what I'm asking about, hopefully. OK, so just in 100 words or less.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:13:55
“Is it shifting? I mean, no, because I mean, your predecessor, Lauren, would talk about gravity and changes in weather and so forth. And so some years it would feel like we were there, and then another one would pop up. And I'm just, you know, is it?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:26:34
“I'M NOT EXACTLY WOWED ABOUT THIS CONSOLIDATED priority list you know we have this tip and because stormwater and transportation are funded so fundamentally differently so just it I think it encourages a myopia what you want to do is you want to encourage where the money actually is you know you have this list of things that you want to do And then when the money shows up, you want to chase that. If you have this hard list, if you make that like the prime directive, then you run the risk of, I think that's why we have a separate CIP and TIP, just basically because the financing is so different…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:29:37
“YEAH, SINCE WE'RE GOING TO MOVE ON TO THIS, YOU KNOW, THIS STRATEGIC PLAN AND THESE, YOU developer agreements and we're trying to think in terms of the long game. It has always been my desire to educate the public as to that long game that these projects take forever and somehow reassure them that I understand you've got pants on fire about this today, but we're going to get to all of this stuff. And by asking staff to prioritize stuff It runs the risk of, you really want to show people that, okay, we have this five, ten-year process that will get to all of this stuff. People have this sense…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:35:21
“Yeah, I would agree with that. Does your draft, I did not see the magic word trees, I think 1625 or whatever, I don't know why I have that one memorized, but is that included in your understanding or is that something that would need to be added?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026