Remarks by Melissa Stuart
60 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
- Play at 0:33
“Thank you. I'm calling this meeting to order. This is a Redmond City Council study session held on Tuesday, September 8th. 2026, commencing at 7.06 p.m. All council members are in attendance with one council member remotely. Council member Procrea is remote today. There are four items on the agenda tonight, and Mayor Bernie is in attendance. There are four items on the agenda tonight. The creation of a new department to support development service functions, preparation for the 2027 legislative session, 2027-2032 capital improvement review, and council talk time. The plan for this evening is…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 14:23
“All right. Well, thank you so much, Director Lynch and Mayor Bernie. And we also, I will recognize, have Director Cochran here for the financial pieces. She's just very popular today. We want to hang out with her all night. And additionally, I want to open it up to the council. I do see a hand. So you're first in line, Council Member Parsi. And I did want to just say before we... go around to questions not attached to the packet materials tonight is of course the matrix study which was delivered to the council in June and council the staff do know that we haven't yet had a chance to discuss…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 26:47
“Thank you. And before we go to follow-up, possibly, and then Council Vice President Leva Kamina had her hand up, I do want to acknowledge, yes, the council leadership met with the team before us to kind of get a preview of what the conversation might be. I appreciate, Director Cochran, that you are teeing things up for the first budget deliberation to be really clear as an enhancement The other thing that council leadership discussed with the team is the need to use tonight's conversation to be really clear on what our questions are, especially as it relates to the business case for a change…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 31:03
“Thank you. I want to check with Council Member Procrea, and I believe we can take down the slideshow unless others need to refer to it. If there are no questions from Council Member Procrea at this time, I'll go ahead and chime in with one of mine. Director Lynch, Council typically, well, I'll say first my overall feedback. I think that the case needs to be really crisp on how much faster are we building housing and how much are we saving and community members saving with new starts, new construction, new homes, additionally remodels and the like in order to implement the housing action plan…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 34:30
“Could you say that one more time a little bit slower actually would be helpful?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 35:09
“Okay, so for the matrix, I'd like to see that example included, including the 25-day savings and what that translates to. My feedback, actually, to the answer of the question, though, is a point that we did discuss a little bit. So I quoted the matrix study, which said we should expand the technical committee, and your answer was you'll see with the recommendation that we've cut the committee. But I actually have seen that nowhere because it's not included in the slides and I don't have a written proposal. So I'm wondering when you say you'll see that in the recommendation, if there's…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 36:18
“Thank you. That is a helpful bit of context, and I do appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Council Member Forsyth.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 38:20
“Thank you. We'll go to Councilmember Pacquia because he has not yet had a question.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 45:32
“Thank you, Council Member Parsi. Just because it's quick and I'll add on, when we get the matrix, I don't know who's taking notes, so I'm kind of like looking in the ether, but for the matrix, for the council questions, some version of that question was a question I had, which is the matrix study has a very simple recommendation on a single department, which is different than the full-size page. So if we could understand maybe how we went from the recommendation to there, that would be helpful maybe in telling that story. My apologies, Councilmember Kritzer, you have the next question.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 49:34
“I'LL GO TO COUNCILMEMBER PROCRIA AND THEN COUNCILMEMBER SONY. AND MAYBE AS WE'RE GOING AROUND FOR THIS NEXT ROUND, PLEASE DO ASK THE QUESTIONS THAT YOU'D LIKE ANSWERED HERE ON THE SPACE, BUT ALSO FEEL FREE TO OFFER UP THE QUESTIONS THAT YOU'D LIKE CONTRIBUTED TO THE MATRIX BECAUSE AS WE KNOW, WE WON'T HAVE ALL OF OUR ANSWERS HERE TONIGHT, BUT SPEAKING THE QUESTIONS INTO THE SPACE IS BENEFICIAL FOR ALL OF US. SO THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER PROCRIA.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 50:52
“Thank you, much appreciated. Councilmember Soni?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 55:55
“Thank you. I had Council Member Noiva Kamina and then Council Member Parsi. Council Vice President, excuse me.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 59:14
“Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Percy? All set. I have one more question. I'm seeing no other hands. I'll go ahead and offer it. And all to say, we've obviously populated a really big matrix. But I think that that helps us understand what the things are to focus on for next time. And I appreciate that a couple of my colleagues offered variations on let's evaluate the alternatives to prove to ourselves that this really is the best. Because if we can be on that same page with you and we've identified a solution that's going to help us build more housing faster and more affordably, that's…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:02:35
“Thank you, Director Lynch. I appreciate that answer. It's not exactly the question I was asking. I was asking about the actual communication assets. So for instance, if I imagine there'll be some amount of materials that need to be created to communicate how things work now to the customers. Do we imagine that your teams internally will be creating these? You'll be able to rely on the communications team or may you need to hire additional consultant services to help with the development of those?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:03:44
“That's completely fair. And so my initial question was the cost of doing all that, building out the webpage, is that included in the $2.5 million needed for implementation or are we expecting some additional costs later on?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:04:13
“Okay, thank you. Well, that thoroughly exhausted my question. Thanks for your patience, everyone. Any other comments tonight before we close this item and look forward to the next steps, which again, receiving some additional materials and having a touch in study session prior to budget deliberations knowing that of course this is a big piece of of the budget council vice president um quick housekeeping question uh four questions for council to um to send for the matrix for our next touch on this uh who would you like those directed to”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:05:04
“Wonderful. Thank you. Okay, great. With that, thank you so much, Jason. And we will see you again in a few minutes, Director Cochran. Thank you, Mayor Birney. Much appreciated. The second item on our agenda tonight is preparation for the 2027 legislative session. We have here tonight Amy Tsai, our chief policy advisor, who will be introducing our lobbyist as well, who we're so excited to have back again for this session. So Amy, whenever you're ready, I will pass it off to you. Thank you for being here.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:23:03
“I appreciate that, Amy. It may be worth having a conversation about the entire budget and then be able to get you the answer to that question. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:32:42
“Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Amy and Brianna. Mayor Bernie, any comments before we go to questions? No? Okay. Well, thank you so much. And with that, we'll open it up to council questions, feedback, and discussion. And obviously, we do have a question and a proposal out there that we'll, by the end of the conversation, answer about the fourth proposal. So Council Member Parsi, why don't you kick us off?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:35:40
“Great question. Council Member Forsyth, and then the Council Vice President. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:37:29
“Thank you, much appreciated, and yes, I believe there was a sidebar just on the exact statistic of the number of renters in Redmond, but point well taken. Thank you. The Council Vice President.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:41:40
“Thank you so much, Brianna. The next question was for council member Kritzer.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:44:59
“Thank you. We're still going around on round one. I will go ahead and chime in here quickly. Thanks so much. Like others have said, I love how this builds on year after year. And I really do appreciate the prior discussion regarding the now proposed highway use when I get it right, the highway use fee. The huff, oh boy, that we have just been discussing, because I just wanted to comment that this is actually an example where, and the conversation kind of preceding it, is an example of how we actually use the agenda matters too. So I love that our agenda states our values so clearly. Some of…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:48:04
“Mid-December. Okay, great. That answers that question. Wonderful. And obviously it is also important to be supporting with our neighbors in these state grant programs and the like, but it's helpful to hear the explanation. Okay. So for my part, the answer to proposal number four is a resounding yes. I don't know if anyone saw the Seattle Times today, but we have here in Redmond two of the neighborhoods in the entire Puget Sound region that received the most immigration and therefore also we know that correlates to the growth over Lake and downtown Redmond, which are TODs experiencing that and…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:52:59
“Thank you. Other comments or questions? Feedback on this draft?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026