Remarks by Neal Black
86 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 4
- Play at 31:46
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I did come up with a question. Cuz I don't know if we're gonna be talking about fund balances in connection with the other utilities, although we very well might. But since we are talking about it here, you mentioned at the outset that the staff is going to continue to be committed to the regional efforts. Advocacy. Yeah, advocacy at the legislative level with respect to utility rate savings. What is our strategy looking at these fund balances? I mean, some of them obviously give pause to me. I'm sure they give pause to folks in the public. If we do see those…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 33:41
“Okay, so we're going to take this question up when the time comes. Maybe we see the legislative advocacy success, we see the savings, and then we'll have to figure out what has changed in the plans that might be more expensive, whether we can share the savings among our fund rebalancing and our utility rate payers. Okay, thank you.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 42:08
“Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, one thought sort of springboarding off of what Councilmember Prem said about the regional rate summit. I think the last time we talked about this, we heard that Executive Zahalai does have, um, a second rate summit, regional rate summit planned. Have we heard anything new about the timing of that, especially given what Councilmember Prem said, which is true, which is the urgency? No.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 42:42
“Okay. That's helpful. Obviously, we'll continue to do our advocacy to not only to have the rate summit sooner rather than later and as well as speaking and having a meaningful contribution to that discussion. Okay. Oh, one more question. Sorry. In the materials, there was a comparison of our peer cities with respect to reserve policies, which is helpful, and I think that's a direct response to questions the Council had at the last meeting. Just for the benefit of some of our members of the public who may be joining this conversation right now, I know the answer to this because we've had this…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:21:17
“Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, and I want to thank everyone, um, both for being here and presenting this and also all the hard work that goes into, um, the grant funding recommendation, recommendation. So thank you. Um, this could come up later, perhaps when we're talking about, um, some of the applications that are not being recommended for funding, or we can talk about here. I'm going to talk about it here. I just want to understand a good example. Under access to critical services, we have domestic violence and sexual assault survivor services. One of the things we know as a council and…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:38:56
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm glad Council Member Arnold asked that question because it answered a lot of my questions. I think to that point, though, just springing from it, I think the last time, two years ago, the Commission, we did ask the Commission to meet and come back with recommendations based on how much of I don't remember the exact details but you we basically said okay we don't have enough for all of it if we don't have enough for all of it how would you prioritize it so this is your scenario where we're within a budget or sorry within a bucket is that does the Commission have a…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:39:57
“i would just want us to i'm looking at the city manager now i just want i'd want us to plan to have the commission meet on the right um cadence to be able to provide us that input if we if we do need the input that the chair was suggesting yeah we probably need to have a special meeting of the commission your main where you're going to hear the main presentation on the budget at the end of october so that's where you really have a sense of the whole balancing and what”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:41:10
“subtotal of each of the buckets that'll help us when we do the budget conversation in october Thanks.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:16:22
“uh thank you madam mayor we had payroll in the amount of eight million two hundred fifty thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars and fourteen cents and bills in the amount of four million four hundred ninety thousand nine hundred twelve dollars and eighty seven cents i also want to note uh that on e page 97 the september 1st 2026 minutes did not show the applicable underlining and strikethroughs on one of the motions, but that is being corrected by the city clerk as a scrivener's error.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:28:21
“Thank You madam mayor, hopefully I gave my colleagues enough time to ask you questions, but I'm assuming you'll also entertain a motion I would Madam mayor I move adoption of resolution are 57 38 a resolution of the City Council of the city of Kirkland Endorsing the Kirkland Youth Bill of Rights as a reference guide when considering policy and budget decisions that may impact young people”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:48:24
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. One question. By the way, really great presentation. Thank you. I really appreciate all the detail, and I think members of the public must surely do too. When it comes to, we know that there, you know, before any of these changes, there were a certain number of homes in the Highland that had too much pressure, and they had to have a pressure reduction valve at their home. I don't, we don't need to worry. I'm not worried about what the situation was in the interim period where it was 450. There might still have been a certain number of homes with too high pressure, but…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:50:55
“okay a follow-up question if we did do alternative two would we expect there to be some homes that are surprised that they have too much pressure and will it be wise to get a pressure reduction valve yes there will be a lot more that will be subject to excessive pressure and that was another reason why we choose prefer or recommend alternative one okay thank you very much anyone else counselor”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:19:37
“Well, thank you, Madam Mayor. I just, I know, yeah, we're not making a decision tonight, just a little bit of feedback. Just share my initial impressions when I saw these in the materials. You know, I first sort of gravitated toward the forge, honestly, and part of that reason is I appreciated the historical context that was folded up into that. Early on in this process, I'll just remind everybody there was, early on in this process, know we had thought about ways to sort of honor um indigenous names and for many very many very good reasons um we moved away from that um and i think you know…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:58:22
“Well, thank you, Madam Mayor. I don't need to add a lot to what's been said, but I do want to say it'd be great to find a home for the KPC studio. I share that remark, share that sentiment. I don't know if that's possible in this, but that would be great, I think. I want to say, as someone who negotiates as part of their day job, how much I like negotiating as a committee against ourselves in this way. It's just excellent. Negotiation should always be handled this way. But no, I'm being somewhat light-hearted. Generally, I think what's being proposed here, for me, I was part of the stationary…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:02:16
“OK. Yep. Okay. As long as you feel like you're getting the guidance you need. I did think of one more comment I had. When it comes to deeper levels of affordability, I find that interesting, but you know what? Actually, I would trade deeper level affordability for knowing that a family size unit was included in the affordability. So if it was studio units that were mainly achieving the 10% or 50%, but there was somehow... family size unit or two that would get me even more excited than a deeper level affordability so i just mentioned that and so that's one more variable that director you have…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:30:39
“uh deputy mayor once again i hope i gave everybody a chance to ask their questions if not you'll entertain a motion um so i will uh move consistent with the staff's recommendation uh for approved council approval of the removal of the four previously discussed scopes from the tbd along with reallocation of tbd contingency to address the anticipated shortfall for the previously for previously discussed projects”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:44:17
“I'll just make one brief comment. I remember Mayor Curtis and I, I think we were baby council members, whatever that was, seven years ago, visiting a site in Finn Hill where the community that we were there just simply asked us if we could incorporate what you just described. in transportation public works that assessment early on of at least what trees are going to be impacted is there a way to change the design to so can i say thank you and i think there's members of the community out there who i hope are listening uh who will say thank you as well so um otherwise i think this is great i…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:46:35
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's almost 11 o'clock, and we still have an executive session. I don't have much, and what I do have, I can email the council.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:12:53
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, yeah, thank you, Chief, Deputy Chief, Lieutenant Shanice. Also, thanks to Kate and Wah, the KSAR team, too. Two quick questions. curiosity more than anything else, especially on this first question. So I've done a ride along with our regional crisis response agency and our mental health professionals who work there. And one of our stops was victim advocacy and the type of meeting at a coffee shop that you actually described, along with a law enforcement officer from KPD. um can you talk a little bit about the coordination there and any what type of handoffs…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:14:42
“No, and I love hearing how all of the different programs, initiatives, departments are working together to really braid together. the full range of services that we need to address these important issues. Another issue, really, again, more curiosity than anything, but I am curious how early in the process, and this is a question for the officers as well as you, Shanice, is how early in the process do we usually identify whether there are any particularly dangerous weapons in the home where domestic violence is happening? Is that one of the first questions? Happens later on in interviews. I'm…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:16:40
“Great. I appreciate that. I was just thinking, you know, just knowing about what we sort of know instinctively is the coercive impact that having dangerous weapons in the home has in a domestic violence situation, even if they're never used and never even explicitly threatened to be used. But knowing that there's weapons like that in the home. has a huge impact on the mindset of a victim in that situation. So I appreciate that we're working hard to identify that as a potential risk early in the process. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:38:15
“And, Veronica, we're going to move past transportation next. Is this it on transportation? No, there's more transportation. Okay, well, then let's continue, and I'll ask my question later.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:39:58
“This is the best point in which I can ask this question. So this was the question I was going to ask a moment ago. I see these two projects and I think a couple other projects that are intersection related projects. Appreciate seeing these moved up into the funded. I see 2031. I'm like, oh, God. And then I realized 2031 is actually five years from now. But... You know, on one of the previous slides, we don't need to go back, but on one of the previous slides, one of the criteria is sort of land use and growth. And one of the things we've talked a lot about is planning ahead for what we…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:56:08
“thank you madam mayor um so can you go back to the slide on the highlands thank you so when it comes to financial mitigation program previously authorized by uh council is there funding remaining now now that this this the fix is in i'm sorry now that the fix is in place um Is there funding remaining from that financial mitigation program that wasn't used for its original intended purpose, which was, for example, booster pumps at individuals' homes? And how is that being reallocated?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:56:52
“okay all right i'll follow up with my question separately but what i'm curious about is if there's any opportunities out there for reprogramming that funding for anyone who's been sort of uniquely and made affected by the the installation of the fix so if staff can be can talk to me about that offline i'd appreciate it thank you all right”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026