Remarks by Neal Black
86 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 4
- Play at 2:32:58
“Hopefully this is now working. I'm now going to read a proclamation of the city of Kirkland, welcoming week, September 10th through 19th, 2026. Whereas Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads a movement out of inclusive communities, becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs. whereas since 2016, the cities of Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish have celebrated Welcoming Week in solidarity on the east side as an opportunity to honor the history, achievements, experiences, and struggles of immigrant and refugee people. And whereas in…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:22:05
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. We had payroll August 7th in the amount of $8,635,240.77 and payroll August 24th in the amount of $9,553,344.95 and bills in the amount of $13,511,645.01. As part of tonight's consent calendar, the Mayor, on behalf of the Council, will be proclaiming three proclamations. The first is proclaiming September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. This observance raises awareness, promotes hope, and encourages compassionate conversations about mental health and suicide prevention. This proclamation recognizes those affected by suicide and those working to connect people…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:25:22
“Madam Mayor, will you entertain a motion?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 3:25:38
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to briefly speak in support of the motion. What I really like about what the City of Kirkland is doing is that we are doing in a matter of just a few weeks what other cities are putting off for over a year. I really appreciate the work the staff has done to quickly expeditiously both do the research that has gone into this ordinance and also the community outreach that has gone into this and we've done it in a reasonable time frame and what we're doing is we're taking permanent action where for good or bad a lot of our peer cities and neighboring cities are…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 4:19:46
“No, I was just going to say I do have comments, but I want, I think it makes sense for the amendment to be on the table.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 4:19:53
“Okay. I will note that staff had talked about getting”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 4:20:42
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I think I have to make my comments now. It seems most germane. And given how I think some of the vote on this amendment may go, I think my comments are even more important. So I want to say I appreciate Kirkland's thoughtful approach to this affordable housing fee. None of our neighboring peer cities have taken more time to weigh this issue, have taken more testimony or listened more carefully to our housing production partners, including our affordable housing providers. have collected more information or more current information, created a more meaningful exception…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 4:25:40
“So there is one amendment being proposed tonight that I will support because I do want to see it codified in this policy. Regardless of our votes on square footage or the amount of the fee amount, which are the amendment that's before us, that amendment's the deletion of the language revisiting the policy all over again in 2028. We do ourselves and our businesses no favors with that kind of language. As I've said many times before, it sends mixed signals and it creates uncertainty. So uncertainty is not good for business, and it doesn't help housing producers make sound, informed decisions.…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 4:53:00
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. obviously this is a really challenging issue. Um, and I appreciate the, the thoughtfulness that we've all, um, both staff and my colleagues on the council have spent on this issue. And, um, ultimately I will be supporting the ordinance and, you know, partly for some of the well-taken, um, reasons, uh, suggested or mentioned by some of my colleagues. I, it really does remind me or does, yeah, it reminds me, um, Just how proud I am of what we've built in the city of Kirkland along the lines of what Councilmember Tim Chisholm was saying, our heart program, our…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:01:52
“Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, City Manager, for reminding us about Kirkland's efforts on the regional utility summit. I'm looking forward to the second summit and whether we can start making. More progress towards some concrete proposals from the larger group. I share the concern that customer Pascal raised. I think we all do. Acute concern. Which is why you know to put it, I think. To kind of add a plus one to account for Pascal. Everything that is in our control. One thing I appreciated was already in the proposals and the discussion are some suggestions for how to smooth the rate…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:07:04
“Good segue. All I was going to do is add I'm thankful for the appointment to the Association of Washington City's Legislative Priorities Committee. There, I, on behalf of Kirkland, have been able to elevate this issue with all the members of the legislative priorities committee, and those are elected officials city statewide. And so we've gotten a really good response from those other elected officials. So this is becoming a topic that's getting elevated statewide. Thanks.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:51:30
“Read from the wrong section there. Thank you. We had payroll in the amount of $10,432,835.26 and bills in the amount of $12,978,410.94. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved. Oh, wow. I think that was Council Member Prim, seconded by Deputy Mayor. Is that right?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:07:12
“If there were no questions, I was going to get us started with a motion.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:07:19
“It looks like Council Member Falcone does have a question for staff.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:07:56
“Well thank you. So I'll make the motion. I move to authorize and direct the City Manager or designee to proceed with the Progressive Design Build procurement process for the Peter Kirk Poole project and return to Council for approval of the contract with the selected Progressive Design Builder.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:25:16
“City Manager just said, but I do want a plus one, Council Member Arnold, that I think track B might be the right direction to go, but before I make that final decision, I definitely want as much information as I possibly can from staff. And it sounds like City Manager is prepared to provide us that as part of next steps and the negotiation. There is one more bullet point, which is, is there anything else Council wants to see in the agreement? It's not so much what I want to see in the agreement, but you know, I did want to, I assume that as part of any proceeding to the next step and further…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:26:38
“Great. I don't have anything else to add. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:41:47
“Thank you Madam Mayor. I want to speak up on just two things. One I realize I misspoke earlier. I think my comments were clear. I meant track A and I meant that my comments were you know I do want to make sure that as we evaluate track A as perhaps the the primary track that we do get as much information as we possibly can from staff about what that will mean. I don't think I don't think a full review of our space needs is realistic. That would delay implementation for a very long time to do a full some kind of full strategic plan on all the city space needs. But we all I think we're I think…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 3:50:38
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to speak up one more time in support of the motion and address some of the comments from my colleagues. I appreciate this conversation. I do want to note that if you are planning to form a 501c3 corporation, it's not going to become a surprise that you are not going to raise money until you have your 501c3 status, and those contributions are indeed tax deductible. I'm not overly concerned about funding a position within a A project like this. We did that with the Community Foundation. We supported the executive director salary, so we've done this kind of…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 4:30:03
“and i when we but let's do invite them to participate in the public hearing so thank you deputy mayor thank you madam mayor um kind of related to that allison um making sure that we're i was going to ask the same question that that council member arnold asked about sort of the mathematical bridge between the additional affordable housing units pursuant to the ratio or otherwise and the additional height bonus. So when it sounds like we're going to be refining that and when we do, I think it would make sense if we haven't already to get feedback from the development community that does…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 5:00:09
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 5:40:34
“Thanks, Mayor. I just wanted to make sure I gave my guidance to council or to staff that I do like the direction we're going. I want to proceed with phase two. I do recall why I supported this from the very get go in the connection with the approval of the comp plan. I did want us to try to take a thoughtful approach to this area, look at it district wide through district wide planning and see if there was a way to protect the existing light industrial, foster some really creative commercial uses while encouraging sort of innovative housing in this area. So that's the direction I feel like…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 5:45:19
“I did, yeah. And I apologize for interrupting you. You certainly feel welcome to make your remarks. I was just going to highlight that as I listen to us, I think this is one of those examples where we may not be giving staff as clear direction as we need to. And so I do think one question I have for staff is, is whether they've gotten what they really need from us. I feel like there's a, we're a little bit all over the, not all over the map, but we're a little bit, we've covered some territory on the map in our feedback.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 5:46:38
“Great. As long as staff is getting what they need, that's great. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 5:49:36
“reports and i will start with deputy mayor and let's keep them short folks okay um just quick note that the mayor and i got to visit the south county recycling and transfer station in algona last friday i want to thank the staff of the city and of the county for that tour it's the latest most advanced version of a recycling and transfer station that the county's built. So that was really informative. I wanted to highlight that next Wednesday I'm going to be attending a convening by Challenge Seattle and Greater Seattle Partners to discuss economic development priorities with our mayors. The…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026