Remarks by Neal Black
86 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 4
- Play at 5:51:23
“Sorry, I'll leave it to them to bring it up during city manager reports.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 5:59:20
“Just one quick comment. I really appreciate Councilmember Prem bringing this forward and it is a topic that was discussed by me and Councilmember Arnold and Councilmember Paschall in connection with the E, the shared E micromobility as well. Just know that we were thinking about this topic, too, and one of the reasons we worded that LRM the way we did is we were hoping that that might, that LRM might come back with some suggestions for how we might look at helmets, too. But this is the more, this is the clearer, more direct way to do it, and I think it makes a ton of sense, and I'm going to…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 14:55
“I think, Madam Mayor, I did think of a question as we were talking. And it's probably for Greg. Well, maybe it's two questions. First, Jen, if you described the team here in Kirkland, maybe I missed it. So who is providing Greg and his team sort of the most local perspective? Because a lot of us live here, work here, some of us for quite a while, and we're gonna have opinions. I know I've met with Greg and the team, I'm sure a lot of my colleagues have, but other than us, can you describe that? And then I have one more question.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 15:42
“Well, when Greg and his team come back with 20 names, who is going to be calling through those 20 names with Greg and the team.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 16:48
“I do have another question, but I will say we're going to be all really disappointed if McDistrict, you know, McDistrict face or whatever is not one of the options. Noted. I guess maybe this one's more for Greg. So one of the things we heard from you, Jen, is that there is a very real first mover issue with the district. How does that, how to sort of make the leading candidates for taking that first move and what we know about them and maybe the type of projects they might have. I don't know how to think about this, but how do people who do this work think about this when they know that there…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 18:58
“Well, it's interesting because I think I can appreciate that because I've lived here long enough to remember when going and get funding for a project in Totem Lake would have had a very different sort of initial reaction than 2026. So I think we can appreciate that. Thank you.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 25:49
“Oh, well, that's probably thank you, Madam Mayor. That's probably sufficient. I just if we're going to share out the letter we received today, it's also to people, to folks who don't have the full context. I mean, there are aspects of that communication that just misunderstand the work we've done in the station area. So. Doesn't appreciate that we have a pioneer provision for inclusionary zoning. It doesn't understand that we don't have a first floor retail requirement, that we have form-based code. So just making sure that the full picture is presented, not just the communication. Thanks.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 50:43
“Well, thank you. First off, I wanted to say I really appreciate both your depth of knowledge and your breadth of knowledge, including the breadth of knowledge of all the different things that are going on within the city, whether it's parks, planning, public works, and that was a really good presentation, so thank you. I do have a question that kind of gets into that, maybe that breadth. What I want to explore is just, At a really rough estimate level, what kind of replanting is happening right now in the city of Kirkland? If you could talk about, generally speaking, on the aggregate, when…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 55:13
“But if you asked either of them directly they would say we need more staff so that we can plant more trees and hands down Well, I can't second-guess the thoughtfulness that's going into that yeah, I can't I can't magically create the resources necessary to do it all but I do appreciate that The that there is generally a multiple when it comes to replanting And then I think the mayor's point earlier is well taken that, you know, we have to, we have to give it time. Um, and we're going to see the benefits of this and, you know, to the extent we're thinking like, what is the timetable? Um, you…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:05:46
“Thank you. It's epidemic. It's catching.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:05:52
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. We had payroll in the amount of $8,099,287.42 and bills in the amount of $3,739,885.85. I did want to make one quick note for those paying close attention among the public or my colleagues, payroll amount does show an increase over the last two reports, and that is a product of the fact that we hire between 200 and 300 seasonal employees every summer. So, helpful reminder of both the services provided by important people working in our parks and pools and beaches, but also helps explain the slight inflation of payroll during this period.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:15:41
“I'm not going to speak to the motion. And so the only thing that's in order right now is a conversation on the motion. But I am happy to briefly answer Council Member Tim Chisholm's question after we address the motion on the floor.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:16:35
“Thank you. I just wanted to address the question that was raised by Councilmember Tim Chisholm. The topic, as I recall, did come up in the agenda meeting. We were advised by the city attorney as to what the rules of what the council rules are with respect to what occurs at the next meeting where all seven council members are present, and what the rule states is that the matter can be, there can be a motion to remove the matter from the table by any council member, and that's the extent of what we were advised. Other than further advised that then it would be in order to have a motion to…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:25:27
“Well, I want to let Juliana finish dogs before I ask my question. So let me know when you're done with dogs, and I have a question for you.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:26:00
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Juliana. All right. Um, so, um, supportive of this overall framework, I am, uh, thinking about how we are, do we have a plan for, um, communicating this? It's a little bit nuanced. It's just only during certain times of the year. It's only at certain of our waterfront parks. And I wanted to be fair to our dog owners that we're communicating this clearly to them. And what I'm imagining, and help me understand what other plans may be in the works, but what I'm imagining is some fairly clear signage with like A-frame boards at the specific parks where dogs are…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:21:40
“Well, thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Leandra, for the presentation, the memo, and the work on this. So I just want to kind of share, this is kind of our first time really going to talk about this substantively, which is actually related to one of my comments, the fact that this is the sort of first time. It's not truly the first time, it's, you know, we obviously adopted this as part of our comp plan, so that'll relate to my comments here as well, but right now we're actually undertaking this effort, and... What I'm, you know, sort of where I'm coming at is I think this is probably…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:29:30
“If possible, only slightly more iterative. Just one more chance for us to understand the range of conversation, because I think that we owe it to the Planning Commission to give them our thoughts and ideas and scope. And I think in a topic this big and important, I think we owe it to them before they come up with a formal recommendation.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:28:01
“Well, thank you, Madam Mayor. First, I want to thank everyone who was involved in the research and the memorandum. I appreciate the amount of thought that went into it. I appreciate how carefully it was researched, and I also appreciate, I think, what I would say the transparency that Kirkland using in this case and that may not be the same with some of our fellow jurisdictions so I just want to say thank you first and then the next thing I wanted to mention I actually want to ask you a question David because staff has concluded that a moratorium in Kirkland's not warranted because of the way…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:30:10
“I, you know, our... One of our important directions as part of this Resolution 5729 was to engage actively with affected communities and organizations that represent affected communities. And one thing that I think we've heard, we've done a lot of that work, maybe not perfectly, or at least reported out on it maybe perfectly, but we have done that work, and then those of us on the council have also had lots of conversations of representatives of the affected communities. And one thing that's, we've heard this pretty clear, is the affected community would really like Kirkland to do something…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:42:33
“Well, that's a good segue to my question. I was going to ask that question. What does the professional staff think we get by doing targeted code amendments expeditiously? and at the same time a moratorium, what's the advantage to doing those both in parallel? Parallel may be the wrong word, but basically initiate them both at the same time.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:44:00
“Okay, and that's certainly, that was certainly my intent in creating this, and I also just note that although the definition is immigration detention facility, I think the actual, and it may need to be improved, but the actual definition of an immigration detention facility is broad enough in what I propose to include an office that is intended to be used for confinement or detention. So I don't think we need wholesale changes, so. Just highlight that.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:45:46
“Essentially plus one to what Council Member Arnold just said. We're doing more than a moratorium. We're doing more than our peer cities. I think we're responding to the affected community because if me or one of my colleagues doesn't move for targeted code amendments, I will. So my plan is to take that approach and do what is truly a prohibition in the city of Kirkland and not just a wait and see and make plans for how to allow a facility under certain conditions a year from now. Thanks.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:47:01
“Right, no, I'm not. I was explaining what I plan to do so my colleagues understood. And my opposition to this motion will ultimately be conditioned on the fact that I intend or hopefully one of my colleagues will make a motion for the targeted code amendments.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:49:17
“Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll go ahead and... get the motion for the target code amendments. Before I actually make the formal motion, I did intend to make it clear that I do hope that the time we spend evaluating these target code amendments is also time spent communicating with the affected communities and the groups so that they have all their questions answered about what we're doing, which is a prohibition versus what peer cities are doing, which is a one year moratorium. So, and, and certainly we're listening and getting feedback. And if that's, if somehow us doing basically all a city…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:51:03
“Absolutely, they did. That was part of the plan for simplicity and expeditiousness.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026