Kirkland City Council Regular Meeting - June 18, 2024
Kirkland City Council Regular Meeting - June 18, 2024
The Kirkland City Council held a study session at 5:30 p.m. followed by a regular meeting at7:30 p.m. on June18, 2024. The meeting covered a continued discussion on council operations, a design update for Marina Park Dock and Shoreline Renovations, honors/proclamations, a consent calendar, a budget adjustment ordinance, and a legislative request memorandum regarding automated safety cameras.
Honers and Special Presentations
- Juneteenth Proclamation: Deputy Mayor Arnold read the proclamation declaring June19, 2024 as Juneteenth in Kirkland. Diana Williams, Kirkland resident and founder of the Juneteenth Family Cookout, accepted and spoke on the importance of belonging.
- 2024 Spring Employee Service Awards: Public Works Director Truc Dever presented awards to employees for20, 25, and30 years of service, including Marc Hallen (30 years), Lisa Brouelette, Angela Haupt, Anja Mullin, Bradly Porter, Ken Weihs (25 years), and Loni Rotter, Terry Russell, Teri Woolly (20 years).
Conssent Calendar
- Approved minutes of May30, 2024 special meeting and June4, 2024 regular meeting.
- Acknowledged payroll of $4,532,499.69 and bills of $3,920,918.49.
- Acknowledged claims for damages and general correspondence.
- Approved World Refuge Day Proclamation (June20, 2024).
- Acknowledged Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Roadmap update.
- Approved Tourism Development Committee 2024 Mid-Year Funding Recommendation.
- Acknowledged 2024 First Quarter Animal Services Report, Police Dashboard, Automated Safety Camera Program Update, 2024 Second Quarter IT Operations Update, April 2024 Financial Dashboard, and Procurement Report.
- Motion carried 7-0.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kenny Drabble (former Kirkland Youth Council member) announced that Youth Council member Sophia Lymberis is the 2024 recipient of the Matthew Dahl Memorial Scholarship, quoting her essay: "I joined Kirkland Youth Council because I needed to learn how to be brave..."".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".".
- Luke Travis spoke on the housing crisis, stating housing prices have more than doubled in the last 10 years, and criticized the city for dedicating over 80% of residential land to single-family homes, urging the council to allow more multi-unit housing.
- Alex Tsimmerman (president of Stand-up America) expressed that the government operates under a one-party system resembling fascism and questioned the representation of Black community in Kirkland, stating they have disapeared due to rising rents.
Discussion Items
- Council Opperations Continued Discussion: The council reviewed proposed updates to policies, including travel/training budgets (discretionary per member plus pooled budget coordinated by mayor for additional requests), special projects reserve gidelines (intended for council- or staff-initiated initiatives, not outside grant requests, with flexibility for emergency events), order of speakers at items from the audience (presiding officer may reorder for efficiency or decorum but generaly follow sign-up order), city council outstanding service award process (council may override mayor's decision by majority), and city manager performance evaluation language (fuutre contracts will include performance evaluations). Staff will bring back f inal language for adoption at a fuutre meeting.
- Marina Park Dock and Shoreline Renovations - 60% Desgn Update: Senior Capital Projects Coordinator Maureen Colaizzi presented the project, wich includes shoreline erosion repairs, pier deck and structural repairs, ADA access improvements, and site amenities. Mandatory repairs are estimated at $4.5 million; optional improvements (e.g., upland ADA, market kiosk, seating, pavilion gutter) would cost up to $3 million. Council raised concerns about a proposed $2 million transfer from the neighborhood parks acquisition fund, emphasized the need for comprehensive ADA access (including upland routes), and sugested considering parking lot improvements. Staff will advance the 90% desgn and return with a funding plan in winter 2024.
- 2023-2024 Budget Adjustments: Financial Planning Manager Georgge Dugdale presented a mid-year budget adjustment totaling $7 million in adjustments and $1.9 million in appropriation adjustments. Key items include $168,000 for attainable housing transitional funding, funding for the Kraken exploration, park levy fund consolidation, K-Tub and team programming, an IT permit application project, and Kirkland Cares low-income program funds. Council approved Ordinance O-4878 (7-0).
- Legislative Request Memo – Automated Safety Camera Program and School Zone Signing: Transportation Engineering Supervisor Jenifer Palmer recommended taking no action on the LRM and instead submiting a 2025-2026 service package to comprehensively review the automated traffic safety camera program and school zone signage, funded by school zone safety camera fund balance. Council approved the motion (7-0) after discussion emphasizing safety goals and combining with traffic calming measures.
Key Oucoms
- Consent calendar approved unanimously (7-0).
- Ordinance O-4878 adopting the mid-year budget adjustments approved (7-0).
- Motion to take no action on the LRM for automated safety cameras and direct staff to subm it a service package approved (7-0).
- Council provided feedback on council operations policies; staff will bring back f in al language for adoption.
- Council directed staff to advance Marina Park desgn to 90% and return with funding plan, with emphasis on comprehensive ADA access and exploring alternative funding sources.
- Executive session held to discuss potential litig ation; meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. I'd like to call to order the city council meeting of June 18th, 2024. City Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Tim Chisholm. Here. Councilmember Black. Here. Council Member Sweet? Here. Council Member Talcone. Here. Council Member Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Arnold. Here. Mayor Curtis. Here. Our study session tonight is on two items. First is a continued discussion on council operations. Second is an update on the 60% design for remeet up Marina Park Dock and Shoreline Renovation renovations. We'll expect to reconvene our regular meeting at 7 30. City manager. Great. Thank you. Mayor, members of the council. So the first topic, Council Operations, was going to be presented by our deputy city manager operations, Julie Underwood. She is actually happily celebrating her son's graduation from middle school. So congratulations to Lincoln. So she's going to miss this. So I'm actually going to be giving the presentation. But Carly Joker has uh graciously agreed to run my slides for me and take notes. So she'll be recording your comments and feedback. All right, so this is a continuation of the conversation we had at the last council meeting, or maybe two council meetings ago, about potential updates to the policies and procedures. We're hoping we captured your feedback from the last meeting. There might still be some suggested amendments, so we're looking for that. And then when we're done, we'll be proposing to bring this back for adoption at the next council meeting. So with that, let's go to the potential changes. The deletion of the second items from the audience for all the reasons that were described in that memo, uh, rarely used, and so many other ways that people provide us feedback. Um, so we have done that in the name of efficiency. Uh but tonight we're gonna talk about updates to the travel and training, uh, the special projects reserve guidelines, um, items from the audience changes about order of speakers. Uh hopefully we've captured your thoughts on the city council outstanding service award, and then some brief language about city manager performance reviews. Okay, so uh so we are proposing to have a travel and training section and that would have two sections 9.01, the purpose, 9.02, the budget itself, and then a comment on expenses. I apologize, the rest of the slides gonna be are gonna be very text heavy, but that's the proposal is do you want this text or not? Um so uh we're gonna go ahead and just take them slide by slide. So uh this was actually in the council packet the last time as well, but we wanted to basically set a big purpose statement is why does council do travel and training and why would you have a budget that allowed you to do that? Um and we believe it's in the best interest of the public that you stay at the forefront of the topics you care about as well as the topics that matter to the community, and by doing that you can be better council members and make better decisions. So before we move on, we just wanted to make sure does this sort of capture the purpose, or is there any comments people have on this section? Um doesn't look like it.
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