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Home My WebLink About00 - Insider's GuideNovember 28, 2017 Insider's Guide Subject: FW: Newport Beach Insider's Guide - Tuesday, November 28, 2017 A good after -Thanksgiving weekend to you. I hope that you and your extended families and/or friends had a nice visit and that everyone is safely on their way back home, even if home is right nearby. We're getting near the end of the calendar year, of course, and that means only two more business meetings for the City Council before a fairly long break starting December 13. A lot is still going on during that period, like the Boat Parade and lots of traffic and shopping, but we try to ratchet down meetings to be respectful of your schedule as well as our own. Here's what might be of interest on the agenda for the Newport Beach City Council meeting planned for Tuesday, November 28, 2017. 1 don't summarize every item, so make sure you look at the City Clerk's agenda page to read the whole agenda if you'd like. The study session begins at 4:00 p.m. with: • A presentation on the Orange County Drowning Prevention Task Force, of which our Lifeguard Division is a big part. While not a lot of backyard pool or ocean swimming goes on in the fall, the Task Force works hard every year to make sure that deaths by drowning are minimized and hopefully eliminated. Right now, it's still the leading cause of death or disability for California kids under 5 years old. For more information and for a cool home poster, click here. • We'll talk with the City Council about moving our water meter reading system towards something more automated. It would involve swapping out some of the infrastructure at 20,000+ water meters over time. Following closed session items, the evening's Regular Session will start at 7:00 p.m. Items include: • Anyone remember the Banning Ranch project? O. Of course you do. After winding its way to the California Supreme Court, a case against the City's 2012 approval of various entitlements for the Project (at the western edge of the community) has led to the City having to formally vacate those approvals to comply with the Court's order. The project itself was denied by the California Coastal Commission in early 2017, so the City's 2012 approvals never resulted in a project. People often ask where this project is in the process, and that's complicated, as it remains tied up in other litigation. If it were to come back to the City Council for a re -do or modification (or even the same project), a lot of the entitlement work would have to start generally from square one. • The Friends of the Newport Beach Animal Shelter (aka FONBAS) have formed and are ready to start working to support our great little shelter in West Santa Ana Heights in the community's only "residential - kennel" zone. I can't say enough about the good folks who have volunteered to support the Shelter through donations and volunteering their time and affection. The agenda for 11-28 has a formal agreement that establishes that fundraising relationship. If you want to support FONBAS, their link is here. • The Council annually allocates about $40,000 towards various community programs, and the award of those grants is on this meeting's agenda. It's also proposed to fund the Newport Beach Historical Society and the Balboa Island Museum and Historical Society. • We continue to try to find a more efficient way of dredging Lower Newport Bay (aka the Harbor). It's problematic right now because we still have some material in there that is not suitable for offshore or onshore disposal. We'd like to figure out a way to place that material somewhere appropriate and then move forward on a dredging method that would be more routine and less sporadic. Meaning a more continuous annual effort versus once every 10 years or so. It's a good goal (championed by Council member Duffield), and it's achievable if we can get the right permits and address this legacy material. An item on this agenda conducts some start-up testing to see how we can best tackle that first hurdle of the unsuitable sediment. A few community notes: • If folks are up for a second "Open Forum" on the airport, we are. Therefore, come and talk about any airport issue this coming Friday, December 8th, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at City Hall. We'll be in the City Council Chambers again. Like last time, it's very informal and we hope to answer any and all questions. A number of good ideas came out of the last one, which I will write about in the future. Again, this forum is not a formal meeting of the Aviation Committee. • It's almost Christmas Boat Parade time again. This 109' (!) annual event starts on Wednesday, December 1311 and occurs through Sunday, December 17th. With fireworks on the first and last days. More details are here. • If you are a Council follower, we may be starting the City Council meeting of December 12th a few hours earlier than usual, possibly with a business meeting at 4:00 p.m. (versus just a Study Session). That evening is the traditional "reorganization" where Council members can name a new Mayor and Mayor pro Tem. Thank you for reading. Please forward this Guide to family, friends and members of your HOA if you represent one. I always like hearing from you, too, so please don't hesitate to ask a question or offer a comment. Sincerely, Dave Kiff City Manager dkiff@newportbeachca.gov 949-644-3001 City Council Meeting Information: The Newport Beach City Council meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of most months (the exceptions are August and December). Typically, there is a Study Session that starts at 4:00 p.m. Study sessions are times for the Council to take a deeper look at a specific issue, or hear a presentation, that might eventually lead to a specific and more formal action. A closed session often follows the Study Session. Closed sessions are typically to address legal, personnel, and other matters where additional confidentiality is important. The Regular (evening) Session typically starts at 7:00 p.m., and often has a specific listing of 20-40 different items ready for formal votes. Items on the "Consent Calendar" are heard all at once, unless a Council member has removed (aka "pulled") an item from the Consent Calendar for specific discussion and separate vote. If an item on the agenda is recommended to be "continued", it means that the item won't be heard nor voted on that evening, but will be pushed forward to another noticed meeting. Public Comment is welcomed at both the Study Session and the Regular Session. The public can comment on any item on the agenda. If you want to comment on a Consent Calendar item that was not pulled from the Consent Calendar by a Council Member, you will want to do so at the time listed on the agenda — right before the Council votes on the entire Consent Calendar (it's Roman Numeral XIII on the posted agenda). If an item is pulled, the Mayor will offer that members of the public can comment as that specific item is heard separately. Additionally, there is a specific section of Public Comment for items not on the agenda, but on a subject of some relationship to the city government. If you cannot attend a meeting and/or want to communicate with the City Council directly, this e-mail gets to all of them: CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov. Please know that I get a copy of that e-mail, too, because in almost all cases it's something that the City Manager follows -up on. It's my head -start. The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive, off of Avocado between San Miguel and East Coast Highway. There is plenty of parking in the parking structure behind City Hall. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV Time Warner / Spectrum 3 and Cox Channel 852 or stream it on your computer. This Insider's Guide is not an attempt to summarize every item on the Agenda —just the ones that seem of specific interest to Dave. I encourage you to read the full agenda if you wish. 3