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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideJanuary 9, 2018 Insider's Guide Subject: Newport Beach Insider's Guide - Council Meeting of Tuesday, January 9, 2018 Happy 2018 to you! I hope that your holidays were safe, fun, and relaxing (unless you like it otherwise, and that's fine too — I know more than a few holiday adrenaline junkies). Anyway, back here at City Hall we're revving up for another year. The new Mayor is Duffy Duffield, and the new Mayor Pro Tem is Will O'Neill. Our first meeting of the year starts with a Study Session at 4:00 p.m. and then goes to a Regular Session at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 9, 2018. More information about where the Council meets and public comment opportunities are at the bottom of this email. As to Study Session, we'll honor Pacific Life on its 150' Anniversary. Then the Council will go into two policy items: • A briefing by the City's consultant that looks at the state and regional economy — that's Beacon Economics. We had Beacon do a public workshop about this time last year, and I think that the folks attending got a lot out of it. This time, it's a Study Session item so that more people might be able to hear it or see it online. This can be a good one to tune in to if you want some solid guidance about the current (and possibly future) state of the regional economy. I should probably put in here something about not making investment strategies or decisions based on this, as they are just projections and you can't come back after investing the kids' college fund in Bitcoin to say "well, the City's economist said so...." O • An update on past actions, present activities, and the future goals regarding Ocean and Bay Water Quality. This is always a great subject for the community to learn more about, as some really significant strides have been made to improve the water quality of our Bay, especially. The City is well -served by members of the Water Quality/Coastal Tidelands citizens committee, and the goals we'll talk about on Tuesday reflect the Committee's ideas as well as the perspective of our good Public Works staff. On the Regular Session agenda are a few housekeeping items and others, of which I think only one seems worth a community mention. That is the appeal by Electra Cruises of a parking management plan (PMP) for Lido Marina Village. I don't have a perspective on the merits of the appeal, but it is a good time to remind folks about zoning and parking in our commercial areas. Most commercial areas, like Lido Marina Village, have parking standards set forth in the code, and they generally linked to the types of land uses in the area. Parking requirements can be addressed in a variety of ways — with on-site parking or offsite, with shuttles or more. In Lido Marina Village, the new restaurants and shops are bringing more customers and employees to the area, resulting in greater use of the private parking structure there (and to some extent, to surrounding residential areas). The structure is also used by Electra Cruises' patrons. In this case, a parking management plan helps determine how to best accommodate all uses — sometimes on an hourly basis. While this PMP was approved by the Planning Commission, Electra appealed the approval to the City Council. The City Council will hold a public hearing to determine the merits of the appeal, and then can decide to reject, modify, or accept the PMP. A few notes: • The Council's annual planning/goal setting session is likely to be Monday evening, January 29th 2018 at Marina Park, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This is tentative and subject to change, but you may want to pencil it in on your calendar if you like attending these (and you know you do). There will be cookies. • The City Finance Committee meets next Thursday afternoon, January 11, at 3:00 p.m. here at City Hall in the Corona del Mar Conference Room (Bay D, 2nd Floor). No cookies. • Newport Beach Restaurant Week is coming up, starting on Jan 15t" and going through January 28t". It's a fun and creative time to try out new (or old favorite) restaurants. More information is here (aka www.dinenb.com). • A personal note here, and I get to do this as it's my e-mail. Twenty years ago (January 5, 1998), 1 walked into my first day of work at (the old) Newport Beach City Hall, starting my job as an "assistant to" the city manager. I was nervous and excited, and so honored to be working for this great community. I was looking forward to some great projects, experiences, and fun people to meet and to work with. 20 years later, those expectations were all met. And they continue to be met. I hope that you enjoy living and/or working in Newport Beach as much as your city staff — including a much older me - enjoys serving here. 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 2"d and 4t" 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. ThisInsider'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.