HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideFebruary 27, 2018
Insider's Guide
From: Kiff, Dave
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2018 12:13 PM
Subject: Newport Beach Insider's Guide - Council Meeting of Tuesday, February 27, 2018
A happy Saturday to you.
Before I go further, this is the time of year when I and our staff spend time hashing out issues for the proposed
budget that starts July 1, 2018. One aspect of that review is always "what's changed in a year?" Our good
Utilities staff members, who administer our street light system, said this to me: "We need more money in the
budget because more people are knocking down street lights." Me: What? Utilities: "Yes, three more just
this past weekend." Me: Why? Utilities: "Texting." (by the way, yes, my line of questioning is often no better
than a 3 -year old — "why?" "what?" "who?").
There you have it. Don't text and drive. For your health and for our streetlights and our budget. By the way,
people who crash into street lights end up paying — or their insurance does — for the damage. We don't collect
100% of our costs, but we do go after what we can.
So here is what's up for the next City Council meeting (set for Tuesday, February 27th) that might be of
interest to you. In the below e-mail, I try to summarize items that caught my attention. I don't summarize the
whole agenda, though. To see that, please click here.
There is no Study Session this week, so the Regular Session kicks off the public part of our meeting at 7:00
p.m. More information about where the Council meets and public comment opportunities are at the bottom
of this email.
The Regular Session at 7:00 p.m. has these items that caught my attention:
Roadway medians. The item is just a notice of completion, but it's a good chance to remind folks that
grass in medians is going away, and that's a trend that will keep happening. To avoid having nothing at all
there, we've been investing in California -friendly landscaping, having just completed the medians along
San Joaquin Hills Road and San Miguel. Next up will be that part of Jamboree that does not have
reclaimed water to irrigate it. Yes, medians watered with reclaimed water can stay as turf. Anyway, if you
like the way these medians look, please thank a Council member — because doing this is not cheap. By the
way, all of the intel I have from Sacramento is that we'll have drought restrictions coming up again
soon. What fun.
Speaking of reclaimed water, there is an item on the agenda that allows the Irvine Ranch Water District
("IRWD" - which serves many communities, including ours but certainly all of Irvine) to release excess
reclaimed water into San Diego Creek (which drains into Upper and Lower Newport Bay) during and after
large storm events. Reclaimed water is an interesting commodity — it is very valuable during droughts, and
even during normal rainfall years. But when it rains a lot, the demand plummets while the reclaimed
water is still being created. As a result, storage becomes more important. But even then, local storage can
be maxed out. It's more complex than this (and involves the Orange County Sanitation District), but
basically this item would have the City consent to releases during certain high -rain and low -storage
conditions. I've been involved in water quality issues for almost 20 years (not more than some in our
community, though), and this seems reasonable to me. We're talking about significant storm events. And
it's not like San Diego Creek doesn't have reclaimed water in it already — almost any irrigation on streets
and gutters all year 'round in Irvine is reclaimed, and it goes into San Diego Creek today.
• To assist with securing Federal infrastructure dollars for a Lower Bay Dredging project, we'll ask the
Council to hire a DC lobbying firm. This went through a competitive bid process.
• Community members involved with Newport Elementary and Corona del Mar will be excited to see
contracts discussed for two important projects:
o First is the Corona del Mar Library and Fire Station, which was delayed a bit a while back. Some
competitive bids came in, and staff is recommending a bid award of about $6.7M for construction,
bringing that to a total price of $8.3M including the temporary station and
contingencies. Construction is expected to start in April 2018 and will take about 14 months to
complete. Very exciting.
o Second is the renovation and reconstruction of the Newport Elementary play field, which is used
both by the public and by school kids. A great group of neighborhood parents were behind this
important effort, which became a joint project between the City and NMUSD. Total cost here is
about $613K, including a contribution of $2SOK from the District. Work will begin here over Spring
Break, with construction going through the end of the school year and maybe a bit beyond. The
sod maintenance/care period will go into the new school year.
A few notes:
• Consider coming to the Community Development Department's "open house" set for Monday evening,
February 26th. It's from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Community Room at the Civic Center. This is a great
chance to learn more about how you can stay updated on All Things CDD. Like where development
projects are in the process, how to find out what permits/activities may be active near your home (click
here for that), and which planners deal with which issues. Getting contact information is always good.
• It's that time of year again for the Toshiba Classic, which makes many of us think that Spring is right 'round
the corner. The Classic runs from March 7-11 at the Newport Beach Country Club. More information is
here.
• On Friday, March 9` at 3:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, we'll have our fifth "Friday Forum" on
John Wayne Airport (JWA) issues. This forum will again be co -hosted by the County of Orange, and the
subject is generally how the Airport develops and administers the "Access Plan," which in large part
describes how various air carriers get seat capacity and flight slots at JWA.
• Lastly, a person recently asked me "what's going on with that street project near my home?" So
remember that Public Works does a weekly e-mail about What Will Impact My Drive Home (my term for
it) — the page is here and you can sign up to get a weekly email on traffic advisories.
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 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.
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.
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