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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideOctober 11, 2016 Insider's Guide From: Kiff, Dave Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 3:41 PM Subject: Insider's Guide for Tuesday, October 11, 2016 Dear Readers: Here's what's on the agenda for the Newport Beach City Council meeting of Tuesday, October 11, 2016. This looks to be a brief meeting, so I will make it a brief Guide. More detailed Council meeting information is at the end of the Guide. I don't summarize every item on the agenda, so make sure you look at the City Clerk's agenda page to read the whole agenda if you'd like. In a recurring theme, there is no afternoon study session on Tuesday, so the evening's regular session will begin at 7:00 p.m. Here's what might be of interest to most folks: A purchase and sale agreement for the Balboa Theater. The proposed agreement would sell the Theater to LAB Holding, LLC, for $1,000,000. The partners at Lab Holding include Shaheen Sadeghi, who is the person behind the Lab, the Camp, and the Anaheim Packing House. The LAB Holding's proposal is to revive this neglected piece of Balboa Village's history. Their goal is to preserve, renovate, and restore the historical aesthetics of the property so that it can once again function as a key public venue on the Peninsula. Some long-awaited dredging is coming to the Grand Canal! A $397K project up for contract award would get some — but not all — of the Canal dredged. As you can imagine, with the work being done to replace the Little Island Bridge, we can't do all of the work right now. Another issue here is/are the limits we can dredge within our new harbor dredging permit (well-known as "RGP 54" by the Harbor folks). And then there is Vin Scully Day. Even Dodgers non -fans like me (true confession time) can understand why Vin Scully matters. O Hmm. I think that's about it. Yes, there are more items, but they aren't that interesting. Random Notes: • One of our residents contacted me this week with two good JWA questions. I answered them, and she said, "why don't more people know about this?" I don't know. It's not for lack of trying. So let me take a few minutes to ask and answer the two questions: o Are flight patterns changing? Generally yes — a change is coming, and it's called NextGen. Today, airlines use three main routes when they fly out of JWA. I'm going to generalize big-time here: Two departure routes are older routes that give more leeway to the pilot. These two make up about half of JWA's daily flights. One departure route (for the other half of flights) is more technology-based, and is therefore more precise. By next Spring, all three routes are likely to be overlays on the one technology-based route. This means that there may be less variation in flights. That's good if you live on the far edges of where the two older routes would vary, but bad if you live under the advanced route that varies less. Anyway, this is an FAA directive happening all over the country, and we as a City have weighed in expressing some key concerns. If you want to learn more about this, check out our Aviation Committee website and read the Monthly Reports. o I was on a JWA flight recently and it did not do the traditional power cutback. Why not? The power cutback, explained by many pilots in error as they use it, is NOT a requirement of planes flying out of JWA. I'm going to generalize again, but what is required is this: the plane needs to stay below maximum decibel levels at each of seven (7) noise monitoring stations along the Upper Bay (read that again, I'll wait). If a plane can fly out quietly enough to not hit the dB caps, it would not have to do the power cutback. Planes that do have to cut back are (generally) heavier with passengers, fuel, and luggage — meaning maybe going a farther distance, like back East. But a short hop to the Bay Area with less than a full flight may not need to do the power cutback. Again, every time I'm on a plane that does the cutback, the pilot tends to misstate the rules, saying "this is a required procedure" and "shhhhh, we're flying over rich people...." But no one lets me in the cockpit to voice my concerns even as I pound on the door. Dang. It is a season of the year when coyote pups are venturing out. Please be extra careful with your pets, especially cats and small dogs. We have folks ready and willing to help you out, but you have to help us, too. Help us by reporting any coyote sighting — please don't assume we saw it on NextDoor. Reporting is very important, as it allows us to figure out the best strategy to deal with the coyote. That can include monitoring, more education and warnings in the neighborhood, hazing (it reminds them to fear humans), or in some extreme cases euthanizing a problem coyote. If you'd like, please ask one of our Wildlife Watch folks or Animal Control Officers to come and make a presentation to your block or HOA. For more information and to report sightings, click here. As always, thanks for reading. Feel free to 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 4 1 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 Hail. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV (Channels 3/31) or 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.