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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideJanuary 10, 2017 Insider's Guide From: Kiff, Dave Sent: Friday, January 06, 2017 8:14 AM Subject: Insider's Guide - Tuesday, Jan 10 and Saturday, Jan 14, 2017 Good wishes for a happy and healthy 2017 to you. The Newport Beach City Council will hold two meetings in the upcoming week — a regular business meeting on Tuesday, January 10th and the Council's annual Planning Session on Saturday, January 14th. I'll summarize both today. 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. Tuesday, January 10th — Regular Business Meeting This meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Newport Beach Civic Center and has a number of fairly minor issues on it. While it's the first meeting of the year for the Council, it's also the first meeting of the year for the staff to write reports and agenda items— and most staff members have been away for the holidays not thinking about staff reports. Thus the light agenda. But these two things are worthy of mention: • Mayoral Appointments. One of the mayor's first duties is to appoint his colleagues to various boards and committees. Speaking of committees, a slight change. The Tidelands Management Committee's duties (chiefly involving review of big capital efforts associated with Tidelands and the Harbor) would be moved to the Harbor Commission, with the committee being disbanded. The Harbor Commission already has good grounding in harbor capital efforts, so this seems to make good sense. Saturday, January 14th —The Annual Planning Session This meeting begins at 9:00 a.m. and will be held upstairs at Marina Park on the Balboa Peninsula. Please join us! It should last until a little before noon, and you're welcome to participate with comments as well as to eat snacks. It also will be taped for those who cannot make it — unfortunately, we can't broadcast it live. So you'll be able to watch it as streamed video and/or on the two cable channels at a later date. This is the Council's opportunity to be updated from staff on City financial issues as well as public and private construction projects that are in the pipeline. It's also the Council's opportunity to dialogue a bit about what they would like to prioritize in 2017, including issues of most importance to the new Mayor, Kevin Muldoon. Some random notes: Huntington Beach is having its Breitling-B airshow again this year (Sept 29 -October 1, 2017) — a very cool thing to many folks, but some others were perturbed by it. I note this only to warn that "a" Blue Angel is expected to be in the skies on Thursday, January 12th around 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. for a press event that will be held at the HB Pier. HB City staff are calling some in Newport Beach who had concerns about the airshow to let them know about this Jan 12th event, so thus my bringing this to your attention. I have no idea how far south the plane may fly that one day next week. As I write this note, we have no news yet from the OC Registrar of Voters as to the Registrar's signature count on the Museum House referendum petitions. As such, there is no decision to be made by the City Council at either the Tuesday or Saturday meeting. Folks interested in serving on the Orange County Grand Jury still have time to submit an application — the deadline is now Feb. 1, 2017. Everything needed to apply and additional information is here. Another warning that the end of the holidays means Street Construction. MacArthur Boulevard is the big one, with a full reconstruction coming very soon of the entirety of the road between Coast Highway and Bonita Canyon. Normal working hours are between 7:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., but there may be some night work at key intersections. The other large project coming soon is the re -do of Poppy Avenue and parts of Ocean in CdM. This one involves complete pavement replacement (with concrete) as well as redoing all of the treescape on Poppy. If you have any questions about these projects, please don't hesitate to contact us at 949-644-3311. One more time about airport stuff. We've had a few Santa Ana wind days, and I've gotten a number of calls from folks wondering about flight paths, suggesting changes have already been made. We're not seeing that. Some simple thoughts: the FAA's proposed narrowing of JWA departure paths down a specific track (a national effort called NextGen — locally it directs flights basically down the middle of the Upper Bay, then over the Newport Dunes, then over Balboa Island) is not vet in effect. The JWA changes are planned for April -May 2017. The City has filed suit against the FAA regarding the FAA's environmental documentation for NextGen. The FAA will host a workshop/outreach effort on Wednesday evening, February 1, 2017 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the OASIS Senior Center on how NextGen may be implemented at JWA. Some personnel changes around City Hall. We said a fond farewell to Deputy Police Chief Dave McGill (and Kim McGill) this week, as he takes on his new role as Police Chief of Sedona, Arizona. Stepping up as the new Deputy Chief in PD is Jeff Brouwer, who will be known to many. Additionally, in the Fire Department, Fire Chief Scott Poster has retired, and I have asked longtime NBFD member (and Assistant Chief) Chip Duncan to step up as Acting Fire Chief. He will be assisted by Acting Assistant Chief (for Operations) Jeff Boyles, one of our former Battalion Chiefs. Congratulations and best wishes to them all. Again, a happy 2017 to you and your family. And thanks for reading this. 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 (Channels 3/31) 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.