HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideReceived After Agenda Printed
November 25, 2014
Brown, Leilani Insider's Guide
From: Kiff, Dave
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 2:29 PM
Subject: Insider's Guide - City Council Meeting of Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Happy Friday afternoon!
This is a summary of the upcoming Newport Beach City Council meeting set for Tuesday, November 25, 2014. If you are
interested in following the meeting itself, you can attend in person at 100 Civic Center Drive, watch it on the web or on
TV, or catch it later using webstreaming.
I don't summarize all items, just ones that I think might have a larger interest or specific community impact. If you want
to read the full agenda, please do — it's
here: http: // newportbeachca. gov /moduies /ShowDocument.aspx ?documentid =4414
This is the final meeting with agenda items for the 2012 -2014 City Council. Council members Petros, Selich, and Curry
have two years remaining in their terms, but Council members Henn, Daigle, Gardner, and Mayor Hill will return to being
everyday residents with many fewer meetings to attend after December 9th. At the December 9th meeting, we will say
farewell to those four and will welcome Ms. Dixon, Mr. Duffield, Mr. Muldoon, and Mr. Peotter.
The Study Session for 11 -25 starts at 4:00 p.m.
• There is a brief item from OC HomeAid representative Scott Larson, who also serves as the chair of the Orange
County Commission to End Homelessness. This Commission has a 10 -year plan to end homelessness in the county,
and it is linked below if you'd like to read the Plan. November 2014 is Homelessness Awareness Month, and Scott
will talk about that as well.
10 -Year Plan to End Homelessness: http: / /occommunityservices.org /civicax /filebank /blobdload.aspx ?blobid =15449
• The Arts and Culture Master Plan. Arts OC, the group that the City hired to complete an Arts and Culture Master
Plan, will make a presentation about the final plan to the Council and community. The Arts Commission approved it
at its last meeting. The current City Council will not adopt the plan, as the Plan will be considered by the 2014 -2016
City Council sometime after the first of the year as a decision item. This is a chance to hear more about it prior to
further consideration.
The Regular Session starts at 7:00 p.m. The Council will consider:
• Authorizing local residents and businesses to participate in another "Clean Energy" program, this time with
programs geared more towards solar power for businesses and multi - family residential buildings. The programs
enable persons to receive loans to install solar. This is done at no city expense — these are entirely independent
agreements made between State - approved financing bodies and individual residents or businesses.
• Improved playgrounds, coming to parks all across town. The annual playground improvement contract came in
about at the price we assumed it would, and park users in certain parks will see new surfaces, new equipment, and
more over the next few months. This about a $130K item.
• Marina Park. The big park project there on the bay side of Balboa Boulevard between about 16`h and 19`h Street is
moving along quite well. It is on time and slightly under budget ( "all -in" costs are budgeted at about $39.5
million). You can see the sailing center and community center rising from behind the construction fence. The new
marina is all done (except for dock installation) and looks great from the water. It will hold 23 visitor - serving slips for
30 -day or less stays. Anyway, an item on this agenda amends a design contract with the architect to cover
additional work we asked Rabben /Herman to do — but all within existing budget.
• Lido Marina Village's new owners— DJM — are asking for an encroachment permit to spruce up the streetscape and
street furniture in LMV. You'll want to take a look at the concepts if you're following the improvements here.
Parking (and more) in the Balboa Village. After many moons of work, the Balboa Village Advisory Committee's
recommendations relating to parking management and parking permits for residents come to the City Council for a
public hearing. If you've followed this issue, you know a lot about it. If not, the concepts include establishing a zone
for resident -only parking (with permits), to establish a better process for local businesses' employee parking, to
consider parking in the area to be more of a collective resource versus a business -by- business requirement, to put in
place a parking benefit district whereby funds for parking are used for business and infrastructure benefit in the
Village, and more. Please take some time to read the staff report here -
http: / /novusagendapubl ic. newportbeachca .gov /CoverSheet.aspx ?Item I D= 4349 &Meeti ngl D =187
Residents of Linda Isle have appealed an environmental report (called a Mitigated Negative Declaration) to the
Council for a public hearing. The project addressed by the MND is the proposed Balboa Marina project, which
would be located roughly where the Ruben E Lee paddlewheeler used to be. Approval of the MIND is necessary
before the project continues forward. The Planning Commission had approved it previously.
Also on the Balboa Peninsula, ExplorOcean's operators have approached the City with a proposal to enter into an
option to lease the City's "Palm Street" parking lot. That's the lot where the old Balboa Market used to
be. ExplorOcean is interested in securing additional parking (above and beyond the existing private and public
parking) in the area for ExplorOcean's planned facility. The facility, however, still needs to be funded and go through
the formal approval and environmental review process. ExplorOcean hopes to someday place a parking structure
over the Palm Street Lot. Anyway, this Option to Lease could only transition into a Lease should funding and
approvals be in place for the larger ExplorOcean facility. All but about 55 spaces in the new structure and lot would
be public parking, including for ExplorOcean. The Option does not bind the City one way or another on the new
facility or the planned EIR.
For folks on Balboa Island and especially Little Island, this agenda includes a MIND (you know what that is now (ZD)
and design approval for the replacement of the Park Avenue Bridge that links the two islands over Grand
Canal. How can you safely replace the one bridge to Little Island while keeping access for those residents and for
City services? With a temporary bridge over Balboa Avenue. This is a federally- funded project overall, as the Park
Avenue bridge is "functionally obsolete." Hmm. Sometimes I feel like that. Like wondering what the heck two
people were talking about when they were comparing notes over how to "get followers."
Thank goodness the stretch of San Joaquin Hills Road between Marguerite and Spyglass will be re -done as a part of
a big street overlay project ($1.2M worth) that's also on this agenda. Other streets are in there, too, but this is a
section that nearly knocks your teeth out. Orange County's Measure M2 (the sales tax increase for transportation)
covers the lion's share of this project's cost.
Paying down the unfunded pension liability faster. This is called a "fresh start," and the City Council has done it
once before — back in April 2013. It means that instead of rolling the unfunded pension liability forward too far into
the future, you work with Cal -PERS to accelerate the payments, paying more earlier (especially in the first 5
years). In April 2013, the estimate of savings for the first fresh start over 30 years was $113 million (that set an
amortization period for our Public Safety pension plan of 25 years, among other things). This time, the amortization
period would shrink to 19 years, costing about $23 million over five years but saving $129 million over 30 years. As I
write this, I need to note that pension liabilities are not like a fixed mortgage —the liability can move up or down
depending on factors not entirely within our control, like investment rate of return, when people actually retire, and
changes in how long our retirees live. The staff report on this is worth reading, as are the charts at the back. If you
have follow up questions, don't hesitate to ask me or our Finance Director, Dan M.
Finally, contracts with me, the City Attorney, and the City Clerk. The City Charter sets forth that the City Council
hires just three employees — me, the City Attorney (Aaron Harp), and the City Clerk (Leilani Brown). We are all "at
will" employees outside of the civil service system. Typically once a year the Council evaluates each of us based on
goals that they set for us. If the Council chooses, they can give us a salary adjustment (up or down, I assume — but if
it's down then they probably should be telling us to hit the road) based on that performance. Our salary ranges are
set based on what our positions are paid (in total compensation — including benefits) in cities roughly similar to
Newport Beach. Each of us will move to paying about 12.35% of our salaries towards our positions' pension costs by
mid -2015 (overall, City employees will pay more than $7 million towards pensions in FY 14 -15).
Some additional notes:
• Most city offices and programs are closed for the Thanksgiving Day holidays, which include Thursday and Friday of
next week. For more detail, always check our website. There is also a holiday schedule (with some night work on
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) to the Orange County Sanitation District's West Coast Highway project — that's
here: http: / /newportbeachca.gov /index.aspx ?page =99 &recordid =3780. I hope you and your families and friends
have a safe and pleasant holiday weekend.
• Saturday, December 6 is a big day for West Newport Beach —the dedication of Sunset Ridge Park at West Coast
Highway and Superior. This park has been a dream for about 20 years (or more). And it's finally almost done. In the
end, the construction side of the project came in on budget and on schedule thanks to our good Public Works and
Recreation teams. Please join us at the site at 11:30 a.m. that day. Yes, the parking will remain problematic at
Sunset Ridge for a while longer. Don't get me started there.
• As noted, the swearing in of the new City Council will be at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 9" in the City Council
Chambers at the Civic Center. The next mayor and mayor pro tem are appointed as well. All are welcome.
As always, thanks for reading the Insider's Guide. Please pass it along to others who might be interested, especially if
you represent an HOA or community group. If you would like to be removed from this list, please let me know by return
e -mail.
Sincerely,
Dave Kiff
City Manager
949- 644 -3001