HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideDecember 8, 2015
Insider's Guide
From: Kiff, Dave
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2015 11:10 AM
Subject: Insider's Guide - Tuesday, December 8, 2015
A pleasant Friday to you.
Here's what may be of interest to you on the Newport Beach City Council meeting of Tuesday, December 8th,
2015. Meeting information is at the end of this e-mail.
This is the City Council's final planned meeting of 2015. The second meeting in December is not typically held, as it falls
close to Christmas. Additionally, this final meeting of the year is predominantly an organizational meeting whereby the
Council nominates and votes on a new mayor and mayor pro tem. Typically, these positions are rotated annually.
Therefore, there is no Study Session at this meeting. The Regular Session starts at 6:15 p.m. and has a small handful of
items not related to organizational business:
• Second reading for the land use amendments for the Lido House Hotel.
• A big dollar item is involved on a long-awaited plan to improve the streetscape and repave the area around 15th
Street and Balboa. This is a really nice improvement coming.
• Some early viewing of a few "tentative agreements" with some labor groups appears —this allows the Council and
public to see estimated costs and terms well before the final vote (which would be in January 2016).
• our annual distribution of community grants occurs at this meeting (about $40,000 each year).
• An expenditure to provide a different type of vest for our police officers is also on the agenda.
Then the reorganization occurs. The vote for the new mayor comes first, then the new mayor presides over the election
of the mayor pro tem. Then folks decide where they want to sit for the next year. Because this is a year in between
elections, the speechifying will likely be less/shorter in number and duration. Nothing like last year, when four folks left
the Council and four folks joined it.
Some notes:
• Lots of terrific events are this weekend (tree lightings, Christmas walk, park opening, etc) — the listing is
here: http://newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/News/News/4548/2720. A gold star to whomever makes it
to all of them (which I think is impossible).
• The Finance Committee meets this coming Thursday, December 10th, in Conference Room 2E of the Civic Center at
4:00 p.m.
• Quorum permitting, we hope to have an Aviation Committee meeting on Monday, December 14th at 4:00 p.m. in
the Civic Center's community room. All are welcome.
• Star Wars, the Force Awakens releases in the late evening of December 17th — all city offices will be closed. O
• Because the Guide is wrapping it up for 2015, 1 will wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah,
and good start to 2016. During the week between Christmas and New Year's, most city offices will be closed, but
the libraries will be open some of those days with some shorter hours. Check their website for more information. If
the long-awaited EI Nino rains come, we'll be out in low-lying places (um, about 40% of town) if those come with
king tides at the end of December. So while offices might be closed, work will get done.
• Lastly, I want to honor and recognize two of my colleagues who are retiring as the month ends —they are Police
Chief Jay Johnson and Deputy City Manager Terri Cassidy. They both have long and storied careers in public
service, and I will miss them both a great deal. Their service to Newport Beach has been so valuable.
• 1 need to close with something more sobering. It is hard to see the possible links to terrorism in Wednesday's
deaths in a public building in San Bernardino, and not to think of all of us — residents, customers, business owners,
city employees, our Council members and Commissioners, our first responders, and more — as we digest that
through our own lenses. Please - if you see something, say something. You might think that you shouldn't bother
the NBPD about it, but know that it's not a bother. That's what the 644-3717 number is there for.
As always, thanks for reading and have a nice weekend. Please feel free to forward this e-mail 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.
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 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. You are encouraged to read the full agenda if you'd like —to do so, click here:
https://newportbeach.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx