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Home My WebLink About00 - Insider's GuideMarch 28, 2017 Insider's Guide From: Kiff, Dave Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 4:16 PM Subject: Newport Beach1nsider's Guide - Tuesday, March 28, 2017 Dear Readers: Happy Thursday to you all. A brief "rant" to start the email today. Hopefully l usually don't do that, right? So our Public Works staff was speaking the other day about how much modernization is going into our traffic signal systems. All to hopefully get you through town at a reasonable pace, with good safety. Mayor Muldoon has spoken of it, too —the more efficient our traffic signals are, the better off we all are. But here's the rub. We're doing something that threatens to completely wreck the millions that have gone into signal management. Can anyone guess what it is? Yep, it's sitting there at the red light checking texts and e-mails. This is actually illegal, as you're not allowed to use a cell phone (unless hands free) while in any active lane of traffic — even while waiting at a red light. Experts are estimating that we're losing 10-20% of our signal efficiency by folks not looking up and noticing that the signal has turned, or that the person ahead of them has moved. What can we do? More citations, better compliance, I guess. Self -driving cars eventually. But please know that every time someone's pausing to look down and delaying the movement, millions of our tax dollars might be going out the window. There. Glad I got that off my chest. As to stuff around City Hall, the Newport Beach City Council's next meeting is this coming Tuesday, March 28, 2017 starting at 5:30 p.m. (a later than normal start for Study Session) and 7:00 p.m. 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. The 5:80 p.m. Study Session has two items: ® Updating the Council and community on how the City staff prepares for natural (and other) disasters — like earthquakes, floods, a wildfire, a plane crash, or a tsunami. In fact, the week of March 27-31 is Tsunami Preparedness Week for California. Learn more about it here. • Members of the City Arts Commission will present some of their ideas and initiatives to the City Council. These will relate to both programs and art installations. Then the Regular Session begins at 7:00 p.m. The items worth noting here appear to be: ® The Council recently gave some direction to change regulations relating to onshore and offshore moorings. That direction is on the consent calendar for approval, and is consistent with many recommendations put forth by the Newport Mooring Association. • A couple of street repair contract awards — our usual slurry seal efforts and signal rehabilitations, all timed to be in your way when you least want us to be there. O • A confusing thing tailed a TEFRA hearing, whereby a private entity or similar can ask the city to hold a public meeting on that entity's issuance of revenue bonds under a State economic development program. The City government has no role or responsibility except basically to serve as a place to hold a local forum on the matter. Ir this case, the entity is Discovery Cube for its Ocean Quest project on the Peninsula. Stating opinions on the current "private institutional" land use designation at St James the Great Church is on the docket, this time as a chance for Council members to individually comment (or not) on the issue. ® Some noteworthy memorial adjournments — one for Bill Ficker, a noted architect and yachtsman. Another for the very kind and very busy Marilyn Broughton, who was a CERT star for our community in many ways with her fellow triplet Evalie. Marilyn was co -teaching a CPR class for City employees just a few days before she passed. I will miss her warm smile yet efficient nature. We all will. In the category nfrandom notes: o City Council Member Brad Avery will host his first Town Hall meeting on Monday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the Jorgensen Room ofthe Mariners Branch Library, 1300Irvine Avenue. The meeting isdesigned toprovide information about projects, programs and issues taking place in Council District 2, which generally includes West Newport areas north of Coast Highway, Newport Shores and Newport Heights. Topics include Newport Heights alley paving, 15th Street sidewalks, traffic safety and policing, Mariners' Mile, and West Newport/ Coast Highway landscaping. • Council Member Diane Dixon's next Town Hall is Monday, April 3rd also at 6:30 p.m. but at Marina Park. \ haven't seen the topics yet but the many who attend Ma. Dixon's Town Halls will know what they are (0. As always, thanks for reading. Please forward this Guide tofamily, friends and members nf 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 949-644-3001 , City Council Meeting Infonmation:The Newport BeachChyCouncil meets onthe 2nd and 4mTuesdays ofmost months (the exceptions are August and DecembeM. Typically, there isaStudy Session that starts at4:O0p.nn. 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. Adosad session often follows the Study Session. Closed sessions are typically tn address legal, personnel, and other matters where additional confidentiality is important. The Regular /ewen\ng\ 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. |fanitem onthe agenda isrecommended 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 iswelcomed atboth the Study Session and the Regular Session. The public can comment onany item onthe 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 an the agenda — right before the Council votes on the entire Consent Calendar (it'sRoman Numeral X|||onthe posted a8enda). |fanitem ispulled, the Mayor will offer that members of the public can comment as that specific item is heard separately. Additionally, there isaspecific section nf 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: . Please know that | get acopy ofthat e'maU,too, because inalmost all cases it's something that the City Manager follows -up on. It's myheod'start. The Council meets inthe Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive, off of Avocado between San Miguel and East Coast There is plenty ufparking 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 toDave. | encourage you toread the full agenda ifyou wish.