HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideApril 25, 2017
Insider's Guide
From: Kiff, Dave
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 2:30 PM
Subject: Newport Beach Insider's Guide - Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Happy Friday!
I hope you get to enjoy some spring weather outside as well as the Newport Beach Film Festival inside. By next Friday,
it's NOSA time and boats will be lined up for the 2017 Newport -Ensenada race. Always a nice time of year in town
before we get too crowded.
But on to what's on the Council's agenda for April 25, 2017. 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.
Study Session starts at 4:00 p.m. and has two items:
A re -scheduling of an emergency preparedness update from Katie Eing, the City's Emergency Preparedness
Coordinator. Learn about how the City will work with you and our loyal CERT members across town to help address
virtually any natural or other disaster. We do ask that folks try to have the ability to survive without us as best they
can for up to 72 hours, though.
Members of the Orange County Water District will update us on the status of the huge groundwater basin from
which we get about 70% of our drinking water. This is a big deal because as the drought officially ends (!), it's
important to factor in how replenished (or not) the basin is. Tune in please if you're curious about the end of the
drought (though it could choose to come visit us again soon!) or how we get our potable water. Fun and interesting
stuff, actually.
Regular Session is at 7:00 p.m. The items worth noting are:
Speaking of drought, it's officially over. At least the Governor's emergency decree has ended. That means that our
water cutback restrictions can go away (resounding cheers for slightly longer showers!) but some permanent
restrictions will remain in place. Such as: no watering before, after, or during rain. No wasteful watering such as
hosing down of sidewalks and driveways. No watering of turf in medians (that's for the City). But things that will go
away include the 15% reduction goal as well as the limits on days/week you can water. If you're curious to read
more about the permanent restrictions, this may be helpful. An agenda item declares locally that the "Level 2"
water use restrictions can go away.
• Council members have asked that their colleagues consider renaming Ensign View Park (for John Wayne) and
Balboa Island Park (for Ralph Rodheim).
• Council may update its policy on invocations before meetings to more closely follow US law.
• Pickleball! A contract to install the community's first permanent pickleball courts (at the edge of Bonita Canyon
Sports Park, near MacArthur) is up for consideration, If you don't know what pickleball is, it's like shorter -court
tennis with a firmer ball (I'm sure I just wrote something blasphemous and will be corrected there J). It has a
growing support base in town.
• Appointments to the Harbor Commission will be made.. We always get such a good crop of dedicated volunteers to
help out on our commissions. I know that the Council wishes that they could appoint every candidate just to honor
their commitment and interest. But there are only a few slots open at any one time.
• The Council's direct appointees —that's the City Manager, the City Attorney, and the City Clerk — will have their
contracts reviewed and possibly approved. These follow relatively detailed performance evaluations with our seven
bosses.
Today's Random Notes:
• As you know, there is a lot of work going on out there in town that can get in your way or invite questions. Here's a
brief summary of some of them. Remember that you can follow virtually any City capital project using this web
page.
Irvine Avenue seems almost done — the landscaping is in and the road's repaved. Give it a nice slow drive
and hear how quiet the new pavement is — 000, nice.
We've redone landscaping at the "Mixmaster" area near the Newport Pier (where Balboa mixes with
Newport Boulevard). It's colorful and California -friendly. Looks a lot better than the dead grass of last
year.
o Ocean and Poppy in CDM is still impacted by major road repairs there — the sidewalk and trees are being
replaced, and next will be the new road surface. This has more weeks to go.
Since the rain ended, crews have made a lot more progress in Big Canyon Nature Park (off of Jamboree
between Park Newport and Eastbluff). This is an environmental restoration project that also helps
remediate naturally -occurring selenium in that small watershed. The grading causes it to look fairly stark
right now, but that's because we haven't started replanting things yet.
The Park Avenue Bridge (between Balboa Island and Little Island) is coming along, and that long project is
also nearing completion in a handful of weeks.
• We are in Week Seven or so of the FAA's implementation of NextGen in our community. NextGen made more
precise flight paths from JWA (and nearly 2 dozen other airports in Southern California). April 27`h is another
important day for NextGen locally, when the other 50% of JWA's flights may be placed on the NextGen
paths. Generally, these track the historic patterns of flights from JWA. Please know that we will follow this closely
to ensure that the community's overall goals are met. However, the FAA always has the final determination on
where flights go. If you ever want to talk NextGen with me, I'm happy to do so —just call.
• We were notified that the Marina Park project will be honored with a national public works award for 2017. That's
a pretty big deal for us. An even bigger deal is the nice everyday use that the park gets from Peninsula and other
neighbors who have long deserved a great park there. Congratulations to our City Public Works team, the designer
(Rabben/Herman), the contractor (KPRS), the construction manager (Griffin Holdings) and to every one of our
community members (like the Protect our Parks members as well as former Harbor Commissioners) who spent
years (yes years) working on a compromise plan that the community could embrace.
As always, thanks for reading. 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 20" and 4`r 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.
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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 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 to Dave. I encourage you to read the full agenda if you wish.
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