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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Written CommentsReceived After Agenda Printed August 22, 2023 Written Comments August 22, 2023, City Council Agenda Comments The following comments on items on the Newport Beach City Council agenda are submitted by: Jim Mosher ( jimmosher[a@yahoo.com ), 2210 Private Road, Newport Beach 92660 (949-548-6229) Item 1. Minutes for the June 27, 2023 City Council Meeting The passages shown in italics below are from the draft minutes with suggested corrections shown in t�� keou underline format. The page number refers to Volume 65. Page 600, Item 9, sentence 1: "Mayor Pro Tem O'Neill stated that he called Gary Sherwin and Debbie Snavely of Visit Newport Beach, Inc., who shared budget information on community relations (page 9-9), event marketing (page 9-32), and an umbrella organization for the culinary community that he thought Council should be involved in because it sounded like a restaurant Biel BID (Business Improvement District)." Page 601, Item 10, public hearing, sentence 1: "Kea Kenn Connor, applicant and Senior Vice President of WSP Earth and Environment, utilized a presentation to introduce members ofWSP and ..." Item 5. Resolution No. 2023-47: Waiving Council Policies B-8 and B-13 to Permit a Charity Volleyball Tournament The staff report does not explain what about this particular event is so special it would justify waiving multiple City policies. Not do I see any explanation of why serving alcohol on the beach would be essential to its success. Item 7. Resolution No. 2023-49: Authorizing a Grant Agreement for the San Diego Creek Trash Interceptor Project - Contract No. 7127-5 (17X12) The staff report, on page 2, says "Further meaningful trash reductions by the upstream agencies are still needed." I understand that as Item 4.6 on its July 25, 2023, agenda, the City Council of Irvine directed staff to explore creation of a plastics reduction ordinance. That sounds like a positive step. Newport Beach's efforts in the same direction, after receiving endorsement by our Water Quality/Coastal Tidelands Committee, appear stalled. Shouldn't we be doing more to lead by example? Item 8. Resolution No. 2023-50: Amending the Staff Structure of the Harbor Department The staff report does not explain the difference in function between a regular full-time Harbor Service Worker and a Lead Harbor Service Worker. August 22, 2023, City Council agenda comments - Jim Mosher Page 2 of 3 One might naively assume there would be more regular workers than "leads," but perhaps that is not the intent of the names, or perhaps (unexplained in the report) there are many part-time Harbor Service Workers that the proposed five leads would be supervising? In any event, the explanation of Fiscal Impact is a bit hard to understand. It appears from the table that Lead Harbor Service Workers are paid significantly more than a regular full-time Harbor Service Worker. It seems obvious from that eventually moving a position from a lower - paid to a higher paid category will cost the City more than not taking that action would have. The purported "projected salary savings" seems not a statement that upgrading the position will cost the City less than it is currently spending, but rather an observation that it has been possible to fill both positions at less than the budgeted amount. The change may be desirable, but it is hard to see it as a cost savings. Item 21. Resolution No. 2023-51: Amending the General Plan Advisory Committee Attendance Rules and Confirmation of Appointment to the General Plan Advisory Committee The recommendation to remove members with three unexcused absences is consistent with the general rule in Council Policy A-2, and making the removal automatic will lessen the administrative burden of scheduling a Council review of each instance of non-attendance. However, the Council may wish to go beyond the attendance issue, and reconsider the entire structure it has established for the current General Plan effort. For example, this enabling resolution instructs the GPAC to make its recommendations to the Steering Committee. But enabling Resolution No. 2022-2 for the Steering Committee does not specify what the Steering Committee is supposed to do with them. Indeed, the Steering Committee is instructed to report to the City Council, but City staff seems to think GPAC recommendations go to the Planning Commission for review. It is unclear if it is the Council's intent that the Steering Committee be empowered to veto or revise the GPAC policy recommendations. In addition, a Steering Committee of just three -members seems awkwardly small. As to the proposed appointment, is good the Steering Committee has many applications on hand, for the vacancy noticing period from May 3 to May 10 seems to have been very short. Item 22. Confirmation of Nominations to Fill the Unscheduled Vacancy on the Board of Library Trustees Having applied continuously since 2009 (with the inadvertent exception of this June) for appointment to the Library Board, I am naturally disappointed to have been neither interviewed nor nominated. The staff report does not say how many applications the committee had to review, but I believe there were about a dozen. Narrowing the field to two who share positions on the Newport Beach Foundation Board seems a bit clubby to me. August 22, 2023, City Council agenda comments - Jim Mosher Page 3 of 3 The level of interest in appointment to the Library Board is surprising to me, for in my many years of attending its meetings' it has been rare to non-existent to see any other members of the public there, let alone participating, with the exception of liaisons from the support organizations and advocates for the CdM Branch rebuild. Item 23. Visit Newport Beach, Inc. Fiscal Year 2023-24 Budget Supplemental The Mayor Pro Tem's request for salary information from an organization funded nearly entirely by City tax dollars seemed a reasonable one to me. The response declining the request seems disconnected from the reality that, as the Mayor Pro Tern noted, the IRS Form 990 filed by tax-exempt organizations, including Visit Newport Beach and Newport Beach & Company is required to be made available for public inspection, and Part VII is required to disclose the "Compensation of Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, Highest Compensated Employees, and Independent Contractors." Beyond that basic requirement, the City contracts with these organizations, and I would hope it has a right to know the details of who it is contracting with and for what. ' My own attendance has become sporadic of late because City staff appears to view BLT meetings as being of so little public interest as to feel free to schedule other public meetings at the same hour.