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Home My WebLink About00 - Insiders Guide"RECEIVED AFTER AGENDA PRINTED:" 1ar?5 r )�Lln Brown, Leilani From: Kiff, Dave Sent: Friday, June 06, 2014 7:10 PM Subject: Insider's Guide - NB City Council Meeting of June 10, 2014 A happy June Friday to you! This version of the Insiders Guide has information about the upcoming Council meeting as well as some community items of interest. The City Council meeting is held on the 2 "d and 4th Tuesdays of most months, with study session starting at 4:30 this time and the regular session at its usual 7:00 p.m. spot. The Council meets at 100 Civic Center Drive, but you can also watch on TV (Channels 3/31) or on your computer. WHAT'S ON THE AGENDA? Items that affect us all citywide: Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2014 -15 Budget. I'll talk more about the budget below, but adopting it is always a big deal, as it guides the city's operations for the coming 12 months. A briefing on the Orange County Sanitation District's plan to replace a huge wastewater force main in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway in Mariner's Mile. Ugh, yes. Most of it starts after Labor Day 2014. Without it, we all risk wastewater spills in the Bay and other not -so -good stuff. It involves some lane closures from 8:30 a.m. to about 4:00 p.m. for several months (H), and the westbound direction will be the most impacted. They will be working in the middle of the street, where the median is — but the size of the equipment means that more space is needed. Agenda items that might affect your neighborhood: • On the Water - Newport Harbor, Lido Marina Village. We'll hear more about two items relating to Newport Harbor. One is the proposed plan for a re -do of the marina at Lido Marina Village. The other relates to different ways of mooring boats in the middle of the harbor. • West Newport Beach. We have closed fewer and fewer streets as apart of our "July 4th is for Families" effort, and this year will continue the trend even as July 4`" falls on a Friday. This item allows us to close more streets than anticipated, just in case. • Peninsula /Balboa Village. The Council will consider anew contract with a design firm to update the Balboa Village design guidelines — including streetscapes and wayfinding. • West Newport Beach. A resident has appealed the Planning Commission's recent decision to okay a developer's adjustment of an already- approved plan to remove the 54 apartments at 5515 River and replace those with 24 condominiums. • Limited Parts of Town. Adjusting rates for recycled water. Some areas of town receive and use recycled water for irrigation? The Newport Coast is served by Irvine Ranch Water District and there's a lot of recycled water use in green belts and parks. Other parts of town, including some golf courses, have access to the "purple pipes" because of work done by the City and the Orange County Water District to bring in another pipe from OCWD's Fountain Valley operations. This item adjusts the recycled water rate downward a bit for OCWD - provided recycled water (it doesn't affect IRWD), following a rate study. To see these items and the rest of the City Council's agenda, click here: http: / /newportbeachca.gov/ modules /ShowDocu ment.aspx ?docu mentid =4414 Y /T:�I Rd_1r7��d�:r1r]1rl�lll 1- BUDGET. This is another careful budget that invests more into our community, reduces employee counts, makes further progress on pensions, pays off more debt, and... • It is balanced, with no use of reserves for operational expenses. The City's AAA implied credit rating from each of the three rating agencies continues — we're one of only five cities in California that have this rating from all three rating agencies. • It includes another $61 million for roads, alleys, sidewalks, parks (like Sunset Ridge and Marina Park), neighborhooc landscaping, bikeways, buildings (like a new CdM Fire Station), and more. Only about $5.2 million of the $61 millior (8.3%) is general fund money — the rest comes from grants, gas taxes and Measure M money the City competes for, and more. Public Works does a greatjob competing countywide for project dollars to bring home to Newport Beach. • In this budget year, City employees will contribute a record amount of money toward their pensions - $7.4 million. Overall, the City (with its employees) will pay more toward pension costs now, to reduce the unfunded liability faster and to lower interest costs — saving $113 million in interest expense over 30 years. • In FY 2014 -15, debt service costs are about 4.6% of our General Fund revenues - down from 4.7% last year. This includes Civic Center bond and Central Library debt service costs. • This budget also shrinks the position count down a bit more — from 833 a few years ago to 727 today, the lowest amount of full -time positions in many years. Yet we will add to public safety programs, including another police officer. Did you know that our City has had a budget surplus every year in recent times, including during the depths of the 2008- 2011 recession? The above comes thanks to you, our residents and our businesses and visitors. Each group contributes to the tax base — residents and businesses via property taxes, residents and visitors (primarily) via sales taxes, and visitors via hotel bed taxes. A big chunk of our budget is demand -based —such as fees for recreation classes. In addition, private developers are obligated to contribute more than $90 million over the next six years to offset community impacts of the development. This, combined with cash savings, make it possible to build new parks, a West Newport Beach community center, to rebuild several fire stations, and more. 2 - AN UPDATE ON PARKS AND PARKWAYS. Traveling around town, you may see: • A newly - completed equestrian trail network (and undergrounded utilities) in Santa Ana Heights. This was a long - awaited project by residents there. The City contracted for the work using County of Orange redevelopment dollars, before those dollars went away. • Balboa Boulevard — New Trees, Medians, and Parkways. This project is nearing completion, having planted hundreds of new trees and smaller plants from PCH to about 22nd Street on Balboa. All the greenery gives the area a nice break from concrete. • Sunset Ridge Park — We're close to the midway point in the construction of this big park — with a softball field and two soccer overlays — at Superior and West Coast Highway. It's on time and on budget. We hope to have this done at the end of 2014, with play starting in 2015, once the fields are established. The park will also have a tot lot, walking paths, and a butterfly garden in memory of Louise Greeley. We miss her, but know that she's up there waiting for it to go in. C Marina Park— You've seen the big crane near Balboa and 16`h, on the bay side. It's placing the pilings for the visitor - serving marina at the easternmost part of the park. This project, also on time and on budget, will see the community center, sailing center, and park portions come next along with another nautical - themed kids play area. Marina Park will be the community's 66`h park! o Civic Center Park is getting some good use, too. I always get a kick out of watching the kids race around, tumble, and play on the civic green. And those that pull their parents and grandparents into the park to see the rabbits have a fun adventure in nature that our city's 32 (1) tot lots don't provide. Yesterday I saw a running group starting here for their evening run, taking advantage of easy parking, restrooms, and some great trails. o The renovation of Cliff Drive Park. This started out with removing some dead, dying, and overgrown invasive plants, and morphed into a much larger maintenance project. This week, over 7,000 plants and about 30 trees arrived for planting. Many thanks to the residents in the neighborhood who helped move that along. 3 —TRASH MOTES. We are about nine weeks into the transition to automated carts. Over half the city now has carts, but a lot of folks are still yet to get them. A couple of important reminders for those of you with new carts: o The recycling truck, which usually comes by after the trash truck, is what usually picks up your extra boxes since cardboard is recyclable. If the trash truck has gone by and your cardboard is still out there, please leave it out. Cardboard is recyclable — that's why it goes in the second truck. • Please place carts so that the handles face your home — "Handles, House." • If you want to exchange a cart, you can do so by calling 866 -949 -9694. • The Newport Beach Art Exhibition is Saturday, June 14 at the Civic Center from 1 p.m. — 6 p.m. • The 2014 Summer Concerts in the Park schedule is complete! I'll be looking forward to the Eagles Tribute band in September. For more details, see this link - www.newportbeachlibrary.org /events. Last year's concerts were a big hit, with about 1,600 to 1,800 people attending each one —see the photo on the right. • The CdM Scenic SK is tomorrow, June 7. Find out more at www.cdmchamber.com /events /5k.asp • Ugh — Part ll. Night work coming up. From June 4 (two days ago) to June 12 - Coast Highway at Dover. See our main web page for more information. o The County is still welcoming comments on the John Wayne Airport settlement agreement amendment /extension draft EIR. Send those comments to DEIR617@ocair.com. As always, thanks for reading the Insider's Guide. Please pass it along to others in the neighborhood, especially if you represent a homeowners' or community association. Feel free to share your thoughts about this with me, or to ask me any question about city operations. Thanks again, Dave Kiff City Manager 949- 644 -3001