HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideReceived After Agenda Printed
July 28, 2015
Insider's Guide
From: Kiff, Dave
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2015 11:41 AM
Subject: Insider's Guide for the City Council meeting of Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - Blackball and
More
A happy Friday to you.
Here is the Insider's Guide for the Newport Beach City Council meeting of Tuesday, July 28, 2015.
The City Council meeting is held on the 2nd and 4`h Tuesdays of most months. The Study Session starts at 4:00 p.m.
(normal time) and the Regular Session will start at 7:00 p.m. The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic
Center Drive. There is plenty of parking, and you are welcome to attend. But you can also watch on TV (Channels 3/31)
or on your computer.
I don't summarize every item on the Agenda — but to read the full agenda, click here:
http: / /newportbeachca.gov/ modules /ShowDocument.aspx ?documentid =4414
If you are so inclined, please weigh in on these issues by contacting the entire City Council with one email address —
that's CityCouncil @newportbeachca.eov. They appreciate hearing from you, especially about any agenda item.
The big item this week on the Study Session's agenda is Blackball. What's the blackball? That's the yellow flag at the
lifeguard towers with the big black dot in it. It means no hardboard surfing when the flag is up. Swimmers, body -
surfers, and soft -board people (generally boards with no skeg — the hard fin or fins underneath the board that acts like a
rudder) like the blackball because it makes for a safer swimming environment. Surfers don't like it as much, as it can
remove access to good surf breaks at key times. Anyway, we've had a special committee working on this issue for two
years (yes, two!) and they and our Parks, Beaches, and Recreation Commission (PB &R) came up with four
recommendations that passed PB &R (I'm summarizing below):
1. Declare that the Blackball can be up at any time at any beach if directed by the lifeguards — but it can also be down
if conditions don't warrant a Blackball — in effect, this can open up more areas to surfing (generally summertime
12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.) but only if surfing is safe to do at the time.
2. At The Wedge, flotation devices are prohibited during many popular times— leaving the area safer for
bodysurfers. The only change recommended for The Wedge is to slightly shorten the linear distance where you
cannot use a flotation device. This frees up "Cylinders" (west of The Wedge) for hard -board surfing on more
occasions.
3. In Corona del Mar, a definitional change would clarify that our Blackball policy applies from most of Big Corona to
the start of Crystal Cove State Park, versus all the way to the end of Reef Point past Trader Joe's. State Parks'
directives govern CCSP, not ours.
4. Lastly, and this appears to be the most controversial recommendation, the Blackball that is posted between 40th
and 44th Street— a popular surfing AND swimming spot — would be up for fewer days (Memorial Day to Labor Day)
and then only from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Today, the area is Blackballed all day from May 1 to October 31.
The Council will not take a final vote on this issue on Tuesday, but will listen to the staff report, take public comment,
and may direct the staff as to what to prepare for adoption at a later meeting. They could accept PB &R's
recommendation, change it, or reject the whole thing and leave things as is.
Here's what's on the evening session at 7:00 p.m. So far it looks to be more demure (translation: Snooze- fest!) than
other recent meetings:
• We ran out of time last meeting to discuss Special Events grants with the Council. Every year the City Council
reviews and approves about $300K in support for various special events in town. These can be the Christmas Boat
Parade, the NB Film Festival, and various runs, walks, trots, sidles, and food /wine tastings. There are a handful of
policies that help guide the allotment of these funds, which are already set aside in the adopted budget.
• Another continued item is a large dollar item ($1.35M) which is a contract with a private company to do our
streetlight maintenance and on -call repair services. This is another function we outsourced a few years ago.
• Council Member Duffield has made an appointment recommendation of William O'Neill to serve on the Finance
Committee, replacing a recent resignation.
• We're following up on Council Member Muldoon's request to start revisiting commercial marina rental rates, and
I've provided a very brief update on some of the steps that staff has taken to prepare for the Council's consideration
of that item after Labor Day.
• Public review of a tentative labor agreement with the Association of Newport Beach Ocean Lifeguards (ANBOL —one
of our several employee associations) is "sunshined" via one agenda item.
• There is a Farmer's Market coming to the Newport Pier /McFadden Square Area, after moving over from Lido Marina
Village. Same organizer— Sprouts of Promise. Or Sprouts of Pomegranates if I type too fast.
Some notes for your calendar:
• For your peace of mind and your kids' health, we're partnering with www .heartfeltcardiacpro'ects.org to provide
cardiac screenings (ECHO and EKG) to detect the underlying factors for sudden cardiac death. Helpful to young
athletes and others. These will cost $85 each and will occur on Friday, July 31 from 12:00 noon to 4:30 p.m. here at
City Hall. For more information, go to the website.
• The Newport Beach JG's Monster Mile is next Thursday, July 30th at 10:00 a.m. at the Balboa Pier. Come on down
to see some fun costumes and tough athletes.
• We've moved the Aviation Committee from Monday, July 27th to Thursday, August 6th, to take advantage of having
some new information about noise monitoring changes associated with JWA (information that won't be available on
Monday the 27th). The meeting will be on 8 -6 -2015 starting at 2:00 p.m. in the City Council's chambers at the Civic
Center.
• As you've heard, we've been playing Host City to two Special Olympics World Games teams (from Mexico and Fiji)
over the past few days. What fun that has been. The Games start July 25th up in LA. For more information or tickets
to events, go to www.la2015.org.
Thanks for reading. Please have a good weekend, and 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