(Editors Note: Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff publishes a regular email column alerting residents to what’s coming on this week’s city council agenda. It’s a meaningful effort by a city manager to inform the citizenry of what’s coming, from an official perspective and we’ve chosen to highlight it. We hope every city manager across Orange County follows suit.)
Here’s what’s on the agenda for the Newport Beach City Council’s final regular meeting of 2016 is coming up on Tuesday, December 13, 2016
. With election results soon-to-be certified, this meeting is the one at which three current Council members will step down (Mr. Curry, Mr. Petros, and Mr. Selich) and three will take their place (Mr. Avery, Mr. Herdman, and Mr. O’Neill). Following that, the new Council will select a mayor and mayor pro tem for 2017.
Because this is a regular meeting, we still have some business to dispatch, and I’ve summarized some key items below. 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 Regular Session itself starts at 5:00 p.m. with the 2014-2016 Council voting on a series of (generally) wrap-up issues. Then there will be a special order of business occurring at 7:00 p.m. to certify the November 2016 election results. There is no business planned for the 2016-17 Council at this meeting besides reorganization.
For the 5:00 p.m. session, these items jump out at me:
- A few second readingsare in order for items that previously received majority votes at First Reading. These include aspects of the Museum House residential project at 850 San Clemente Drive, the Lido House Hotel at the old city hall site, and the LCP/IP. Second reading actions typically remain on the consent calendar.
- We’ve secured a Measure M grant for a seasonal trolley servicefor primarily the Balboa Peninsula. It would start in 2017 – kind of an exciting thought. Mayor Diane Dixon has worked on this for a while with Peninsula residents and the Balboa Village Merchants Association.
- I know, we were all looking forward to getting the Newport Heights alleywaysdone soon, but there was an error in our bid documents, therefore we’ll ask to reject bids and re-bid for a new award in January 2017. Not too far off.
- One bid we will ask Council to award is the CdM Poppy Avenue reconstruction and reforestationproject (folks on Poppy will cheer!). This work will fix old and damaged concrete (including along the remainder of Ocean Boulevard), improve ADA access, and implement a new streetscape plan with canopy trees to replace the eucalyptus that we had to take out months ago. This is a $1.2M project, coming in a bit lower than engineer’s estimates.
- Back on the sad bid rejection side, we’re asking the Council to reject bids for theCorona del Mar Fire Station and Library, which came in well above engineer’s estimates.
After all of that and maybe a short break, the Council will reconvene for the reorganization noted above. I don’t anticipate the meeting going past 8:30 p.m., but I’ve been wrong about this before.
Some random notes:
- The Harbor Commission’s harbor tour is this Saturday (tomorrow!). The activities start at 8:30 a.m. at the Harbor Patrol facility off of Bayside Drive. Any member of the public can attend provided you are not the person who exceeds boat capacity – that’s about 60-70 guests in addition to Harbor Commissioners. Topics for consideration range from derelict vessels to alternative anchorages to the new Central Avenue Pier to speed limits and (our favorite) copper-based anti-fouling paints.
- Christmas Boat Parade starts on Wednesday evening, December 14, and goes through Sunday the 18th.You know the drill – it’s a wonderful one and promises to be a great boat parade. More information is here. Please forward the link to your friends so that they will stop calling you. It’s the #1 subject of calls we get at City Hall for December – “Where do we park? Where’s the best place to see it? What time?” We never tell about the best places to see it – but one of those is Marina Park, especially on Friday the 16th for Family Fun Night.
- On a more sobering subject, the biennial Point in Time Countof the region’s homeless is next month. For those of you looking for interesting volunteer opportunities, consider working on the “PIT” for 2017. It’s only about a 7.5 hour commitment – 3 hours on one day for training and 4.5 hours’ worth of counting (and walking and note-taking). The kicker is that it’s VERY early in the morning (4:30 a.m.) on Saturday, January 28, 2017. The goal is to count persons who have no housing to ensure that Orange County has an accurate # of our homeless population as the region applies for federal and state grants for housing assistance. For more information, see this link. It’s a great group volunteer effort for a service club, church or similar group. 1,500 volunteers are needed countywide.
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. As this is the last Guide of 2016, I wish you and your families holiday safe travels, a good Christmas and a great start to 2017.
Dave Kiff, Newport Beach City Manager
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