Insider's Guide

City Council Agenda items and other items of interest to the City Manager

December 7, 2018

Happy Holidays! It’s hard to believe we are in the last weeks of the holiday season and the new year is fast approaching. It seems to be going extra fast for me, but then the past three months have been a whirlwind! During this time when we connect with family and friends, I am grateful to have been warmly welcomed by so many residents and businesses, as well as City employees. Newport Beach is a special and unique city and I feel incredibly privileged to now be a part of this community. I am looking forward to an exciting 2019.
 
Our last meeting of 2018 is on Tuesday, December 11, and the primary focus will be the reorganization of the City Council, with the recognition of outgoing City Council, oath of office for newly elected members, and election of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.  Therefore, the other items on the agenda have been limited to consent calendar items, generally more routine in nature. The following are items that may be of interest.  As always, this is not a summary of the entire agenda.
  
The Regular Session begins at 6:30 p.m. and the following are items of note:    

• At our last meeting, City Council requested the City Council L-6 Policy Update – Encroachments in Public Rights-of-Way come back with additional noticing requirements. This policy update was brought forward to better clarify the Planning Commission’s role and ability to waive City Council policy. The revisions now include a requirement to post the subject property at least ten days prior to the scheduled hearing.
• Per the Municipal Code, we adjust the Recycled Water Commodity Charge to reflect the City’s cost to purchase water from the Orange County Water District (OCWD) annually as needed. OCWD increased the cost to purchase recycled water from $1.69 per Hundred Cubic Foot (748 gallons) to $1.92 per HCF so we need to pass on this increase to our recycled water rate payers. The new rates (if approved by Council) will be effective February 1, 2019.    
• The City has reached a Tentative Agreement with the Newport Beach Firefighters Association. The Tentative Agreement is for a three-year period and includes wages adjustments and increased employee contribution to CalPERS for the safety members. To promote greater transparency in the negotiations process, the Tentative Agreement is provided for public review and comment. The entire redline version of the Tentative Agreement is included with the staff report as Attachment A. The agreement will be presented for City Council consideration at the January 8, 2019 regular meeting.  

The reorganization of City Council will follow at 7 p.m.  

The Week in Review was provided last week. In case you missed it, we do post them on the City’s website; here is the latest edition.

Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated, so please don’t hesitate to ask a question or offer a comment. 

Grace K. Leung
City Manager
949-644-3001
gleung@newportbeachca.gov

City Council Meeting Information

The Newport Beach City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of most months (the exceptions are August and December). Typically, there is a Study Session that starts at 4 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 p.m., and often has a specific listing of 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.    

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. The City Manager also get's a copy of the email, because in almost all cases it’s something that the City Manager follows-up on.  

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. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV, Spectrum channel 30 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 the City Manager. You are encouraged to read the full agenda if you wish.

Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.
They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.

Acrobat Reader Flash Player Windows Media Player Microsoft Silverlight Word Viewer Excel Viewer PowerPoint Viewer