By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
Our next City Council meeting is Tuesday, July 13. Items that may be of interest are highlighted below. The entire agenda, and all reports, can be viewed at https://newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/64222/72.
Study Session Meeting of the City Council at 4 p.m.:
The Council will hear a presentation from Be Well OC, which provides a mobile crisis intervention program to assist community members struggling with mental health issues. CEO Marshall Moncrief will provide an overview of the organization’s programs and services.
Council members will review and discuss changes to the draft update of the City’s General Plan Housing Element, following recent Council and community input. Staff will incorporate any additional feedback from the study session into the document before it is sent to the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for a preliminary review. The latest draft is available online at this link.
Regular Meeting of the City Council at 6:30 p.m.:
The Council will hold a public hearing on a plan to spend additional funding from the 2020 federal stimulus plan known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Newport Beach will receive $741,079 in additional CARES Act funds through its participation in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. The resolution under consideration would update the City’s CDBG annual plan to accommodate the additional grants. Under the program guidelines, the funding must be allocated to projects and services that prevent, prepare for and respond to COVID-19.
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 6 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 gets 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.
