By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
The next City Council meeting is Tuesday, June 27. Items of interest are highlighted below. The entire agenda and reports can be viewed here: https://newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/71687/72.
The regular meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. Agenda items include:
- A contract amendment with BrightView Landscape Services for landscape maintenance of medians and roadsides, as well as on-call services. BrightView performs on-call services such as emergency storm response, traffic accident repairs, irrigation part replacement, plant replacement, landscape enhancement, City street tree planting, and more. As a result of higher than anticipated ongoing maintenance needs, staff is requesting an increase to the fixed-maintenance portion of the contract by about $131,000 a year. Due to a higher level of on-call work that has already taken place, as well as anticipated work throughout the remainder of the contract term, staff is requesting an increase to the on-call portion of the contract by about $2.2 million for the remaining 4.5 years.
- A $1.4 million professional services agreement with Dudek, Inc. for consulting services related to the City’s comprehensive General Plan update. Dudek and its subconsultants will support the City through the update process with a number of efforts, including community engagement, reviewing the current General Plan against best practices, and compiling community feedback and best practices to inform and create the comprehensive General Plan update.
- Acceptance and appropriation of opioid settlement funds for community outreach and education and distribution of Naloxone. In 2021, a $26 billion settlement offer was made by opioid manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals and three distributors to resolve their liabilities in over 3,000 opioid crisis-related lawsuits nationwide. It is estimated that California will receive about $2 billion from these settlement agreements over the next 18 years, with the majority of funds dedicated to the abatement of the opioid epidemic throughout the state. The City of Newport Beach will receive a portion of these funds annually; $395,765.84 has been received for FY 2022-23. The funding will be used to make naloxone more readily available in the community, and for an outreach campaign to educate the public on the use and availability of the naloxone as well as the dangers associated with the misuse of opioids.
- The Council will consider filling a number of appointments to City boards, commissions and committees, including: Water Quality/Coastal Tidelands Committee; Board of Library Trustees; Building and Fire Board of Appeals; City Arts Commission; Civil Service Board; Harbor Commission; Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission; and Planning Commission.
- A pilot program to permit certain homeowner’s associations to install privately operated security cameras within the public rights-of-way in residential neighborhoods. If approved, the pilot program could include as many as 10 neighborhoods for a one-year trial. Qualifying associations would have 50 or more single-family dwelling units within a contiguous neighborhood.
- An agreement to amend Newport Beach’s Bridge Shelter partnership with the City of Costa Mesa, expanding the number of beds available to Newport Beach from 20 to 25.
- An ordinance aimed at addressing homelessness through prohibiting interference with public access, unpermitted structures on public property and certain conduct on public property, and a resolution setting forth the City Council’s approach to people experiencing homelessness.
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.
