The final Newport Beach City Council meeting of 2021 will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 14. You can view the full meeting agenda at https://newportbeach.legistar1.com/newportbeach/meetings/2021/12/2835_A_City_Council_21-12-14_Agenda.pdf?id=bae950ba-9a5c-4766-8b34-8bad8e032f7c.
The study session begins at 4 p.m. with a special presentation of Certificates of Recognition for life saving measures administered by Senior Recreation Leader Barbara Valladolid, Martial Arts Instructor Rick Bradley, Soul Center OC Community Member Brian Sherick, Fire Captain Adam Novak, Fire Engineer Keith Hedenberg, and Paramedics Jeramiah Martin, Drew Kaford, and Mike Zaccaro.
After a closed session and a brief recess, the council will return for the regular session. After oral reports from council members and public comments, there are nine items on the consent calendar.
Then the council will take up a special order of business: reorganization. Outgoing Mayor Brad Avery will make remarks, followed by the election of the next Mayor, which includes verbal nominations from council members.
Once the mayor is elected, the mayor takes his/her place on the dais and presides over the election of the Mayor Pro Tem. Once the Mayor Pro Tem is elected, that person takes his/her place on the dais. After that, council members may rearrange their seats.
Council decides on seating arrangement of Council dais (per City Council Policy A-1). Members of the City Council shall be seated at the City Council table with senior Council Members having first choice of seats.
The Mayor, however, shall be seated in the center of the City Council table and the Mayor Pro Tem shall be seated to the right of the Mayor.
In the event of equal seniority among members of the City Council, selection of City Council seats shall be made by the Council Member who received the highest margin of victory percentage in the most recent election.
The new Mayor will make remarks, and then the meeting will be adjourned.
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. (although times may vary), 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.
