-- Compiled by June Casagrande INSIDE CITY...

-- Compiled by June Casagrande

INSIDE CITY HALL

Here are some decisions coming out of the Newport Beach City

Council meeting on Tuesday:

HEFFERNAN SEAT

Councilman John Heffernan officially withdrew his statement

earlier this year that he would resign his council seat, saying that

there is much work that still needs to be done. Heffernan said he

plans to finish his council term, contrary to his previously

announcement that he plans to step down this fall. “I’m staying put

and will continue to represent District 7 for the remainder of my

term,” Heffernan said.

MORMON TEMPLE

In anticipation of a Nov. 12 hearing on a proposed Mormon temple,

council members and staff spent some time Tuesday discussing ways to

keep that meeting from running into the early-morning hours. Two

Planning Commission hearings on the temple each attracted more than

200 people to council chambers, and the hearings lasted past 11 p.m.

In hopes of getting home before sunrise at their first meeting next

month, council members agreed to meet at 6:30 instead of 7 p.m. and

asked staff to clear the agenda of all but the most urgent items.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“I think it will be a very long meeting,” Councilwoman Norma

Glover said.

CITY COMMUNICATIONS

In response to resident complaints that it can be difficult to get

information about city government, staff gave a presentation on the

state of resident communications in the city. Assistant City Manager

Dave Kiff gave an overview of the city government cable TV

broadcasts, the activities of the city’s Public Information Officer

Marilee Jackson and the city’s Web site. In response to one

resident’s request to make audiocassette tapes available for

purchase, City Clerk LaVonne Harkless said it might be possible for

the city to purchase the equipment to copy tapes into a more

user-friendly format.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“We have a fairly advanced Web site for a city, but there’s always

more that can be done,” Kiff said.

CANCELED CONTRACT

Council members decided to cancel the franchise agreement with one

of its trash haulers, Ocean Waste and Recycling LLC, after the

company for months failed to comply with some reporting requirements.

A representative of the company presented documents and a compelling

argument to show that the company had fixed its problems, but, in the

end, council members agreed that the business relationship should

nonetheless come to an end.

FINGERPRINT EQUIPMENT

The Police and Fire departments will get a new, state-of-the-art

fingerprinting system. City Council members approved a $57,000

expenditure for hardware and software comprising the Identix Live

Scan Fingerprinting System. The last time the city’s fingerprinting

technologies were updated was in the mid-1990s.