INSIDE CITY HALL Here are some decisions...

INSIDE CITY HALL

Here are some decisions coming out of the Newport Beach City

Council meeting on Tuesday.

CABLE COMPANIES

The city’s two cable companies will get one more year of business

as usual before new contract negotiations will seek to win an array

of new services and service improvements for residents.

WHAT HAPPENED

Council members voted to extend for one more year the city’s

contracts with Adelphia and Cox cable companies. Next year, the city

will use the results of a public outreach campaign to try to

negotiate for more local programming and better service.

WHAT THEY SAID

“Clearly we have the attention of Adelphia and Cox. They think

everything is fine. We disagree.”

-- Mayor Steve Bromberg

RESERVOIR COVER

Resident Dolores Otting asked council members about plans to get a

plastic cover for the Big Canyon Reservoir, which supplies most of

the city’s drinking water. The $5-million plastic cover would protect

the reservoir from pollution, sabotage or pests such as a midge fly

larvae that infested the water more than a year ago.

WHAT HAPPENED

City Manager Homer Bludau said the city is still working to get $1

million in assistance from the federal government. In the meantime,

city staff is figuring out the exact specifications for the cover.

WHAT THEY SAID

“It’s kind of a game of chicken. If you start working on it before

you have the money, they assume you don’t need money from them.”

-- Councilman John Heffernan

GENERAL PLAN ADVISORS

Though their committee was expected to disband by now, members of

the General Plan Advisory Committee are still needed to help guide

the city in revising its plan.

WHAT HAPPENED

Council members agreed Tuesday to keep the committee alive a while

longer with the help of old and new committee members.

LAND USE REQUEST

A business near the airport that has sat idle for a year and a

half might be allowed to get into the storage business. DMP

Properties head Dan Perlmutter asked the city to initiate a general

plan amendment process that might allow him to rent self-storage

facilities at 2101 Dove St.

WHAT HAPPENED

Though the business owner and supporters were prepared to plead

their full case, Bromberg reminded them that the item in front of the

council was simply to start the process. The time to argue their side

would come at a future council meeting, he said. Council members

approved the routine step of initiating the general plan amendment

and to decide later whether to allow storage facilities there.

-- Compiled by June Casagrande