DAVID KIFF, CITY MANAGER OF NEWPORT BEACH GIVES A GREAT CITY OF THE UNION ADDRESS AFTER BATTLING STORM WATCHES SINCE LATE SUNDAY ALONG OUR COAST!

Since late Sunday, the City of Newport Beach has been on Storm Watch from a series of bad weather that includes, rain, lightning and thunder, gale force winds, water spouts over the water, tornado watches, high tides, big waves, flash flood warnings, plus flying debris, debris washing and/or blowing onto our roads, polluted harbor and ocean from storm run offs, danger of damage to our two piers, besides small craft warnings.   Why was this mentioned?  It was a two headed sword with twenty-one (21) Rotarians braved the battle of these impediments to attend our meeting that included our guest speaker, City Manager David Kiff from The City of Newport Beach.  His City’s Staff has also had to address these natural impediments so the community can be protected 24/7 by providing a safe means to transverse the City on its streets and walkways, be protected against flooding, be served with  water and sewer, and continuing with full service from the police and fire departments. 

Our members started to arrive dressed for the weather around 5:30 PM after our IceBreaker, John Kerr setting up the room for our meeting.  We were cheerfully welcomed by the lovely Treasurer Anna Wong at the Front Desk along with the help of Ron Gill as we checked in and were greeted by another IceBreaker Stefan Laube along with Sami bring a little extra liquid cheer and Pat providing some spring music to add some cheer to help warm up our group so we could enjoy some fellowship before dinner and of course everyone had a storm story to bring to the meeting.

President Elect, Jerry Morris took over the duties by ringing the bell for Dinner as President Marc is flying to Japan to participate in a wedding and visit some Rotary clubs.  The evening started off with Dick Dickson giving an appropriate Invocation about our City and its staff and thanking our military being in harms way but keeping us and our families free besides blessing our food.  John Kerr followed by having us put our hand over our heart in the Pledge of Allegiance, Markee Fritschle guiding us through The Four Way Test despite Steve Speer blocking her view (Steve, she knew that words!) and the Master of the Song Masters, Ed Rennie led us as we sung Happy Days Are Here Again, could it be because of the election in Massachusetts or the fact that we have rain that is replenishing our water supply?  Introducing our guest went quickly with two visiting guest: Ron Titus and Heather Roberts for repeat visits as prospective new members of our Club.  Pres-Elect Jerry selected our table to go for dinner first because our Guest Speaker David Kiff and Ron Titus were being hosted by yours truly followed by Lauren Reeves table because she brought Heather to the meeting.

Following our meal, Jerry called on Ed Rennie for the tri-fecta duties this evening with some off the wall jokes filling in as our Joke Master and changing gears to watch the tears flow as he assumed the role of Fine Master by fining Lloyd Krause and Roger McGonegal in absentia, but caught Bill Davies; who is heading to Tucson and else where for a little vacation time and we hope Jinny will come back in one piece and Tom Walley just returning from skiing in Mammoth with Steph.  Happy fine was paid by Bob Merring who found a great and honest mechanic that took care of a alignment problem and suggested to go else where to purchase his tires to save money, call Bob and he will give you the name of this honest auto mechanic that practices The Four Way Test.    

City Manager Dave KiffTonight’s Scribe did tonight’s introduction of Newport Beach’s City Manager David Kiff who grew up in a vineyard in Healdsburg which grew cabernet sauvignon grapes in the Alexander Valley Wine Region of Northern California.  David received his degree from Sacramento State University and his Masters from Fels Institute at University of Pennsylvania.  He worked in Sacramento for the California Legislature assigned to the Senate Local Government Committee before joining O.C. Supervisor Marian Bergeson as her assistant moving on as the assistant to the City Manager of Orange before coming to Newport Beach in 1998.  His performance was noticed and he was promoted and took on more responsibilities in the City Managers office under City Manager Homer Bludau and in September 2009 he assumed the role as our City Manager when Homer retired.  David is really familiar with our City having played an integral role in the preparation of the City’s annual budget, labor negotiations with the different unions and associations serving the employees of our City, managed recruitment for key city positions and developed the City’s public information program so the transition to the role of the City’s Chief Administrator has been easy for everyone. 

City Manager David Kiff started this week with the potential of a natural disaster due to the weather forecasts but he said the real problem is:  People are struggling with government.  He and his City Staff strive to address the concerns of the individuals by either addressing those questions, concerns and/or problems quickly or following through later with an answer or solution when asked by a visitor or phone call to City Hall. 

Revenue, cost and expenses are a huge problem for government and the City has to operate by being fiscally responsible and make good decisions because the City is currently five percent (5%) over budget due to further declines in tax revenue from lower property, sales, gas and bed taxes caused by our current recession but our City Council wants to still maintain its $80 million dollars it holds in reserves.  Under David’s experience and leadership, he has whittled that deficient in half by early retirements, sub-contracting city services, besides he is working hard on re-negotiating retirement benefits for our city employees which could further reduce the City’s expenses and by make the balance of the deficient.  David Kiff is known for his ability in managing cost and expenses and we are fortunate to have him during these trying and uncertain times.  

Through David’s efforts, the City’s Capital Improvements are going forth because the monies were budget and at this time development and construction cost are down 25% to 30% lower than budgeted for the development of Sunset Park in West Newport, Marina Park at 16^th Street and Balboa Blvd. and the new City Hall that was voted for by the vote of the people of Newport Beach to replace our existing City Hall that was built in 1947 which can not properly house the City Staff plus at the new City Hall the $100 million dollar budget includes a parking structure, passive and active park, a pedestrian bridge, plus the our Main Library will be expanded to complete the Civic Center for Newport Beach.  Other major improvements in our City includes the completion of the dredging of the Back Bay, a $48 million dollar project which received $18 million in “Stimulus” dollars to complete the dredging at no cost to the City plus another $2 million dollars perform the feasibility and environmental studies for the dredging of Newport Harbor that is estimated to cost a total of $25 million including the handling of hazardous materials since the Harbor has not been dredged since the originally dredging took place in 1935 and the Harbor was dedicated on May 23, 1936.  Again, the City is looking to do accomplish this project with little or no money coming from the Reserves.

Tough questions were then asked by our members and David addressed each one openly:

• What will happen to the existing City Hall, built in 1947, site – City Council (CC) wants to engage the Community in that decision and will start those meetings next year,
• Airport Expansion -  CC want to keep current limits including the curfew, passenger load, and flights as it is by the existing protection agreement that runs through 2015 and joining the City is Costa Mesa, Tustin and other cities that are impacted by the airports aircraft flying over their communities with negotiations starting in 2011,
• The recruitment and hiring of both Police and Fire Chiefs (David sadly announced that Fire Chief Steve Lewis will be retiring on March 1^st due to parent and other health issues) -  The acting Police Chief’s contract expires in June and the national search will commence in March for that position with the Fire Chief, following a month later,
• State pass down funds – Slow in coming but primarily those monies are being delayed to the different school districts and the commitment for retirement accounts have been transferred to a private group as part of a joint powers agreement and has been negotiated as a break even for the City that includes no risk for the City, and
• State Highway Improvements – The City has taken over the responsibility of Coast Highway from Avocado to City Limits with Laguna Beach from Cal Trans and is using the $2 million dollars annual gas tax to help off set the cost of the new improvement made from CdM to Newport Coast.  Currently, the City is negotiating with Cal Trans to take over Coast Highway from Avocado to Santa Ana River and make additional road improvements including the total coordination of the signals to improve traffic flow sometime in the near future.

Pres. Elect Jerry thanked David Kiff for an interesting and informative presentation of the State of Newport Beach and presented David with our Certificate of Appreciation plus a donation to PolioPlus in his name.  Jerry then closed the meeting with six different thoughts composed by UCLA’s Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden and with the final closing remark that everyone drives home safely due to “Storm Watch” conditions as the ring of the bell occurred to signal the close of our meeting.          

Composed for the Anchor Watch
(which is an important element in owning a boat especially when we have storm warnings),
by Scribe Bill Hossfeld.