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Politics & Government

City Council Slamdance: What You Missed at Tuesday's Meeting

Fast winds gust through Laguna Beach council chambers.

A whirlwind of business was conducted at the city council meeting Tuesday night after the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, which most in the audience recited without difficulty ...

OCTA TROLLEY-LA-LA

Under the meeting’s Public Communications, Orange County Transportation Authority official Darryl Johnson issued a proclamation thanking Laguna Beach for 20 years of participation in Measure M, which helped Laguna with transportation improvements like the Broadway traffic signal. Now expired, Measure M gives way to M2, which will help rehab the street and bus system the same fair-handed way it will for the other 33 cities in Orange County ...

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COUNCILMEMBER AND STAFF REPORTS

The electric car charging station in the city parking lot was dedicated early Tuesday, with low-voltage rhetoric ...

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Laguna City Treasurer Laura Parisi (more on her travails later) reported returning from Sacramento’s hotbed of payroll standoffs, where State Controller John Chiang refuses to cut checks for legislators because it violates the law voters instituted in order to ensure the budget would be balanced on time ...

Mayor Toni Iseman asked County Supervisor Pat Bates if monies might be tucked somewhere to rehab Laguna’s aging trolleys, and got the mysterious answer that no money was allocated, but somewhere, pockets of cash might be available ...

The mayor also congratulated the city’s , “held in over 20 locations in town,” she said. It is inspired by summer solstice fetes all over France, and because Laguna’s sister city is Menton, France ...

CRUCIAL PARKING, TRAFFIC AND CIRCULATION COMMITTEE DECISION POSTPONED

Because a PTC committee member resigned recently for personal reasons, a debate was sparked whether to take the city manager’s advice to leave the position vacant or muster the time and energy to replace the member. Councilmember Elizabeth Pearson and Mayor Iseman both agreed that—with skateboarding and other traffic questions still at large—that the question be returned to committee. The other three councilmembers followed that advice ...

EMERGENCY! DISASTER! PREPAREDNESS COMMITTEE APOINTMENTS NOT POSTPONED!

Now that the council approved the formation of an Emergency/Disaster Preparedness Committee of seven members, it appointed all eight who applied. The members range from those who have suffered through previous disasters with personal tolls to an amateur radio operator who has been activated twice by police and fire during emergencies, and a former president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Councilmember Pearson offered to be committee liason to the council. Pearson stressed that Laguna “does have an emergency disaster preparedness plan.” She said that the city will be further ahead of disasters with the new committee seated and working on quick and effective ways out of town, if something major develops, along with communications with county and city agencies ...

BALANCED AND PRECARIOUS, NEWLY ADOPTED BUDGET ASKS AND ANSWERS QUESTIONS

What's up with the state and its budget, besides legislators not drawing pay for stalling? Well, $100,000 for Laguna’s budget is what’s left up in the air. For the past several years, the state has bounced the $100k Laguna’s way to help fund the police force. Right now, “Who knows the status of that fund?” was one of the points made by the author of the city budget, City Manager John Pietig.

What he knows, in spite of the question at the state level, is that Laguna’s budget is balanced this year, with no dipping into the jar of already-baked cookies. “The budget is balanced and the reserves are completely intact,” he said, specifically to benefit the reporters in the audience who bowed when he walked by and thanked him.

Reporting on the budget is sometimes as convoluted as creating it. For instance, the council and reporters (who are mostly writers rather than accountants) had to digest on Tuesday a minimum of 30 pages of a 12-part staff report full of tables and charts with numbers.

Two items in the budget not completely resolved are the police and fire salaries, because their contract ends June 30. Other salaries will not increase, and up to 10 positions will lapse due to retirements that may not be filled until the world gets square with its piggy bank and drops coins back in, rather than borrowing and writing IOUs.

As promised earlier, the part-time position of Laura Parisi as city treasurer came before council as a chance to convert her 62.5 percent job into full-time, with benefits. After council mulled offering her a low-end of the scale pay package, it was decided to keep her at part time.

“I would have taken it,” Parisi said after the meeting, “if that’s what it took to help the city out.”

HOUSING REGULATIONS FOR RESIDENTIAL CARE READ INTO LAW

A second reading, making the matter law, addressed residential care facilities and partially related cleanup measures in the zoning code (Title 25) without debate ...

DEBATE COMPACT AND UNLAWFUL BUSINESSES ARE A NUISANCE

A short debate on compact car slots in Laguna removed the requirement that off-site parking leased or bought to benefit businesses in town be under that business’ ownership.

One item on the agenda unanimously made law, made clear that no business license would be issued to a business that is deemed illegal under applicable laws, and that operation of such a business constitutes a nuisance ...

WATER SENT BACK TO COMMISSION

In a quick bounce, the Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance was sent back to committee before another review by the Planning Commission, before appearing at city council again.

The staff report said that “It is unknown what modifications to current project thresholds would be necessary in order to achieve a 20% reduction in irrigation water consumption.”

Council decided it had sufficient water experts on staff to not necessitate an $8,500 study ...

CITY GLAD TO HAVE YOU!

The public can comment freely on agenda items during the meetings, usually held two Tuesdays per month. At the beginning of the meeting, off-agenda items have their own time slot, and the city is glad for citizen inputs ...

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