Here are a few items the council...

Here are a few items the council considered Tuesday.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SUBSCRIPTION

The council voted down a request by Councilman Gary Monahan to

reconsider an emergency medical subscription program. Under the

program, residents could have paid an annual fee of $36 to cover any

city emergency medical services they used. Nonsubscribers would have

been billed about $300 per emergency medical call.

The proposal was rejected by the council April 19. Some council members said they didn’t think residents should be burdened with

additional taxes. Monahan thought that with more information and some

minor changes to the plan, he could net enough votes for approval,

but his colleagues weren’t budging Tuesday. Councilman Eric Bever and

Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley voted against a rehearing.

WHAT IT MEANS

Residents won’t be charged a fee for emergency medical services in

the city, other than the taxes they already pay. The council may have

to look at other options to fill the city’s coffers.

MOBILE RECREATION PROGRAMS

The city’s mobile skate park will be axed, but a mobile recreation

program will keep on rolling. As a part of ongoing belt tightening,

the council cut $100,000 from the recreation department’s budget this

year, about $40,000 of which came from the mobile recreation and

mobile skate park programs.

With the permanent skate park opening soon, council members opted

to cut the mobile skate program. City Manager Allan Roeder said the

two programs together would have cost about $93,000 out of the city’s

$100 million budget. Dixon and Foley cast dissenting votes.

WHAT THEY SAID

“This is so small in our budget, we can’t continue to cut programs

that send a message that families and kids are not important,” Dixon

said.

WHAT IT MEANS

The mobile skate park program will be halted as of June 30, when

the fiscal year ends. The new, permanent skate park at TeWinkle Park

will likely open by that date.

16TH STREET PERMIT PARKING

Parking on East 16th Street will be restricted to residents only

between Aliso and Irvine avenues. The street is in Costa Mesa, but

the homes on the south side are technically in Newport Beach.

Residents on both sides of the street petitioned the city for parking

restrictions because people living in the Coronado at Newport North

apartments sometimes use East 16th Street instead of their own

parking garage.

WHAT IT MEANS

Don’t park on East 16th Street between Aliso and Irvine avenues

unless you have a permit, or you may be ticketed.

PLANNING COMMISSION STUDY SESSIONS

The council agreed to hold a public hearing on whether to modify

the Planning Commission’s bylaws to change the guidelines of study

sessions. The city attorney recommended the changes, which could

result in fewer study sessions for the commission.

The council holds a study session each month addressing topics of

general community interest or that apply to an entire area of the

city, while the commission’s twice-monthly study sessions cover the

next meeting’s agenda. The proposed changes would bring the

commission more into line with the council’s practice.

WHAT IT MEANS

A public hearing is set for June 7 on changes to the Planning

Commission’s bylaws.

COMMITTEE CHANGES

The council changed the Fairview Park Friends Committee from a

standing committee into an ad hoc committee and cut two of the four

annual fundraising and awareness events held at the park. Dixon and

Foley voted against the changes.

WHAT IT MEANS

The Earth Day celebration in April and the Park-O-Rama live music

event in late summer will no longer be held.

-- Compiled by Alicia Robinson