Saving, earning top city goals

Keeping a watchful eye on how the city manages its money in another tight budget year and encouraging economic development in a few struggling commercial areas will be two of the Newport Beach City Council’s top priorities in 2010.

“This year we are going to try to do government better,” Mayor Keith Curry said.

The City Council met Saturday at the Newport Coast Community Center to discuss which issues it will focus on in the coming year.

On the top of everyone’s mind on Saturday was how the city would budget its money after facing a mid-year, $5.8-million budget shortfall this fiscal year.

The council will look at examining a policy of “fiscal sustainability” at its meeting on Tuesday.

The new policy would encourage the city to get through hard economic times by keeping a watchful eye on spending and promoting business and private enterprise in the city to boost tax revenue figures.

An early retirement program for tenured municipal employees City Manager Dave Kiff has instituted will save the city about $3 million this year, Curry reported at the meeting.

City officials also hope to reduce what Newport spends on benefits this year through negotiations with its municipal employee unions, he said.

Encouraging development in some of the city’s struggling business districts like Lido Marina Village and Balboa Village also will be a top priority for the council this year.

Councilman Mike Henn voiced concern at the meeting about the Lido Marina Village area, which has seen a number of restaurants and shops go out of business in recent years. Foot traffic through the shopping district also is not what it use to be.

“We have just allowed Lido Marina Village to stagnate,” Henn said. “We have to do something to stimulate true progress. I know we’re in tough economic times, but maybe it would help if the city can articulate a vision [for the area].”

Other members of the council also raised concerns about a row of vacant storefronts in Mariner’s Mile that has garnered numerous complaints from residents and encouraging economic in the historic Balboa Village area of the city.

City officials will spend time this year discussing ways to revitalized these shopping districts.

In the coming year, the council also will spend time on updating fees for moorings and other uses of Newport Harbor and look at how the city might combat rising sea levels.

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