Dear Community Members,

This is my first message to you as I step into the role of City Manager. I want to start by wishing all of you a very Happy New Year! I’m truly proud to serve the Newport Beach community, and I want to thank the City Council for their trust and support as we begin this next chapter together.

Newport Beach is a special place that I love, and one of the things I value the most is how engaged our residents are. You care deeply about your neighborhoods, public safety, and the overall quality of life in our City. Those priorities shape the work our City team does every day, and they will continue to guide me as City Manager.

I’ve had the privilege of serving the City in leadership roles for many years, and I’ve seen firsthand how dedicated our employees are across all 13 departments. One of my jobs is to support them so they can keep doing what they do best: delivering reliable, responsive service for you.

Looking ahead, my focus is simple: keep our core services the best possible, protect our communities, and carry out the priorities and goals of our City Council.

I’m looking forward to meeting more residents, business owners, and community groups in the months ahead. If you see me around town, please say "hello!”

Now let's talk about some City business. We have our first City Council meeting of the new year on Tuesday, January 13 starting at 4 p.m. The full agenda can be found here. A lot of our agenda items are operational items that require the City Council's consideration. Other important items to highlight are:

• One of Mayor Lauren Kleiman's initiatives is to improve telecommunications throughout the City. Frankly, our cell phone coverage in the City is not as good as other areas in the County (there are a lot of factors that go into this...having hills doesn't help). What can we do as a City to improve mobile phone coverage? City staff will present potential code amendments and policy changes that we think will help the carriers spend more money and invest in our City. Additionally, we will share some opportunities to partner with carriers on City-owned properties to add more cell coverage. Staff will also seek City Council feedback on possible updates to regulations for facilities located on private property.
  
  
• An ordinance updating the Newport Beach Municipal Code to reflect a few organizational changes at City Hall. As part of this update, we are combining the Human Resources and Finance Departments into a single Administrative Services Department, and we are also reestablishing the Municipal Operations Department. These adjustments will better align our teams to continue providing responsive, efficient service to the community.
  
  
• You may have heard of our recent incident of the methane gas and crude oil that leaked into a resident's home on Marcus Avenue? Our Utilities Director, Mark Vukojevic, did an amazing job coordinating with the State’s Geologic Energy Management Division along with our local Police and Fire Departments and the County, to respond quickly and protect the neighborhood.  The good news is the well is re-plugged, and conditions in the area are returning to normal. We have a resolution on the agenda to formally terminate the local emergency.
  
  
• You've heard about the housing that the State of California has mandated all cities in California to plan for. We complied with state laws and part of our plan is adding housing by John Wayne Airport. As a City we need to have a vision of what that area of town will look like and provide for in the future. We want to study the opportunities of including retail, restaurants, parks, bike lanes and all of the elements that create a strong community. We need to create a master plan and put some thought into the Airport Area. This will be an important plan and will include input from our residents and the property owners affected. On the agenda is a professional services agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates for the preparation of the Airport Area Specific Plan (we will come up with a better name for it later but for now let's just call it that). The proposed agreement is for a two-year term with a not-to-exceed cost of $612,398. About $510,000 has already been set aside for this study. 
  
  
• The approval of 10 new sculptures for the Civic Center Park Sculpture Exhibition. The City Council will consider the City Arts Commission’s recommendation of 10 sculptures and four alternate pieces for Phase X of the exhibit. If approved, the sculptures will be installed in June and will be on display for three years.

Warmly,

Seimone Jurjis, City Manager, Newport Beach