The battle to develop, or not, depending on your point of view, the last large beachfront property in Seal Beach is moving into a new phase tomorrow. The City of Seal Beach will hold the initial meeting of the “DWP Specific Plan Advisory Committee” on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 6:00 pm, in the Council Chambers. The city is labeling this an “organizational kick-off meeting”. At stake is the future of approximately 10 acres of prime beachfront land on the West end of Seal Beach.

At Monday’s Seal Beach City Council meeting a parade of speakers testified about last week’s flooding--known as Lake Bridgeport—and the adequacy of the city’s pumping/flood control system. Resident Joan Lyon Was “devastated” at the loss of her prized Corvette, which was totaled by the flooding. City engineer Michael Ho confirmed to www.OC180NEWS.com the storm water system was not built to the specifications in the city’s general plan.

A long standing, but not entirely public, feud between a popular Seal Beach City Councilman and the City Manager burst into the public view at last night’s council meeting. Councilman Gary A. Miller, for the record, accused City Manager David N. Carmany of a conflict of interest, misrepresentation, and concealing important information regarding the city’s decision to tear down and replace a fire station. Although there were several accusations which were presented at the meeting, the most specific revelation was about the identity of an architectural consultant who was paid $585,000 by the city.

Last night the City of Los Alamitos held its annual city council organizational meeting, bringing to a close a turbulent council year which brought the glare of the national news spotlight to this small Orange County city. In council action entirely devoid of the controversies which dominated council meetings earlier in 2009, veteran council member Marilynn Poe, previously the Mayor Pro Tem, was elected the new mayor.

At their meeting Monday night, the Los Alamitos City Council approved the first step in the expansion plans of Los Alamitos Medical Center. In a 4/1 vote, over the objections of councilwoman Jerry Mejia and a couple of public speakers, the city council approved plans for an environmental impact report, EIR, and a reimbursement mechanism by which the hospital will pay for the study.

Corrected 9/16/09, 12:21 pm, see end note.

In what appeared to be a rather incongruous move, during Monday's meeting, the Seal Beach City Council voted to authorize eminent domain proceedings against a small piece of beachfront property. AT the meeting, the property owners' attorney, John Murphy, offered to donate the property to the city at no cost to Seal Beach. After Murphy testified, and with no discussion or questions, the council voted unanimously to move forward with the eminent domain proceedings.

At their meeting on Monday, the Los Alamitos City Council approved new fines for parking violations in the city and authorized a new two hour restricted parking zone on Katella near Los Alamitos Medical Center.

The City of Los Alamitos recently released the fiscal results for the first 9 months of the year and the national trends are clearly evident in the numbers. When comparing the year to date results for this year with those of last year, sales taxes are down 17.4%, the hotel occupancy taxes are off 20.8%, and investment earnings are lower by 52.8%. The drop in sales taxes means that property taxes and the utility user tax have both replaced sales taxes as the City's largest source of funds.
The good news: total City revenues are down only 0.7%.

Imagine this: you come home from a day's work, settle down to watch TV and start to relax. Then, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, the image on your TV is completely obscured by a strong blinking light. After a few moments, the light goes off, so you start to relax again and return to your show. Just as the show is getting interesting, it happens again. This time, you give up on the TV and decide to go to bed. As you slip into bed and start to dose off, the blinking light, now even stronger, forces its way into your bedroom. You forget about trying to get to sleep--for 8 months.

At what would normally be an uneventful annual passing of the chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, open warfare erupted between Supervisor John Moorlach and Supervisor Janet Nguyen. The first volley came during the vote for the slate of incoming chair and vice chair. Without specifically naming Nguyen, who was the nominee for chair, Moorlach expressed concerns about the management style of the incoming chair and voted against her election. With no further discussion or dissention, The slate was elected 4/1. Moorlach’s little salvo could have been the end of it, but Nguyen fired back a broadside at the end of the meeting.

At last night’s city council meeting, the City of Los Alamitos presented its financial results for the fiscal year ending 6/30/09 and for the first quarter of the current year. Although revenues continue to fall, the general fund had a surplus last year and is expected to be balanced for the year ending 6/30/10. But, reflecting the recession, sales taxes are 17.3% less than the previous year and the drop off is expected to continue.

Earlier this year, by some informal and clearly unofficial measures, the people of unincorporated Sunset Beach wanted to join the City of Seal Beach. The folks of Sunset Beach were pushed toward Seal Beach because of a looming threat they would be forced against their will to join Huntington Beach. Seal Beach said resoundingly, no thanks. Now, some of the residents of the Island Village portion of the City of Long Beach are contemplating switching their allegiance a bit easterly and joining up with Seal Beach. In the not too distant past, the 12,000 residents of unincorporated Rossmoor also wanted to join Seal beach. Again the answer was no thanks from Seal Beach.

At their meeting last night, the Seal Beach City Council voted 5/0 to shelve any further consideration of the annexation of the unincorporated beachfront community of Sunset Beach. Even though the Sunset Beach residents have not formally voted their preferences, it has been widely reported that nearly all of the residents would choose to remain unincorporated, but it is not likely they will have that option. The lack of a formal vote notwithstanding, it is assumed that about 90% of the residents favor annexation by Seal Beach, rather than by Huntington Beach. The levers of power rest with the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission, otherwise known as LAFCO, which has unilateral decision-making authority.

Last week, contrary to the expressed desires of the residents, the Local Agency Formation Commission, known as LAFCO, voted to put Sunset Beach under the sphere of influence of Huntington Beach. This, presumably, makes it more likely that the unincorporated community would be annexed by Huntington Beach. On Monday of this week, the Seal Beach City Council directed city staff to come back at their next meeting with a report on annexation of Sunset Beach. At the same time, the residents want to remain just as they are, but this appears unlikely. It could end up as a tug-of-war between Seal Beach and Huntington Beach, with the Sunset Beach residents favoring neither, and LAFCO would be the judge.

Orange County has sponsored a countywide emergency messaging system which can send out mass recorded phone messages, text messages, and e mails. The system is fairly new and was used in Yorba Linda to convey vital emergency evacuation instructions to residents affected by the Triangle Complex Fire. If you live or work in Seal Beach or Rossmoor, you should have already received a test message. Los Alamitos will send out their test message next Thursday.

After months of antagonism which goes back to last November's elections, the Los Alamitos City Council has hired a new City Manager. Filling this vacant position was the first test for a Council which included the replacement for former Mayor Dean Grose, who was forced to resign after e mailing a racial slur.