Happy Friday, everyone! Question for you: Do Fridays even matter anymore?

As you ponder and explore the depths of that existential query, we'll remind you that earlier this week, the City Council voted to amend its legislative calendar and establish some temporary meeting rules  Temporary Rules of Council.pdf

Attendance at the meetings will be limited to necessary city personnel and members of the press. Members of the public are able to make their voices heard by filling out this form created by the City Clerk -- and check out this webpage to see the various deadlines to have comments read into the record during the meetings or included in Council members reading materials.

As always, you can watch the meetings on CityTV cable channel 24 or stream them online.

To read the staff reports on any of the items listed below, go to the agenda, click on the item you're interested in, and find a link to the staff report over on the right side of the page.

City Council -- Tuesday, April 14

The agenda for Tuesday's meeting includes 18 items on consent (non-controversial items that typically don't require discussion) that allocate funding to community organizations.

Here's what's up for discussion:

COVID-19 Emergency Declaration: On March 12, Mayor Kevin Faulconer declared a state of emergency in the City of San Diego due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The City Council ratified it on March 17 and is required to renew the declaration every 30 days. That's what's going on here.

Police-Regulated Businesses and Occupations: Certain types of business activities are regulated by the San Diego Police Department and require a police permit. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak and its economic impacts on businesses, the Council is being asked to approve an emergency ordinance that would defer payments for these permits, automatically renew expired permits, and temporarily suspend penalty assessments. The deferral would apply to police permits due for renewal from April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020. Fees would be due 120 days from their due date.

Salary Ordinance for Fiscal Year 2021: Each year, the City Council kicks off budget season by passing what's known as the Salary Ordinance, which establishes compensation schedules for all officers and employees of the City of San Diego for the forthcoming fiscal year beginning on July 1. The ordinance reflects the terms of negotiated agreements with the six City-recognized labor unions. 

Street List for Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account Funds: The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 -- also known as SB 1 and sometimes simply referred to as "The Gas Tax" -- was the state Legislature's big action to repair California's highways, bridges, and local streets and roads, and enhance transit systems. Every year, cities up and down the state must submit a list of street and road projects they intend to complete with their share of the money -- which for San Diego will be $26.8 million during the fiscal year starting July 1. This item was on the consent agenda for the April 7 meeting, but it was continued after Councilmember Monica Montgomery raised questions about whether there was adequate geographical equity in the project list. City staff will address those questions on Tuesday.

Temporary Rules for Community Planning Groups: In the City of San Diego, there are dozens of community planning groups that advise the City Council on issues related to growth and development. These groups hold officer elections in March, and due to the COVID-19 crisis, roughly half of them didn't hold elections before state orders on gatherings were put in place. The Council is being asked to create temporary rules for when and how planning groups can elect new officers. 

By the way, participation in community planning groups is a great way to begin to get directly involved in what happens in your neighborhood.

Take care, all!

Here's the City's COVID-19 information page.

Here's an update on the status of City services.

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