Tomorrow's regular meeting of the City Council includes some important proposals, like the creation of a surveillance technology ordinance and a Privacy Advisory Board; big land-use projects in East Village, Valencia Park, and University City; an update to the growth blueprint for Kearny Mesa; and the appointment of a new City Auditor.

If you'd like more detail on anything summarized here, click the agenda, then click on the item. Over on the right side of the page, you'll see links to a staff report and other pieces of supporting material.

City Council -- Tuesday, Nov. 10

Tuesday's meeting starts at 11 a.m. The agenda includes four ceremonial proclamations and 16 consent items that are considered noncontroversial and won't be discussed unless a member of Council or a member of the public asks to have an item pulled out for conversation. Here are the discussion items:

• Surveillance Technology Ordinance (Item S500) and Privacy Advisory Board (Item S501): These proposals emanate from controversy over the City's Smart Streetlights program -- chiefly regarding privacy. Back in January, the City's Sustainability Department, which runs the program, presented to the Council's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee a draft policy on use of the data captured by the smart streetlights. The committee rejected that proposal and directed the City Attorney's office to work with committee staff on a new proposal. The two ordinances being presented here, first-drafted by the TRUST SD Coalition and fine-tuned by the City Attorney, are the result of that process.

  We'll quote from the staff reports here:

  "The Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology Ordinance requires essential transparency, accountability, and oversight for all surveillance technology proposals, and it ensures the public has the opportunity to learn about the civil rights and civil liberties impact of surveillance technologies before local officials acquire them. If acquired, technologies must be reexamined to ensure any benefits outweigh the civil liberties and civil rights costs."

  "The Privacy Advisory Board would provide advice and technical assistance to the City of San Diego on best practices to protect citizen privacy rights in connection with the City's purchase and use of surveillance equipment and other technology that collects or stores citizen data."

• East Village Quarter at Tailgate Park Negotiating Agreement (Item 332) and Rezone (Item 333): The Council will consider an exclusive negotiating agreement with a development team led by the Padres to transform a 5.25-acre City-owned parking lot known as Tailgate Park. The land, adjacent to Petco Park, is bounded by 12th Avenue and 14th Street on the west and east, and by K Street and Imperial Avenue on the north and south. Included in the developer's proposal are: 612 affordable and market-rate homes, 236,000 square feet of public open space, 65,000 square feet park and plaza space, 1,350,000 square feet of office space, 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and a 1,600-space parking garage.

To make this happen, the Council will also need to rezone the land. 

• San Diego Energy Equity Campus at Valencia Business Park (Item 331): The Council will decide whether to authorize the City to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with a development team that has proposed creating the San Diego Energy Equity Campus at the City-owned site currently known as Valencia Business Park. The 4.33-acre piece of land is located on Stevens Way in Valencia Park. The developer proposes to develop an energy-efficient, three-story, 25,000-square-foot office building and a one-story, 40,000-square-foot industrial building, along with active public spaces, a nature trail, and outdoor educational and meeting space. The plan is to populate the development with sustainability- and community-equity-focused tenants.
• Costa Verde Revitalization (Item 334): In University City, there's a neighborhood known as Costa Verde, bounded by Nobel Drive to the south, Genesee Avenue to the east, La Jolla Village Drive to the north, and Regents Road to the west. Splitting this area is the north-south Costa Verde Boulevard, and to the east of that divider is the commercial portion of the neighborhood, the Costa Verde Shopping Center.

On Tuesday, the Council will be asked to approve a series of actions to allow for an overhaul of this commercial portion. In addition to the revitalization of the existing 178,000 square feet of commercial / retail space, the project would include a 200-room hotel, 360,000 square feet of space for research and development, and 40,000 square feet of office space. Max building height would be 135 feet.

In September, the City's Planning Commission voted 7-0 in favor of the project and the University Community Planning Group voted 10-3 in support.

• Kearny Mesa Community Plan Update (Item 335): The City's Planning Department will present to the Council details of a fairly comprehensive update of the Kearny Mesa Community Plan. The update is geared toward supporting the Kearny Mesa community as a major employment and transit center in San Diego and ensuring that residential growth is close to jobs and public transit. The proposed update is fashioned to be in line with the City's Climate Action Plan and its City of Villages strategy.
• Appointment of City Auditor (Item 330): The City hasn't had a permanent City Auditor since September 2018. Currently, the Auditor's office is being led by an interim auditor, Kyle Elser. For the past few months, the Independent Budget Analyst has been leading an effort to recruit a new Auditor. Thirty-six people applied for the position. A number of top candidates were interviewed by a subcommittee, and a subset of them were interviewed by Council's Audit Committee, which sent three finalists to the City Council. The Council privately interviewed those three on Oct. 26.

The Council chose Andy Hanau (pictured), who's been with the Auditor's office since 2011 and has served as interim assistant city auditor since November 2019, and appointed Councilmember Scott Sherman to negotiate a salary. On Tuesday, the Council will formally appoint him and vote on a negotiated salary of $215,000.

Members of the public can participate in the virtual meeting and make comments by dialing 619-541-6310 and entering the access code 877861 followed by # when the item you're interested in comes up (full call-in instructions). Watch the meeting on cable TV channel 24 or AT&T channel 99, or stream it online.

Next up will be a post on the policy committee meetings scheduled for this week -- Land Use and Housing on Thursday and Budget and Governmental Efficiency on Friday.

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