Three of the City Council's policy committees are in action on Wednesday and Thursday, and there's a lot of business for them to take care of, so let's get right to it. Remember, 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.

Budget and Government Efficiency Committee -- Wednesday, Sept. 16

The Budget and Government Efficiency Committee, chaired by Council President pro Tem Barbara Bry, meets at 9 a.m. The agenda includes six items:

• Parking Meters: Did you know that there are roughly 5,700 metered parking spaces in the City of San Diego? Yup. And where do you think we get our parking meters? Well, the City gets both single-space and double-space meters through contracts with a San Diego-based company, IPS Group. Both current contracts expire in November, and IPS has prevailed in a competitive bidding process on a new contract. On Wednesday, the City Treasurer's office will ask the committee to bless a new contract agreement that would max out at a little less than $12.1 million over the next five years.
• Information Technology Consulting Services: The City's Department of Information Technology would like approval of contracts with 22 different vendors to provide a smorgasbord of services on an as-needed basis during the next five years. The total allocation would not top $21 million. Essentially, each time the IT Department needs a project done that requires specialized skills, it would put out a task order, and one or more of these companies would bid on it.
• Software licensing, maintenance, support, and technical advisory services: Also from the IT Department comes a request to authorize City staff to amend an existing agreement with SAP Public Services for software licensing, maintenance, support and technical advisory services. The amendment would extend the contract for another five years for a max of nearly $30.5 million.
• Contract with Dell Marketing for Microsoft Software, Subscriptions, and Services: The committee will see a lot of the IT Department on Wednesday morning. The IT folks will also request approval of a new agreement to provide licensed Microsoft software, subscriptions, and services to City employees. The current license agreement expires on Oct. 31. This proposal is for three years and roughly $14 million.
• Key Budget Dates: Each year, the City Council's Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) proposes a list of key dates on the calendar when important budget reports will be released and public hearings on budget matters will be scheduled. For instance, here is the current year's list of key dates. On Wednesday, the IBA will present for the committee's consideration these key dates for monitoring the current-year budget and developing the next fiscal-year budget. 
• Major General Fund Revenues Informational Update: The City's Department of Finance will give the committee the current lowdown on the four major sources of revenue -- property tax, sales tax, transient occupancy tax, and franchise fees -- which currently comprise 65.7 percent of City revenues. This discussion, of course, will be filtered through COVID-19.

Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- Wednesday, Sept. 16

The Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Councilmember Mark Kersey, meets at 2 p.m. There's one consent item on the agenda (construction change orders on road work) that is considered noncontroversial and won't be discussed unless someone wants to. There are just two discussion items:

• Amendments to Six As-Needed Land Survey Agreements: The City's Engineering and Capital Projects Department on Wednesday will ask the committee to OK an additional $1 million and one year to each of six different existing contract agreements with six different private engineering companies for as-needed land surveying, aerial surveying, photography, mapping and digitizing services. The conversation surrounding this item will likely center on the City's efforts to hire more land surveyors.
• As-Needed Transportation Engineering Consultant Agreements: And speaking of as-needed services from private engineering companies -- the City's Planning Department on Wednesday will ask the committee to sign off on contract agreements with four companies for as-needed modeling and analysis work that would top out at a total of $8 million over three years (with an option for a fourth year).

Land Use and Housing Committee -- Thursday, Sept. 17

The Land Use and Housing Committee (LU&H), chaired by Councilmember Chris Ward, meets at 1 p.m. There's one consent item on the agenda (a North Park Community Plan amendment and rezone) that is considered noncontroversial and won't be discussed unless someone wants to.

There are five items on the discussion agenda, including an implementation strategy for the preservation of affordable housing. On June 2, the City Council accepted a first-of-its-kind report, Preserving Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego, done by the San Diego Housing Commission (press conference pictured at right), that took inventory of all affordable housing in San Diego and made 10 recommendations for how to preserve as much of it as possible. On June 24, the LU&H Committee directed the Housing Commission to bring back an implementation strategy that includes detailed policy options for three of the report's 10 recommendations. Those are:

• Redirect funds originally associated with the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego and its dissolution to fund preservation ($46.9 million over five years).
• Adopt a Preservation Ordinance to strengthen and expand the rights granted by State Preservation Notice Law.
• Offer incentives to owners of unrestricted properties in exchange for affordability restrictions.

In addition to presenting those details to the committee on Thursday, Housing Commission staff will ask members to consider of two more recommendations:

• Provide seed funding to create a public-private Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.
• Create an interagency preservation working group.

Here's the rest of the agenda:

• Kearny Mesa Community Plan Update: The City's Planning Department will present to the committee 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.

• Housing Legislation Code Updates: The Planning Department will also ask the committee to weigh in on a series of changes that it's proposing to make to the City's Municipal Code and Local Coastal Program in order to implement and comply with a number of housing laws recently passed by the state Legislature. These laws involve such things as accessory dwelling units (granny flats), density bonuses, and housing residents who are experiencing homelessness. Planning staff will also suggest some changes based on local housing needs.
• Deed Restrictions on UCSD Campus Land: In the 1960s, the City handed over about 510 acres of land to the regents of the University of California to help the UCSD fulfill its academic, healthcare, and research mission. However, there were deed restrictions requiring that the land and any improvements on it would revert back to the City if the property were used for anything other than a university purpose.

On land east of Interstate 5, UCSD is planning to develop extended-stay lodging and conference facilities for UC San Diego Health patients, visiting faculty, and academic symposiums; intergenerational housing and wellness facilities for retired faculty; technology and life-science research space; a wellness center for UC patients and the community; and translation research clinical space. The university wants the City Council to remove the deed restrictions because it has concluded that the private developers the university is partnering with cannot secure equity and debt financing for their projects due to the risk that the City could one day deem them noncompliant and attempt to retake ownership of the land. On Thursday, the committee will discuss.

• Dedication of Street Right-of-Way at Tecolote Road: In order to complete a new trolley station at Tecolote Road and West Morena Boulevard, for the Mid Coast Trolley extension, the San Diego Association of Governments needs the City to dedicate more than 11,000 square feet property it owns as public right-of-way for a ramp that would provide access to the station. The station will be located on the west side of West Morena. The City-owned land is on the east side.

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Only City staff and credentialed members of the press may attend these meetings in person. However, anyone can participate 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 meetings on cable TV channel 24 or AT&T channel 99, or stream them online.

Looking ahead, there will be no meeting of the full Council on Sept. 22. The next Council meeting is Sept. 29. The Council's Environment Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday, Sept. 24.

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