Newport Beach City Council Preview

Here are some items the council will consider tonight.

CITY HALL SITE

The main site under consideration for a new city hall appears to be an Orange County Transportation Authority park-and-ride bus station on Avocado Avenue at San Joaquin Hills Road. The council will vote on whether to hire Los Angeles firm DMJM Design to create a site plan for the parcel and do rough cost estimates for moving the bus center and building a city hall.

It would cost $42,000 to hire the firm, which would come up with several options for the site.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The council probably will vote to do the site plan, because there aren't a lot of other options for where to put a city hall at the moment.

JOHN WAYNE CENTENNIAL

With the city's own centennial out of the way, another big 100th birthday is coming up: John Wayne's. The Newport Beach Film Festival and the city's conference and visitors bureau will hold a retrospective of several Wayne films and a dinner at the Balboa Bay Club to celebrate the man a city staff report called "undoubtedly the most well-known person ever to reside in Newport Beach."

The council will decide whether to spend $75,000 to become an official sponsor of the festivities. The films will be shown from April 21-28, with the dinner held near the end of the festival.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The city shelled out a lot more than that for its own centennial last year and a 100th birthday only comes around once, so the council probably will agree to spend the money on John Wayne's celebration.

— Alicia Robinson