Newport OKs 4% merit raise for police chief

Newport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis is getting a $9,000-a-year raise.

The pay bump, which the City Council approved unanimously Tuesday night, brings the city’s top cop from an annual base salary of about $224,700 to about $233,700, a 4% increase.

Lewis’ last contract indicated a base salary of $213,500, but he received two cost-of-living pay adjustments since being appointed chief in 2016 that were not reflected in the contract on file or in the staff report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Dave Kiff said.

Kiff said the raise approved Tuesday is a merit increase.

Councilman Kevin Muldoon said he would normally pause before approving such a raise but said the city’s crime reports are at a five-year low and the Police Department has good morale under Lewis’ leadership.

“I would offer you a lot more money to continue this trend because we are bucking the negative trend in the state of California,” Muldoon told Lewis, a 27-year Newport Beach Police Department veteran.

Tourism budgets

The council agreed to allot $4.9 million this year to Visit Newport Beach and $4.2 million to the Newport Beach Tourism Business Improvement District.

Visit Newport Beach, a nonprofit destination marketing organization under contract with the city, is funded mostly by local bed taxes, receiving 18% of all hotel and short-term rental bed tax revenue.

The Tourism Business Improvement District is a voluntary consortium of nine of the city’s largest hotels and resorts, which agrees to tax a percentage of the hotels’ room rental revenue to help fund local tourism promotion.

The city collects the taxes on the member hotels’ behalf.

Finance Committee appointment

The city Finance Committee has a new member. Muldoon appointed Patricia Eckert to fill out the seven-member advisory panel, which is made up of three City Council members and four other residents.

Eckert is a Loyola Marymount-trained lawyer who was a member of the California Public Utilities Commission from 1989 to 1995, including one year as its president. She has most recently been a consultant in the energy and telecommunications industries.

Muldoon was on the Finance Committee until last month, when he stepped down to allow Councilman Scott Peotter to take his place. Peotter’s appointee, Patti Gorczyca, also stepped down around the same time, leaving one spot to fill.

Street work

The city will spend close to $1 million to rehabilitate several short stretches of road.

The projects include repaving two miles of Marguerite Avenue in Corona del Mar between Fifth Avenue and San Joaquin Hills Road and less than a quarter-mile of Hospital Road between Superior and Placentia avenues, and reconstructing the intersection of Irvine Avenue and Cliff Drive near Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Heights.

Excel Paving of Long Beach will get the roughly $888,000 construction contract. With contingencies, geotechnical services and incidentals added, the city plans to spend about $958,000 on the jobs.

Work will begin after Labor Day and is expected to be completed within about two months.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD