Thursday, April 17, 2003 Council stalls during 'efficient' phase of meeting   By Jason Gewirtz, Staff writer LONG BEACH If the City Council meeting were a piece of stereo equipment, the consent calendar would be the "fast forward' button. But Tuesday, it felt more like "pause.' Each week, in an attempt at efficiency, the council uses the consent calendar to approve dozens of relatively routine items with one vote. The move, common to most government bodies, is designed to streamline the meeting process. Existing rules in Long Beach allow anyone council members or the public to "pull' an item off the agenda for a more in-depth discussion. The council is then required to concur separately on each item. Members of the public can speak for up to three minutes on each issue. On Tuesday, council gadfly Jim Sturm set an unofficial record by pulling 17 of the 24 consent items to discuss. Two other council regulars pulled 10 of those same items as well. The issues included contract amendments, worker's compensation awards and lease agreements. Sturm pressed for details, many of which were included in the background material provided to the council and available to the public at libraries and online. But by the end of the list, even Sturm had tired of his queries, opting not to ask anything before the council voted separately on each item. The consent calendar took 40 minutes to complete, despite Mayor Beverly O'Neill limiting Sturm to one minute per item. Later, some council members criticized the delay. At the end of the meeting, City Attorney Bob Shannon told the council it had options to streamline the consent calendar process itself. Those options, he said, include limiting public speaking time to five minutes total for the consent calendar, or allowing only council members to pull items for further discussion. No decision was made on whether to change the format. Computer life In another effort to save money in the city budget, City Hall hopes to squeeze more life out of its 2,900 computers. Since 1997, the city's computers have been on a three-year replacement cycle. But Tuesday, the council extended that cycle to four or five years, depending on the specific needs of the employee using the computer. Computers that cannot support required applications, or are broken with unreasonable repair costs will stay on the three-year plan. The city hopes to save $525,000 this fiscal year, and $2.6million over the next three years with the new approach. The move was recommended in a three-year budget cutting strategy, which the council recently approved to close a projected $90million shortfall. Coming down The city is sinking, the city is sinking. Well, parts of the city at least. A semiannual elevation survey released Tuesday of the harbor, the Civic Center, Central Long Beach, Naples and Alamitos Bay shows that some areas of the city subsided nearly 2 inches from November 2001 to January 2003. An area along Henry Ford Avenue in the port of Long Beach subsided 1.92 inches during that time. Construction of the new Carnival Cruises terminal caused Pier J to sink 1.08 inches. The Pike at Rainbow Harbor downtown development contributed to 0.6 inches of lost elevation. Alamitos Bay, the central city, Naples and the city's oil islands remained stable during that time. The changes that did occur were categorized as "minor' in the report. Subsidence occurs from a variety of factors, including tectonic shifts and oil withdrawal from the ground. Recreation fees The city's Parks and Recreation Commission will hold a hearing today regarding several proposed fee increases for various recreation programs. The proposals include fee hikes for adult sports leagues, the aquatics day camp, athletic field use and swimming pool use, among others. The meeting is 9 a.m. today at the Recreation Park Community Center, 4900 E. Seventh St.