WHAT HAPPENED: The council approved an online...

WHAT HAPPENED:

The council approved an online budget survey that will allow the

public to give input on budget considerations.

WHAT IT MEANS:

Residents will be able to log on to the city’s Web site and rank

budget items in order of importance. Only responses submitted through

the Web site, www.surfcity-hb.org/survey, will be accepted.

The survey will be available from May 1 to June 30.

Staff will compile survey results and present them to the council

to be used in budget deliberations.

The survey will be available to people who live and work in

Huntington Beach. It will ask residents to rank city-funded programs

in order of importance and to comment on whether city fees and taxes

should be increased to support programs.

There will also be blank spaces for suggestions on how to raise

revenue and how to resolve the city’s budget problem.

WHAT HAPPENED:

The City Council approved a grant for a local animal rights

organization to provide low cost microchip and spay/neuter clinics.

WHAT IT MEANS:

Save Our Strays, a nonprofit animal rights group dedicated to

providing a safe environment to lost and stray pets, will provide

spaying and neutering surgeries and microchipping identification for

dogs and cats at a low cost.

This agreement gives $15,000 to the Save Our Strays program to

provide the services.

The first clinic was held March 29 at Lake Park, where 10 cats and

16 dogs were microchipped. Another is planned for Saturday at the

Lake View Park Clubhouse from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

WHAT HAPPENED:

The council repealed a section of the city’s Municipal Code that

prohibited self-propelled wheelchairs on city sidewalks.

WHAT IT MEANS:

A chapter of the Municipal Code, drafted in 1963, prohibited the

use of electric wheelchairs and tricycles on city sidewalks in

compliance with a state law that has since been amended.

The municipal code section has not been enforced in many years,

but the chapter has remained in the code.

According to the amended city law, people in electric wheelchairs

are now legally considered pedestrians when using the sidewalk.