Partly cloudy skies. Low 66F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy skies. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.

Kevin Reilly gave a presentation to the Council during the period of oral communications regarding the Cays Park Master Plan at start of the city council meeting on Sept. 20. In his presentation, he suggested the City hold a contest for landscape architects to submit designs for the City to consider for the park.

“We’re going to pay $10,000 for the best ideas from the best landscape architects and select the top three firms to participate,” Reilly further suggested. Updates on the Cays Park Master Plan with a draft Request for Proposal is planned to be brought forth as an item for further Council discussion at the Oct. 4 city council meeting.

During this period, a certificate of appreciation was also presented to Sean Briley representing the Coronado Public Library on behalf of the Daughters of the American Revolution for hosting and facilitating events in celebration of the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. Councilmembers also thanked Judy Bowen for her work in organizing Constitution Day celebrations in Coronado.

The Council then heard two presentations during the city manager’s report, beginning with an update from the Fire Services Department by Fire Chief Mike Blood. Over the past fiscal year, the department has primarily responded to medical aid calls (76% of calls), followed by fire response calls (~10%), with small percentages of traffic and other more specialized incidents making up the remaining incident counts for the year.

“[It] averages out to about 6.2 calls per day and about 2.9 transports per day,” Blood added. Response times for the department during this time period averaged out to about five minutes (an average travel time of about three and a half minutes and prep time of about one minute).

The majority of incidents occur in the village section of Coronado with 1,807 incidents over the past fiscal year (with 850 transports) in “Coronado North.” The Cays and other “Coronado South” areas accounted for 324 incidents (with 151 transports) while the Port Lands had 129 total incidents (with 57 transports).

The Fire Services Department has also been working to increase the number of inspections performed for special events, engine companies, and other mandated inspections. Since April of 2022, 16 inspections have been completed including three school inspections, one for the City jail and detention center, and 12 residential inspections for hotels/motels and apartment and condominium complexes. “My goal is by April of next year to be able to report 100% has been inspected,” Blood stated.

Additionally, as the department has been working to return to normal public operations from the pandemic, they have led a variety of public education and open house events in the past year, including active shooter presentations, a disaster preparedness presentation, and reinstating the Learn not to Burn program for young students. The next event is a public safety open house in collaboration with the police and lifeguard departments, which is scheduled for Oct. 9.

Each firefighter in the department has logged over 250 hours of training over the past year with the department facilitating interagency in-service training with metro zone partners. The department is also running probationary firefighter training for new potential firefighters to fill the department’s four vacancies.

Chief Blood also gave a recap of lifeguard operations, noting there were 480 ocean rescues over the fiscal year, 1,624 minor medical aid situations (mostly stingray related), 41 major medical aid incidents, five vessel assists, and 9,776 municipal code contacts (violations surrounding glass, dogs, kites, etc.). From May through August of 2022, Coronado Beach also saw 30 beach closures, 12 warnings, and seven advisory notice days due to water quality issues.

The Coronado Police Department (CPD) then spoke to the Council regarding e-bikes. Over the past year 34 bike-related incidents have been reported, the majority of which involved vehicles and bikes or were solo bike incidents. Captain Dustin Kulling also noted that between January and August of this year, 57 citations and 119 written warnings have been given to juveniles in bike-related contacts (all bikes, not just e-bikes).

Councilmember Casey Tanaka was interested in encouraging a contact approach to bikes and e-bikes and opportunities to create positive experiences with officers educating juveniles. Kulling added that officers are actively giving positive feedback to juveniles who are following the traffic laws on bikes, wearing their helmets properly, etc.

Councilmember Bill Sandke also asked if other uniformed personnel such as reserve officers and senior volunteers are being utilized to help monitor bike safety around the island as well, and whether they can give warnings or citations within those roles. Kulling mentioned that there are some actions they can take and that often a juvenile’s parent will be contacted on the scene.

In April the CPD also partnered with the Coronado Unified School District as well as Coronado MainStreet, the Coronado Mobility Commission, and the Bike Coalition of San Diego County to hold three bike rodeos; one at Coronado Middle School, one at Silver Strand Elementary School, and one at Village Elementary School. “They’re amazing events where we got to interact with the kids,” Kulling described of the rodeos. “They had obstacle courses of sorts, and we had a lot of face time with them to talk about helmets, rules of the road, and those kinds of things. … Those went very well.”

Additionally, CPD has begun to track vehicle speeds on the Bayshore Bikeway weekly to get a better idea of what kinds of vehicles are being used on the bikeway. The average speed that has been noted by vehicles that are faster than eight miles per hour is 14 miles per hour, with a top speed that has been captured at 23 miles per hour (from an e-bike).

Kulling noted the nuanced laws that currently exist around e-bikes that the department is navigating such as the different ways in which such a vehicle can be used (as a bicycle with the motor off or as a motorized vehicle). “One of the challenges of the Bayshore Bikeway is that there’s no posted speed limit,” he mentioned. “When you get on it you’ll see a sign that says no motor driven vehicles and it’s very confusing to the public when they see an e-bike.”

While e-bikes can be tampered with to increase their maximum speeds, such vehicles would be prohibited from being used on public roadways as the vehicle code prohibits such vehicular alterations. Kulling also explained that the Bayshore Bikeway is not a road, but as a Class One bikeway is still regulated by the vehicle code and allows the use of Class One, Two, and Three of e-bikes.

To help enforce existing rules and regulations around e-bike usage in different areas of the city, the CPD is using the data they’ve collected to help in efforts surrounding education, enforcement, and engineering to reinforce community safety. “We’re taking a broad look at the problem through a number of different lenses to impact [this issue] positively.”

Councilmember Mike Donovan asked if there are any steps the City could take while the State re-evaluates definitions and rules around bikes that could help create safer environments around e-bike usage.

City Manager Tina Friend responded that the City is currently exploring avenues of potential ordinance changes, new regulations such as speed limits, limitations on where e-bikes could be used in town, and helmet regulations that could improve safety. “We couldn’t regulate the equipment itself,” Friend explained, “but we can regulate how it’s applied and used here in Coronado.” The City plans to have a future policy conversation around the topic with the council later this year.

Lastly, Division Chief Jayson Summers of the Fire Services Department also gave a complementary report on the topic from incidents the Fire Department responded to. Summers noted that in the reporting system used by the department, there is no delineation in incident codes between bikes and e-bikes so the data is unable to show specifics in terms of an incident was due to an e-bike or regular bicycle.

In 2021 the Fire Services Department noted 27 bike-related incidents they responded to while in 2022 there has so far been a total of 15 incidents. The majority of incidents for both years have occurred on the Strand, followed by in the Village, with one reported bike incident from 2021 occurring in the Cays.

Summers added that the majority of bike incidents the department has responded to on the Strand have not been e-bike related. “[The Strand] is generally used for competitive cycling workouts and fitness… and they clip a back tire because they’re drafting a cyclist in front on them, or in a lot of documents I read it’s, ‘I was just pushing myself too hard and I passed out.’”

Of the 15 incidents responded to in 2022, the department has labeled the severity for 11 of those as mild, two as moderate (not life threatening but requires seeking higher level care, i.e. broken bone or stitches), and two as acute (life threatening, major trauma).

Following these presentations the meeting was adjourned. The next City Council meeting will be held on Oct. 4 at 4 p.m., for more information please visit the City’s website at https://www.coronado.ca.us/232/Mayor-City-Council.

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