Tonight's City Council meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. You can also watch the meetings on KTOP (local channel 10) and streaming online. Click here to view the full agenda.

Here are our Top 5 to watch tonight:

7.11 and 18: Salary adjustments

The compromise budget passed by the City Council last month depended on the concessions from the city's five unions. Due to the last-minute nature of the negotiation, Council passed the budget before the unions actually voted to accept the concessions.

Members of the International Association of Firefighters - IAFF Local 55 - voted to accept the compromise negotiated between their leadership and the City Council. With item 7.11, these lowered salaries become official.

The IAFF accepted a reduction of $8.35 million in salaries for each of the three next years. This saves the city a total of $25.05 million. The IAFF Local 55's represents 500 employees in the Oakland Fire Department, so the concession works out to an average $16,700 per employee per year, which is reportedly 8.85 percent.

The staff report for 7.11 includes a new pay scale for Oakland's firefighters. Without considering benefits or overtime, a new firefighter starts earning $5,829.50 a month with the OFD.

As an unfortunate coincidence, tonight's meeting also will consider a pay increase for new City Administrator Deanna Santana. Santana will receive $273,000 per year, up 3.4 percent from the previous City Administrator. For reference, this is higher than the 1.2 percent cost of living increase since 2010.

14: Amend Oakland's Charter to return City Attorney to an appointed position

Since City Attorney John Russo's resignation in May, the selection of his successor has created quite a stir. Items 11, 12 and 13 on tonight's agenda all deal with the aftermath of Russo's resignation. The City Council is authorized to appoint a City Attorney for the remainder of Russo's term, but the Council will likely pass that decision onto voters during a special election later this year.

That's why Item 14 is so interesting. Councilwomen Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan propose making the position of City Attorney an appointed position, rather than an elected one.

The Councilmembers point out that 97.5 percent of California cities appoint their attorney. They also argue that the City Attorney's position as legal counsel to the City Council, mayor and city departments, so having an elected Attorney creates a potential conflict of interest "between what is best for his client, the city, versus what is best for him or herself as an elected official."

The logical counterargument is that the Council and Mayor also serve at the preference of the electorate, so the Attorney is just one more person that must filter the city's business through their own lens of public opinion. Is that necessarily a bad thing, or just another opportunity for political posturing?

7.20: Require notice of public telecommunication infrastructure

Any attempt to construct a new cell phone tower (and similar) often sparks vigorous controversy. Some people worry about radiation, and others just want to see their view preserved from ugly towers, while some people value clarity of signal above either of these concerns. To give communities a chance to have this debate, the zoning department requires that everyone near a proposed private telecommunication tower, pole or antenna receive 30 days notice of the project.

Until now, city-owned telecommunication installations have been exempt from this requirement. Because these projects are constructed for public safety, and not regulated by the Oakland's planning code, the city was exempt from issuing public notice.

This did not sit well with neighbors of the Butter's Canyon Fire Station. A 100-foot pole went up as part of an overhaul of the city's Fire and Police telecommunications system. The visual impact of the pole upset the neighbors, many who choose to live in the area for the view, and Dist. 4 Councilwoman Libby Schaaf proposed this item to close the city's public notice exemption.

7.21: Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) annual reports and payments

Neighborhoods all over the country often create special districts called "Business Improvement Districts" or "BIDs" (some times "Community Benefits Districts") when they want to tax themselves a bit more to pay for collective improvements. Oakland has several of these, including Downtown Oakland, where tenant fees pay for special events, ambassadors and other things the city just doesn't have the time or money to pay for.

BIDs are different than other neighborhood associations because once the district line is drawn, everyone inside has to pay into the BID's fund. How much they pay can vary on how big their property is, how many feet of frontage on a main road they have, the assessed value, or some combination.

To be entirely fair, even public agencies pay fees for properties they own within the districts. For the next fiscal year, the city and Redevelopment Agency will pay $182,026.03, including:

• Temescal/Telegraph - $2,112.41
• Koreatown/Northgate - $11,535.50
• Downtown Oakland - $120,012.99
• Lake Merritt/Uptown - $46,364.73

About a third of this money goes to pay for city-owned parking garages and lots.

7.17: See Click Fix Agreement

SeeClickFix is a website that lets people post non-emergency problems in their neighborhood. Things like potholes, damaged street lights, illegal dumping - anyone can use a computer or smart phone to make an account and report the problem. Over 300 service problems in Oakland are already posted on the website.

This is all fine and good, but SeeClickFix really needs someone on the other end to see these reported problems, do something about them, and then relay that back to the system. The item will do just that.

For a $10,000 annual license fee, SeeClickFix will help the city of Oakland's Public Works Agency integrate its own reporting system into the SeeClickFix website. The license fee will decrease to $8,000 a year in the future.

Considering the existing phone (510) 615-5566 and email address (pwacallcenter@oaklandnet.com) already take about 30,000 services requests a year, this slick new interface will make it easy for Oaklanders to increase the number of reported problems. The site already has 300 reported problems in Oakland.

The ongoing budget woes suggest that the total number of things "fixed" is unlikely to keep pace, but at least people will know when their report is handled.