Political engagement is high

This year is shaping up as one of the most active political times in Yorba Linda’s 39-year history, with only the spirited debates during the 1970 and 1972 elections rivaling the current citizen concern about future residential and commercial development.

And again at stake is this city’s identity as a refuge from the higher-density and traffic-generating projects approved by other City Councils throughout North Orange County.

Forces already are preparing for the two key political battles remaining this year: the June 6 ballot on the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote on Land-Use Amendments initiative and the Nov. 7 election for two positions on the city’s five-member governing body.

City Council members and individuals and businesses associated with the building and development industries are expected to fight the initiative--which would give voters the final say on major changes to city planning documents--with a tooth-and-nail ferocity.

Meanwhile, leaders of the grass-roots group Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment hope to raise enough cash in small and medium-sized donations from citizens to finance several mailers to voters explaining the initiative’s many merits.

Also underway is a behind-the-scenes struggle to select two credible candidates to run against incumbents Ken Ryan and Keri Wilson in the November City Council election.

YLRRR members are expected to endorse and help finance the campaigns of individuals who meet a list of criteria currently being developed during the group’s public meetings.

Last year, Ryan banked $11,846 for his campaign, mostly in $250 contributions from outside-the-city individuals and firms involved in planning, designing and building. Ryan and Wilson need to raise close to $30,000 each for their re-election efforts.

In 2002, Ryan shared some of his campaign cash with running-mate Wilson. The pair also made joint appearances and hired veteran political consultant Dennis DeSnoo.

The busy DeSnoo also worked for Jim Winder in 2000, Allen Castellano and Mike Duvall in 2004 and former downtown developer Michael Dieden in 2005 and 2006.

Residents also vigorously debated development issues before contentious elections in 1970 and 1972, with voters making especially wise, long-lasting decisions both years.

The ’70 voters turned out three of the city’s original councilmen, replacing them with a slate of low-density candidates, who claimed incumbents weren’t listening to residents.

The ’72 voters added two new members to form a unanimous low-density council and approved a historic General Plan that most succeeding councils used to guide future residential and commercial development in both Yorba Linda’s older and newer areas.

Hopefully, voters will continue their streak of wise decision-making, as they carefully consider the important issues involved in the upcoming initiative and council campaigns.

A FINAL NOTE--Council members admitted they’ve lost the trust of too many residents as they grappled with procedures for selecting members for the ballyhooed “blue ribbon” commission to study ideas for the future direction of Old Town area redevelopment.

Instead of choosing the members themselves, the council will ask 23 city organizations to each select a representative to the body, thus avoiding leaving what council members said would be their “fingerprints” on group’s membership.

City Council touched the local third rail

Not only did Yorba Linda’s City Council members touch the electrified third rail of local politics, they held onto it long enough to imperil their survival as elected representatives.

Nothing unites Yorba Lindans--whether they live on the east or west side of town or whether they are relative newcomers or crusty old-timers--like the low-density issue.

Many longtime residents helped establish Yorba Linda’s low-density heritage by working for the city’s 1967 incorporation and winning voter-approval for the 1972 General Plan.

And many who chose to live in Yorba Linda in the succeeding decades have cited the low-density residential development and remnants of a rural lifestyle as their reasons.

But the council’s proposed overhaul of commercial and residential development in the downtown area has rekindled grassroots efforts to maintain a low-density environment.

And apparently, the council’s abandonment of the recently adopted Town Center zoning ordinances, the breakup with Old Town developer Michael Dieden and resolution partially rescinding eminent domain authority won’t mollify hundreds of newly active, concerned citizens.

Participants at a recent community meeting sponsored by Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment were outspokenly angry at council members’ actions, and many argued for the recall of two, three or all five members of the city’s governing body.

However, a recall would waste valuable resources that could be devoted to supporting the Right-to-Vote on Land Use Amendments initiative, which would require vote approval--not just a council nod--for making major changes to the city’s planning documents.

Unless the initiative passes, Yorba Lindans will be faced with the same old story of council campaign winners not delivering on their election-time low-density pledges.

Joining council members in opposition to the initiative is the powerful Building Industry Association, a lobbying group committed to defeating responsible limitations on growth.

A BIA lawyer argued against placing the initiative on the June 6 ballot at a recent court hearing, and the group is expected to pour plenty of cash into an anti-initiative campaign.

The council’s biggest mistake was signing the developer-funded letter to residents opposing a city-wide vote on the rushed-to-completion Old Town zoning ordinances, demonstrating a too-close relationship to the developers and other outside interests.

In the letter, council members called petitioners a “civic threat” and “a small group of naysayers” who have “recruited operatives to stir up opposition” to Town Center plans. Nevertheless, the hardy petitioners gathered 9,790 signatures in just 21 days.

Unfortunately, council members refuse to see that their reliance on campaign contributions from developers and others associated with the building industry, as well as individuals and firms with city contracts, often isolates them from the thinking of ordinary residents.

A FINAL NOTE--YLRRR leaders formed a committee to interview individuals who plan on seeking council seats now held by Ken Ryan and his 2002 running mate Keri Wilson in the November election.

Members are Community Foundation board president Bill Davis, Fairmont Hill board president Sharlene Dunn and longtime resident Tom Lynch. They’ll recommend two candidates for YLRRR endorsement based on criteria developed by the membership.

Can friends fight fair?

Can two longtime Lions Club buddies seeking the same state Assembly seat run positive campaigns focusing on the issues? Or will they resort to the negative attack mailers so often used by candidates fighting for voter approval in hotly contested party primaries?

Yorba Linda Mayor and second-term Councilman Mike Duvall and third-term Brea Councilman Marty Simonoff--friends for years through the Brea Lions Club--are now competing for the 72^nd Assembly District’s Republican nomination on the June 6 ballot.

The state’s lower-house legislative district covers western and central Yorba Linda, along with all of Brea, Fullerton and Placentia and parts of Anaheim, La Habra and Orange.

Registration as of March 3 is overwhelming Republican—96,224 to 62,985 Democrats, so the GOP primary winner is virtually guaranteed a November victory, unless some intervening event or spicy revelation upsets the normal course of Orange County voting.

Both Duvall and Simonoff are expected to spend heavily on colorful brochures they’ll mail to voters’ homes during the next two and one-half months. As of Dec. 31, Duvall had raised $288,645 to Simonoff’s $182,090, with updated reports due Wednesday.

Hopefully, the contenders will use their mailers to clearly explain their stands on state issues, rather than attack each other personally and misrepresent each other’s positions.

The last time the 72^nd District’s GOP voters had a contested primary was in 2000, when the district included all of Yorba Linda and the state experimented with an “open primary,” allowing Democrats and others to cast ballots in the Republican race.

Two candidates--the moderate and eventual winner Lynn Daucher, a former Brea school trustee and City Council member, and conservative businessman Bruce Matthias--traded increasingly bitter charges and insults in a long series of noxious mailers sent to voters.

An issue of special interest to Yorba Linda’s Republican voters in the current contest is the use or threatened use of eminent domain and the proper role for a city Redevelopment Agency in developing property for commercial use and possible high-density housing.

While Simonoff has supported redevelopment in Downtown Brea, Duvall hasn’t cast a vote on Yorba Linda’s Town Center plans because he owns a building on Lemon Drive.

But Duvall has issued a campaign statement, calling for legislation “to protect private property rights from predatory local government entities that are salivating at the prospect of being able to condemn private property to boost local tax revenues.”

Many residents are asking Duvall why he’s never made a similarly strong statement against eminent domain abuses during his six years at the council dais.

A FINAL NOTE--In November, either Duvall or Simonoff will face Democrat John MacMurray and Libertarian Brian Cross, who are both unopposed for their party bids.

Primary races in the 60^th Assembly District--which includes eastern Yorba Linda--are pretty tame. First-term incumbent Republican Bob Huff, Democrat Van Tamom and Libertarian Anthony Watson are running unopposed for their party nominations.

One familiar name on the ballot for the 60^th District is former three-term Councilman Mark Schwing. He’s seeking re-election to the county Republican Central Committee and is the only Yorba Lindan currently serving as an elected party representative.

Activists continue tradition

As a rural community aspiring to cityhood more than 40 years ago and as a growing, mid-sized Orange County municipality today, Yorba Linda is no stranger to courtroom litigation promising to have a dramatic impact on the city’s future development.

Fortunately, most of the court cases have been decided in the best interests of residents, who chose to live in Yorba Linda because of the good schools and low-density lifestyle.

The first legal battle began in 1963 and took four years to reach a conclusion. Three residents--Buel Enyeart, Paul Gibbs and Fred Johnson--asked a Superior Court judge to order a stubborn county Board of Supervisors to set a date for an incorporation election.

After the judge upheld the county’s decision against a ballot, attorney and early resident Jim Erickson guided Yorba Linda’s legal fight for cityhood through various courts, until a unanimous state Supreme Court finally authorized an election in 1967.

The favorable incorporation vote and the 1972 General Plan established Yorba Linda as a low-density city, which wouldn’t have happened under county planning authority or if various annexation attempts by Anaheim, Brea and Placentia had been successful.

This week’s court ruling will allow residents to vote on the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote on Land Use Amendments initiative on June 6. If approved, voters will decide whether or not to alter the city’s major planning documents, rather than City Council members who don’t always deliver on the promises they make to win a seat at the dais.

In the current case, City Clerk Kathie Mendoza was the plaintiff, petitioning the court to invalidate the initiative, while the council was the respondent, supposedly defending its October 2005 decision to place the initiative on the ballot.

However, according to a city press release, the council actually supported Mendoza’s filing. Of course, taxpayers will foot the bills for the city’s attorneys on both sides.

And again, as in the 1960s, residents can thank three individuals--initiative organizers Jim Horton, Dennis Wilson and Jeff Winter--for hiring the lawyers who argued for keeping the initiative on the ballot.

This isn’t the first time a council has acted against residents’ best interests in a legal dispute. In 1999, Placentia-Yorba Linda school district officials had to sue the city’s Redevelopment Agency to obtain revenues promised under a 1983 agreement.

After a ruling supporting the school district, current council members voted to appeal before finally agreeing to a settlement. The city’s legal tab totaled nearly $2 million.

These unwarranted legal actions and unnecessary expenses should rile enough residents to become an important issue this November, when incumbents Ken Ryan and Keri Wilson seek new council terms.

A FINAL NOTE--Jim Erickson was appointed Yorba Linda’s first City Attorney soon after his courtroom success in the fight for cityhood in 1967. One of his first actions was to give the five fledgling council members instructions on the “art of talking to the press.”

As a general rule reporters ask questions that would be embarrassing to the Council or they raise issues that will sell papers. Smile a lot and don’t say much,” Erickson advised, according to the minutes of the final Steering Committee for Incorporation meeting.

Deciding attendance area for new school won't be easy

Establishing the attendance area for Yorba Linda High School is one of the most challenging tasks now facing officials of the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district.

The new YLHS boundary lines will affect enrollments at the district’s three current comprehensive high schools, now home to 3,830 Yorba Linda students, including 2,451 at Esperanza, 1,073 at El Dorado and 306 at Valencia.

Clearly, not all students with a Yorba Linda address will attend the new north Fairmont Boulevard campus, scheduled to open Fall 2008 to freshmen and sophomores.

Adding to the challenge is a district projection showing comprehensive high school enrollment peaking at 8,136 the year before YLHS opens and declining to 7,367 five years later.

The projection does not take into account possible impacts from Friends Christian High School--scheduled to open Fall 2007--or the district’s “open enrollment” program, which is expected to draw an increasing number of transfer students from surrounding districts.

A timeline listing five “open house” dates this month to gather community input has been discarded, according to Doug Domene, the district’s director of executive services.

Domene, a former assistant principal at Esperanza High School, says the process will begin in November or December with the formation of a 20- to 30-member Community Advisory Team, which will include school personnel and parents from all high schools.

The community open houses will be held after the Advisory Team begins examining demographic data, with a final recommendation going to trustees by March 2007. A principal for the new campus probably will be selected after the boundaries are drawn.

Key to the boundary adjustment process is developing optimal enrollments for each of the four comprehensive high schools. The district’s goal is to have all campuses in the 1,800 to 2,200-student range, which, according to Domene, is achievable.

Generally, public high schools in the smaller 1,500-student range find it more difficult to offer a broad spectrum of arts, technology, Advanced Placement and honors classes.

And students at small schools can be conflicted out of some classes they want to take, unless class enrollment figures justify offering more than one section of the courses.

However, Domene says the district is committed to providing equitable programs at all campuses, whatever their sizes might turn out to be in future years. He says there are ways to provide specialized programs at schools that have lower enrollment numbers.

Meanwhile, Domene and other district officials are examining more than 15 scenarios for high school attendance areas that were created by a district-hired demographic company.

A FINAL NOTE--School officials are wise to delay the drawing of new boundary lines until after the November election for two positions on the five-member board of trustees.

Seats held by fourth-term trustee Karin Freeman and second-term trustee Jan Wagner, both Yorba Linda residents, will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot, unless they are unopposed, as occurred with trustees Carol Downey, Judy Miner and Craig Olson in 2000 and 2004.

Creating one new and revising three other high school attendance areas could be a highly contentious process. And it might be best accomplished in a non-politicized environment.