City council the center of election campaign
The one incumbent and nine other contenders who’ve entered the fray for two City Council seats on the Nov. 7 ballot represent the third largest candidate field in Yorba Linda history.
Just three of 20 council elections drew more candidates than the current contest: 27 fought for five seats in 1967, 18 for five seats in 1970 and 11 for three seats in 1976
But strangely, challengers this year showed little interest in local school trustee positions and absolutely no attention to the director posts on the area’s water boards.
In the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district, only 17-year teaching veteran Eric Padget, a member of the Measure Y bond oversight committee, is challenging four-term incumbent Karin Freeman and two-term incumbent Jan Wagner.
All three are Yorba Linda residents and all three paid the $1,374 fee for a 200-word statement to be mailed with sample ballots to the district’s 86,177 registered voters.
In the North Orange County Community College District, incumbent board members Jeff Brown of Yorba Linda, Barbara Dunsheath of Cypress and Donna Miller of Buena Park will be appointed to new four-year terms because nobody filed to run against them.
Mike Matsuda of Yorba Linda, appointed to the board in 2005, faces educator Tim Shaw, but only Matsuda paid the $3,722 fee for a statement to the district’s 399,603 voters.
In the Yorba Linda Water District, incumbents Paul Armstrong, Bill Mills and John Summerfield also will be named to new four-year terms, since they drew no challengers.
Armstrong is Yorba Linda’s longest-tenured elected leader, with 13 years on the old Yorba Linda elementary school board and 24 years with the water district. Mills has served nearly seven years on the water board and Summerfield close to six years.
Also to be appointed to a new four-year term is Brett Barbre, who has represented Yorba Linda and four other cities for six years on the county’s seven-member Municipal Water District board, which oversees imported water supplies.
Barbre is a 1981 Esperanza High School graduate and Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. He still hasn’t paid a 2002 small claims court judgment for $1,160.90 obtained by the Sunrise Rotary Club for 10 Lobsterfest tickets.
Some water board and school trustee incumbents say they attract so little electoral interest because their public-funded agencies are well run and non-controversial.
Other reasons might be that few voters are aware the positions are elective and meetings aren’t televised on local cable systems. And ousting firmly entrenched incumbents from the little noticed, down-ballot positions can be prohibitively expensive for challengers.
A FINAL NOTE
Judging by some anonymous communications I’ve received recently, a dose of party politics might be injected into the normally non-partisan City Council race this year.
With 24,269 Republicans and 8,880 Democrats registered to vote in Yorba Linda, some contenders will tout their GOP credentials, hoping to gain an edge with party loyalists.
But an all-Republican council approved eminent domain authority and used tax money to buy Old Town properties with an eye toward consolidating the parcels and reselling them to a pre-selected developer, activities hardly consistent with long-time Republican values.
Rather than trust unreliable party labels, Yorba Lindans should consider the goals of each candidate and question closely the tactics they’ll employ to reach those objectives.
Just three of 20 council elections drew more candidates than the current contest: 27 fought for five seats in 1967, 18 for five seats in 1970 and 11 for three seats in 1976
But strangely, challengers this year showed little interest in local school trustee positions and absolutely no attention to the director posts on the area’s water boards.
In the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district, only 17-year teaching veteran Eric Padget, a member of the Measure Y bond oversight committee, is challenging four-term incumbent Karin Freeman and two-term incumbent Jan Wagner.
All three are Yorba Linda residents and all three paid the $1,374 fee for a 200-word statement to be mailed with sample ballots to the district’s 86,177 registered voters.
In the North Orange County Community College District, incumbent board members Jeff Brown of Yorba Linda, Barbara Dunsheath of Cypress and Donna Miller of Buena Park will be appointed to new four-year terms because nobody filed to run against them.
Mike Matsuda of Yorba Linda, appointed to the board in 2005, faces educator Tim Shaw, but only Matsuda paid the $3,722 fee for a statement to the district’s 399,603 voters.
In the Yorba Linda Water District, incumbents Paul Armstrong, Bill Mills and John Summerfield also will be named to new four-year terms, since they drew no challengers.
Armstrong is Yorba Linda’s longest-tenured elected leader, with 13 years on the old Yorba Linda elementary school board and 24 years with the water district. Mills has served nearly seven years on the water board and Summerfield close to six years.
Also to be appointed to a new four-year term is Brett Barbre, who has represented Yorba Linda and four other cities for six years on the county’s seven-member Municipal Water District board, which oversees imported water supplies.
Barbre is a 1981 Esperanza High School graduate and Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. He still hasn’t paid a 2002 small claims court judgment for $1,160.90 obtained by the Sunrise Rotary Club for 10 Lobsterfest tickets.
Some water board and school trustee incumbents say they attract so little electoral interest because their public-funded agencies are well run and non-controversial.
Other reasons might be that few voters are aware the positions are elective and meetings aren’t televised on local cable systems. And ousting firmly entrenched incumbents from the little noticed, down-ballot positions can be prohibitively expensive for challengers.
A FINAL NOTE
Judging by some anonymous communications I’ve received recently, a dose of party politics might be injected into the normally non-partisan City Council race this year.
With 24,269 Republicans and 8,880 Democrats registered to vote in Yorba Linda, some contenders will tout their GOP credentials, hoping to gain an edge with party loyalists.
But an all-Republican council approved eminent domain authority and used tax money to buy Old Town properties with an eye toward consolidating the parcels and reselling them to a pre-selected developer, activities hardly consistent with long-time Republican values.
Rather than trust unreliable party labels, Yorba Lindans should consider the goals of each candidate and question closely the tactics they’ll employ to reach those objectives.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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