Developer shares e-mails on anti-referendum efforts

Newly released documents confirm that several city leaders were very much involved in an aggressive, behind-the-scenes campaign to keep Yorba Linda residents from signing petitions seeking a public vote on the since-rescinded Old Town zoning ordinances.

Low-density advocates eventually gathered 9,790 and 9,771 signatures on two petitions during a 21-day period last December and January. The council-approved ordinances would have allowed more housing units and commercial buildings in the Town Center.

Greg Brown, a principal with Michael Dieden and Walter Marks in Old Town Yorba Linda Partners, which had an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city, released the documents. They don’t reflect well on Dieden, Brown and some city officials.

Brown has since apologized to Yorba Lindans for his role in the campaign.

His documents include notes taken during council’s Town Center Ad Hoc Committee meetings and letters and e-mails among developers, consultants, lawyers and council members.

Brown said, “It was made very clear to the OTYLP team that the funding of an information and [petition] suppression campaign was a requirement of any future extension of the exclusive negotiating agreement beyond the…expiration date.”

Brown stated, “[City Manager Tamara] Letourneau directly asked me in an Ad Hoc meeting…if OTYLP had reserved sufficient monies to wage the campaign and what our projected budget was to be.”

Brown said he responded, “Yes” and told her that “political consultant Dennis DeSnoo had advised us to be prepared to fund up to $150,000” for the campaign.

Letourneau has said the city didn’t “ever require OTYLP to fight the Town Center zoning petition referendum drive, and it was not ever a condition of any contract or extension.”

The developers eventually put up $115,000 to fight the petitioners, which paid for a letter from four council members, recorded and live telephone calls and several other mailings.

Brown further stated that DeSnoo “designed the campaign with full approval of the Town Center Ad Hoc Committee and the Yorba Linda City Council.” DeSnoo at various times has worked in the election campaigns of all five council members.

Interestingly, one e-mail from Councilman Ken Ryan to DeSnoo (forwarded to Brown) noted, “I want to review anything published on the old town before it goes out….”

And another from DeSnoo to Brown: “We will need to modify [a brochure] to appease [Ryan] and his colleagues.” DeSnoo also e-mailed Dieden and Brown, “Joon will be there…he is a 250-pound Korean. Sounds like a central casting blocker.”

One big petitioner complaint was aggressive action from blockers who petitioners said interfered with signature gathering. A note from Dieden to DeSnoo and Brown stated, “The blockers should be more like guerillas (think Che)….”

Perhaps most alarming is Brown’s Ad Hoc committee note that a top city management official was “giving us intel[ligence] on gathering places for sig[nature]s,” and advising OTYLP to get blockers to the locations.

A FINAL NOTE

I’ve reviewed the 59 pages of documents released by Brown that involve the campaign against the Old Town zoning petitioners as well as city and developer efforts to oppose the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote on Land-Use Amendments initiative (Measure B).

More than one column would be needed to give readers a better sense of the noxious behind-the-scenes activities in both operations, so I’ll have more to say in the future.

But sadly for now, I’m reminded of writer Nora Ephron’s comment: “No matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up.”

Four candidates have the cash to compete

Normally, candidates with large campaign kitties and long lists of endorsements from local elected and appointed officials win Yorba Linda’s spirited City Council contests.

Based on those criteria, incumbent Keri Wilson and retired Brea police captain Doug Dickerson are odds-on favorites to triumph in Nov. 7 balloting for two available seats.

Both are on-track to spend more than $40,000 each in the race, and they’ve lined up support from nearly every elected and appointed official representing Yorba Linda.

Wilson has endorsements from federal, state and county office-holders, all of her council colleagues, 19 of 20 council-appointed commissioners, the Placentia-Yorba Linda school trustees and two water board directors.

Dickerson lists support from all council incumbents, two planning commissioners, two school trustees and school superintendent Dennis Smith, who has made his first-ever council endorsement in any of the five cities served by the Placentia-Yorba Linda district.

But Yorba Linda’s 20th municipal election might not follow a normal pattern—that’s an observation based on two recent political events.

Campaigns against the petition drive to overturn the council’s Town Center zoning rules and Measure B, the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote initiative, were financed by special interests and supported by many of the officials now endorsing Dickerson and Wilson.

Developers contributed $115,000 to oppose the petition drive, while building and real estate interests raised $174,150 to combat Measure B. But importantly, the literature they mailed to residents listed endorsements from the city’s currently established leadership.

However, this year residents ignored recommendations from the political names, as they signed the petitions against the Town Center zone changes and voted to pass Measure B.

That’s why two of this year’s contenders have better-than-usual chances at the polls. They are the pair endorsed by the grassroots Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment group, which organized the petition drive and pro-Measure B effort.

Jan Horton gathered signatures for the Right-to-Vote initiative last summer and for the Old Town zoning petitions in December and January. Horton opposed the city’s since-rescinded eminent domain ordinance, but she supports a revitalized downtown.

John Anderson is a member of the city Traffic Commission--the only commissioner not to endorse incumbent Wilson--and serves on the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee.
The county prosecutor is endorsed by three other traffic commissioners.

Both candidates have enough citizen contributions to finance campaign mailers and pay for endorsements on voter guides, and they’ve motivated precinct-walking foot soldiers.
Of course, lightening could strike, and voters might look kindly at third-time candidate Mike Burns, second-time candidates Walter Bruckner and Diana Hudson and first-time contenders Alex Mikkelsen and Mel Woodward.

But unfortunately, the days of successful low-budget campaigns are long gone, as voter registration has risen from 4,878 in 1970 to 40,517 today. A couple of mailings of those expensive, colorful brochures are essential elements for winning a seat at the council dais.

A FINAL NOTE

As predicted, the misguided effort to recall council members Allen Castellano, Ken Ryan, Keri Wilson and Jim Winder died quietly after some early hullabaloo.

Proponents never mounted a serious campaign, and the Stop YL Recall group officially disbanded Sept. 30, after spending $3,810, including $2,000 donated by Faubel Public Affairs, a Lake Forest-based company that also works for the toll road board formerly chaired by Ryan.

City required quid pro quo, Old Town partner says

Finally, one of the key participants in the ill-fated Old Town redevelopment project is revealing some of the behind-the-scenes political maneuvers involved in the successful petition drive to overturn two City Council-approved Town Center zoning ordinances.

Greg Brown was a principal in the former Old Town Yorba Linda Partners, along with Michael Dieden and Walter Marks. His group had an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city to develop the downtown area with added commercial space and housing.

The agreement was set to expire last January. According to Brown, a pre-requisite for a 90-day extension into April was a requirement that the partners “wholly and unilaterally fund an information and suppression campaign against the referendum efforts.”

Brown says they were required to use Dennis DeSnoo “as the city-approved campaign coordinator.” DeSnoo is a professional political consultant who at various times has worked for the election of all five council members as well as the Old Town partners.

Brown and Dieden contributed $115,000 to oppose the petition drive, with $75,000 coming from Dieden’s Creative Housing Associates and $40,000 from Brown’s BH Urban Equities. Brown owns the Conroy’s-El Pollo Loco center close to Old Town.

The campaign included a developer-paid, anti-petition letter sent to residents and signed by four council members, recorded telephone calls from well-known citizens, including current council candidate Doug Dickerson, and other actions to lower the signature count.

The Town Center Ad Hoc Committee communicated the funding condition in mid-December 2005, states Brown. Present were Councilmen Allen Castellano and Ken Ryan, City Manager Tammy Letourneau and city legal representatives, says Brown.

But Letourneau says the city didn’t require the partners to fight the petitions, and “it was never a condition of any contract or extension.” She states that city staff didn’t ask Brown or anyone working with him to get involved in a campaign, adding, “DeSnoo was never a city-approved consultant.”

(Inquiries sent Sept. 28 to the city parties haven’t been answered or acknowledged by the others.)

Despite the large expenditure, volunteer petitioners gathered 9,790 and 9,771 signatures on the two petitions in just 21 days, including the Christmas and New Year holidays. Only 4,061 names were required to force a public vote on the disputed zoning documents.

Instead of setting an election date, council rescinded the ordinances and dismissed the developers Feb. 7. Brown says the partners were let go “when they had no further use for our services and had exhausted all of the funds possible from us during the campaign.”

Brown now states, “The biggest mistake made by the [Old Town Yorba Linda Partner] team was that we did not resign and walk away from the project in mid-December 2005. For this, I sincerely apologize to the people of Yorba Linda.”

Also, Brown notes, “I have been written up in your column several times on the amount of money OTYLP or I had put up during the campaign and this continues to paint me in a bad light. I do not feel that this is wholly fair, though I fully accept responsibility for my actions during that time period, which I fully regret, and I want to set the record straight.”

A FINAL NOTE

Brown adds, “I have not ever given any donations to any of the existing council members and am very glad that I have not done so. Additionally, I refused to pledge any money to the Building Industry Association or other organizations that were pressuring me to go against Measure B [the Right-to-Vote on Land-Use Amendments initiative].”

“As for what was said and discussed during the [council’s Town Center] Ad Hoc Committee meetings, I have taken copious notes as to what was discussed. If anyone in city government will go on the record and deny that such discussions took place, I would be willing to prove that they are not being honest and forthright,” Brown concludes.

Who will get the third seat on the City Council?

Although balloting for two City Council seats is still a month away, potential candidates already are focusing on the possibility of a special election early next year to fill Mayor Mike Duvall’s council position, since he’ll easily win his state Assembly race on Nov. 7.

Republican Duvall’s opponents are Democrat John MacMurray and Libertarian Brian Cross in the 72nd District, which represents western and central Yorba Linda, as well as parts of Anaheim, La Habra and Orange and all of Brea, Fullerton and Placentia.

District voters include 98,099 Republicans, 64,665 Democrats and 1,334 Libertarians. During the first six months of 2006, Duvall spent $406,741 and MacMurray $13,612. Duvall reported $12,059 cash on hand on June 30, while MacMurray listed $41,843.

Council members will decide how to replace Duvall in December. Options include an appointment--maybe the third-place finisher from Nov. 7--or scheduling another election.

An election is likely, since an appointment would depend on who wins the two seats next month and who comes in third. Animosities often develop among candidates, so winners might not be willing to award a council seat to someone who attacked them weeks earlier.

First contender with a hat in the ring if council calls another ballot is Mark Schwing, a former councilman who served three terms, 1988-2000. Schwing said he’d accept an appointment or run in a special election for the two years remaining on Duvall’s term.

Schwing lost his bid for a fourth term by 101 votes to Allen Castellano in 2000 and a comeback attempt by three votes to Keri Wilson in 2002. He lost a race for a seat on the board of directors of the Yorba Linda Water District by 657 votes to Ric Collett in 2004.

However, Schwing has won five two-year terms on the county Republican Central Committee, twice in the old 72nd Assembly district, which included all of Yorba Linda, and three times in the newer 60th Assembly district, which includes eastern Yorba Linda.

Schwing was ready to run for council again this year. He created a Friends of Mark Schwing ’06 campaign committee in August and arrived at City Hall with the appropriate nominating petition signatures several minutes before deadline but didn’t file for the race.

Although Schwing has attended most council meetings since he left office in 2000, he terminated his previous campaign committee in February 2005. In the process, he gave up hopes of using contributions to repay himself $16,702 he loaned to his committee.

Naturally, many other candidates will emerge if council sets a date for a special election, which would be the second in city history. Gene Wisner’s 1999 council resignation led to a March 2000 ballot, won by Ken Ryan. Interestingly, Wisner also was involved in the only appointment to the council, when he was named to replace Ron McRoberts in 1983.

A FINAL NOTE

Today is the deadline for council candidates who raised or spent $1,000 or more from July 1 to Sept. 30 to file disclosure statements at City Hall. A second pre-election report is due Oct. 26 for income and expenditures from Oct. 1 to Oct. 21.

Reports covering Oct. 22 to Dec. 31 aren’t due until Jan. 31, 2007, and transactions made after Dec. 31 aren’t due until July 31, 2007. In some past city elections, significant sums were deposited to campaign accounts well after voters cast ballots.

The filings, including reports from political action committees, are open to public perusal at the City Clerk’s counter.