Duvall could be an independent voice

Let Duvall be Duvall.

That’s the message voters should send to Sacramento along with Mike Duvall, the first Yorba Linda City Council member ever elected to higher political office.

Thirty-nine-year resident Duvall will take the oath Monday in the state Capitol building as Assemblyman for the 72nd District, which includes western and central Yorba Linda.

On the floor with Duvall during the ceremonies will be his wife, Susan; her parents will watch from the gallery as other family and friends gather in Duvall’s new office suite.

Duvall could be a reform-minded force in the state legislature, unless party strategists, campaign managers and professional political consultants tame his natural instinct to make sure taxpayers aren’t fleeced in the day-to-day conduct of government business.

One of Duvall’s key assets is his genial personality, developed during many successful years in insurance sales and two terms as president of the local Chamber of Commerce.

He’s widely viewed as the most open and approachable of the current council members, despite his recent decision to limit speakers addressing the council to only three minutes.

And Duvall is unusually candid in media interviews. He told this columnist that his six years of council service helped increase his Old Town insurance company business and that he had to use his position as mayor earlier this year to convince a colleague to quiet his frequent outbursts during council’s closed-door sessions.

At first, Duvall was an unpopular presence on the county Sanitation District and Transportation Authority boards, but his questions about many business-as-usual procedures led him to gain a modest following among some of his fellow directors.

Duvall used his expert knowledge of insurance rules and sales commissions to save taxpayers quite a bit of money in what were previously routine transactions, and he’s built a reputation for his work to return public service pensions to sustainable levels.

If Duvall finds his way through the thicket of high-priced lobbyists and special interests, including those who gave thousands of dollars to help him win the GOP nomination in June and the actual Assembly position earlier this month, he’ll stand out from the usual partisan crowd and merit serious consideration for future elected or appointed positions.

That’ll be especially true if Duvall follows his own ethical standards and continues the pattern of frank talk and inquisitiveness that he’s exhibited at the city and county levels.

Unfortunately, timing might put the area’s state Senate seat out of Duvall’s reach when he’s term-limited out of the Assembly in 2012. Bob Margett’s final term ends in 2008, and Bob Huff, who represents eastern Yorba Linda in the Assembly, will probably run.

A FINAL NOTE

The former Main Street headquarters of the dismissed Old Town Yorba Linda Partners developer team might morph into a new, high-quality restaurant--“the type of place that many in town are asking for,” according to Greg Brown, who was an OTYLP principal.

Brown, who assumed ownership of the former Fazzare Jewelry store after developers dissolved their partnership, says plans for a new two-story structure “with a beautiful façade and interior” were drawn up by Howard Parsell, a Main Street-based architect.

The proposal will reach the Planning Commission in January, Brown notes. Since the commissioners took only one evening to approve new zoning rules for the entire Town Center in November 2005, this small project should be accepted in about six minutes.

Yorba Lindans have a lot to be thankful for

Yorba Lindans have hundreds of reasons to appreciate life in this community, even including some in the political realm. Here are just a few I’ve picked at random for Thanksgiving Day:

--Generally, a long list of elected City Council members, appointed city commissioners and career municipal employees who’ve worked conscientiously to create, nurture and sustain this low-density, family-friendly community.

--The unique partnership that developed between the city’s pioneering residents and the newcomers who’ve arrived in more recent years as they’ve worked together to preserve an irreplaceable environment.

--A local school system that provides outstanding extracurricular opportunities for students in sports, music and numerous other non-classroom arenas despite incredible budget and standardized testing pressures from the state and federal governments.

--The activities of the Yorba Linda Arts Alliance to foster community awareness and involvement in the local art scene and the patient yet persistent efforts by group members and founder Gabriella Rollins to bring a much-needed arts facility to Town Center.

--Tireless community activist Sue Fenwick, local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars post members and other volunteers for raising money for a new military service memorial at Veterans Park on Valley View Avenue.

--The men and women of two admirably active service organizations, the Sunrise and Noon Rotary clubs, for contributing thousands of dollars to so many worthy causes, including scholarships and classroom grants for local students and teachers.

--The dedicated and loyal teaching staff at El Camino High School that provides students who don’t excel in a traditional campus setting a second chance at education’s brass ring.

--An amazing alliance of political neophytes who gathered 8,647 Right-to-Vote initiative petition signatures two summers ago and 9,790 and 9,771 Town Center zoning ordinance petition signatures last December and January to preserve the city’s low-density heritage.

--Two newly elected City Council members who recognize the importance of not soliciting or accepting campaign contributions from developers, city contractors and other individuals and businesses whose profits depend on council decisions.

--The Friends of the Library, whose active members organize book sales and operate the Book Corner to supply funding for many adult and youth-oriented library services.

--Steady progress by school district trustees on the city’s first public high school campus at Fairmont Boulevard and Bastanchury Avenue, which still could open in Fall 2008 for freshman and sophomore students coming from an attendance area yet to be determined.

--And the thousands of parents who volunteer precious time to run the Scouting, 4-H, sports leagues, church groups and countless other organizations that provide positive channels for our enthusiastic youth as they develop the skills they’ll need for the future.

A FINAL NOTE

An era ended Nov. 12 with the death of Bert Valadez in his Yorba Linda home at age 93. He began a 44-year teaching career when Mexican-American teachers and students were segregated at a La Jolla site and not allowed at the newly built Valencia High School.

Valadez was a kind mentor when I started my 36 years at Valencia, home to hundreds of Yorba Linda students before Esperanza opened. The longtime coach and Spanish teacher was never bitter, but he always recounted his experiences truthfully when asked.

“You’ll fatten up when you get married,” Valadez often told this skinny beginner. He was a gifted man wise in so many ways.

Chamber and committee critics have it wrong

Two different city groups--the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee and the Chamber of Commerce--have come in for some harsh criticism lately.

Detractors say the 24-member “blue ribbon” body is unwieldy and moving too slowly in developing recommendations regarding the future of Town Center.

But careful work on the committee’s part is essential to molding a true community-wide consensus for revitalizing the downtown area with new restaurants and shops, while preserving Yorba Linda’s historic low-density environment.

Fortunately, the City Council wasn’t involved in selecting committee members, so the diverse group includes both supporters and opponents of the plan proposed by the now-dismissed Old Town Yorba Linda Partners developer team.

And some members didn’t have strong feelings one way or the other on the controversial concept to add high-density residential and commercial units to sleepy Old Town streets.

So the new council must take any accord reached by the serious-minded members of this committee as probably the community’s best chance to create a more vibrant downtown.

But committee members, after a year or 18 months of work, must reach consensus on a plan or downtown redevelopment could be delayed for decades. A divided committee report would doom the wide-based support any proposed project needs to succeed.

Also unwarranted is some of the criticism aimed at the Chamber of Commerce, which was organized in 1913 to promote local commercial interests. The chamber’s business-oriented agenda, obviously, won’t always match what’s best for Yorba Lindans.

A recent example is chamber participation in aggressive developer-funded efforts against the petitions seeking a public vote on the now-rescinded Town Center zoning ordinances.

Even some of the chamber’s own members criticized the action because it was initiated by the group’s board of directors and wasn’t subject to a vote of the general membership.

But the chamber does play a key role in promoting the city and providing information to prospective residents and businesses, so the council should continue to pay some of the administrative costs associated with the chamber’s valuable work.

The annual $16,000 chamber contract is certainly cost-effective, since providing the same services at City Hall would involve greater expenses for salaries, benefits and materials.

However, the chamber needs to restructure its popular election forum and include school trustee and water board candidates. Also, the group needs a moderator who doesn’t comment on a candidate’s hairstyle, speaking accent or money-saving signs.

A FINAL NOTE

Nearly all of the community’s established leadership, including elected and appointed city and school officials, endorsed Keri Wilson and Doug Dickerson in the past election.

But five-time Mayor Hank Wedaa, whose 28 council years is a city record, put his fame and a bit of his fortune on the line for top vote-getter Jan Horton and running-mate John Anderson.

Wedaa was the only big political name to support both winners. He also wrote and paid for a full-page Yorba Linda Star ad severely criticizing Wilson and Dickerson.

Longtime Wedaa ally and former three-term Councilman Mark Schwing, who endorsed Anderson, said he was “pleased with the election results.” He also noted, “Jan and John won in both west and east Yorba Linda. They deserve a lot of credit, as does YLRRR.”

Schwing also confirmed a previous report in this column that he’s a candidate to fill Mike Duvall’s soon-to-be-vacated seat, whether by appointment or special election.

Open committee meetings to the public

Next month, City Council will select a new mayor and appoint a few fresh faces to some of the city, county and regional committees and boards on which council members serve.

These routine actions are taken once each year, usually at the council’s first meeting in December. Allen Castellano, who’s scheduled to replace Mike Duvall as mayor, will be in charge of proposing the new committee lineups, subject to approval of his colleagues.

The council has five ad hoc committees and two standing committees with two members each to study specific city issues and make recommendations to the full council. Council members also serve on four county boards and 11 other local and regional organizations.

Current ad hoc committee topics include trash hauling, the cable TV franchise, the Brea police contract and Town Center. The panel appointed by then-Mayor Keri Wilson in 2005 to write arguments against Measure B on the June ballot probably will be dropped.

Interestingly, along with the Town Center Ad Hoc Committee, created in June 2005 with members Castellano and Ken Ryan, there’s a Town Center Standing Committee, created in May 2002 with Castellano, Ryan and two council-appointed Planning Commissioners.

Among the regular participants in the ad hoc meetings was Greg Brown, a partner in the Old Town development team that held an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city. Brown took extensive notes during the group’s gatherings in late 2005 and early 2006.

Brown says that city officials and developers worked together closely to fight the citizen-initiated petition drive against the council’s now-rescinded zoning ordinances, which would have allowed added residential and commercial development in Town Center.

But City Manager Tamara Letourneau has denied Brown’s charges that the developers were asked to fund an anti-petition campaign to obtain an extension of their agreement.

Such “he says,” “she says” situations could be avoided if the city’s ad hoc committee meetings were opened to the public with topics to be discussed announced in advance.

The Yorba Linda Water District has seven committees that study, discuss and make recommendations to the five-member board of directors regarding district and water-related issues. Each committee includes two elected directors and appropriate staff.

Committee members meet monthly at regular times and places. Most importantly, they follow an agenda, allow public input and record and publish minutes for each meeting.

The council needs to adopt a similar policy to avoid the perception that important city business is conducted behind-the-scenes, away from public scrutiny. Open committee meetings certainly would match council’s desire to better communicate with the public.

A FINAL NOTE

One hot issue is the amount of time to give speakers to address the council: departing Mayor Duvall’s recently imposed three minutes or the previously allotted five minutes.

The argument that five minutes per person holds up scheduled business isn’t accurate, since longtime policy allows comments to be postponed until after the public hearings.

Maybe incoming Mayor Castellano will suggest a compromise: four minutes would give speakers enough time for unhurried presentations and eliminate some pointless rambling.

Of course, fair and consistent enforcement of time limits and other podium policies--such as the rule against naming individual members when addressing the governing body--can be a difficult task, but it’ll be a good test of the incoming mayor’s leadership capabilities.

An updated rundown on council history

Just how many of Yorba Linda’s 40,576 registered voters will cast ballots in Tuesday’s election is hard to predict.

In last June’s primary, which featured the hotly contested Right-to-Vote initiative (Measure B), only 13,940 residents (35 percent) voted.

But in the 2004 presidential year, 32,564 (81 percent) cast ballots, and in the 2002 non-presidential year, 16,801 (48 percent) voted.

The number of Yorba Lindans who cast absentee ballots compared to those who vote at the polls is climbing, from 17 percent in 2002 to 36 percent in 2004 to 48 percent in June, so maybe about half of this election’s voters have already marked their ballots by now.

For the record, here’s an updated look at the past 20 City Council elections:

1967: Roland Bigonger, Burt Brooks, Whit Cromwell, Bill Ross and Herb Warren win a scramble among 27 candidates for five seats in the first municipal election.

1970: Bigonger and Cromwell win second terms, but Brooks, Ross and Warren lose to Rudy Castro, George Machado and Hank Wedaa as 18 candidates seek the five seats.

1972: Castro wins a second term, joined by Dale Chaput and Carolyn Ewing. Bigonger and Cromwell aren’t among eight candidates running for three seats.

1974: Cromwell returns for a third term and Wedaa wins a second. Machado isn’t among nine candidates contesting two seats.

1976: Chaput wins a second term, joined by Irwin Fried and Doug Groot. Castro and Ewing aren’t among 11 candidates seeking three seats.

1978: Wedaa wins a third term, joined by Rob Cromwell. Groot loses. Rob is the nephew of Whit, who isn’t among seven candidates vying for two positions.

1980: Fried wins a second term, joined by Ron McRoberts and Todd Murphy. Chaput isn’t among six candidates running for two seats.

1982: Wedaa wins a fourth term, joined by current water board director Mike Beverage. Cromwell isn’t among six candidates contesting six seats.

1984: Fried wins a third term and Murphy a second. Gene Wisner, appointed to replace McRoberts in 1983, wins a full term as nine candidates seek three seats.

1986: Bigonger returns for a third term and Wedaa wins a fifth. Beverage isn’t among five candidates contending for two seats.

1988: Fried wins a fourth term and Wisner a second full term, joined by Mark Schwing. Murphy isn’t among five candidates vying for three seats.

1990: Wedaa wins a sixth term, joined by John Gullixson. Bigonger loses as six candidates seek two seats.

1992: Schwing wins a second term, joined by Barbara Kiley and Dan Welch. Fried loses and Wisner isn’t among five candidates contesting three seats.

1994: Wisner returns for a third full term and Gullixson wins a second. Wedaa isn’t among four candidates seeking two seats.

1996: Wedaa returns for a seventh term, Schwing wins a third and Kiley a second. Welch loses as eight candidates go after three seats.

1998: Wisner wins a fourth full term and Gullixson a second as six candidates vie for two seats.

2000: In March, Ken Ryan tops seven candidates running to replace Wisner, who resigned in 1999. In November, Allen Castellano, Mike Duvall and Jim Winder win from 10 candidates seeking three seats. Schwing loses; Wedaa retires.

2002: Ryan wins a full term, joined by Keri Wilson. Gullixson isn’t among the eight candidates contesting two seats.

2004: Castellano, Duvall and Winder win second terms as five candidates seek three seats.