A look back at 2006 in Yorba Linda

Here’s my compilation of the best--and sometimes not-so-best--in Yorba Linda for 2006:

--Best decision by a Mayor’s blue ribbon committee: Naming Vince Campion as Citizen of the Year, alongside the already honored Paul Armstrong and Norma Keating.

--Most desirable legacies of departing City Council members: Eliminating name-calling among council members at the dais and finally coughing up the money owed the school district by the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

--Least desirable legacies of departing City Council members: Calling citizen petitioners working to preserve the city’s low-density heritage “civic threats” and “naysayers” in a developer-funded letter and the city’s newly blighted, boarded-up Old Town properties.

--Most distressing “cart-before-the-horse” decision: City purchase of Old Town homes and businesses under the threat of eminent domain before approval of a redevelopment plan acceptable to residents.

--Best decision by voters: Approving the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote on Land-Use Amendments initiative (Measure B) last June despite a $174,150 barrage of misleading propaganda funded entirely by developers, builders and other real estate-related interests.

--Second-best decision by voters: Ignoring endorsements from the political establishment and electing two City Council members genuinely pledged to low-density ideals.

--Third-best decision by voters: Sending Mike Duvall and key adviser (wife Susan) to Sacramento, if the powers-that-be allow a sometimes too-candid Duvall to be a player.

--Most puzzling development projects: The Savon (now CVS) on Imperial Highway at the Town Center west entrance and the quickie eat-and-drink strip stores at the east entrance, when an area with fine dining and unique shopping was promised.

--Best decision forced on a developer-friendly City Council: Rescinding eminent domain, which allowed the taking of private Old Town property to sell to developers.

--Worst fiscal decision by a lawyer-friendly City Council: Paying $151,662 to two legal firms to argue both sides of a court case to keep the Measure B initiative off the ballot.

--Worst performance by a political consultant: Dennis DeSnoo’s use of “central casting” blockers to intimidate signature gatherers and petition signers during the campaign to overturn the council’s hastily approved high-density Town Center zoning ordinances.

--Best better-late-than-never City Council decision: Establishing a Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee of actual citizens to make recommendations for the Old Town area after residents demonstrated their distaste for a high-density plan pushed by the council.

--Most predictable political posturing: Local leaders taking credit when Money magazine named Yorba Linda the nation’s 21st best place to live last year, but uttering nary a word when the city didn’t even make the top 100 this year.

A FINAL NOTE

Here’s an unusual year-end category: “Most unexpected political pairing,” for John Anderson’s teaming with Jim Winder to name Winder’s longtime friend and 28-year council veteran Hank Wedaa to the vacant council seat.

On the opposite side was the similar surprise pairing of Allen Castellano and Jan Horton, who opposed Wedaa because they support 12-year term limits and are wary of Wedaa’s entanglements in past council controversies.

Meanwhile, the other 21 applicants for the position, including many well-qualified residents familiar with city issues, might now realize they participated in one of the council’s flawed public-input processes meant to mask behind-the-scenes activities.

Some Christmas treats for Yorba Lindans

This columnist took a quick peek into Santa’s gift bag, and here’s what he’s delivering Sunday night to a few people who live or work in Yorba Linda:

Parks and Recreation Director Steve Rudometkin: Another citywide celebration to oversee, sandwiched between July 4 festivities and October’s Fiesta Day.

Schools Superintendent Dennis Smith: One hundred barrels to collect rainfall to supply Yorba Linda High School with water, so the campus will open as scheduled in Fall 2008.

Veteran hardware store entrepreneurs Art and Becky Brown: Many lease renewals on their historic Main Street business location, which finds room to stock everything.

Mayor Allen Castellano: A gavel that gives equal time and treatment to speakers who praise or criticize the City Council or individual members.

Friends of the Library President Ed Murphy, Book Corner chair Dick Bevers and FOL volunteers: Another successful year raising funds for library programs, including a best-ever start with the Jan. 27 used book sale in the library’s community room.

Political consultant-for-hire and Villa Park resident Dennis DeSnoo: An E-ticket ride out of town, courtesy of Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment.

Caustic council critic Nancy Rikel: Her own public access cable TV show on Tuesday nights, alternating with the council meetings.

Main Street businessman Louie Scull: A completed Old Town revitalization project.

Municipal Water District director Brett Barbre: A free ticket to the next Lobsterfest.

City Clerk Kathie Mendoza and her gracious staff: Fewer initiative, referendum and recall petition signatures to count in 2007.

Arts Alliance founder Gabriella Rollins: A cultural arts facility in the first phase of Old Town revitalization.

Friends Christian Schools Superintendent Rick Kempton: A groundbreaking for the private high school on Bastanchury Avenue sometime soon.

Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee member Pat Nelson: A seat on the Planning Commission.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Phyllis Coleman: A 5-0 council vote on the next city-chamber contract.

Former downtown developer Greg Brown: A chance at another Town Center proposal--but without high-density units, repositioned historic structures and underground parking.

The Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee: Consensus on an Old Town plan that preserves the city’s low-density heritage and earns wild acclaim from residents.

Traffic Commissioner Lee Snyder: The community’s best wishes when he moves to his walnut and apple farm in Atascadero next year.

Cartoonist Kara Dannenbring: A new pen to continue her incisive visual commentary in the Yorba Linda Star.

Downtown residents Jack and Jane Adams and Matt Guptill: Peace of mind now that their properties aren’t subject to eminent domain by the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

Yorba Linda Water District Board of Directors: A successful relocation from the longtime Yorba Linda headquarters to a new facility on Richfield Road in Placentia.

A FINAL NOTE

Santa has a special gift for the citizens who organized Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment, which achieved success with the Right-to-Vote initiative, the Town Center zoning petitions and the support given to two new council members:

A place in the pantheon honoring the community’s historic grassroots groups, right next to two early and effective organizations, the Yorba Linda Homeowners Association and the Steering Committee for Incorporation, which were organized in 1960 and 1961.

Filling council seat a tough job

The first City Council meeting involving newly elected members John Anderson and Jan Horton left little doubt that the city’s governing body will engage in less group-think and express more independent opinions on major issues affecting municipal life.

The former council’s unanimous support for a higher-density downtown redevelopment project is definitely dead, and many past business-as-usual practices will be questioned as Anderson and Horton spend more time behind the dais.

But a key ingredient for a more complete change in the council’s dynamics will be the appointment or election of a fifth member to replace former Mayor Mike Duvall, who resigned to assume his state Assembly job.

Predictable attempts to name the past election’s third- and fourth-place finishers, Doug Dickerson and Keri Wilson, to the vacant post failed on two 2-2 votes, and the nomination of five-time Mayor and 28-year council veteran Hank Wedaa didn’t even gain a second.

Instead, the council called for applications from all residents who were interested in completing the two years remaining on Duvall’s term. Applications were due Dec. 12, and the council is scheduled to again consider a replacement this coming Tuesday.

But it’ll be difficult for any well-known figure to capture the three votes needed for an appointment, since nearly every credible candidate already has lined up with the new Anderson-Horton slate or continuing council members Allen Castellano and Jim Winder.

However, if the council fails to reach agreement by Jan. 3, the members shouldn’t worry about the expense of holding a special election. Voters should be allowed to choose the city’s elected leaders as a first priority.

Ironically, the cost would be about what the past council paid in legal fees and staff time in a failed attempt to keep the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote (Measure B) initiative off the June ballot--maybe in the neighborhood of $160,000.

And a June 5 date isn’t too distant, since the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee won’t be reporting before then, and the four current council members aren’t facing the several nasty crises that plagued the city when Gene Wisner resigned in September 1999.

Fittingly, the newcomers renewed pledges to “listen to the people”--a promise appropriate for all elected leaders. Such a vow should include taking the time to answer signed e-mail inquiries, a task several council members haven’t always accomplished.

Also, council could improve communication by linking meeting agendas posted on the city’s Web site to staff reports and recommendations and streaming meetings live on the site to accommodate residents who use satellite services rather than Time-Warner cable.

A FINAL NOTE

Voters have awarded City Council positions to just four of the 18 women whose names appeared on the ballot in 14 of Yorba Linda’s 21 municipal elections. And among the four, only 2006 winner Jan Horton scored enough votes for a runaway first-place finish.

Carolyn Ewing placed second in a race for three seats in 1972, Barbara Kiley third for three seats in 1992 and 1996 and Keri Wilson second for two seats in 2002. Kiley’s second win was by 26 votes and Wilson’s margin was three votes.

Other female contenders were Betty Christensen (1967); Mary McCormick and Katherine Cavataio (1970); June Matthews (1974); Denise Mulick (1976); Jackie Harrison and Barbara Ady (1978); Barbara Hammerman (1980); Barbara Freeman, Donna Ward and Linda Macia (1984); Mary Nolan (1986); Christine Norris (1992 and 1994); Diana Hudson (2002 and 2006); and Wilson (2006).

School board members return to their posts

A spirited Yorba Linda City Council race that featured convincing wins by two political newcomers was a factor in a closer-than-expected contest for two trustee positions in the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district.

Although Karin Freeman and Jan Wagner won re-election to the school board, challenger Eric Padget gave the popular pair a good run by accumulating 30 percent of the vote against Freeman’s 32.9 percent and Wagner’s 37.1 percent.

Padget needed only 1,725 more votes to match Freeman’s total, out of 60,418 votes marked on the 46,504 ballots cast. Many voters didn’t mark any name in the race or voted for one candidate instead of the allotted two.

Wagner topped the field with 22,387 votes, while Freeman and Padget totaled 19,878 and 18,153. Turnout was 53.4 percent of 87,046 registered voters.

Four years ago, Wagner and Freeman defeated a lone opponent by much larger margins, with Wagner scoring 44.4 and Freeman 42 percent of the vote. Richard French finished with only 13.7 percent.

This year, Wagner, Freeman and Superintendent Dennis Smith endorsed Doug Dickerson and Keri Wilson, the third and fourth-place finishers in the council contest. Trustees Carol Downey, Judy (Miner) Miller and Craig Olson also endorsed Wilson.

The school officials’ support for Dickerson and Wilson was heavily publicized in the contenders’ campaign mailers and on their Web sites and often mentioned during the cable TV airings of the Chamber of Commerce’s candidates’ forum.

Many supporters of council winners Jan Horton and John Anderson, who ran 2,390 and 781 votes ahead of Dickerson’s third-place finish and 3,065 and 1,456 votes ahead of Wilson’s fourth-place finish, voted for Padget in the school race.

Of course, Padget’s vote total also was influenced by strong financial support from the political action committee sponsored by the Association of Placentia-Linda Educators, the union representing 1,175 district teachers.

The Community for Better Schools PAC paid for Padget’s signs, campaign mailers, voter guide endorsements and full-page ads in the Yorba Linda and Placentia newspapers.

The union also offered to endorse Freeman, but the four-term incumbent didn’t accept because the union wasn’t endorsing two-term incumbent Wagner, said Linda Manion, APLE president who was involved in interviews with all three candidates.

Padget is now on full-time release from his Garden Grove teaching position to serve as president of that district’s teachers’ union. He noted, “With the support the community has shown along with the name recognition I have received from this election, you most probably will see my name on the ballot again in two years.”

The terms of Downey, Miller and Olson, unopposed in 2000 and 2004, expire in 2008. Downey took office in 2000, while Miller was first elected in 1988 and Olson in 1992.

A FINAL NOTE

Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee members finally selected officers at the group’s fifth monthly meeting in November. Sunrise Rotary Club and ex-county Grand Jury member Herb Trumpoldt is chair and Traffic Commissioner Larry Larsen vice chair.

Larsen replaces former commissioner and new Councilman John Anderson, while Pat Nelson steps in for Jim Horton, husband of new Councilwoman Jan Horton, as the representative from Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment.

The blue ribbon body is stepping up the pace, with plans to survey residents about what they want and don’t want in the Town Center and to host meetings for community input.

After taking this month off, the 24-member group will meet twice in January.