Council has influence beyond city limits

Yorba Linda’s City Council members have an impact on public policy that extends well beyond the town’s borders due to their positions on a number of county and regional boards with various levels of decision-making authority.

They serve on 12 such boards, in addition to five city committees and three community panels, although some of the groups rarely, if ever, meet.

Earlier this month Mayor Allen Castellano, in consultation with his colleagues, updated appointments to the 20 bodies, including naming Jan Horton and Jim Winder to a new committee to sift through 23 applications for two Traffic Commission posts.

The key assignments are the paid positions at the county Fire Authority and Sanitation and Vector Control districts, since the three agencies affect daily quality-of-life issues. Horton will serve with the Fire Authority and Winder at Sanitation and Vector Control.

The Fire Authority job, previously held by former Councilwoman Keri Wilson, pays $100 per meeting, with a $300 per month maximum, although the 24-member board, representing 22 cities and unincorporated county territory, normally meets monthly.

Winder replaces former Mayor Mike Duvall on the 25-member Sanitation District board, which serves a 471-square-mile north and central county area. The board usually meets once a month but pays $170 per meeting for up to six meetings a month.

Winder also retains his job on the 35-member Vector Control District board, overseeing the work of 51 full-time employees handling mainly fire ant, mosquito and rat problems. The position pays $100 per session, with board members usually meeting once a month.

The only other paid assignment is with the Transportation Corridor Agencies, commonly called the toll roads board, normally meeting monthly. Horton assumes the position held by former Councilman Ken Ryan at $120 per meeting for up to 18 meetings per quarter.

Other regional appointments include Four Corners Transportation (Winder), League of California Cities (Castellano), National League of Cities (Winder), Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency (Castellano), Southern California Association of Governments (Winder) and Trauma Intervention Program (Castellano).

Groups meeting less often, if ever, are North Orange County Interjurisdictions Planning Forum for Growth Management Areas 1 and 4 (Castellano) and North Orange County Cities Transit Feasibility and Alignment Study (Horton).

Two council members serve on each of four city committees which meet behind closed doors: city audit (Anderson and Winder), cable television (Castellano and Winder), police contract (Anderson and Castellano) and solid waste (Anderson and Horton).

Anderson is the delegate to the Chamber of Commerce and Winder continues with the Yorba Linda Water District and the bond committee, if the district initiates a bond issue.

A FINAL NOTE

One key decision facing the fifth council member to be chosen in the June 5 special election involves opening the council’s closed-door committee meetings to the public. Current members are split 2-2 on the issue, based on comments each made at a recent meeting.

Newly elected members John Anderson and Jan Horton favor opening the secret sessions to public scrutiny, while Mayor Allen Castellano and Councilman Jim Winder appear opposed to subjecting the meetings to the “sunshine” provisions of the state’s Brown Act.

The matter should be an important issue in the upcoming campaign because of disputes over what occurred during Town Center Ad Hoc Committee meetings in 2005 and 2006.
Filing for the council position begins Feb. 12 and ends March 9 at City Hall.

The right ideas for an open council

Greater citizen participation in city government and less behind-the-scenes decision-making might be in store for Yorba Linda, if a new Town Hall-type meeting process proves successful and previously closed meetings are opened to public scrutiny.

Both newly elected City Council members John Anderson and Jan Horton promised to initiate Town Hall meetings during their campaigns, and the first, dubbed a “Town Hall Gathering” by sponsor Anderson, was held recently, with Horton also in attendance.

The first assembly was a success, despite the small 48-person turnout, a majority of whom were Anderson and Horton campaign supporters, on the second day of the New Year, which also was the designated day of mourning for former President Gerald Ford.

Anderson, Horton and four top city management officials listened to citizen comments and fielded several questions from an alert audience obviously eager to explore ideas in a forum not limited by the strict rules for public comment during a formal council meeting.

Of course, greater citizen involvement from a wider range of participants is necessary for the long-term success of the gatherings. The meetings should be held in the Community Center and maybe other public buildings throughout the city to allow more participation.

One good suggestion is for all council members to attend, but be stationed at separate tables or sections of the room to avoid violating the state’s Ralph M. Brown Act.

Progress also might be made on opening the council’s ad hoc committee meetings to the public. Anderson was slated to propose at Tuesday’s council session that the city drop the “standing” and “ad hoc” titles and subject all council committees to the Brown Act.

The elected Yorba Linda Water District directors serve on five standing and three ad hoc committees, each of which follows an agenda at regularly scheduled meetings, allows public input and records and publishes minutes recounting discussions and actions.

Serious disputes regarding events at closed-door meetings of the council’s Town Center Ad Hoc Committee last year show the importance of opening all meetings to the public.

And residents certainly would have profited from observing the selection process used by Anderson and Mayor Allen Castellano when they forwarded the names of seven out of 22 contenders for the vacant council seat to the full council last month.

Citizens also will benefit from pledges made by Anderson and Horton to answer all signed e-mail--from supporters and critics alike--and a city plan to research the cost of streaming council meeting video on the Internet.

This new openness and responsiveness in city government will be a plus for all residents, no matter who they support at election-time.

A FINAL NOTE

Also at the first Town Hall Gathering, council members John Anderson and Jan Horton clarified pre-election statements that the city needs five new Planning Commissioners.

Anderson wants the current commissioners to resign, with the council reappointing two “for institutional knowledge” and selecting three new members for four-year terms. He noted, “The Planning Commission is out of touch with the city.”

Horton favors term limits for all council-appointed commissioners, similar to a 1996 voter-approved city ordinance capping council service at three four-year terms.

Planning Commissioners were criticized for approving new Town Center zoning rules at a single November 2005 meeting, which forced the eventually successful petition drive against the ordinances to be conducted during the Christmas-New Year’s holiday period.

Some Yorba Lindans don't appreciate election

Judging by anecdotal evidence--comments at public meetings, letters to the editor and a few e-mails to this columnist--some Yorba Lindans aren’t appreciating the opportunity they’ll have to select a fifth City Council member on the June 5 special election ballot.

Last year was pretty busy politically: petitioners gathering signatures to convince council members to rescind two Town Center zoning ordinances, legal efforts to keep the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote initiative off the ballot, the measure’s narrow victory at the polls and finally the election of two new low-density advocates to the city’s governing body.

So understandably, many citizens are tired of a fusty political process that includes expensive campaign mailers, paid-for endorsements on phony voter guides, recorded phone calls and way too many signs cluttering public thoroughfares.

Complaints about the ubiquitous street signs seem to symbolize the weariness that overcomes many residents during a long campaign season, and they’re not ready to see the entire process repeated just a few months later to select a single council member.

The signs also cause a great deal of bitterness among the candidates themselves as they fight for optimum placement of their placards and sulkily grumble that other candidates apparently enjoy preferential treatment from the city’s code enforcement officials.

Many contenders don’t follow the few simple rules adopted by past councils for posting signs on public and private property, even though the regulations are easily accessed on the city’s Web site. Perhaps the ability to read and understand city ordinances should be a requirement for holding office.

Residents are concerned about an estimated $160,000 election price tag, so some trot out the clichéd police-service comparison--“that’ll pay for an additional street cop”--but nobody will be hired or fired because the expenditure will come from the city’s hefty reserve account.

Very unsettling are comments that Yorba Lindans will have to “endure” another election. Most of the world’s citizens don’t have the privilege of “enduring” a democratic system, so we shouldn’t be so quick to give up our responsibilities under our form of government.

Maybe voter turnout will be low. Maybe that’ll be due to people turned off by politics. Maybe people won’t vote because there’re too busy and can’t be bothered. Or maybe, as a speaker said at a recent council meeting, “uninformed” voters make “stupid” choices.

But we should remember to rejoice that we have the opportunity to select our leaders in an open election forum. Otherwise, our representatives will be chosen for us in the political backrooms through a process kept hidden from public scrutiny.

A FINAL NOTE

Several of the 48 citizens attending the first “town hall gathering” featuring City Council members John Anderson and Jan Horton on Jan. 2 expressed fears that developers will “buy” the crucial fifth council seat by pouring thousands of dollars into the upcoming campaign.

But voters supported the Right-to-Vote on Land-Use Amendments initiative in the face of a $174,150 opposition campaign financed entirely by building industry and real estate-related interests last June.

And voters relegated two council candidates who accepted money from the California Real Estate Political Action Committee to third- and fourth-place finishes in November.

So maybe Yorba Lindans are following the issues and, yes, even reading the newspaper, as they analyze what they think is best for the city’s future and cast ballots accordingly.

Election is good for giving residents a voice

Yorba Linda’s top political news for 2007 will be the same as the number one story last year--a hotly contested City Council election with the potential for determining future development standards in a community struggling to maintain its low-density heritage.

The forthcoming June 5 ballot will fill the council vacancy created by the resignation of former Mayor Mike Duvall, who voters so wisely dispatched to the state legislature.

Although costly, an election will result in a council member accountable to the citizenry, not indebted to a voting block configuration of the other council members, who tried and failed several times to agree on a replacement to fill the final two years of Duvall’s term.

Such an independent voice is well worth the price of a special vote, which could reach $160,000, especially since council members badly fumbled their attempt to craft a credible appointment process that didn’t smell of back-room political cronyism.

A council committee met behind closed doors to screen applications from 22 individuals, but no selection standards were announced in advance of the single private meeting held by Mayor Allen Castellano and newly elected Councilman John Anderson.

In a public session, council members conducted short question and answer sessions with six of the individuals whose applications were forwarded to the full council by Anderson and Castellano with no mention of the criteria used for evaluation.

Council members lobbed softball questions to some of the contenders, while other candidates were hit with fast-pitched hardballs.

And unfortunately for the poorly defined process, some council members communicated with some applicants in advance, while most candidates were left outside the “buddy system.”

Expected to activate candidacies during next month’s filing period are seven-term council veteran Hank Wedaa and last November’s third-place finisher Doug Dickerson.

If Wedaa runs, his former council ally Mark Schwing isn’t expected to file; and if Dickerson runs, former Councilwoman Keri Wilson probably won’t make the race.

Additional potential candidates include former Parks and Recreation Commissioner Steven Brunette and current Traffic Commissioner Larry Larsen. Others contenders might include some of the December applicants and a few who ran last November.

Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment, which supported winners Anderson and Jan Horton in November, is poised to endorse and work for Wedaa.

To date, only two special elections have been held in the city’s nearly 40-year history: in March 2000 Ken Ryan won the council seat vacated by Gene Wisner by 1,169 votes and in June 2006 voters approved the Right-to-Vote initiative by 299 votes.

But both ballots were consolidated with already scheduled primary elections, so voter turnout was higher (20,339 in March 2000 and 13,940 in June 2006) than is anticipated for this stand-alone election. Last November, 23,354 Yorba Lindans cast ballots.

A FINAL NOTE

Five-time Mayor Hank Wedaa, whose two council stints included the years 1970-1994 and 1996-2000 for a 28-year city record, will celebrate his 83rd birthday Feb. 15.

Wedaa says his pledge to not seek another term in 2008 was based on being appointed to the vacant council post. He notes the vow is “off-the-table” if he’s elected in June.

Interestingly, Wedaa could run again in 2008 and 2012, whether or not he wins in June, since the term limit law, which went into effect Dec. 13, 1996, refers to “three full terms” and appointment to “more than one-half” of a term.