Special election won't be so special

Campaign spending should be way below normal for credible candidates seeking the crucial fifth seat on Yorba Linda’s City Council in the upcoming June 5 special election.

The top five contenders in last November’s scramble among 10 candidates for two seats raised $161,372 in cash for the race, took in another $8,112 worth of goods and services and benefited from $24,807 more in political action committee expenditures.

Much less will be raised in this year’s battle for a single seat on the governing body, especially since the term lasts just 18 months before reappearing on the 2008 ballot, and many residents--candidates, contributors and voters--are suffering from election fatigue.

While nobody’s anxious to see another cycle of roadway signs, campaign mailers and automated telephone calls so soon, there’s bound to be less of all three this time around.

And missing from the mix will be paid endorsements on the specious voter guides that take cash from candidates who want to link their names with such important-sounding groups as COPS; Family, Faith and Freedom Association; California Taxpayers Alliance; Coalition for Senior Citizen Security; Team California; and dozens of others.

Interestingly, the third- and fourth-place finishers raised the most cash in the November contest, while the two winners were down in fourth and fifth place in the funding race.

Former Councilwoman Keri Wilson, who placed fourth, raised the most money last year, taking in $49,632. Candidate Doug Dickerson, who placed third, was second in the cash sweepstakes with $38,783.

Also, the California Real Estate political action committee paid $12,291 for a mailer for Wilson and $12,516 for a mailer for Dickerson, according to filings with the City Clerk.

Top vote-getter Jan Horton raised $20,698 in cash and another $5,260 in goods and services, which included half the cost of a mailer financed by the local Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment political action committee.

Second-place finisher John Anderson raised $23,592 in cash and $2,294 more in goods and services, which included his half share of the YLRRR mailer. Diane Hudson, who ran fifth in voting, placed third in the funds raised race with $28,670, mostly loans.

Of course, the financial stakes could be raised in the coming council contest, if builder groups and real estate-related PACs get involved in the campaign, as they did with the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote Initiative (Measure B) election last June.

All of the money raised by the unsuccessful No on B forces, a total of $174,150, came from such outside-the-city groups. The No group didn’t list a single donation from an individual or business with a Yorba Linda address on required forms filed with the city.

A FINAL NOTE

Voter participation will be a key factor in the upcoming special election, the first “stand alone” ballot since cityhood passed 1,963 to 638 with a 72 percent turnout Oct. 24, 1967.

The city has had other special elections, but they’ve been combined with regular general or primary elections, which helped boost the percentage of Yorba Lindans casting ballots.

The city has 40,864 registered voters, including 12,445 permanent absentee voters who automatically will be mailed ballots. The remaining 28,419 can ask for absentee ballots by returning cards that will be mailed with sample ballot packets or visit polling places.

Just how many voters will return absentee ballots or make trips to the polls is difficult to predict, except to say that the percentage who do probably won’t match the high number recorded in the city’s first municipal election 40 years ago.

The financing behind council campaigns

Only one of Yorba Linda’s four sitting City Council members is free from campaign debt, according to documents on file at the City Clerk’s office. The other three report $14,950 worth of loans they’ve made to their own campaign treasuries.

Two council members who left office in December list personal loans totaling $24,200; five other past candidates note outstanding loans totaling $61,045; and three additional former contenders listed $26,031 in personal loans before they closed their accounts.

Rarely, if ever, do council candidates contribute cash to their own election treasuries. Instead, they loan money to their campaign committees, hoping to eventually pay back the loans from donations given by supporters during and after the election season.

However, candidates who aren’t elected or re-elected frequently find themselves in a deep financial hole, with few prospects of paying off their loans from more donations.

Mayor Allen Castellano is the only debt-free council member, and he sports the largest cash campaign account with $5,953. John Anderson whittled his original $9,600 loan to $7,000 by paying himself $2,600 from contributions, leaving him with a $1,133 balance.

Jan Horton’s loan amount is $5,950 and Jim Winder’s $2,000, with Horton’s cash balance standing at $2,355 and Winder’s at $762. With the four incumbents eligible for either one or two more council terms, they could reimburse themselves in future years.

But it will be more difficult for former council members Mike Duvall and Keri Wilson to pay themselves back the money they loaned to their treasuries. Duvall’s debt is $10,000 and a zero cash balance, while Wilson’s loan totals $14,200 with a $3,432 balance.

Ken Ryan left office with no debt and a $4,193 balance. Although Ryan didn’t run again, he donated $1,100 to candidate Doug Dickerson and paid two political consultants, including the well-known Dennis DeSnoo, $3,500 from his campaign fund.

The largest debt is $24,800 listed by Diana Hudson--$16,500 to Ramona resident Paul Taylor, $4,100 to Seal Beach dentist Robert Girardi and $4,200 to herself.

Other still-active loans made by past candidates to their campaigns are John Taylor’s $19,193, Jack Parra’s $7,970, Doug Dickerson’s $7,690 and Robert Potter’s $1,392.

Three other past candidates have closed their campaign accounts and written-off their personal loans, including former Councilman Mark Schwing’s $16,702, former Traffic Commissioner Lee Snyder’s $8,189 and two-time contender Walter Bruckner’s $1,140.

Ever since the early and hard-fought council elections of 1970 and 1972, participants in this city’s political process have needed thick skins. Unfortunately, for the past several election cycles, candidates have needed access to some thick wallets as well.

A FINAL NOTE

Two real estate industry political action committees using the same Los Angeles street address were the largest contributors to Yorba Linda election campaigns in 2006.

The California Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC donated $75,000 of the $174,150 raised by building interests to fight the successful Measure B initiative in June. .

And the California Real Estate PAC paid $12,516 for a campaign mailer for candidate Doug Dickerson and $12,291 for a mailer for former Councilwoman Keri Wilson. The group also gave the unsuccessful candidates $2,500 each in November’s council race.

Two Old Town residents were the largest contributors to the grassroots Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment last year. The PAC raised $33,068 in cash, including $6,500 from Jane Adams and $4,000 from Matt Guptill.

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Anderson wants investigation

Some welcome new light might be shed on several of the secretive, behind-the-scenes activities that surrounded the city’s contentious, ill-fated Old Town redevelopment project.

Newly elected Councilman John Anderson wants an independent investigation into alleged improprieties regarding Old Town planning, with specific reference to the closed-door meetings held by the Town Center Ad Hoc Committee the past two years.

A former Old Town developer claims that city leaders were involved in an aggressive campaign to keep residents from signing petitions seeking a public vote on two high-density Town Center zoning ordinances in late 2005 and early 2006.

Greg Brown was a principal with Michael Dieden and Walter Marks in Old Town Yorba Linda Partners, which once held an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city to plan a redevelopment project for the downtown area.

“It was made very clear…that the funding of an information and [petition] suppression campaign was a requirement of any future extension of the…agreement,” Brown stated.

Brown said, “[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 would be.”

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 for the anti-petition campaign, but the City Council rescinded the ordinances after petitioners gathered 9,790 and 9,771 signatures.

An investigation also might include the city manager’s participation in two Building Industry Association-led strategy sessions on the citizen-sponsored Right-to-Vote on Land-Use Amendments initiative (Measure B) in December 2005.

City officials blacked-out Letourneau’s hand-written notes on one meeting agenda before releasing the document to Jim Horton in 2006, prior to his wife’s election to the council.

Brown said he attended the meetings and claimed Letourneau “pitched the home building community to pledge funds to defeat Measure B.” Builders and real estate-related interests eventually put up $174,150 in a failed attempt to beat the initiative last June.

Anderson’s proposed probe deserves support from residents, no matter how they voted in past elections. Maybe nothing illegal or improper occurred in the Town Center planning process, but a redacted document and secret sessions only raise suspicions.

That’s also why citizens should support Anderson’s suggestion that council committee meetings be opened to the public and that the council revise the city’s musty ethics code from the 1970s.

A FINAL NOTE

The successful grassroots Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment group has changed its name to Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation to better reflect the political action committee’s mission, board members announced.

“We’re not just about the downtown but about development throughout Yorba Linda,” leader Ed Rakochy said, noting that YLRRR will focus also on smaller in-fill projects to maintain the community’s desire for low-density development and setback requirements.

Speakers at the group’s Jan. 30 general meeting asked the 47 attendees to get involved in the June 5 election for the crucial fifth council seat. “We need a voice of the people, not the Building Industry Association or other special interests,” Rakochy said.

The group’s nine-member board is expected to endorse 28-year council veteran Hank Wedaa for the position. The five-time mayor previously served from 1970-1994 and 1996-2000.

Why doesn't redevelopment get a closer look?

Always puzzling is the fact that Yorba Linda’s City Council members never seriously question the merits of the city’s Redevelopment Agency, whether from the governing body dais or in election-time campaign material.

That’s a bit strange, since Yorba Linda is the county’s second-most Republican city, as measured by the percentage of registered GOP voters, and several key Redevelopment Agency powers appear to violate long-held Republican Party positions.

For example, an agency can sell bonds secured by future tax revenues without voter approval--a power surely envied by officials at the local school, water and community college districts.

Yorba Linda’s agency now has $81 million in bond debt, which actually totals $126 million, if interest is included and the money is paid by the original stated deadlines.

Agencies also can give tax money or public property to developers or other business interests through a variety of methods, and they can use eminent domain authority to condemn private property to transfer to other private owners.

Of course, Yorba Linda’s agency rescinded the latter power, but members acted out of political necessity, not due to any deeply held, often-expressed governing philosophy.

Redevelopment agencies finance operations from increases in property tax revenues in project areas over a stated base year. Yorba Linda’s agency has collected these tax increments since 1983 from Savi Ranch and since 1990 from Town Center.

This fiscal year, Yorba Linda expects to reap $19.5 million from the two areas, with some 12 percent ($2.44 million) available for projects. The remaining 88 percent ($17.06 million) goes to a housing fund, debt payments, pass through agreements and county fees.

The state-mandated low- and moderate-income housing set-aside always gets 20 per cent of the agency’s revenue ($3.9 million this year), and repayment of debt already incurred totals nearly 24 percent ($4.66 million) for bond sales in 1993, 1998 and 2005.

This year’s repayments include $161,000 for bonds sold to help finance the relocation of the Old Town fire station as was proposed in a now-dead downtown redevelopment plan.

The pass-thorough agreement money, nearly 43 percent ($8.36 million), goes to 17 districts or agencies that previously would have collected portions of property tax increases in the two project areas.

The largest amount goes to the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district ($4.14 million with an additional $1.88 million deferred under terms of a lawsuit settlement agreement) and the least to the Orange County Cemetery District ($100).

Dividing up the rest of the cash are nine more county agencies, three more school districts and three community districts, including the Yorba Linda Water District.

Although Town Center redevelopment plans are on hold, Savi Ranch “big box” retail development has proven very successful, so it’s not entirely unexpected that political principles are ignored when increasing tax revenues are at stake.

A FINAL NOTE

Former Mayor Mike Duvall’s first state Assembly assignments include serving as vice chair of the Transportation Committee and member of the Budget and Insurance committees and a budget subcommittee on education finance.

Bob Huff, who represents eastern Yorba Linda, will serve on Budget, Education, Transportation and a subcommittee on information technology and transportation.

In a recent press release, Duvall, one of 32 Republicans in the 80-member Assembly, called Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second-term Inaugural address “an enjoyable celebration of bipartisanship” and said, “I look forward to working with the governor.”