A look back at 2007

A look at the best—and sometimes not-so-best—in Yorba Linda from 2007:

Best City Council decision: Restoring openness to municipal government by eliminating closed-door council committee meetings, except for exclusions allowed by state law.

Second-best City Council decision: Paying facilitators $99,000 to help the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee develop clear recommendations for Old Town redevelopment.

Worst City Council decision: A wrong-headed attempt to restrict Chamber of Commerce free speech rights by forbidding use of the organization’s resources for campaign activity.

Most responsible City Council decision: Ignoring political and personal differences by naming Jim Winder mayor and Jan Horton mayor pro tem under a wise rotation policy.

Best decision by voters: Returning 28-year City Council veteran and transportation and environment expert Hank Wedaa to the governing dais for an 18-month period last June.

Strangest election Web site claim: Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation leaders “expouse communist ideals” and cover them up “under the name of Democrats.”

Best individual City Council member: John Anderson has worked diligently to fulfill reform promises he made in the 2006 campaign, despite losing some 3-2 and 4-1 votes.

Best method of covering all political bases: Mayor Jim Winder donated money to both Hank Wedaa and Keri Wilson in June’s bitter battle to select one City Council member.

Least reflective moment: Assemblyman Mike Duvall told a Town Hall audience he wouldn’t change a single vote he cast during six years on City Council (2000-2006).

Least successful strategy in a one-contest special election drawing a high percentage of retired voters: Stress a candidate’s age and mention mental and physical stamina issues.

Most surprising campaign contribution: Jan Horton, the city’s rep on the Orange County Fire Authority board, accepted $1,500 from the union representing Authority firefighters.

Best evidence of citizens eager to serve in city government: The record-breaking number of applications for three open Planning Commission positions.

Best method to bring more citizens with fresh ideas into city service: Limiting Planning, Parks and Recreation, Traffic and Library commissioners to three consecutive terms.

Best innovation: Streaming live video and archiving City Council meetings on the city’s Web site and providing easy access to the background reports for items on each agenda.

A list for Santa

Word has leaked from a closed-door meeting involving Santa and his elves discussing possible gifts for people who live or work in Yorba Linda:

Superintendent Dennis Smith: An endorsement of the 2008 $200 million bond measure by the Yorba Linda City Council, which refused to endorse the 2002 bond on a 3-2 vote.

Friends Christian High School superintendent Rick Kempton: A clean bill of health for the 21 abandoned oil wells on the 32-acre Bastanchury Road site leased from the city.

Chamber of Commerce directors: A surge of new members and fundraising ideas so the group eventually can operate without restrictions that come with an annual city subsidy.

Mayor Jim Winder: A full 12-month term as the city’s ceremonial leader to compensate for the shortened 8-month stint he served his first time in 2003.

Councilman John Anderson: Widespread support for him to revise his stated intent to serve only four years and consider runs for two more terms and then judge or county DA.

Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee members: A positive City Council response to their recommendation for a citizen panel to keep an eye on Old Town redevelopment.

Councilman Hank Wedaa: A round of applause for tackling tough railroad issues past city leaders said were unsolvable by local government because of federal jurisdiction.

New Planning Commissioners Mark Abramowitz, Robert Lyons and James Wohlt: The resolve to never forget the reasons most people cite for buying or renting in Yorba Linda.

Yorba Linda Arts Alliance groups: Serious City Council consideration on the location of a cultural arts facility that will draw residents from all areas to a more vibrant downtown.

Yorba Linda Country Riders and other equestrian enthusiasts: A major role in designing an Old Town that properly reflects the community’s historically important horse heritage.

Assemblyman Mike Duvall: A turnout larger than 24 people, which included his wife, three staff members and a columnist, at his next Town Hall presentation in Yorba Linda.

A FINAL NOTE

One item Santa won’t drop off in Yorba Linda any time soon is a skateboard park, one sure-fire way to bring a classic NIMBY response from all of the city’s geographic areas.

Councilman Hank Wedaa withdrew his motion to look at establishing one or more skate parks in the community after listening to negative impact statements at a recent meeting.

Noting the adverse effects they’ve witnessed at skate parks in other communities were Councilman and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sergeant Allen Castellano, Brea Police Captain Robert Bugbee and Parks and Recreation Director Sue Leto.

Council starting to gel

(This is the complete version. A slightly edited column appeared in the newspaper.)

With two City Council members completing a year in office and a third finishing a six-month return engagement this past week, report cards with mostly high marks could be distributed to John Anderson, Jan Horton and Hank Wedaa.

The trio engineered a new openness to council proceedings and even convinced seven-year veterans Allen Castellano and Jim Winder to support some procedures that allow greater public input at more open-door meetings.

No longer do council members return from closed-door sessions with everyone on the same page on key development decisions, as occurred during the recent high-density Town Center planning fiasco.

Of course, this new open process lengthens meeting times and creates a need for more review groups, such as the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee and that body’s well-thought recommendation for a Town Center Specific Plan Citizens Advisory Committee.

But the return to a democratic governing style has resulted in more residents than ever volunteering for open council seats, city commission positions and posts on short-term committees, such as the blue-ribbon body.

Now, after a rocky start, council members appear able to work together, as shown by naming Winder mayor, adhering to a sensible rotation system established by the first council in 1967 and putting aside personal and political animosities.

And Anderson, who recently dropped comments critical of Horton’s voting patterns from his Web site, nominated Horton to serve as mayor pro tem, putting her next in line for the top job.

A complete list of the city’s mayors and mayors pro tem and a voting history of the city’s 22 council elections is posted at http://yorbalindahistory.blogspot.com.

A FINAL NOTE

Some officials are worried that an unusual confluence of tax and fee hikes might hurt chances for passing a city landscape tax increase and a $200 million school bond early next year.

Yorba Linda Water District directors already hiked a monthly sewer fee, and they’ll vote today on charging more for water. The county Sanitation District is phasing in increased fees on annual property tax bills, and costs for two 2002 school bonds remain on tax rolls.

A simple majority from weighted assessment ballots scheduled for mailing Jan. 18 with a March 4 return date is needed to boost the arterial landscape tax, while the threshold for a successful Feb. 5 school bond vote is 55 per cent.

How long should they serve?

Yorba Linda’s voters and elected leaders are conflicted when it comes to limiting the number of years residents can serve as council and commission members.

The latest chapter in this long-running saga is a vote to adopt term limits for 20 council-appointed city commissioners, which include five members each on the Planning, Parks and Recreation, Traffic and Library bodies.

A plan to limit commissioners to three consecutive four-year terms permits panelists to sit out a period of time and serve again later, unlike council members, who, since 1996, are allowed only three elected four-year terms.

At a Nov. 20 meeting, Councilman John Anderson said a “sit out” period defeats the purpose of term limits, and Mayor Allen Castellano noted the council names new or reappoints incumbent commissioners every four years.

Residents have voted for council term limits three times but ignored the restrictions to re-elect a handful of council members to additional terms.

In a 1992 advisory measure, voters supported a two-term limit, 17,604 to 4,817; but two years later, Gene Wisner won a third full-length term—and a fourth in 1998.

Voters in 1996 approved measures for both two- and three-term limits, with the three-term restriction becoming law because it won by a larger margin, 15,087 to 6,096, than the two-term measure, 13,008 to 8,517.

On the same ballot, voters returned Mark Schwing to a third term and Hank Wedaa to a seventh term, placing them first and second in an array of eight candidates. And last June Wedaa was elected to an eighth term.

As transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson counseled in his 1841 “Self-Reliance” essay, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

A FINAL NOTE

Normally, a split 3-2 city council vote raising a city manager’s salary after a performance review might result in the top executive perusing employment ads.

But the council members opposing Tamara Letourneau’s new $209,592 pay don’t fault her performance as much as the 44.5 percent increase since her 2004 hiring at $145,000 and the $26,906 boost in salary and benefits over last year.

Although Hank Wedaa called Letourneau “a keeper,” he joined John Anderson in criticizing the size of the increase and the 12-city survey on which it was based.

At the same session, council voted 5-0 to bump the hourly wage of the city’s lowest paid employees—maintenance worker trainee, office clerk and recreation aide—to the state-mandated $8 minimum.