Finding the best person for the job

Replacing one of Yorba Linda’s top officials--who was arguably the city’s best-known and most popular manager--is a daunting task, but City Council members are hoping to find the “ideal candidate” to serve as the new Parks and Recreation Director.

Resumes of individuals seeking to fill the shoes of former director Steve Rudometkin are due in City Manager Tamara Letourneau’s office by the end of the day tomorrow.

Rudometkin, a Yorba Linda resident who advanced to a key executive position in a 30-year career with the city before assuming a similar post in Pomona, was one of the last remaining top management officials hired by former 27-year City Manager Art Simonian.

Letourneau has selected most of the employees now occupying director-level positions.

A four-page color brochure was one of the tools used to entice well-qualified candidates to apply for the position, which administers a $5.3 million budget and a department with 22 full-time and 61 part-time employees.

Of course, salary is an important factor when trying to recruit somebody who already enjoys a successful career in another city--Yorba Linda’s current pay for the parks and recreation job is $127,596, but Letourneau can adjust salary based on qualifications.

Fringe benefits include $833 per month for health insurance, an auto allowance of up to $325 per month and paid dental, vision, life and disability insurance, with voluntary plans for a flexible spending account and deferred compensation available.

Yorba Linda offers managers 12 holidays, 15 days vacation (increasing to 20 after five years), 12 days sick leave and five days administrative leave per year.

The recruitment brochure noted the city “believes its management compensation package reflects the ‘world class’ nature of both the organization and the community.”

And a description of the community’s “nature” was written to tempt prospective applicants: “Yorba Linda’s appeal…is due, in large part, to its system of street landscaping, trails and parks” and “100 miles of equestrian, hiking and walking trails.”

The brochure also advises, “The love of horses and the city’s commitment to equestrian activities helps set Yorba Linda apart from other communities. In addition to the well-maintained horse trails, the city has also built three state-of-the-art equestrian arenas.”

Interestingly, the recruiting material labels the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace “the jewel in Yorba Linda’s crown” but doesn’t mention the outstanding schools, which draw many to live and work here.

Since the city’s 135 acres of parks and sports fields, eight activity buildings and youth, adult and senior recreational activities play a vital role in community life, residents expect officials to select a director worthy of Rudometkin’s exceptional legacy.

A FINAL NOTE

A reorganization of the city’s Building Division--including staffing changes and duty reassignments--has been made part of City Manager Tamara Letourneau’s evaluation criteria, according to a document released after a closed-door City Council session.

Letourneau’s 23-point “work plan” for this year calls for holding quarterly focus group meetings with the division’s customers to identify areas needing improvement and completing a computer upgrade of the city’s building permit process.

Also included will be a review of building code requirements and a comparison with the standards and requirements imposed by other cities “to make sure that (Yorba Linda is) consistent and not being overly burdensome to applicants.”

A clear view of a small field

Two former City Council members--who were in opposite camps during the hard-fought municipal election last November--are the best-known contenders in the special election to fill a council seat left vacant four months ago by state Assemblyman Mike Duvall.

The June 5 ballot will be Yorba Linda’s second-ever “stand alone” special election, and the first to ask residents to mark one vote for the single position appearing on the ballot.

Past special elections have been combined with primary and general elections, aiding voter turnout. The other “stand alone” ballot was in 1967, when residents cast up to six votes--for or against incorporation and for five potential council members.

Entering the race with the most name recognition are Hank Wedaa, 83, and Keri Wilson, 46, who’ve drawn a lesser-known competitor, Victoria Gulickson, 40 (no relation to former three-term Councilman John Gullixson).

Gulickson, a recent resident whose husband has lived in Yorba Linda for more than 20 years, was one of 22 applicants who sought appointment to the council last December.

She was not among the seven selected during a closed-door council committee meeting for a later public interview before the full council in a widely criticized, ill-fated process.

Wedaa, a five-time mayor, was elected to the council seven times, serving from 1970 to 1994 and 1996 to 2000. Wilson was elected to one term in 2002 and was mayor in 2005.

Although Wedaa never lost a council contest, he was defeated for a Yorba Linda Water District board of directors seat in 2000; and he lost a bid to fill one of six 72nd Assembly District positions on the county Republican Central Committee the same year.

Wilson, who won her 2002 to 2006 council seat by three votes, placed fifth in her re-election race last year, running 1,456 votes behind second-place finisher John Anderson.

Wedaa was the only current or past council member to endorse winners Jan Horton and Anderson in the contest focusing on density, redevelopment and listening to the public.

Last year, Wilson earned endorsements from council colleagues Allen Castellano, Mike Duvall, Ken Ryan and Jim Winder and 19 of 20 council-appointed city commissioners.

This year, Wedaa’s 30-name nominating petition included signatures from two current (Anderson and Winder) and two past (Irwin Fried and Mark Schwing) council members.

Another conflict involving Wedaa and Wilson concerns a hard-edged paid newspaper advertisement that Wedaa admits he placed five days before the November 2006 vote.

Wedaa’s unsigned text targeted Wilson and candidate Doug Dickerson for pushing high-density downtown redevelopment plans and blamed Wilson, along with Castellano and Winder, for failing to “respond appropriately to the reports of increases in Part I crime.”

A FINAL NOTE

Four residents who took out but didn’t return nomination papers to run for the vacant council position included past candidates Steven Brunette, Doug Dickerson and Diana Hudson and political newcomer Jim Fitzsimmons.

Brunette, an attorney, withdrew from the 2006 contest after his name could be removed from the ballot, while Dickerson, a retired Brea police captain, placed third and Hudson, a California Dental senior account executive, fifth in the 10-candidate race for two seats.

Fitzsimmons is a land use planner at Daly International, which has an office in Irvine.
And former Councilman Ken Ryan e-mailed that he left planning firm EDAW for a partnership at KTGY, an architecture and planning group, both with offices in Irvine.

Locking gates would open the door to more

The latest attempt to create a gated community inside Yorba Linda has come up against a long-standing but unwritten policy against establishing exclusive enclaves in the city.

Planning commissioners turned down a request from the owners of 59 properties in the Kerrigan Ranch Manor House development to install a gate at the entrance to their homes off Bastanchury Road between Lakeview Avenue and Fairmont Boulevard.

Homeowners cited traffic and liability due to the unlighted private streets in the area of acre-sized lots as reasons for limiting access.

The residents appealed the commission’s denial to the City Council, but late last month they asked that a scheduled public hearing be “postponed indefinitely.”

Policy regarding gated communities “has evolved over the last decade or so,” City Planner David Brantley noted in a four-page report prepared for council members.

Gated communities “are separated from one another, contrary to the ideal elaborated in the city’s motto The Land of Gracious Living,” Brantley wrote.

“Gating of neighborhoods conveys a sense of insecurity or necessity to prevent criminal activity, which inaccurately characterizes…Yorba Linda,” he added.

The Manor House homes are part of a tract that was planned as a gated community by developer Brighton Homes in 1990; but after Pulte Homes acquired the land, a city design review noted that a future entrance gate would need a conditional use permit.

The Planning Commission denied the homeowners’ request for a permit in January by finding, “There are not any special circumstances…that would warrant an exception.”

According to Brantley, the city has three major exceptions to the no-gate policy: the 97-lot Fairmont Terrace community, the 75-lot Bryant Ranch Legacy and the 168-lot North Yorba Linda Estates Site A.

Fairmont Terrace was allowed a gate because Village Center Drive dead ends into the development, and the Bryant Ranch homes were permitted a gate because of potential criminal activity from the Riverside (91) Freeway access ramps at Gypsum Canyon Road.

The North Yorba Linda Estates Site A homes are allowed a gate if the public high school and football stadium are constructed--as proposed--directly across Bastanchury Road from the entrance to the development.

In the Manor House case, the commission’s denial resolution appropriately states that a “precedent-setting approval for gated access without special circumstances…would significantly erode the city’s ability to preserve the…open community character the city has aspired to and guarded for so many years.”

And, according to Brantley, if a Manor House gate was approved, the city could expect gate requests from other neighborhoods, such as San Lorenzo west of Manor House and Canterbury, Inverness, Augusta and The Links in the Vista Del Verde development.

Also, several smaller neighborhoods with private streets on both sides of Yorba Linda Boulevard between Lakeview and Palm avenues could request gates, Brantley advised.

A FINAL NOTE

Yorba Linda and Orange County water district officials, who recently went to court in a dispute over 1899 and 1970 Bryant Ranch water documents, are now working to annex 2,732 acres of northern and eastern YLWD land into OCWD.

An annexation provision sought by OCWD, which manages the area’s groundwater supplies, asks YLWD to reimburse OCWD for $290,000 legal costs incurred in the suit.

YLWD says there’s “no legal, historical or policy basis for this proposed charge,” but they’ll discuss it “in the interest of an open dialogue.”

Should commissioners have term limits?

Should Yorba Lindans serving on the city’s four commissions be subject to term limits?

That’s a current topic of discussion among City Council members who name the five individuals to each of the Planning, Parks and Recreation, Traffic and Library panels.

The most contentious debate concerns the Planning Commission, which includes two members who have served 27 and 24 years, well more than the maximum 12 years residents are allowed to sit on the council under an ordinance approved by voters in 1996.

Planning commissioners drew the ire of some residents, including newly elected council members John Anderson and Jan Horton, when they approved controversial new zoning rules for the Town Center during a single meeting in November 2005.

In the 2006 council campaign, Anderson and Horton told a Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment gathering that the commission needed five new members.

Anderson wants the planning commissioners to resign, with the council reappointing two for historical knowledge and selecting three new members, and Horton suggests planning and possibly traffic commissioners be limited to three four-year terms.

Mayor Allen Castellano and Councilman Jim Winder appear to favor the current system, under which commissioners are appointed to four-year terms, subject to council renewals.

(The council seems ready to restore traffic commissioners to the four-year terms that were cut in half in a years-ago dispute over the commission’s areas of responsibility.)

The longest-serving commissioner is Carl Boznanski, who was named to the planning body in 1980. He took a swipe at commission critics when he stepped down from his sixth one-year term as planning chairman earlier this year.

“The unfounded statements that have been bandied about…by those who have never attended the Planning Commission proceedings do not understand the functions and objectives of the…Commission,” Boznanski stated, according to the Jan. 10 minutes.

Other planners and their appointment dates are Ron DiLuigi (1983), Jim Pickel (1996), Dennis Equitz (2000) and Mike Haack (2002). The first planning commissioners were named about two months after the city incorporated.

Of 31 planning commissioners since 1968, four have been elected to the council: Irwin Fried, Doug Groot, Ron McRoberts and Ken Ryan, with Carolyn Ewing serving briefly after her single council term.

The second-oldest commission is Parks and Recreation, with 20 members since 1980; currently serving are Paul Doty, Bill Gorman and Rich Pepin (1994), Mark Thompson (1996) and Don Rabbitt (1999).

The Library Commission has had 14 members since the city took control of the Yorba Linda Library District in 1985. Current commissioners are Randi Noell (1994), Gene Searce (1999), Marilyn Allen-Adams (2000), Lori Katz (2005) and Cheri Hansen (2006).

Two new traffic commissioners were named last week: Mary Carbone and John Rafter will serve with Sandra Sutphen (1997), Larry Larsen (1999) and Jim Wohlt (2003). Of the 21 members since 1987, John Anderson and Keri Wilson were elected to the council.

A FINAL NOTE

Fortunately, if council members decide to replace some commissioners or establish term limits, many well-qualified residents are willing to serve on the council-advisory bodies.

Twenty-three citizens applied for the two open spots on the Traffic Commission, and 22 sought appointment to Mike Duvall’s vacated council seat, so if new blood is needed, there’s no lack of residents eager to devote long hours to city service.

Planning Yorba Linda's future

A select group of citizens soon will begin revising the blueprint for future Yorba Linda development when they undertake a major update of the city’s General Plan.

Members of a proposed General Plan Advisory Committee haven’t yet been chosen, but Community Development Director Kurt Christiansen said at a recent Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee meeting that a two-year revision process should start in July.

The current 24-member blue-ribbon body is charged with making recommendations for the city’s downtown area, but a future General Plan group will work on a comprehensive guide for long-term development throughout the city’s nearly 20 square miles.

State law requires every city to have a General Plan that addresses land use, circulation, housing, natural resource conservation, open space preservation, noise and public safety.

The first General Plan for the Yorba Linda region was prepared in 1962 by the county Planning Department, which then had jurisdiction over the unincorporated area.

The city’s first General Plan was developed in 1971, after the 1967 cityhood vote. Now called the “historic General Plan,” the document was said to be one of a few in the state to be put before voters when it was approved 2,317 to 1,902 in a heated 1972 election.

Early elections were always about how fast and how dense the city should grow, and the ’72 ballot also resulted in the first unanimous slow-growth, low-density City Council.

The historic General Plan set the city’s course as a suburban, low-density community and established the current overall density goal of 2.8 dwelling units per acre, including streets, easements and open space directly serving the residents of the base acre.

Today’s General Plan is an inch-thick document adopted by the council in 1993, based on input from a steering committee chaired by Mike Duvall before his council tenure.

Several of the plan’s provisions are now moot, since so much development has occurred in the intervening years, sometimes under exceptions to the plan’s guidelines.

The plan supplies density definitions, including the following residential designations: up to 1.0 unit per acre for low density, up to 1.8 for medium low density, up to 3.0 for medium density, up to 4.0 for medium high density and up to 10.0 for high density.

An exception is made for 141.6 acres in Town Center, where “bonus densities” of up to 15 units per acre could be allowed for developers who follow specified guidelines.

Obviously, the future members of the General Plan Advisory Committee--and certainly whoever is on the council after the 2008 election--will be the major players in deciding the city’s growth patterns during the final years of major building activity and the continued in-fill development on vacant and underutilized land throughout the city.

A FINAL NOTE

I had a brief chat with Tim Naftali, the newly appointed director who is now guiding the transformation of the privately funded Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace into a full-fledged member of the federal presidential library system.

Naftali says plans are ready for a new archive building to be located on the west parking lot along Eureka Avenue--he’s just awaiting a Congressional appropriation of funds.

The director also notes that the library will continue to support community events and that the facility and East Room replica still will be available for private social gatherings, including high school proms, under Nixon Foundation sponsorship.