Council invocations and school district demise

Two items are worthy of note as Yorba Linda begins its 42nd year as a city Nov. 2:

--Easily the least controversial aspect of any City Council meeting is the invocation delivered at the start of each session by a representative from one of the city’s 31 church and religious institutions.

Invocation assignments are handled through the City Clerk’s office by veteran employee Jean Lee, who sets up a rotating schedule of volunteers from participating organizations, mails a confirmation two weeks before the date and follows up with a telephone call.

“We get a positive response from the churches,” Lee said, noting the assignment allows “new pastors to be introduced to the city through TV exposure.” Meetings are televised on Time Warner cable channel 3 and streamed live and archived on the city’s Web site.

Invocations are set for 6:30 p.m. at the first and third Tuesday meetings each month. The short prayers are sometimes delayed as council members return late from the closed-door sessions starting at 5:30 p.m.

Elder John Bickner of Yorba Linda Friends Church is scheduled for the Nov. 4 prayer, and Bishop Charles Flake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Nov. 18.

“We ask that the prayer not be sectarian or include an appeal to a particular religious figure or deity,” City Clerk Kathie Mendoza notes in the letter sent to all participants.

--Twenty years ago next week, voters in the 77-year-old Yorba Linda elementary school district approved annexation to the then 55-year-old Placentia Unified School District 4,163 to 3,310 with an 82 percent turnout.

Actual transfer of assets, including Linda Vista, Mabel Paine and Rose Drive elementary schools, Yorba Linda Middle School and the education center at Yorba Linda Boulevard and Casa Loma Avenue, took place in 1989.

Ninth through 12th grade students continued at Troy High School until 1993, when the Placentia and Fullerton Union High School districts changed boundaries. Yorba Linda had joined the Fullerton district 79 years earlier.

When disbanded, the Yorba Linda district had 10,118 registered voters—9,651 in west and central Yorba Linda, 254 in east Placentia, 159 in southeast Brea and 54 in county territory.

The Placentia district unified in 1933, when four small-school elementary districts, one with east Yorba Linda land, left Fullerton Union to open Valencia High School. Voters approved the merger 587 to 333, but two 1934 bonds failed to win two-thirds majorities.

The small, often cash-strapped Commonwealth, Placentia, Richfield and Yorba (near Orange) districts now are remembered as place names on north Orange County maps.

Beware of phony voter guides

Flooding Yorba Linda mailboxes this week are the so-called voter guides, published by profit-making businesses masquerading as organizations that research each candidate’s stands on issues in order to make “informed” recommendations to local residents.

City Council, school trustee and water board contenders buy endorsements in the guides, known to political professionals as “slate mailers,” to associate their candidacies with the high-sounding names cynically adopted by these extremely profitable enterprises.

And candidates pay a pretty penny for the privilege—endorsements are sold to the first or highest bidder for up to $2,650, which buys a name listing and perhaps three or four lines of type in a brochure shared with dozens of other candidates and ballot propositions.

The amount of money to be made has led to a record number of guides mailed to voters in the weeks before an election. The guides hit mailboxes either when absentee ballots are delivered or just prior to Nov. 4.

Some guides are designed to appeal to supporters of a political party, while others are aimed at ethnic groups, voters concerned about specific issues and independent or non-partisan voters.

Here are organization names and endorsement costs for just a few guides scheduled for mailing this year:

The Latino Voters Guide charges candidates $100; Asian-American Voter Guide $175; Republican Women’s Voice $611; Republican Voter Checklist $1,200; Continuing the Republican Revolution $600; and Democratic Voters Choice $300.

Issue-oriented guides and fees include National Tax Limitation $1,003; California Border Security $920; Save Proposition 13 $864; and COPS, short for California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, $587.

Independent-sounding guides and costs are Get Out and Vote $2,241; Citizens for Good Government $800; Your Ballot Guide $700; California Vote by Mail $805; Voter Guide by Mail $1,280; California Voter Guide $2,650; and Official Non-partisan Guide $750.

Several groups sell endorsements on two mailings, sending one guide to Republicans and another to Democrats. Candidates can pay for spots on both brochures.

At best, candidates buy endorsements on the guides to leave multiple “name impressions” with voters, the same theory behind the posting of so many roadway signs and the several times a candidate’s name is repeated in those annoying automated telephone calls.

A less charitable view: candidates think voters who identify with a group’s name will be fooled into using the guide when marking ballots because voters believe the group really researched the issues and candidates endorsed, rather than just collecting an up-front fee.

Council campaigns are mostly self-funded

So far this year the candidates seeking three seats on the Yorba Linda City Council are spending more of their own cash for campaign expenses, while drawing money from a relatively small number of contributors.

The most recent election finance filings, which detail income and expenses through Sept. 30, show contenders taking in $34,297 from donors but loaning or giving their campaigns $78,188 from their own pockets.

More contributions are expected closer to the Nov. 4 election date, and, based on past practice, some money might be received after the votes are counted. Candidates have until Jan. 31 to file a full accounting of their finances through Dec. 31.

Two of the nine candidates, Michael Marien and Richard Wolfinger, posted statements on their campaign Web sites that they’re not accepting any contributions.

Marien didn’t file a form with the City Clerk’s office, which indicates he’s spent less than $1,000, and Wolfinger’s report shows $7,228 in expenses. The $1,800 all contenders paid for a 200-word statement mailed to voters with sample ballots isn’t required to be listed.

Contribution and loan totals reported include Mark Abramowitz, $350 and $21,900; Doug Dickerson, $3,513 and $3,100; Ed Rakochy, $3,253 and $9,000; Nancy Rikel, $7,564 and $15,000; Mark Schwing, $2,334 and $5,800; Hank Wedaa, $13,514 and $10,000; and Jim Winder, $3,769 and $6,160.

Candidates loan rather than give money to their campaigns because they can redeem the loans from future contributions. Many winners eventually repay themselves before they leave office, while losers usually write off the loans or keep them on the books for years.

Three candidates hired consultants to help run their campaigns, according to the reports. Dickerson and Winder, retired Brea Police captains, each employed Hart and Associates of Newport Beach, and Wolfinger, a semi-retired contractor, paid Orange’s KB Rutledge.

The political action committee Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation, which took in a total of $65,619 in cash contributions the past three years, reported just $1,550 this year, along with $7,792 worth of items for a series of yard sale fundraisers.

Two sales netted $2,945 for the grassroots group that supported two successful petition drives, the Measure B election victory and council winners John Anderson, Jan Horton and Wedaa in 2005-07. This year, YLRRR endorsed Rakochy, Rikel and Schwing.

A FINAL NOTE

Wedaa’s “casino night” fundraiser in April raised the most money to date, but payments ate up $6,618 of the $13,489 cash haul. Interestingly, the YLRRR members who helped arrange the event and made donations, now support other candidates.

Vague platforms make informed decisions tough

Two huge problems plague voters when they attempt to make selections in Yorba Linda’s biannual City Council elections, including the Nov. 4 race for three governing body seats.

First, too many candidates offer generic platforms with few specifics that don’t provide residents with information required to make knowledgeable choices for the city’s future.

For example, in past and current contests, common campaign refrains include “I’ll vote fairly on all the issues” and “My record speaks for itself” and, an all-time favorite, “I’ll study all sides of the issues and make decisions based on what’s best for Yorba Linda.”

But that’s what voters want to know before they cast their ballots—exactly what do candidates think is best for Yorba Linda? Contenders should provide details on how they’ll maintain the qualities of life so many families moved to Yorba Linda to enjoy.

Unspecific promises to preserve a low-density heritage were made by 2000, 2002 and 2004 council winners, but when they moved ahead with Town Center redevelopment, residents resisted with two successful petition drives and three straight election shakeups.

Second, some winners ignore or forget specific campaign promises they’ve made. A recent example of forgetfulness was a Jan Horton remark at a March council meeting.

Regarding a city equestrian facility, Horton stated, “I don’t remember ever promising to build a facility.” But former city commissioner Carol Cantwell held up a Horton mailer in which she pledged to “support building a cultural arts center and equestrian facilities.”

Of course, council members can change their minds, but they owe residents who worked to elect them, as well as all voters, explanations for post-election position switches.

Happily, this year’s election has a new wrinkle, an innovative first in the history of the city’s 23 council elections—a well-publicized and fully detailed 17-point platform.

Candidates Ed Rakochy, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing signed a “Contract for Yorba Linda,” posted at www.contract4yl.com, that takes specific stands on the key issues for good city governance.

If the other contenders address the topics raised in this document, voters would have a unique opportunity to make choices based on issues, rather than personalities, roadway signs, paid voter guide endorsements, computer calls and other less-informative tactics.

A FINAL NOTE

A sixth Town Hall meeting last week had the lowest turnout since the informal question-and-answer sessions with council members began last year. Just 21 residents joined four council members and 10 city staffers to discuss mostly policing and traffic matters.

Town Halls are held on fifth Tuesdays. Largest audience to date was 82 in July 2007.

Tactics used in local election fights explained

Yorba Linda’s City Council elections always are hard-fought—and at times unsavory. Here’s a look at three frequently used tactics on the shady side of acceptable behavior:

--Developers and other outside-the-city special interests disguise their contributions to favored candidates by funneling money through political action committees with titles that misleadingly suggest a higher purpose than what the contributors actually intend.

For example, the developer-funded Committee for Improved Public Policy, run by a longtime Costa Mesa consultant to Shapell Industries, has contributed thousands of dollars to the campaign accounts of several winning candidates in the past decade.

This year, four contenders have pledged to not accept donations from developers and businesses and individuals with city contracts: Mark Abramowitz, Ed Rakochy, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing. Michael Marien notes he’s not accepting any contributions.

--Committees that don’t really exist leave literature at homes, on car windshields and at public places around town, usually containing unsubstantiated charges the perpetrators don’t want traced back to them.

For example, in a past campaign, “A Committee for Fair and Improved Representation,” sometimes substituting “informed” for “improved,” claimed a state-required committee number was “pending.” Of course, no record of the group or members could be found.

--New twists on the old unsigned flyer-at-the-doorstep routine are anonymous bloggers who create Web sites to savage targeted candidates but don’t have the courage to state who’s responsible for the information and refuse to post corrections to misinformation.

For example, a so-called “truth” blogger took aim at Hank Wedaa in the special 2007 election with a mass of material confusing the city’s 1971 and 1993 General Plans and outlining an outrageously false conspiracy between two candidates who had never met.

Wedaa also was the unlucky target of someone who registered versions of his name and posted an unflattering portrait of the then-83-year-old candidate on one of the Web sites.

A FINAL NOTE

The county Republican Party has endorsed Doug Dickerson, Ed Rakochy and Mark Schwing in the City Council race. An Endorsements Committee recommendation to support Jim Winder instead of Rakochy was reversed by the full Central Committee.

The county Young Republicans have endorsed Rakochy, Schwing and Nancy Rikel. Unlike the endorsements on voters’ guides with Republican-sounding names that are mailed to local households, candidates do not pay for the county GOP endorsements.

The city’s 41,988 registered voters include 24,546 Republicans and 9,462 Democrats.