2009 marks anniversaries for Jessamyn West

Christmas is an appropriate time to put off reporting on the increasingly acrimonious nature of local politics and take note of two upcoming anniversaries involving Yorba Linda’s best-known literary figure, Jessamyn West.

First, 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of West’s age 7 arrival in California from her native Indiana and her father’s purchase of land north of Yorba Linda Boulevard near Club Terrace Drive to plant a lemon grove.

Second, next year is the 25th anniversary of West’s death, after a 40-year writing career that included novels, short stories, screenplays, essays, memoirs, poetry and an operetta.

Her most famous work, of course, was her first, the short story collection “The Friendly Persuasion,” about the Quaker Birdwell family in Indiana, published in 1945. She also wrote the 1956 Academy Award-nominated film version starring Gary Cooper as Jess.

West began writing the stories during a 14-year recovery from tuberculosis contracted in 1931. By then she had graduated from grammar school in Yorba Linda, high school and junior college in Fullerton, Whittier College and studied at Oxford University in England.

In a 1979 letter to this newspaper, West noted, “The first writing for which I was paid was done for the Yorba Linda Star.” She sold ads and wrote “Social Notes” in 1922-3 before marrying Harry McPherson at the Friends Church and moving to Hemet, where she taught school and helped her husband tend an apricot orchard.

While in Yorba Linda, West participated in Camp Fire Girls, frequently visited a new “broom-closet” library room and played with her cousin Richard Nixon near the water canal adjacent to his birthplace (both mothers were Milhouses).

Her youth and adolescence in Yorba Linda provided some of the background for stories in 1953’s “Cress Delahanty,” about the title character’s experiences from 12 to 16. The 1961 novel “South of the Angels” was set in a Yorba Linda-like area in the 1920s.

Eventually, West settled in Napa, where her husband was a school superintendent. Her parents—father Eldo headed the Yorba Linda Water Company—lived in several Yorba Linda residences (some still standing, some not) and later moved to Whittier.

A few months before West’s death, she was scheduled to attend a Yorba Linda Heritage Museum program and the 70th anniversary of the Yorba Linda Public Library, but illness prevented her from visiting the facility she loved.

West’s long association with the local library ran from the inaugural 1913 year, when the inventory totaled 50 donated books and a checkout card cost $1, to nearly 1985, when the city took over the special district founded in 1914.

Is it time to absorb Yorba Linda Water District?

Water availability and low pressure problems in last month’s tragic firestorm has brought new attention to the Yorba Linda Water District—and resulted in renewed calls for the city to absorb the longtime independent agency into the folds of municipal government.

Some residents wonder why building a new administration headquarters took priority over construction of the long-planned Hidden Hills reservoir, as others maintain “too much fire” overwhelmed the district’s infrastructure in several parts of the city.

Whether or not anything develops from inquiries into district actions or a rigorous self-examination by water officials, citizen interest in elections for the low-profile positions on the district’s governing board is sure to increase.

Formed in 1909 as a mutual serving mostly farmers, the water district became a public agency in 1959, when voters approved $1.9 million in bonds to buy the existing assets. Twenty-five elections have been held to select district directors.

And in the agency’s near 50-year history, just 19 individuals have served on the five-member board, three of them for 26 years each. Six elections were cancelled because only incumbents filed to run, with eight members first appointed to their positions.

One longtime member was appointed to the board twice, serving the district as a salaried employee between appointments. Only two incumbents have been defeated in reelection runs—Carl Scanlon by Mark Abramowitz in 1998 and Abramowitz by past director Bill Mills in 2002. Director salaries and benefits total nearly $90,000 per year.

Periodically, the issue of converting the district into a city department is aired, but usually the discussion dies without significant action. The last serious move came in 1996, when then-Councilman Hank Wedaa’s motion for a city report on a merger procedure lost 3-2.

Complicating consolidation is the district’s 23-square-mile service area, which includes 23,634 accounts: 20,554 in Yorba Linda, 2,670 in Placentia, 342 in Anaheim and 68 in Brea. The district has 47,613 registered voters in those four cities and county territory.

The city did absorb the formerly independent Yorba Linda Library District in 1985, but that action took place with the concurrence of the district’s elected directors. The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 severely curtailed the district’s ability to raise tax revenues.

There’s no doubt the water district’s directors would vigorously oppose a takeover. Seats now held by Mills, Paul Armstrong and John Summerfield, who were unopposed in 2006, are slated for the 2010 ballot. Mike Beverage and Ric Collette were reelected last month.

Mayor pick signals start of campaign contract

Mark Schwing’s selection as mayor and John Anderson as mayor pro tem signals the wish of a new City Council majority to begin work on a 17-point “contract for Yorba Linda” endorsed by Schwing, Anderson and Nancy Rikel in the past election (see the four-page document at www.contract4yl.com/contract.pdf).

The elected officials also started work on nine items Schwing added to the new council’s first agenda Dec. 2, and Schwing broadened council representation on five county boards.

Schwing named himself to replace Jan Horton on two toll road boards, picked Rikel for the Fire Authority position previously held by Horton, kept Jim Winder on the Vector Control board but appointed Anderson to replace Winder as Sanitation District director.

Horton asked to keep her fire board seat but was the only council member not named to a paid board post (from $100 to $212 per meeting). She later called Schwing “dictatorial.”

Two more election items:

First, Winder’s seven-vote win is the second slimmest victory in city history, behind Keri Wilson’s three-vote win over Schwing in 2002.

Other less-than-100 vote wins: Barbara Kiley over Robert Meador by 16 in 1996, Hank Wedaa over Jim Matych by 25 in 1974, Rudy Castro over Matych by 34 in 1970, Herb Warren over Betty Christiansen by 53 in 1967, Wedaa over Gene Wisner by 68 in 1982.

Winder begins his final four years in office under the city’s term limit law, after placing first in 2000, third in 2004 (4,307 votes ahead of Ed Rakochy) and third this year (seven votes ahead of Rakochy).

Second, Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation endorsed five of the last six winners: Anderson and Horton in 2006, Wedaa in 2007 and Rikel and Schwing this year, but, as reported in past columns, the grassroots group soured on Horton and Wedaa.

Much of the money raised by the city’s only locally funded political action committee this year came from three successful yard sales.

A FINAL NOTE

Councilwoman Nancy Rikel filed a complaint with the county Sheriff’s Department against David Wilson, a department captain and husband of former Councilwoman Keri Wilson, over an alleged confrontation in the East Lake Village Von’s parking lot. Rikel claimed “conduct unbecoming an officer” by Wilson as Rikel was campaigning Nov. 1.

“An investigation into the incident was initiated and is currently underway,” Sgt. David Njust of the Professional Standards Division told Rikel in a Nov. 5 letter. Njust added, “Internal Affairs will send you a letter informing you of the outcome of your complaint within 30 days of the investigation’s completion.”

East, west voters differ on one council choice

East and westside Yorba Linda voters agreed on two of the City Council members elected on the Nov. 4 ballot but had different ideas about who should fill the third open position.

Mark Schwing and Nancy Rikel won in the city’s eastern and western sections, but eastsiders chose seven-vote winner Jim Winder as westsiders favored Ed Rakochy.

A commonly accepted dividing line between the east and west sides is the boundary for the city’s two state Assembly districts, which generally runs along Village Center Drive north of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Fairmont Boulevard to the south.

On the eastside, in the 60th Assembly District, Schwing tallied 6,369 votes, Winder 6,148, Rikel 6,026 and Rakochy 5,346. On the westside, in the 72nd Assembly District, Schwing totaled 6,959, Rikel 6,896, Rakochy 6,607 and Winder 5,812.

The city’s 43,010 registered voters are split nearly evenly between the two districts, with 21,019 in the east and 21,991 in the west. Eastside turnout was 17,071, westside 18,021.

About 37 percent of voters cast mail ballots, totaling 6,305 for Schwing, 6,212 for Rikel, 5,807 for Winder and 5,438 for Rakochy.

Precinct votes totaled 6,914 for Schwing, 6,613 for Rikel, 6,416 for Rakochy and 6,049 for Winder. Early voting counts were 108 for Schwing, 104 for Winder, 99 for Rakochy and 97 for Rikel.

Measure BB, prohibiting the use of eminent domain for economic development citywide, won 79 percent “yes” overall (77.3 in the east and 80.5 in the west), the highest achieved by any candidate or ballot measure in Yorba Linda history.

A sad aspect of the election was the small number of intense partisans who called those with differing views “liars.” To suggest any of the nine candidates didn’t hold the city’s best interests in their hearts is arrogant and distasteful.

A FINAL NOTE

Recently received e-mails include Francis Gibson’s note about the death of Keith Earll, a lifelong Yorba Linda resident, at age 82. His father, Fred, founded Earll’s Garage, which Keith ran from 1948 until his 1991 retirement. Keith also served on the Yorba Linda and Fullerton High school boards and more than 20 years as volunteer fire department chief.

T.L. Wagner identified Robb Block as the officer mentioned in my Nov. 20 column who used his motorcycle siren to alert residents to evacuate, then helped douse embers with a garden hose in the Rockhampton Court area—“truly a hero.”

And Maria Soles praises Pastor Dan Wagenknecht of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church for offering after-fire assistance to her brother-in-law Alex, who “left his house the day of the fire with nothing. This is what makes us the community that we are—thank you!”