Ethics code gaining support

A long-needed ethics ordinance that bars campaign contributions from individuals and businesses with city contracts and places time limits on developer donations appears to have majority support among Yorba Linda’s City Council members.

The legal prohibitions, proposed by Councilman John Anderson, would prevent council candidates from accepting contributions from city contractors, such as those providing engineering, landscaping, trash-hauling, ambulance and other services to the city.

Anderson’s proposal also would stop council members from voting on projects of major contributors within one year of accepting a contribution or taking money within 90 days of voting on a contributor’s project.

He also proposed statutes protecting whistle-blowers, prohibiting soliciting political endorsements from city commissioners, providing new guidelines for commissioner behavior, tape-recording closed-session proceedings and opening others to the public.

Many of Anderson’s reforms were advanced in May, but one was defeated 4-1 and others weren’t even seconded. This time Anderson’s motion for city staff to develop ordinances received positive votes from recently elected members Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing.

The heyday of developer contributions to the political campaigns of council candidates—mostly incumbents or challengers supported by incumbents—came in the 1990s and early 2000s and included cash funneled through developer-funded political action committees.

Lately, however, incumbents with developer contributions have not sought re-election or have been defeated by candidates who promised not to accept donations from developers.

A suggestion by Councilwoman Jan Horton to post state-required campaign contribution forms on the city’s Web site also is an improvement, even if the added publicity for $100 or more contributors hampers fund-raising efforts for future candidates.

Anderson’s proposals and Horton’s suggestion are welcome signs of reform, and votes cast on any forthcoming ordinances are likely to be major issues in next year’s election.

A FINAL NOTE

Could Measure B—the voter-approved 2006 initiative that requires the public to vote on major changes to city planning documents—prevent construction of low-income housing units in Yorba Linda?

Maybe not. If voters deny a zone change to more than 10 units per acre, or a commercial to residential zoning change or a height above 35 feet on property designated as available for low-income housing stock, Measure B might succumb to a court challenge.

Under a state formula, the city is short 768 low-income and 327 moderate-income units.

Town Center review looks at 'blockers' in petition drives

One interesting aspect of a Town Center Performance Review written by interim City Manager Bill Kelly is an “alleged civil rights violations” section discussing the use of “blockers” to thwart signature gathering during two city-wide petition drives.

Anyone visiting a grocery store in Yorba Linda during summer 2005 and the Christmas-New Year holiday period 2005-06 probably recalls being asked to sign petitions related to Old Town issues and seeing counter-petitioners trying to dissuade those who signed.

The two petition drives were the most contentious in city politics, easily exceeding the 1998 effort to stop Imperial Highway widening and the 1970 fight to kill an apartment zone near where Henry’s Market is located today.

The summer 2005 initiative petition gathered 8,647 signatures and resulted in the passage of Measure B, which requires a public vote on major changes to city planning documents.

The two December 2005-January 2006 referendum petitions gathered 9,790 and 9,771 signatures and resulted in a past council rescinding higher density Town Center zoning ordinances and a law allowing the use of eminent domain for economic development.

Kelly’s review, requested by the City Council at a October 2008 meeting, notes “issues arose at or around major shopping centers…concerning the legality of the actions of the signature collectors and the counter blocking of citizens from signature collectors.”

Old Town Yorba Linda Partners, the company once holding an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city for Town Center redevelopment planning, hired the blockers, according to Greg Brown, who was a principal in the firm with Michael Dieden.

Brown in 2006 released an e-mail he received from consultant Dennis DeSnoo: “Joon will be there…he is a 250-pound Korean. Sounds like a central casting blocker.” And one from Dieden: “The blockers should be more like guerillas (think Che)….”

In the review, Kelly notes, “Although these blockers may have been intimidating and physically obvious, if they were only suggesting actions, there was no legal violation,” but “if any citizen felt victimized…a citizen’s arrest could have been executed.”

Kelly concludes that blockers are “predominantly used in labor-related issues at industrial businesses” but “unusual” and “extremely hostile” in local land use issues and “apparently made the situations worse, rather than allowing both sides freedom of speech.”

A FINAL NOTE

Kelly appears to be an admirer of Winston Churchill, since he quotes him twice in the review, including the insightful “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”

Predicting school enrollment trends is tricky

Predicting school enrollment trends can be a tricky task, even for professional educators and experienced consultants, such as those who have been working on fixing attendance areas for the new Yorba Linda High School the past two years.

A decision on boundaries for the Mustang campus, which opens to 9th and 10th graders in September, is scheduled for a February meeting of Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District trustees.

Three boundary scenarios were outlined at four November community meetings and then presented to Superintendent Dennis Smith last month, along with public comments on the plans. Smith will make a recommendation to trustees.

Whatever the board decides could affect Yorba Linda students at El Dorado, Esperanza and Valencia high schools. Detailed street maps of the three scenarios are posted on the district’s Web site, www.pylusd.org.

During the last school year, 3,878 Yorba Linda students attended the district’s three full-service high schools: 2,498 out of 3,334 students at Esperanza, 1,066 out of 2,652 at El Dorado and 314 out of 2,506 at Valencia, for an 8,492 total.

This school year, Esperanza opened with 3,142, El Dorado 2,592 and Valencia 2,579, totaling 8,313. Each scenario totals 8,546, ranging from 2,283 to 2,440 at Esperanza, 2,162 to 2,204 at El Dorado, 1,677 to 1,793 at Yorba Linda and 2,266 at Valencia.

Interestingly, recent enrollment figures are above projections made three years ago, when the current school year total was estimated at 8,069 with a decline to 7,367 by 2012-2013.

Complicating the process of predicting how many students will enroll at each campus is the district’s “choice” policy, which allows parents to select schools outside of a normal attendance area on a space-available basis.

The first of two “choice” application periods is now open and ends Feb. 6. The second period runs from March 2 through April 10. This year’s boundary change only affects students in 8th and 9th grades—current 10th and 11th grade students are not impacted.

District officials are promising that the new campus will have equitable course offerings, including advanced placement classes, and similar extracurricular and athletic programs, although varsity sports competition won’t start until the 2010-2011 school year.

A FINAL NOTE

Staff for the new school will be selected from applications submitted by employees currently at the district’s middle and high school campuses.

Presumably, officials won’t use a past recruitment method. In 1960, George Key wrote that early teacher Eunice Lemke would “laugh when she recalled the inducement…used to attract young teachers. The board would tell the young [female] applicant that there were several well-to-do bachelor citrus ranchers in the community.”

Best, least, most, cutest in politics for 2008

Here’s a look at the highs and lows of Yorba Linda politics the past year:

Best City Council campaign platform: The inventive 17-point “contract for Yorba Linda” written by Ed Rakochy, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing based on an idea by Jeff Winter.

Best grassroots effort: Main Street businessman Louie Scull spent $987 on signs and flyers backing Measure BB, which ends eminent domain use for economic development.

Best (or worst) example of political expediency: Councilman Jim Winder voted against placing BB on the ballot, then signed the ballot arguments favoring the popular measure.

Least lamented departure: Water Director Mike Beverage’s developer-funded Past and Present Elected Officials Representing Yorba Linda quietly filed termination papers.

Cutest speakers to address the council: Allen Castellano’s daughters, Jessica, 13, and Amy, 10, welcomed their father home Tuesday nights after eight years of city service.

Least valuable government press release: State Assemblyman Mike Duvall spent tax dollars telling about film students using his “authentic Western saloon” as a setting.

Most historic political comeback: Mark Schwing won the most votes for his fourth council term after three straight defeats, twice for council and once for water board.

Most historic political defeat: Hank Wedaa lost his race for a record ninth council term after serving 30 years on the city’s governing body since his first election in April 1970.

Most surprising vote total: Yorba Linda’s Measure A school bond “yes” vote was 52.5 percent, with 55 needed to pass (results from other district cities accounted for the win).

Least surprising vote total: With more than $30 million in surplus funds, the past council sought a $44 annual arterial landscape fee hike, nixed by 75 percent of property owners.

Best example of apathy: Attendance at the city’s two-year-old, fifth Tuesday Town Hall gatherings has yet to break 100—ranging from 35 to 82, including council and city staff.

Best Web service: Viewing council sessions on the city Web site is better than watching in person, since staff reports not given to the audience are posted next to the live telecast.

Outstanding city management service: Parks Director Sue Leto’s widely respected equal treatment of the often-competing interests within the equestrian and athletic communities.

Most historic first: Nancy Rikel is the fifth woman out of the 29 individuals ever elected to the council, but she and Jan Horton are the first to serve concurrently.