Looking at the water district's future

City Council members are digging into a 40-page research paper before considering hiring experts to explore merging the independent Yorba Linda Water District with municipal government.

A colleague of City Attorney Sonia Carvalho in the city’s legal firm, Best, Best & Krieger, wrote the report, which Carvalho recommended reading so council would be “more aware and better understand the challenges and complexities” of merger issues.

Renewed calls for combining the water district with city services came in the wake of water supply problems associated with the tragic mid-November firestorm.

A publicly elected, five-member board of directors governs the district, which traces a history back to a mutual company formed in 1909. A total of 19 directors have served since the district’s creation in 1959, some for tenures up to 26 years each.

One longtime consolidation proponent was former Councilman Hank Wedaa, who often spoke for a merger during his 30 council years, including his final day in office last year.

The city successfully absorbed the once-independent Yorba Linda Library District in 1985, ending the agency’s 71 years of self-governance. But all five elected library trustees approved the merger, and city and library boundaries were nearly identical.

Water district directors strongly oppose merging, and the district’s 23-square mile service area includes 2,670 accounts in Placentia, 342 in Anaheim and 68 in Brea, along with the 20,554 in Yorba Linda.

Another issue involves the Golden State Water Company, which supplies some 400 acres of homes and businesses mostly east of Village Center Drive at considerably higher rates.

Two YLWD directors were re-elected to new four-year terms 11 days before the fire: Mike Beverage for a fifth term and Ric Collette for a second term. Directors Paul Armstrong, Bill Mills and John Summerfield, unopposed in 2006, serve until 2010.

According to finance reports filed by a Feb. 2 deadline, Collette loaned his campaign $30,560, received $1,000 in cash contributions and spent $9,630, as Beverage loaned $19,960, received $2,500 and spent $9,629.

Lone opponent Dave Rosenberger took in $5,468 cash and $1,950 in other donations, loaned his campaign $4,771 and spent $10,004.

A FINAL NOTE

The March issue of Reader’s Digest features an article about Blue Ridge Drive resident Jeff Reeves, a construction company owner who used his 2,250-gallon water truck to save neighborhood homes during the firestorm.

The article recounts how Reeves refilled his truck at fire hydrants 49 times during 19 straight hours, with help from Sam Easterday, who lost his home, and Randy Bremer.

School board candidates report contributions

The union representing 1,200 teachers in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District played a major role in returning three incumbents to the district’s five-member governing board, according to state-required financial forms filed by a Feb. 2 deadline.

Carol Downey, Judy Miller and Eric Padget listed $37,811 worth of resources from the Association of Placentia-Linda Educators or the union’s political action committee, the Community for Better Schools, in campaigns for trustee seats won on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Downey, a retired district teacher, reported raising $18,580 to win a third four-year term, including $11,328 in union expenses and $6,527 she loaned her campaign. She paid off $1,338 of the loan from contributions and listed the $5,189 balance as “forgiven.”

Miller, a Tustin district teacher, reported raising $17,522 to win her sixth term, including $11,327 in union expenses and $5,744 she loaned her campaign. She paid off $359 of the loan from contributions and listed the $5,385 balance as “forgiven.”

Padget, a Garden Grove district teacher, reported raising $17,681 to win his first elected term, including $15,156 in union expenses and $2,525 in cash contributions from others. He was appointed to the board in June 2008 to fill the remainder of Craig Olson’s term.

Padget lives in Yorba Linda, while Downey and Miller reside in Placentia. Trustees Karin Freeman and Jan Wagner, whose terms expire in 2010, are Yorba Linda residents.

One of two other candidates in the race, Jim Brunette of Yorba Linda, reported raising $4,025 through Oct. 18, including $3,600 he loaned his campaign and $425 donations. Shawn Burch of Anaheim didn’t file, indicating he spent less than $1,000 to finish fifth.

The union paid for roadway signs, mailers and phone banks for Downey, Miller and Padget, according to the filings. The three winners also paid $3,467 each for endorsements on a California Voter Guide slate mailer sent to the district’s 88,875 registered voters.

APLE also supported the $200 million Measure A bond measure in 2008, which won by 864 more votes than the 55 percent needed to pass, out of 45,272 ballots cast on the issue.

The union donated $2,500 cash and $3,043 in goods and services, according to reports filed by Joe Ham of Yorba Linda, treasurer of the pro-A Campaign for Kids committee.

However, the union’s contributions were dwarfed by donations ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 each by nearly two dozen architectural, banking, construction and landscaping firms that gave the bulk of the $263,773 raised to support the measure.

A look at funding for the 2008 council elections

A total $212,740 was spent on behalf of nine candidates seeking three Yorba Linda City Council seats in the Nov. 4 election—$70,913 per seat won and $6.06 per ballot cast, according to state-required finance statements filed by a Feb. 2 deadline.

Biggest overall spender was second-place winner Nancy Rikel, who reported $35,611 in expenses or $2.76 per vote received. Next was seventh-place finisher Mark Abramowitz, who spent $33,538 or $6.33 per vote.

Sixth-place finisher Hank Wedaa spent $27,925 or $4.23 per vote, and fourth-place finisher Ed Rakochy spent $26,499, including a $9,000 recount fee, or $2.22 per vote.

Fifth-place finisher Doug Dickerson spent $22,650 or $2.65 per vote; first-place winner Mark Schwing $18,288 or $1.37 per vote; eighth-place finisher Richard Wolfinger $15,739 or $3.85 per vote; and third-place winner Jim Winder $13,780 or $1.15 per vote.

Michael Marien, who placed last, didn’t file, indicating he spent less than $1,000.

Contributions and bills received after Dec. 31 don’t have to be reported until July 31. A total 35,092 Yorba Lindans cast ballots in the Presidential election, but some didn’t vote in the council race and others marked fewer than the three votes allowed.

Most of the money spent came from loans candidates made to their own campaigns, a method that allows them to repay themselves from future contributions, if any.

Loan totals: $41,900 for Abramowitz; $19,500 for Rikel; $16,160 for Winder, with $5,000 repaid to his daughter, Brea police officer Teri Hill; $14,600 for Dickerson; $14,000 for Schwing; $13,000 for Rakochy, $12,772 for Wolfinger; $10,000 for Wedaa.

Cash contributions from others included $16,077 to Wedaa; $11,658 to Winder; $11,197 to Rikel; $8,481 to Dickerson; $8,983 to Rakochy; $3,966 to Abramowitz; and $2,756 to Schwing.

Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation, which supported Rikel, Rakochy and Schwing, listed $2,875 in cash donations; $2,496 in loans; $9,342 in non-cash contributions, mostly items for fund-raising yard sales; and $18,706 expenses.

Past council members Wedaa, Allen Castellano and Keri Wilson closed their committees. Wedaa repaid $4,302 of his $10,000 loan and Wilson $4,067 of a $9,200 loan from cash contributions, with the respective $5,698 and $5,133 balances “forgiven.” Castellano donated his $3,453 cash balance to Messiah Lutheran Church.

Ken Ryan, who left office in 2006, has $409 in his account. In 2008, he paid $2,500 to J. Daniel McCurrie for “legal defense” and gave $250 to Dickerson.

John Anderson has a $6,633 cash balance and a $7,000 self-made loan, while Jan Horton has $3,560 cash and a $5,950 loan.

City Council acts on Town Center report

The City Council has taken six sensible steps based on interim City Manager Bill Kelly’s report on the 2003-06 Town Center redevelopment controversy, including a unanimous vote to refer three possible open-meeting law violations to the state Attorney General.

Although Kelly recommended submitting the possible Brown Act abuse by a past council for review, he noted that except for a potential violation involving council signatures on a 2005 letter to residents “it is assumed all other closed sessions were legal.”

But Kelly also noted a prior council’s “not reporting decisions or directions in public sessions in a timely fashion caused serious public perception problems” in his report examining issues related to the failed Old Town master-planned project.

Opposition to the project, involving eminent domain use and higher density Town Center zoning, partly led to the election of five council members: John Anderson and Jan Horton in 2006, Hank Wedaa in 2007 and Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing in 2008.

Council also voted 4-1 for an independent review of relationships among attorneys involved in a Measure B court case in 2005-06.

Measure B, which requires a public vote on major changes to city planning documents, passed by 299 votes in 2006 after a judge denied a lawsuit filed by an attorney for City Clerk Kathie Mendoza to keep the citizens’ initiative off the ballot.

The suit pitted the clerk’s attorney against the council’s attorney and an attorney for three “interested party” citizens. The city paid $151,662 to the clerk’s and council’s attorneys, who argued opposing sides of the issue.

Kelly reported Mendoza “followed the direction” of former City Manager Tamara Letourneau, who “followed the direction” of a past council, and neither Mendoza nor Letourneau “acted outside of [their] professional roles or responsibilities.”

Council also voted 4-1 to place a letter in Mendoza’s personnel file indicating she was directed by Letourneau to file the lawsuit. Letourneau was dismissed on a 5-0 council vote in 2008, four months after receiving a substantial salary increase on a 3-2 vote.

Unanimous council actions also call for guidelines on handling initiative and referendum petitions and policies incorporating reforms Kelly recommended relating to negotiations with developers and providing periodic public updates on significant projects.

But council split 3-2 in favor of Kelly expanding his report with up to 10 more interviews and looking into a former Town Center developer’s charge past city officials required his firm to fund a petition suppression campaign to obtain a negotiating agreement extension.