The paths to top leadership positions

Beginning next week, the four governing boards responsible for setting city, water and school policies for Yorba Linda will select new leaders for 2010, a routine act that has, on occasion, created ill feelings among some of the elected representatives.

Generally, the boards—which include the City Council and the Yorba Linda Water, Placentia-Yorba Linda school and North Orange County Community College districts— follow one of three patterns when choosing which members will serve in leadership roles.

The most-used model is a rotation policy, with members taking turns filling the positions. Less common practices are to keep the same officers in place for a second year or to pass over a member and begin a new line of succession.

While the local boards used all three methods last year, the more controversial action was taken by council members, who over the years have deviated most often from the rotation policy, which for the city was initiated by the first five councilmen elected in 1967.

Last year, the council rejected elevating then-Mayor Pro Tem Jan Horton to mayor on a 3-2 vote, as John Anderson, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing overruled Jim Winder and Horton. Schwing was named mayor 4-1, with only Horton opposed.

After the vote, Schwing announced 36 appointments, and later, according to the meeting minutes, “Horton asked if it wasn’t pre-decided, how did the mayor come to the meeting decided on appointments to organizations, agencies and committees without recommendations.”

Anderson was unanimously named mayor pro tem for 2009, and he’ll move to the mayor’s chair, if council returns to a rotation plan at the Dec. 1 meeting. Although this council’s actions are tricky to predict, Rikel is likely to be chosen 2010 mayor pro tem.

The city’s most famous skipover involved 30-year council vet Hank Wedaa, who served as mayor five times from 1971 to 1989, but not once during his final 10 years on council.

At the water district, Vice President Bill Mills appears certain to become president Dec. 10, since directors have bypassed only one member during the agency’s 50-year history.

President John Summerfield and Mills were named to the top jobs for 2008 and re-elected for 2009 by unanimous votes. Mike Beverage will be selected vice president, if directors, like council members, revert to the rotation method, as expected.

Placentia-Yorba Linda school trustees invariably follow a rotation policy, so at a Dec. 15 reorganization meeting, Carol Downey will replace Karin Freeman as president and clerk Jan Wagner will assume Downey’s vice president chores.

And Yorba Linda resident Mike Matsuda is in line to be president, replacing Leonard Lahtinen, and Barbara Dunsheath vice president, replacing Matsuda, when leaders are named Dec. 8 for the college board, which governs Fullerton and Cypress colleges.

State trumps city rules for massage businesses

Residents who’ve e-mailed City Council members and this column complaining about more massage establishments operating in Yorba Linda lately will be unhappy to learn that city officials are limited in the actions they can take to reverse the trend.

Assistant City Attorney Jamie Raymond told the council recently that legislation adopted a year ago preempts local licensing laws and instead creates a statewide process in which a masseuse can be licensed by the state and can’t be required to obtain a local license.

Yorba Linda adopted a tough ordinance in 2003 enacting detailed regulations for massage establishments and strict standards for massage technicians “to discourage” the businesses “from degenerating into houses of prostitution,” according to a statement in the ordinance.

The 29-page city law required massage technicians to pass practical and written tests: a “hands-on” exam administered by a city-hired practitioner versed in massage styles and paper test questions covering massage, anatomy, physiology, ethics and legal regulations.

In addition, massage technicians were required to wear city-issued photo identity cards and be clothed at all times. Use or possession of adult-oriented merchandise and condoms was forbidden, and operators required to record patron names, addresses and services provided.

The ordinance also prohibited “signaling devices” used to alert employees and customers to the presence of law enforcement personnel. Council vote for adoption was unanimous.

The state law, which took effect Jan. 1, was introduced by Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach). She said the law creates a non-profit group, the Massage Therapy Organization, “to certify legitimate massage practitioners and therapists.”

The law requires certified personnel to pass an exam and criminal background check, be fingerprinted and complete 500 hours of training for a therapist or 250 for a practitioner.

Finance Director Susan Hartman told the council before her recent retirement Yorba Linda requires proof of state certification for massage therapists before issuing a city license. If a practitioner elects not to obtain the voluntary state certification, they must still attain a city permit to practice in Yorba Linda.

A FINAL NOTE

First, Yorba Linda offered employees a “golden handshake” that gave them an additional two years of service credit on their CalPERS retirement formula if they retired this month.

Now, the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District plans to offer teachers a mid-year supplementary retirement plan that would save money, bring back teachers laid off in June and reduce the likelihood of Spring 2010 reductions due to declining enrollment.

According to the current salary schedule, fully credentialed first-year teachers earn $45,681 versus $94,560 for teachers with a master’s degree and 30 years of service.

Race to replace Duvall further erodes confidence

The negative tone of the campaign to replace former two-time Mayor Mike Duvall in the state Assembly is likely to further erode confidence in the values of political leaders who seek to represent Yorba Linda in Sacramento.

The two top contenders for the year remaining on Duvall’s second term in the state’s 80-member legislative body appear ominously adept at using the most damaging vocabulary they can find to describe their chief opponent—and both are Republicans.

Thus, Chris Norby mailers trumpet “corruption,” “abuse,” “carpetbagging,” “money laundering” and “lies” to discredit Linda Ackerman, while Ackerman materials cite Norby’s “rude, inappropriate and offensive behavior” and “sexual harassment” trial.

And tellingly, both candidates drag out terms they think will be most effective in today’s corrosive political climate: Ackerman labels Norby “another politician,” and Norby tags Ackerman a “political insider.”

Meanwhile, Richard Faher, a third Republican candidate, Democrat John MacMurray and Green Party contender Jane Rands don’t have the money to hit voters with a heavy barrage of mail and telephone calls, although MacMurray recycled signs from his 2006 and 2008 campaigns against Duvall, in which he won 37.6 and 45.2 percent of the vote.

About one-half of Yorba Linda’s 42,823 voters reside in the 72nd Assembly District, which has 219,801 voters in Brea, Fullerton and Placentia and parts of Anaheim, La Habra, Orange and Yorba Linda. Registration is 43 percent Republican, 34 percent Democrat and less than one-half percent Green.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote when mail-in and precinct ballots are counted Tuesday night, the top Republican, MacMurray and Rands will appear on a Jan. 12 runoff ballot.

The county Registrar of Voters sent out 80,705 mail-in ballots as of Nov. 4, with 21,631 returned as of that date. To comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, 4,300 of the mail-in ballots were printed in Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Although the current shortened campaign period has taken a negative turn, the district’s nastiest election came in the 2000 GOP primary, when the 72nd included the entire city, and winner Lynn Daucher and Bruce Matthias traded insults in an especially foul battle.

Interestingly, 2009 has been a tough year for all of the city’s Sacramento representatives.
Predominant, of course, was Duvall’s self-described “inappropriate storytelling” that led to his Sept. 9 resignation, ending a nearly 10-year political career.

Curt Hagman, who represents the city’s eastern half in the Assembly, was required to return $6,100 in donations from religious organizations, while Bob Huff, who represents the city in the Senate, is a recall target by conservative critics. Duvall, Hagman and Huff began their political careers on their hometown city councils.

City studies transferring sewers to water district

Just a few months ago the City Council discussed hiring experts to explore consolidating the independently run Yorba Linda Water District with municipal government functions.

Now, the council will consider transferring ownership of the city-owned eastside sewer system to the water agency, which already owns westside sewers, as one option to meet shortfalls in the city’s sewer budget, with other options to be offered at a future meeting.

The consolidation discussion occurred soon after the catastrophic Freeway Complex fire a year ago this month, when some residents were criticizing the water district for lacking sufficient infrastructure to allow firefighters to control the blaze.

But takeover talk ended after City Attorney Sonia Carvalho gave members a report from the city’s Best, Best & Krieger law firm detailing merger “challenges and complexities.”

The city had successfully absorbed the Yorba Linda Library District in 1985 after 71 years of independent operation by that agency. But the library district’s elected trustees supported the consolidation, while the elected water directors strongly oppose a merger.

A recommendation that council “direct staff to begin the process to transfer the city sewer system ownership and maintenance responsibility” to the water agency was advanced at a recent meeting by Assistant City Manager Mark Stowell, who said water officials have “indicated an interest.”

In a report to council, Stowell noted: “From a community viewpoint, the sewer system should be owned and maintained by one agency. This would provide uniform fees and policies for residents and business owners. The consolidation…will also reduce overall costs for administration, maintenance service and oversight.”

This fiscal year, the city expects to contribute $465,042 from general fund revenues to supplement $124,700 raised from the $1.62 monthly fee assessed eastside residents for sewer service, which is paid with property taxes.

Westside residents pay $5.50 for sewer service on each month’s water bill, except for 1,565 Locke Ranch connections in the vicinity of Fairmont Boulevard that pay with property taxes. The private Golden State Water Company supplies that area’s water.

As reported in my Aug. 20 column, John Anderson, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing nixed a city increase to $7.19 monthly; Jan Horton and Jim Winder favored the boost.

The city’s eastside sewer budget “has been backfilled from the city’s general fund for several years to make up for the revenue shortfall,” Stowell stated, so the water district’s westside rate-payers have partly subsidized the eastside’s sewer costs during those years.

City sewers serve 6,175 land parcels, generally east of San Antonio Road, with water district territory including the city’s other 15,357 parcels, but some of these still have septic tank systems.