Former mayor eyes reserves, swimming pool

Former Mayor Allen Castellano—recordholder for most votes won in a Yorba Linda City Council election—is going public with his concerns on two distinct issues: dwindling city budget reserves and the size of a swimming pool for Yorba Linda High School.

“Now that I’m off council, I seem to have a lot more time on my hands,” Castellano told me in an e-mail recently. The L.A. County Sheriff deputy twice served as mayor during two council terms, 2000-08, and his 16,879 vote total in 2004 is still the highest achieved.

Castellano stated, “I’ve seen a lot of spending taking place within the city without a lot of tangible results.” He also noted, “When I left office, we had $38 million in reserves.” The latest figures show a “projected fund balance” a bit under $29.4 million for June 30.

“My concern has always been that our reserves are not a long-term funding source and should only be used for capital improvement projects and/or litigation costs,” he stated.

Castellano, a 16-year resident with a master’s degree in public administration, added, “I will definitely keep my eye on them, as we cannot sustain our general fund expenditures through our reserves.”

And earlier this month, Castellano sent a letter to Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District superintendent Dennis Smith lobbying for an Olympic-sized swimming pool for the Mustang campus.

A pool 50 meters long and 25 meters wide would “create a revenue stream…not normally available to the district with a smaller facility,” Castellano said, citing income from joint-usage and rental agreements and other benefits, including entry fee waiver for co-hosted tournaments, transportation savings and food and beverage sales revenue.

“A 50-meter pool within the district will give other schools the ability to move to Yorba Linda High School if their pools are in need of repair or renovation. A 50-meter pool is large enough to sustain two full practices at once,” Castellano noted.

“In south Orange County, the 50-meter pool has become the operating standard for new construction high schools and the focus for renovation projects,” including pools at El Toro, Capistrano Valley, Arnold Beckman, Juniper Serra, Santa Margarita, Santa Ana Valley and Foothill high schools, according to Castellano.

Castellano told me his oldest daughter is a freshman at Yorba Linda High and is in the water polo and swimming programs. “Before she started, I had no idea how much of a difference a 50-meter pool makes over a 30-meter pool,” he said.

“Fortunately, the YLHS water polo team was forced to travel to different schools to play their games, since YLHS does not have their pool built yet. In doing so, they have played at some fantastic facilities. The commonality with each facility that has a 50-meter pool is the versatility and ability to generate revenue into each district,” he added.

City Council campaign sparring underway

Opening bell for what promises to be a hard-fought City Council election is five months away, but candidates, potential candidates and their camp followers already are sparring at the twice-monthly council meetings and on Web sites, blogs and a Facebook page.

Seats now held by John Anderson and Jan Horton—elected to first terms in 2006 from a field of 10 candidates—are at stake in the city’s 24th council election. A four-week filing period opens July 12 for placement on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Horton is promoting her re-election drive on a “Jan Horton - Yorba Linda City Council” Facebook page and posts announcements and political opinions at www.horton4yl.com.

Anderson told me he’s “made no decision” about another campaign, but his refurbished www.anderson4yl.com Web site reads as if he’ll be involved, even if not as a candidate.

Serious contenders need an early start, especially to line up financing and endorsements.
Horton already has paid $500 each to be listed on the COPS Voter Guide and California Vote by Mail endorsement slate mailers to help sway the city’s 42,859 registered voters.

On state-mandated disclosure forms filed by a Feb. 1 deadline, Horton reported $2,126 cash-on-hand and a self-made $5,950 loan debit left over from her campaign four years ago. Anderson has $6,633 cash and an outstanding $7,000 he loaned his ’06 campaign.

Generally, candidates loan rather than donate money to their own campaigns, so they can repay themselves from future contributions. But if enough money isn’t forthcoming from others, they must “forgive” part or all of their loans when they disband their committees.

For example, one-term Councilwoman Keri Wilson wrote off $9200 she and her husband loaned her campaign and eight-term Councilman Hank Wedaa wrote off $5697 he loaned his campaign when they terminated their committees in 2008.

Candidates have spent from $20,000 to $40,000 in the past decade to win a seat behind the dais.The 2008 winners—Nancy Rikel, Mark Schwing and Jim Winder—have listed loans they made to their committees—$19,500, $14,000 and $11,160—as debits.

Two-time candidate Ed Rakochy, who lost to Winder by one vote two years ago, hasn’t publicly announced whether he’s in or out of the race this time. However, he has filed a complaint against Horton with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

Rakochy, who supported Horton in 2006, alleges Horton failed to disclose a conflict of interest when she participated in discussions and votes about housing densities on city-owned sites within 500 feet of her Cedar Avenue home on Jan. 13 and April 21, 2009.

Horton told me she’s aware of the complaint and said, “My attorney is taking care of it.” At other meetings, Horton has cited her conflict of interest and excused herself from the dais during discussions and votes.

Duvall's campaign committee still active

Yorba Linda residents might be surprised to learn that former Mayor Mike Duvall’s state Assembly re-election committee is still active, despite his resignation from the legislative body five months ago after a self-described incident of “inappropriate storytelling.”

The “Mike Duvall for Assembly 2010” campaign committee filed a report of income and expenditures with California’s Secretary of State Jan. 28. The filing indicated Duvall has actually increased his cash balance from $66,732 to $74,897 since an August 2009 report.

The latest filing, covering the period July 1 through Dec. 31, 2009, listed contributions of $66,670 and expenditures of $57,945. Total contributions and expenditures for 2009 were $144,665 and $110,165, respectively.

Although Duvall didn’t list any contributions after his Sept. 9 resignation, he did take in $10,200 during his final eight days in office, with the only donation from a Yorba Linda resident—$200—coming from Councilwoman Jan Horton.

Duvall noted spending $30,437 since his resignation, including $21,450 for campaign consultants, $5,247 for fundraising events, $1,368 for office expenses, and $1,085 for travel, lodging and meals, but some expenses probably were incurred before he quit.

Interestingly, Duvall kept his City Council campaign committee active for close to 19 months after his resignation from the Yorba Linda governing body to assume his state Assembly duties in December 2006. He served six years on the council, two as mayor.

Forty-five days before he closed his “Committee to Elect Mike Duvall,” he reported a $5,000 donation from S and S Construction, a major player in developing city housing projects, which he used to pay off part of a loan he made to his committee in 2000.

The $5,000 contribution, personal loan payoff and a gift of $620 to Councilman Jim Winder’s campaign committee were the only activities listed by Duvall’s committee during the period between his council resignation and the committee’s termination.

Republican Chris Norby, who was sworn in to replace Duvall in the Assembly Jan. 29, listed spending $257,733 in 2009 in the race for the westside’s 72nd District seat, which includes 22,097 of Yorba Linda’s 42,862 registered voters.

Most of the money was spent on the Nov. 17 special election, in which Norby beat Linda Ackerman and Richard Faher for the GOP nomination. A full account of his spending for the Jan. 12 runoff with Democrat John MacMurray and Green Jane Rands is due July 31.

Surprisingly, Norby’s 2009 donor list didn’t include anyone from Yorba Linda, although Councilwoman Nancy Rikel made recorded phone calls to voters in the Nov. 17 election. Councilman Mark Schwing supported Ackerman.

Norby already has set up a new committee to handle funds for the June 8 primary, when he’ll be seeking the GOP nomination for a two-year Assembly term on the Nov. 2 ballot.

City revenues lag behind projections

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Even though revenue expectations for the city’s 2009-10 operating budget were lowered from last year’s budget due to the struggling economy, income is “as much as $450,000” behind projections, according to a mid-year report by Finance Director David Christian.

Sales tax revenue and interest income are below the reduced estimates in the current fiscal year budget, which runs from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010, but proceeds from building permits, plan checks and other service charges are higher than expected.

Property tax receipts, the city’s largest revenue source, are expected to exceed 50 per cent of budgeted totals at the mid-year point, once a scheduled repayment of taxes “borrowed” by the state is received, Christian reported.

Property and sales taxes, interest income and building, planning, engineering and recreation fees make up 80 percent of about $27 million in anticipated revenue. The city had $35 million in reserves on July 1, 2009, and plans to have $29.4 million this June 30.

The reserve figure includes loans of $6,015,560 to the city-run Redevelopment Agency, $793,148 to the Black Gold Golf Course and $439,254 for an Esperanza Road berm and wall project, leaving $22,120,175 “available for use” on June 30.

Sales tax revenue was estimated at almost 20 percent lower than last year’s budget and 7 per cent lower than actual receipts. But income for the first half of 2009-10 is “trending at 12 per cent below actual receipts” for 2008-9, Christian reported, adding that the total could run about $550,000 less than budgeted income.

Another revenue drop is on interest earned on about $100 million in the city’s investment portfolio. The city anticipated 13 percent less, but income “is trending at about 25 percent of budget” and “may come in as low as $400,000 below budget,” Christian noted.

And the city planned for 40 percent less revenue from building permits and plan checks, but receipts are exceeding budget by 10 percent and could bring in an extra $500,000, if activity continues at the same pace for six more months. Engineering and recreation fees “will meet or slightly exceed budget,” according to Christian.

Keeping a close eye on expenditures is the City Council’s Finance Committee, which meets twice monthly and includes Mayor John Anderson, Councilman Mark Schwing, City Manager Dave Adams and Christian.

The group was scheduled to look at a lower-cost plan for turf replacement at the city-owned Black Gold Golf Course this week—about $1 million for kikuyugrass instead of $4.8 million and up to $2.7 million in course closing losses using Hybrid Bermuda.

Costs associated with the city’s contract with Best, Best and Krieger for legal services, which totaled $225, 410 for July through November 2009, including a nearly $10,000-per-month retainer, and Brea police overtime bills also are being scrutinized.