Bridge is alive; lost Black Gold interest grows

--Residents who thought a pedestrian bridge over Imperial Highway connecting Old Town’s Main Street area with Yorba Station died with a past City Council’s higher-density Town Center plan might be surprised to learn the bridge idea is alive and kicking.

Congressman Gary Miller, who obtained $3.1 million in federal funds for the structure several years ago, told council members at a recent morning meeting at the Black Gold Golf Club the money remains earmarked for the bridge “a while longer.”

Miller stressed the decision of whether or not to take the money is up to the council, but he said, “I don’t want the city to lose the money.” The earmark, he noted, could only be used for a bridge linking the two shopping areas.

With another $1.1 million set aside in a different account, Miller thought a bridge could be built for the $4.2 million total without additional city dollars for construction. Miller noted, however, the $1.1 million could be used for other transportation-related projects.

Of course, nobody’s calling the federal funding an example of pork, a word used for money spent elsewhere. Miller said, “I’m just bringing your tax dollars back to you.” Council didn’t commit to a bridge, but it’ll be an option in a new Town Center plan.

--City Finance Director David Christian gave council members revised figures regarding city loans to Black Gold on Sept. 21 that are higher than the numbers I used in a Sept. 16 column commenting on finances at the city-owned facility.

Through the 2009-10 fiscal year, outstanding loans are $4,786,268, including $83,371 in first-year cost of a five-year rye to Kikuyu grass replacement program. Paid interest was $1,102,274 through June 30, 2007.

However, beginning with the 2007-08 fiscal year, council waived interest on the loans, and Christian, after reviewing the rates used in calculating the forgiven interest, said he “found them to not be the most accurate rates.”

Christian put the new, higher total of “lost” interest payments at $327,593 for the past three fiscal years. That’s the amount the cash could have earned if invested elsewhere.

--Forty-one-year resident and Esperanza High grad Brett Barbre will be appointed to a fourth term as one of seven directors for the county’s Municipal Water District, which administers imported water supplies, since nobody filed to run against him on Nov. 2.

Longtime resident Jeff Brown drew an opponent for a third full term as a North Orange County Community College District trustee, as did incumbents Barbara Dunsheath and Donna Miller. They’ll face Ruben Barron, Tim Keenan and Darlene Allen, respectively.

And resident Steve Rudometkin has moved from interim to permanent city manager. He told me he’d stay through 2012 or longer, if council desires, and he said he rescinded his PERS retirement, so he’s earning $199,200 plus benefits and not “double-dipping.”

Voters to decide high-density zone change

An affordable housing developer plans an “austere” campaign to convince city voters to approve a zone change on a Savi Ranch parcel allowing up to 30 units per acre in Yorba Linda’s first-ever Measure B vote on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Measure B, which requires a vote on density levels above 10 units per acre and heights above 35 feet, was approved by 299 votes in 2006, after builders and real estate groups raised $174,150 to defeat the initiative in the city’s single costliest campaign to date.

In that contest, “No on B” forces predicted “a state of constant elections” if the initiative passed, but four years later, Measure Z is the first zone change to be put to a public vote.

Measure Z was placed on the ballot for National Community Renaissance, a non-profit that has built or is completing 10,387 units on 110 properties in six states. The group is responsible for the measure’s estimated $8,500 election cost.

Among the developer’s local affordable units: 67 at Arbor Villas and 76 at Villa Plumosa, both on Plumosa Drive, north of the library’s lower-level parking lot.

A favorable Measure Z vote would allow up to 30 units per acre on one of the 13 parcels the City Council identified for potential rezoning to 10, 20 and 30 units per acre on a 5-0 vote last year. Two are located at Savi Ranch and 11 on the city’s west side.

The Savi Ranch parcel on the ballot is the 3.2-acre former Mitsubishi dealership in an office and commercial area. A “yes” vote also would allow heights to 45 feet, but the entire proposal would require environmental approvals and a final vote by the council.

John Seymour, the developer’s acquisitions vice president, wouldn’t reveal a budget for the election, saying it would be “austere.” He noted, “We shall communicate with the voters and get our message and the truth and facts out. Voter contact will begin soon.”

Due to parking constraints and unusable land for the parcel now in escrow, Seymour estimated a development would involve a range of 20-27 units per acre (64-86 units).

Units would be reserved for Yorba Linda families and seniors, with rents--up to $992 for one bedroom, $1,187 for two bedrooms and $1,351 for three bedrooms--based on low-to-moderate incomes ($47,000-$105,000 for a family of four), according to Seymour.

“Any new apartment community we build would be of exceptional high quality” with a community room for city and neighborhood events, Seymour stated. “If all goes well,” construction could start by the end of 2012 and conclude 18 months later, he added.

Council voted 5-0 to put Z on the ballot, and four incumbents, including the two up for re-election, signed a supportive ballot argument, noting the development would be “far from residential areas.” But so far council is mum on specifics regarding the 11 parcels identified for potential higher-densities in west side residential areas.

Black Gold costs need answers from candidates

A second key issue Yorba Linda’s six City Council candidates need to address in much more detail is the financial status of the city-owned Black Gold Golf Course, which has seen another year of declining revenues and cash infusions from the city treasury.

Last week, I expressed the hope this year’s council contenders would provide more than sound-bite comments on 13 sites the current council has identified for potential rezoning to 10, 20 and 30 units per acre, for up to 1,087 units of low-cost, multi-family housing.

Even though council members said that the sites would not necessarily be developed to the full densities identified, the state said the city’s strategy “assumes development will occur on these parcels at the proposed maximum densities.”

This week, I’ll focus on continuing financial shortfalls at Black Gold. Obviously, the issue is challenging, but serious candidates should be offering workable solutions, not generic promises to “explore” the matter and vague pledges of “cost alternatives.”

Black Gold’s total revenue for the 2009-10 fiscal year, based on yet-to-be audited figures, dropped 3.6 percent from the prior 12-month period, from $5,512,494 to $5,314,506. And the latter number was 6.8 percent below anticipated revenues of $5,674,522.

June, the final month of the fiscal year, was particularly bleak, with income down 10 percent from the previous June and 17.6 percent below anticipated income. However, May was especially strong, up 20.1 percent from 2009 and 6.4 percent from estimates.

Black Gold was supposed to pour about $1 million per year into the city’s general fund even before the construction bonds were paid back—that’s what residents were told by a slew of golf course consultants when plans were approved in the 1990s.

But so far, the city has loaned Black Gold $4.7 million since 2000. And beginning in the 2007-08 fiscal year, interest on the loans has been waived, amounting to $226,943 in lost payments for the period through June 2009.

In addition, the city will be spending $1.2 million to replace rye grass with Kikuyu grass during a five-year period and $140,000 for adding Bermuda grass around tee boxes (with $300,000 in water and other savings anticipated).

The first-year rye-to-Kikuyu transition cost of $224,145 was to come from general fund reserves, and the next four years of costs, ranging from $155,325 to $184,280 each year, included in the city’s operating budgets.

Black Gold subsidies contribute to the council pleading poverty on smaller-budget items, such as July 4 fireworks and October Fiesta Day parade, two of the city’s best-attended events. (This year the fireworks survived on a 3-2 vote, but the parade is off for a second year.)

One solution is to wait for a better economy. But what if the current status is a “new normal,” as some predict? The candidates need to step up with some actual answers.

Housing question needs answers by candidates

Too often many key issues affecting Yorba Linda don’t get the in-depth attention they deserve as candidates cast wide nets for votes in City Council elections, including this fall’s 24th council ballot to fill two seats at the dais.

Contenders run generic campaigns, always identifying themselves as fiscal conservatives and promising to protect the city’s low-density, semi-rural heritage. But they’re never too specific about how they’ll address aspects of the more challenging problems.

The 200-word statements mailed with sample ballot materials, the two-to-three minute answers permitted at candidate night events and the bullet-point mailers listing dozens of endorsements don’t provide the city’s 43,149 registered voters with sufficient detail.

Beginning this week, I’ll present a few of this city’s durable issues, hoping candidates will provide more depth to their usual “I’ll do what’s best for Yorba Linda” platforms.

First up is low-cost housing and what the state expects the city to achieve in this area the next few years. Frankly, council is boxed into a corner on the matter and only promising to fight “unreasonable” state mandates isn’t an answer that will fly anymore.

Council last year voted 5-0 to identify 13 specific sites for potential rezoning to multi-family residential at 10, 20 and 30 units per acre—11 on the west side and two at Savi Ranch—to provide up to 1,087 units for low- and moderate-income households.

A Savi Ranch location is already on the Nov. 2 ballot, as Measure Z. Measure B, approved by a 299-vote margin in 2006, requires a favorable public vote to allow residential projects greater than 10 units per acre and heights exceeding 35 feet.

The cost for putting Measure Z on the ballot will be paid by the project applicant, National Community Renaissance, which plans affordable housing on the former Mitsubishi site.

Council members often note the more controversial west side sites, some of which are now vacant or eventually will be vacant, such as the St. Joseph medical facility, won’t necessarily be developed with low-cost housing at the maximum densities identified.

But the state takes a different position on the matter. In a document delivered to city officials last year, the state said the city’s strategy “assumes development will occur on these parcels at the proposed maximum densities.”

And a Measure B vote against higher densities on identified sites or other possible locations won’t end the matter. As the state has told city leaders:

“Measure B represents a unique constraint to multi-family and high-density housing,” and since “the city is required to address and mitigate or remove constraints,” council “must also include programs to address the constraint of Measure B.”

This issue and others I’ll outline in coming weeks need more than campaign-style sound-bite answers from candidates.

Council can't decide on a pay cut, so they boost their 'cafeteria plan' fringe benefits 13.4 percent

These odds and ends about local politics merit mention this week:

--Three proposals by City Council members to cut their $500 per month salaries by 10, 25 or 50 percent failed at a June 30 meeting, and a resolution to boost benefits in a city employee “cafeteria” plan that includes council members was adopted Aug. 17.

The June 30 session mainly dealt with the city’s budget for the new fiscal year. A motion by Jan Horton for a $50 cut won only two votes from Horton and Jim Winder, while John Anderson’s motion for a $125 trim also gained just two nods, from Anderson and Horton.

Anderson’s motion for a $250 reduction died without a second, as did Horton’s to cut a $36 monthly cell phone payment. A motion to pay the $30 per meeting Redevelopment Agency salary only “for those meetings where actual Redevelopment Agency business is discussed” won 3 (Anderson, Horton, Winder) to 2 (Nancy Rikel, Mark Schwing).

No motions were advanced to cut the $125 monthly PERS retirement payment for four council members or the $833 per month “cafeteria” benefit and $6,000 in life insurance for all five.

The Aug. 17 meeting agenda included resolutions on compensation for city employees, which includes council members. The “cafeteria” benefit, which can be used for a health plan, cash payment or deferred compensation, was raised to $945 monthly on a 5-0 vote.

--Yorba Linda Water District’s elected directors created a Citizens Advisory Committee when many residents criticized the district after the November 2008 fire. They selected one member, Phil Hawkins, to replace the late director Paul Armstrong earlier this year.

Hawkins is now seeking a full, four-year term on the Nov. 2 ballot, as are committee members Gary Melton and Robert Kiley. Also running are incumbents Bill Mills, a director 1985-87 and since 2002, and John Summerfield, a director since 2001.

Directors receive $150 per meeting and were paid a total $48,150 to attend 323 meetings in the 2009-10 fiscal year. Other perks: paid health for three directors, dental and vision for four, PERS for one and Social Security for four, costing $32,450 for 2010-11.

--Partisan party politics could play a role in this year’s council election. Mark Schwing, who lost a seat he held for 12 years on the county Republican Central Committee in last June’s primary, leaves in January, so he’ll be on board for 2010 endorsement decisions.

Schwing supports John Anderson and Tom Lindsey. Also promoting the pair is the North Orange County Conservative Coalition, which organized a well-attended “tea party” rally at the Community Center April 15.

Jan Horton supports Brenda McCune, who recently joined the 242-member Lincoln Club (annual dues $3,900), which often endorses local GOP candidates. Horton was registered Democratic when elected in 2006, but she told me she later switched to declined to state.