Yorba Linda to explore more police options

Can Yorba Linda save money on police protection through some other method than the current law enforcement contract with Brea, first negotiated by a City Council in 1970?

That’s a question frequently asked but less often examined in detail, even though the cost of the Brea contract has escalated considerably over the years, currently consuming close to 43 percent of Yorba Linda’s annual operating budget, $12 million out of $28.4 million.

Now, the 2011 council has voted to explore a wide range of options for providing police services in the city, including a “joint powers agreement” with Brea or Placentia or both Brea and Placentia, a contract with the county sheriff and an agreement with Anaheim.

The vote came at the end of the most recent council meeting and was supported by John Anderson, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing, with Tom Lindsey opposed and Jim Winder absent. An earlier Lindsey motion to expedite renewal of the current pact with Brea died.

No timeline for reporting results was included in the successful motion, but the existing five-year contract with Brea expires June 30, 2012. A recent 5-0 budget decision to cut two positions, a traffic officer and detective, was implemented in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Researching other options is not a comment on the quality of services from Brea police, council members noted, only a desire to obtain actual cost estimates from other sources.

And a “joint powers” arrangement with Brea or Placentia or both Brea and Placentia would make Yorba Linda a partner in a law enforcement agency, rather than merely
a city contracting with another city that makes most of the key department decisions.

City Manager Steve Rudometkin stated that Brea officials are willing to discuss a joint authority, noting his Brea counterpart said to “put it on the table” for future negotiation.

Pointedly, the motion did not include an inquiry into the cost of creating a Yorba Linda-only department, an oft-proposed route that was detailed in a 2009 study by a city-hired consultant, who estimated a first-year “initiation expense” of $16.5 million.

Yorba Linda’s police contract cost jumped 76 percent in the past decade. Also increasing was the per-resident cost, from $112 in 2000-01 to $179 estimated in 2011-12, according to figures recently compiled by Brea police Lt. Jerry Brakebill.

During the same period, the cost to Brea residents increased 143 percent, from $6 million to $14.6 million. Taking population increases into account, Brea’s per-resident price rose from $170 to $364.

Per-resident costs for La Habra and Placentia, which have stand-alone departments, were $257. Lake Forest, one of the 12 county cities contracting with the Sheriff’s Department, pays $177 per resident, Brakebill’s numbers noted.

The most recent annual report compiled by Brea police Capt. John Burks covers police activity in Yorba Linda for 2010. Among facts not reported when the report was issued:

--Service calls dipped 13 percent to 19,916 from 2009’s 23,000. Average response time for emergency calls: 4 minutes, 32 seconds, a 10 second decrease from 2009.

--Serious crimes dropped 16 percent to 864 from 2009’s 1,025: no homicides, 3 rapes, 9 robberies, 46 felony assaults, 150 burglaries, 621 thefts, 33 stolen vehicles and 2 arsons.

--Arrests decreased 5 percent, 55 fewer than in 2009 (53 fewer adults and 2 fewer juveniles). Clearance rate for serious crimes: 21 percent, based on FBI guidelines.

Library could be lure needed for Town Center

A key component of Yorba Linda’s soon-to-be redeveloped Town Center will be a new $29 million, 50,820-square-foot library--located near the library’s original 1913 home--that’s expected to bring more than 1,000 daily visitors into the heart of Old Town.

All of the myriad reports and studies focusing on the sleepy downtown area since the 1980s have cited the need for a popular business or public facility to serve as the lure to entice cash-spending customers to new shops and restaurants planned for the area.

The failed 2004-05 effort spearheaded by developer Michael Dieden and endorsed by a then-unanimous City Council envisioned a Whole Foods-type market anchoring a wide variety of businesses, boutiques and high-density residential development in Old Town.

But the Dieden partnership hadn’t yet started marketing the 31-acre area to specific businesses before petition drives derailed the project and led to an almost-complete council turnover in three municipal elections in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

And obviously, the current economy might make Old Town less attractive to the type of retailer that might draw larger crowds to compact downtown streets. Again, any specific marketing to brand-name businesses for Old Town locations has yet to begin in earnest.

Another Old Town option, a cultural arts center, also has been proposed, but, as impartial observers might agree, politics and a lack of identified financing hamper that plan. But an arts facility eventually could be situated on city land just east of the Community Center.

Financing for a new library will come from four sources: the library’s reserve accounts, selling the current property, a loan from the city general fund and excess bond proceeds, stated a report by Finance Director Dave Christian and Library Director Melinda Steep.

The library’s reserve funds, built up from savings from the library’s separate property tax and other revenue for the past several years, will hold about $12 million by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year, including $5.8 million in a specific Library Capital Reserve Fund.

Sale of the current library property at 18181 Imperial Highway could net $3 million. A city-hired consultant reported in April that the library site might support 20,500 square-feet of retail and restaurant development with annual rents of $36 per square foot.

The $6 million loan from city reserves “would save the library the costs of issuing bonds as well as allowing the general fund to earn additional interest income over the life of the loan,” Christian and Steep noted.

A $4 million city loan to the library for a remodeling 20 years ago “has since been repaid in full,” the pair indicated. The interest rate would be between bond market requirements and that earned by the city’s investment portfolio.

Finally, $8 million will come from 2005 and 2011 Redevelopment Agency bond sales, with $20.3 million currently available for the Town Center project. Since a pedestrian bridge and parking structure were dropped, only $12 million is needed for infrastructure.

The estimated $29-31 million cost for a new library is “still very preliminary and once an architect is on board and can provide value engineering, these estimates may be reduced,” Christian and Steep noted.

While an exact location hasn’t been determined, the new library will be a stone’s throw from the room occupied on School Street in 1913 and a later location at Valencia Street and Lemon Drive in 1916.

City government has lots of income sources

Revenue from a wide assortment of taxes and fees is the lifeblood of Yorba Linda’s city government, providing the cash required to pay for municipal services, perhaps most importantly the $12 million that finances round-the-clock police protection.

Yorba Linda’s residents placed a priority on low taxes beginning with incorporation in 1967, when the winning candidates for the first City Council promised cityhood voters “no city property tax”—a vow kept during the first 13 years of the city’s existence.

But passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 left Yorba Linda with no piece of the reconstituted property tax pie, so 27-year City Manager Art Simonian lobbied the state legislature for a special law granting the city 10 percent of property taxes collected within city limits.

Property tax revenue has grown from $1.5 million in the first year to a predicted $12.8 million for the current fiscal year, now the largest revenue source for the city’s general fund, which expects to take in $27.5 million through June 30, 2012.

This year’s property tax income will show a small increase of about $70,000 over 2010-11 due to “continued growth in new residential housing slightly offset by declining values and fewer reassessments due to property tax appeals,” city Finance Director Dave Christian reported to council recently.

The second largest source of general fund revenue comes from the one percent portion of sales taxes collected by local businesses. Christian noted that the expected $5.4 million is about the same as last year, with a slight increase to $5.5 million anticipated for 2012-13, representing “the upward trend in spending as the economy slowly rebounds.”

The city’s third-largest pool of general fund revenue is a category Christian calls “other taxes and franchise fees,” which is expected to decline nearly $200,000 to $2.6 million, primarily due to the state eliminating $150,000 in motor vehicle fees.

Included in this category are hotel-motel occupancy and property transfer taxes, business license fees and the franchise fees residents pay on utility, trash and cable television bills.

Fees paid to the Recreation Department are expected to pull in nearly $2.5 million this year from a variety of programs provided children, teens and adults and facility rentals. More income comes from assorted charges and fees and special and restricted sources.

And as anyone with a bank account is aware, income from interest-bearing deposits is down considerably. Christian expects interest income to decline to $250,000 this year, noting that “revenue from this source has not been this low for a long time.”

The city’s separate capital improvement budget, with $12.7 million in spending expected in 2011-12, receives revenue from several sources, including the county Measure M sales tax, gasoline taxes, building reserve, traffic and park funds, other agencies and grants, general fund reserve and $3.3 million transfers from redevelopment and library funds.

The Redevelopment Agency is funded by the increase in property taxes from project areas ($21 million anticipated), and the library has separate property tax income, a remnant from the library’s 1914-85 status as an independent district (collecting $4 million this year, with $3.3 million saved from past years).

All told, at least 34 tax and fee categories fund city services, representing quite a change from the minimum-tax talk of early leaders in this once-rural community.

Budget, golf course, Duvall, water cost updates

Here are updates to some matters mentioned in past columns:

--Two police positions were dropped from Yorba Linda’s law enforcement contract with Brea for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which began on July 1, as a result of this city’s recently adopted operating budget to fund municipal services through June 30, 2012.

The City Council cut one of five motorcycle traffic officers and one of seven detectives in passing a budget with an expected $27.5 million revenue stream and $27.4 million in expenses, not counting a $1 million transfer from reserve funds to cover shortfalls in the city’s cash-strapped Landscape Maintenance Assessment District.

The operating budget eliminated the 13 furlough days for city employees during the 2010-11 fiscal year, adding $340,000 to the 2011-12 budget. However, expect pension formula and contribution changes when new employee contracts are announced, likely later this month.

--The city’s separate capital improvement budget also was approved by council, with $12.7 million in expenditures in 2011-12 and more than $27 million in 2012-13. The hit to the city’s reserve fund--money saved from more plush times--will be about $1.2 million for 2011-12.

Major projects: $3.3 million for new library design, $2 million for ongoing street maintenance, $1.8 million for Savi Ranch signs and $1.5 million for Town Center infrastructure design. Most of this funding comes from special-purpose sources.

--An interesting alignment emerged on budget-related voting. John Anderson and Nancy Rikel opposed the operating budget because the spending plan used too much of the cash saved in reserves from prior years and one portion of the capital improvement budget due to the amount of money earmarked for various Black Gold Golf Club improvements.

Voting in the majority were Tom Lindsey, Mark Schwing and Jim Winder, although Schwing cast lone votes against two capital improvement items: the $1.8 million for Savi Ranch signage and $50,000 for trail fencing improvements.

--Revenue at the city-owned Black Gold Golf Club again won’t cover expenses for the 2011-12 fiscal year, based on budget figures. Not counting $1 million for depreciation, expenses are expected to be a bit more than $5.8 million and income about $5.2 million.

Cash to cover the expected $635,900 deficit will come from the city’s reserve fund. The anticipated shortfall is more than a $479,875 deficit, not counting depreciation, expected when 2010-11 totals are figured and a year-end report is delivered to council this month.

--Former Mayor Mike Duvall finally closed his campaign committee, according to a report filed in advance of a July 31 deadline. The committee was terminated June 10, 21 months after his resignation from the state Assembly post he held for three years.

Duvall’s final payouts included $2,200 to March of Dimes, $1,206 to 4-H and $1,447 for professional services. All told, Duvall disbursed about $75,000 in funds raised for a 2010 re-election race since he left office in 2009, mostly to charity but also to some politicians.

--Agencies that purchase imported water from the Metropolitan Water District face a 7.5 percent increase in cost Jan. 1, but Yorba Linda Water District ratepayers won’t see more charges because the district included the upcoming increase in an Aug. 1, 2010, rate hike, noted YLWD spokesperson Damon Micalizzi.