Some budget decisions wise, fiscally sound

The tough economy certainly impacts local government agencies, as reflected in city and school district budget decisions. But some recent actions merit positive comment as both wise and fiscally sound:

--Despite trimming a traffic officer and a detective from the current contract with Brea police, the City Council kept a School Resource Officer at Esperanza and Yorba Linda high schools, with the officer dividing 147 monthly hours between the two campuses.

Total cost for the position is $158,121, which includes wages, benefits and “associated operational and support costs,” according to a report by Capt. John Burks, with the city paying $91,710 and the school district $66,411 (about half of school-year costs).

The officer is a liaison for law enforcement-related needs, including criminal acts on campus, counseling of students and campus security issues and can aid in instruction on drug/alcohol use, gang awareness and teenage domestic violence.

Also, the officer “occasionally conducts criminal investigations involving students at the schools and assists detectives with missing or runaway juvenile cases,” Burks noted. An added duty: answering police needs at elementary and middle schools in Yorba Linda.

The city funded 3.5 school resource officers as recently as 2008-09, but the number was cut to one in 2009-10 when the elementary and middle school positions were eliminated.

Yorba Linda students attending El Camino, El Dorado and Valencia high schools benefit from three officers, one at each campus, with funding by Placentia and the school district.

--The city has negotiated agreements with some contractors to perform services at the same levels but at reduced rates. For example, two-year extensions on three contracts to maintain city-run landscape districts are down three to five percent.

The extensions cut about $26,000 from contracts now totaling $773,000, with more than $18,000 in savings for the city’s cash-strapped arterial landscape district, responsible for maintaining greenery along major streets, now partially funded from city reserves.

Also, janitorial services at eight city facilities, including city hall, library and Community Center, will cost $31,000 less than last year with a $142,356 contract. Yorba Linda works with Buena Park, La Habra and Orange on a multi-agency bid package.

--Perhaps surprisingly, the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district began the 2011-12 fiscal year with $89,728 more in the bank than the amount at the beginning of 2010-11, according to a financial report presented at the Sept. 13 trustee meeting.

The district had a general fund balance of $20,231,598, with $15,231,164 “designated for economic uncertainties” June 30 after spending $201,141,754 with $196,668,522 income.

--Although unpopular with residents seeking a cultural arts facility in Town Center, council’s 4-1 decision to not reserve city-owned Old Town land for an arts venue is practical, due to space issues coupled with council’s choice to build a new library there.

As reported by Community Development Director Steve Harris: the city “has received preliminary feedback from prospective developers that the commercial-designated area within the Town Center is relatively limited and could prove to be difficult in attracting certain retailers.”

Some city officials earn $100K-plus salaries

Let’s take a look at the pay earned by the city’s top officials and those who set the wages and benefits:

--During the most recent calendar year, Yorba Linda had 91 full-time employees, with 12 earning wages in the $100,000-plus class, or 28 when benefits were added, according to a new chart on the city website.

Of course, Steve Rudometkin, the 27-year Parks and Recreation director who was named City Manager in August 2010 after the surprise resignation of Dave Adams after only one year on the job, is the city’s highest-paid employee.

Rudometkin’s annual salary is $199,200, but since he worked for the city for nearly 21 weeks last year, he earned $80,064 or $113,977 when other compensation and benefits were calculated. He rescinded his PERS retirement to avoid a “double-dipper” label.

The city’s next-highest paid employee was Mark Stowell, who holds the titles of Public Works Director and City Engineer, the only individual in the $200,000-plus category in the past year. Stowell’s wages were $165,433 for a total $215,365 with benefits.

Closest in compensation were Finance Director Dave Christian and Community Development Director Steve Harris. Christian’s pay was $144,229 or $188,654 with benefits, while Harris earned $141,455 or $186,213 with benefits.

Next on the pay ladder were Library Director Melinda Steep and Assistant City Engineer Jacki Niemi. Steep’s pay was $131,094 or $177,114 with benefits while Niemi’s pay was $128,731 or $174,252 with benefits.

Normally, the next-highest paid employee would be the Parks and Recreation director, with a salary range between $123,012 and $149,520. But Bill Calkins, hired to replace early retiree Sue Leto, earned $80,149 or $110,032 with benefits for part of the year.

Other salaries and total compensation by titles in the $100,000-plus club include traffic engineering manager ($122,275 and $164,141), public works superintendent ($115,157 and $158,957), financial services manager ($113,311 and $152,261), information systems manager ($111,870 and $156,770) and building official ($107,034 and $149,902).

The lowest-paid was a library clerk at $32,859 ($50,383 with benefits).

--Total compensation for City Council members last year ranged from $771 for Tom Lindsey, in office less than a month, to $22,564 for Mark Schwing. The others: John Anderson, $20,913; Nancy Rikel, $19,376; and Jim Winder, $18,419.

The $6,000 annual salary is supplemented by medical insurance or an “in lieu” payment if medical is declined, redevelopment agency pay, phone allowance, dental and vision, a PERS pension for which the city pays employer and employee contributions and smaller amounts for Medicare, worker’s compensation, employee assistance and health overhead.

--This city’s rep at the county Municipal Water District, Brett Barbre, a past Yorba Linda Water District director, also serves on the Metropolitan Water District board. He tried to reduce a generous benefit package that included 401(k)s, 457(b)s and pensions but didn’t get much support from other directors and lost on a 27-6 vote.

--The Orange council will consider eliminating all salaries and benefits paid to members. Yorba Linda’s council, which has touted past conservative votes, such as supporting an Arizona immigration law and returning a federal earmark, should discuss similar action.

Where new affordable housing might go

Easily, the topic I’m most often asked to address in this column concerns city plans to implement state mandates for low-cost housing. Readers want to know exactly where new, affordable units might be built.

City officials are taking several avenues to meet the state’s controversial requirements for low-cost housing, also described as “affordable” and “work-force” housing, including the purchase and overhaul of existing apartment and condominium units.

But, invariably, residents ask: Where will new multi-family units be located?

Naturally, the city can’t force construction of low-cost housing on land the city doesn’t own, but the city has identified several parcels as amenable for higher densities, paving the way for rezoning should landowners seek the profits such development can bring.

Some of these parcels were outlined in 2009 and 2010 columns, but the list was revised recently and put out for additional analysis as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. Here’s the updated list examined by the Planning Commission Aug. 31:

--Six parcels totaling 21.4 acres that could handle 641 units at a 30-unit-per-acre density level: three vacant, two with structures and a nursery. The largest is part of the nursery, near Bastanchury Road and Lakeview Avenue, with six acres for a potential 180 units.

Two vacant parcels are in Savi Ranch, the only eastend sites on the list: the former Mitsubishi Motors, with 3.2 acres for a potential 96 units, and 2.8 closeby acres on Old Canal Road for a potential 84 units.

The third vacant site is new to the list, nearly five acres at the city’s southern entrance at Lakeview and Mariposa avenues, with a potential for 149 units. Also new is a small .34 acre at 4622 Plumosa Drive, the former water district headquarters, for possibly 10 units.

A highly visible location is the former medical office building at Yorba Linda Boulevard and Prospect Avenue, a 4.08 acre site with a potential for 122 units at the western border.

--Two parcels totaling just over seven acres that could handle 141 units at a 20-unit-per-acre density level: the vacant “strawberry field” along Lakeview Avenue just south of Lemon Drive (4.7 acres, 94 units) and the vacant land a bit north on Lakeview Avenue at Altrudy Lane (2.39 acres, 47 units).

--Six parcels totaling 24.5 acres that could handle 245 units at a 10-unit-per-acre
level, the level long identified in planning documents as high-density for the city.

The largest parcel is the west part of the nursery land at Bastanchury Road and Lakeview Avenue (next to the nursery portion identified for 30-units-per-acre) with 6.84 acres for a potential 68 units. The east parcel equestrian site has 4.11 acres for a possible 41 units.

Two other large sites are the so-called Nixon Archive site—once suggested to house the President’s White House papers—across from the library along Yorba Linda Boulevard and the vacant Prospect Avenue “greenhouse.” The former is 5.9 acres for a possible 59 units, the latter 5.5 acres for a potential 55 units.

Rounding out the list are 1.68 acres at Wabash Avenue and Rose Drive for 17 units (now occupied by a house and small warehouse) and a half-acre on Eureka Avenue and Lemon Drive for five units (now occupied by a car wash and retail).

The new total: 1,027 potential units on 53 acres.

YL's single Mello-Roos district pays taxes to Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

“No Mello-Roos.”

That’s the wording used on billboards posted by developers to advertise new housing in Yorba Linda--and other cities, statewide--as well as in newspaper listings for re-sales of newer homes placed by local agents and brokers.

Obviously, “no Mello-Roos” is a major selling point for both new and existing homes, and the reason is simple: Mello-Roos can add significantly to a homeowner’s property tax bill for a lengthy period of time.

Orange County has 88 Mello-Roos districts, but Yorba Linda has only one, according to the most recent statistics available from the state treasurer, with the Yorba Linda Mello-Roos area paying extra taxes to the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

The Yorba Linda Mello-Roos district--officially called a Community Facilities District--consists of 293 Pulte homes located on both north and south sides of Bastanchury Road, west of Fairmont Boulevard.

This year’s special taxes, adopted 5-0 by trustees at a July 12 meeting, means an extra $562,021 for the school district, an amount collected yearly since 2003 and which will continue to be assessed through 2032.

Individual homeowners pay from $1,603 to $2,613 per year in Mello-Roos taxes based on the square footage of their homes, in addition to the regular property taxes levied on each home’s assessed value.

The money pays for a $5.5 million bond sold to help finance school facilities serving the Pulte homes. The original 22-page agreement signed with Pulte provided for a minimum $4,244,317 for schools, with homeowners paying $3.50 per square foot on the 1,244,317 square feet in the development.

The pact was termed “an appropriate means for financing and satisfying the impact of students generated from the project upon the school district’s school facilities….”

The state began allowing Mello-Roos districts to finance public improvements with five or more years of useful life in 1982 to help replace tax losses due to passage of Prop. 13 in 1978, with a maximum tax rate not to exceed two percent of a home’s sale price.

The tax cannot be based on property value, so most Mello-Roos use a square-footage basis, and a district needs a two-thirds vote of property owners to be established. Of course, most districts are set up when the property is owned by the original developer.

A FINAL NOTE -- Last week’s column (posted at ocregister.com/yorbalinda) noted City Council’s action to keep the Redevelopment Agency alive by paying $4.9 million into accounts managed by the county auditor-controller to benefit local school and special districts.

The column mentioned that $9.5 million of the agency’s $21.4 million per year revenue is “passed through” to other taxing agencies that normally would have collected some of the increased property taxes if the Redevelopment Agency didn’t exist.

Now, the city has an Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule listing $451 million in pass-through and tax-sharing payments due during the agency’s lifetime, including the following:

Placentia-Yorba Linda school district $297 million, Fire Authority $53.8 million, Orange County $38.4 million, other county agencies $20 million, Orange school district $21.2 million, Yorba Linda library $15.8 million, North Orange County college district $3.6 million, Yorba Linda Street Lighting $764,000, Yorba Linda Water District $370,000.

City Council keeps Redevelopment Agency alive

Pay or die.

Those unpleasant options were offered Yorba Linda’s City Council recently as a result of state budget legislation aimed at dissolving redevelopment agencies or requiring agencies to make hefty payments to remain in business.

Council members unanimously chose to pay the fee in order to stay alive and use agency funding to complete major elements of the Town Center redevelopment project. The fee for the first year will take about $4.9 million out of an estimated income of $21.4 million.

Yorba Linda’s city-operated Redevelopment Agency is funded by “increment” property tax revenue from a project area including 2,640 eastside and 344 westside acres out of a city total of 11,125 acres. Assessed value of the 2,984 acres is more than $2 billion.

For example, more than 2,000 new homes have been built in the project area. The added property taxes collected due to this construction and from new business and commercial development goes to the agency, rather than the city to pay for police and other services.

Of course, the agency doesn’t keep all of the $21.4 million income. About $9.5 million is “passed through” to 19 other taxing agencies that would normally collect some of the property tax revenue, including the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district.

A state-mandated 20 percent or $4.2 million is set aside for affordable housing and $6.4 million pays for bond debt, leaving $1 million for operating expenses, non-housing projects and programs, according to a recent report by Housing and Redevelopment Manager Pam Stoker and Assistant City Attorney Bill Ihrke.

The city plans to pay most of the first-year $4.9 million fee from the housing set aside fund, which would not have to be reimbursed and which is not an option for the future.

Future payments are estimated at $1.2 million or more per year, depending on annual increases in assessed values in the project area. The money goes to county-controlled funds benefiting local school and special districts.

Stated Stoker and Ihrke: “Based on annual cash flow alone, the agency would not be able to afford the…payments of $1.2 million each year” but “due to cash reserves on hand, the agency would be able to afford the payments through [2014-15] before exhausting all its available funding.”

They noted, “This would allow the agency to continue functioning through the development of the Town Center project.” Originally, the agency’s final taxes were to be collected in 2033 eastside and 2038 westside.

On another issue, some key figures regarding police costs were trimmed from last week’s column due to space. As mentioned, per-resident costs for police services during the past decade rose from $112 to $179 in Yorba Linda and from $170 to $364 in Brea.

Current costs in Placentia and La Habra, with stand-alone departments, are $257 each, up from $172 and $195. Lake Forest and Laguna Niguel, with Sheriff’s contracts, pay $177 and $160, up from $116 and $92, based on figures compiled by Brea Lt. Jerry Brakebill.

And Tom Lindsey, who cast the lone vote against exploring other police options Aug. 16, had earlier made a motion, which died due to lack of a second, to expedite renewal of the current Brea contract.

Absent was Jim Winder, who in the past has commented negatively on a “joint powers” agreement with Brea due to added costs for Yorba Linda.