Landscape, lighting bills coming due

Listed on this year’s property tax bills--scheduled to be mailed by the county beginning Oct. 15--should be an entry under “special assessment user fees” that details an amount charged to pay for this city’s landscaping, street lighting and traffic signal maintenance.

I say “should be” because last year--for the first time in Yorba Linda history--so many taxes and fees were listed that the county ran out of room and lumped some fees under “other services,” leaving taxpayers in the dark about exactly where the money went.

But this year’s bills to owners of the city’s 23,005 land parcels should have a line labeled “Lndscp & Ltg #1” showing the amount each owner will pay to maintain some 28 million square feet (about 640 acres or one square mile) of landscaping, 5,665 street lights and signals at 63 intersections.

The fees range from $57.98 and $75.29 for owners of 8,940 single-family residences, including condominiums (and a bit less for 591 apartment units and 288 mobile home park units) to $513.72 for the owners of 1,571 Vista del Verde residences.

The $57.98 fee includes $50.64 to pay for maintaining landscape medians and parkways on all or parts of 14 major (or arterial) streets, $6 for traffic signals and $1.34 for arterial street lighting. The $75.29 fee includes an added $17.31 for local street lights.

Owners of 9,456 single-family residences and 532 apartment units also pay into 21 local landscape zones, with fees from $97.06, $148.89 and $159.57 on the low end (somewhat less per apartment) to $375.18, $392.49 and $513.72 on the high end.

While most owners will pay 2.1 percent more this year due to a consumer price index increase, one landscape zone was divided into 16 smaller zones, so some owners will pay less than in past years, primarily due to longstanding protests from the 218-home Rancho Dominguez Community Association (summarized in a June 7 column).

President Judy Murray told me in an email her homeowner group “will have performed a public service as many parcel owners throughout the district who have been overcharged for years will see a decrease in their landscape assessment.”

However, she still criticizes the city’s assessment methods, saying, “I consider the maintenance of private property, some with no legal easement and of no particular benefit, a gift of public funds.” The association’s attorney, former Councilman John Gullixson, has sent the city a 50-page letter stating the group’s numerous objections.

The fees (also paid by owners of commercial and vacant parcels) are expected to bring in $5.5 million for the 2012-13 fiscal year. But even with a $1.1 million “general benefit contribution” from the city, nearly $1.5 million more will be needed to meet estimated expenses, with that cash coming from the city’s general fund revenues or reserves.

Interestingly, this year’s fees were adopted on a 3-0 City Council vote. Tom Lindsey, Mark Schwing and Jim Winder were recused due to a potential conflict of interest, but three voters were needed, so straws were drawn and Winder remained to cast a “yes” vote with John Anderson and Nancy Rikel.

Obama in YL: better off now or four years ago?

Candidate Barack Obama won just 33.4 percent of the vote in Yorba Linda in 2008, but will he be better off than he was four years ago when local voters cast ballots this year?

That’s the question I’m asking readers in an election email survey. Specifically, will the president win a greater or lesser percentage of the Yorba Linda vote in 2012 than he did in 2008, now that he’s running as an incumbent?

Email your prediction to jimdrummond@hotmail.com. Be sure to state the percentage of the Yorba Linda vote you believe Obama will win this time around, and, if you wish, say why you think he’ll get more or fewer votes from Yorba Lindans in November.

Please note that this is a survey and not a contest, and no prizes will be conferred, but the person who is closest to the actual percentage of votes Obama wins in this city on Nov. 6 can claim the prestigious title of Yorba Linda’s “top political prognosticator.”

Obama’s 2008 vote total in Yorba Linda was 11,710, while John McCain won the city with 22,328 out of 35,092 cast (63.6 percent). That’s not surprising, since Yorba Linda was then and is now the second-most Republican city in the county (behind Villa Park).

George Bush won the city in 2000 and 2004 by larger margins than McCain did in 2008. In 2000, Bush defeated Al Gore 19,068 to 8,127 out of 28,242 ballots cast in taking 67.5 percent of the vote. In 2004, Bush increased his margin over John Kerry to 71.1 percent, 23,164 to 8,617 out of 32,564 ballots cast.

Historically, the city’s largest victory margins were won by native son Richard Nixon. Nixon bested John Kennedy in 1960 (before incorporation) with 72 percent, Hubert Humphrey in 1968 with 79 percent and George McGovern in 1972 with 80 percent.

Yorba Linda’s current registration stands at 43,733: 9,400 Democrats and 24,651 Republicans, with the remainder in minor parties or “no party preference.” The figures will change, since registration for Nov. 6 doesn’t close until Oct. 22 (new residents can register as late as Oct. 30 and new citizens by 8 p.m. Nov. 6).

In another election-related item, it’s not too late to join the seven current candidates in the competition for three positions on the Yorba Linda City Council, but you’d have to campaign as a write-in candidate.

Deadline for write-in candidates to file a statement of candidacy with the county Registrar of Voters is Oct. 23 in order to have their votes tabulated. (Write-ins are not allowed for contests in which candidates were nominated in the June primary.)

Years ago, write-in votes were counted whether or not the contenders registered with the county. For Yorba Linda’s 1967 incorporation election, six write-in votes were recorded in the race involving 27 candidates for the city’s first five-member City Council.

The write-ins, all single votes, were cast for Billy Barty, Cacus (sic) Clay, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Nellie Smith and recorded in a Board of Supervisors resolution certifying that year’s election results.

Sample ballots and candidate statements in this year’s contest will be mailed Sept. 27-Oct. 16.

Council campaign signs always create a stir

One harbinger of a contentious City Council election is the early positioning of campaign signs along well-traveled roadways, with this year’s contest for a majority stake of three seats on the governing body off to a fast start with signage appearing before Labor Day.

Yorba Lindans are of two minds on the biennial show of campaign clutter: some see the sign wars as an example of a vibrant democracy, while others decry the visual pollution all along the city’s expensively landscaped parkways.

The latter group also criticizes the environmental waste involved with the large number of signs, noting residents will see a dozen or more of the same signs for each candidate, while driving just half the length of Yorba Linda Boulevard or Imperial Highway.

Past elections have included charges of sign tampering, vandalism and outright theft, with a bit of the latter due to candidates sharing the names of popular performers or rock bands (former water board director Art Korn “lost” many signs to Korn fans in the 1990s).

But sadly, too many elections have involved supposedly grown-up supporters who can’t resist furtively removing opponents’ signs, with lawsuits threatened and police reports filed. In 2000, police caught one campaign manager “rearranging” an opponent’s sign.

The city regulates temporary signs on both public rights-of-way and on private property on the theory that such signage can “present a potential hazard to persons and property.”

For example, unlighted signs on private property can’t exceed 32 square feet in area, and freestanding signs can’t be higher than six feet, according to city zoning code rules, copies of which were given to the seven council candidates when they filed for the ballot.

The more ubiquitous signs on public property, mostly adjacent city streets, are subject to several rules, including an often-violated regulation forbidding signs attached to fences--“Signs shall be freestanding,” rules say.

Also, rights-of-way signs can’t exceed six square feet in area and four feet in height, as measured from the grade of land; must be identified with an owner’s name, address and telephone number; and must be removed within five days after the election.

Several specific rules apply to the location of signs, which can’t “overhang” any street, curb, sidewalk, trail or driveway, or be placed within 15 feet of fire hydrants, driveway edges or street intersections “as measured from the midpoint of the corner radius.”

Fortunately, candidates are provided an illustration of the latter rules, a diagram that shows the proper placement for rights-of-way signs. Forbidden locations include the street medians and sidewalk tree wells.

An aerial photo also shows an area on the slope side of the vacant city-owned parcel on the northeast corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Imperial Highway allowed for signs.

Violations can be reported to the Community Development office at City Hall (code enforcement number is 714-961-7138). Owners must remove illegal signs within 72 hours of notification, with city staff also empowered to remove and store illegal signs.

Fresh, familiar names dot Nov. 6 ballot

Fresh faces and familiar names dot the ballot for governing board races involving Yorba Linda voters, with several first-time candidates challenging a few long-time incumbents in the Nov. 6 general election.

However, some incumbents will be named to new terms because nobody filed to run against them, including board members in the Yorba Linda Water District, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and North Orange County Community College District.

Mike Beverage and Ric Collett, water directors since 1992 and 2004; Carol Downey, Eric Padgett and Judi Carmona, school trustees since 2000, 2008 and 2010; and Leonard Lahtinen, Molly McClanahan and Mike Matsuda, college trustees since 1990, 1995 and 2005, will begin new four-year terms in December without facing voters.

One college trustee representing nearly all of Yorba Linda and the Yorba Linda county islands in the new Area 7, did draw an opponent, as M. Tony Ontiveros of Anaheim, a board member since 1999, will face challenger Monika Koos of La Habra.

Matsuda of Yorba Linda will represent new Area 5 that includes a small portion of southwest Yorba Linda, and Jeff Brown of Yorba Linda, whose term ends in 2014, represents new Area 6, which includes a small section of central-west Yorba Linda.

Previously, the seven college trustees, while required to live in the area they represent, were elected district-wide. Now, they’ll be selected only by the voters from their areas, which should cut campaign costs considerably for challengers of long-time incumbents.

Yorba Linda’s rep at the Orange County Water District, which administers ground water supplies, also faces a challenge, with Roger Yoh of Buena Park, an Area 3 director since 2004, up against Frank Alonzo, a Ron Paul enthusiast from Cypress.

Of course, most Yorba Lindans are eyeing the race for a majority of seats on the City Council, a contest that’s drawn two incumbents and five long-time residents who are first-time candidates for the four-year positions on the city’s governing body.

Mark Schwing, seeking a fifth term, and Nancy Rikel, campaigning for a second, are aligned with attorney Kennith Peterson to expand a panel majority that includes John Anderson, who was re-elected in 2010.

Incumbent Jim Winder wasn’t eligible to run for a fourth term, since he first took office in 2000, after the city’s three-term limit law was in force. Schwing, who started his third term just days before the voter-approved law was effective in 1996, can run for two more.

Other contenders--city residents from 18 to 35 years--are Todd Cooper, who owns an antique map and print business; Gene Hernandez, a retired Chino police chief; Lou Knappenberger, a retired 29-year Brea police officer who owns a hardware marketing company; and Craig Young, owner of The Lincoln Partners, a real estate investment firm.

Hernandez, Knappenberger and Young say they aren’t running as a slate, but they’ve had discussions, and they all agree with the statement, “We are three independent people who would like to change the process of how business is conducted at the City Council level.”