Council campaigns follow familiar path

Yorba Linda’s 25th election to select City Council members is unfolding like most of the past council contests since city incorporation in 1967: candidates offer more generalities than specifics and partisan adherents pony up plenty of cash for negative ads and mailers.

Let’s look at the latter topic first. Well-paid consultants at the national, state and local levels claim that negative campaigning works, despite the voters’ often-stated distaste for this noxious hammer hanging from the tool belt of political operatives.

Of course, politicians don’t call the practice “negative campaigning.” They prefer such euphemisms as “illuminating,” “clarifying” or “explaining” an opponent’s record, as if voters don’t see the fact-twisting process for what it clearly is--a character attack.

For the past few election cycles, Yorba Linda’s office-seekers have kept their own ads and mailers positive, stating their backgrounds and qualifications and identifying them-selves as “fiscal conservatives” who support low-density, public safety and horses.

They leave it up to friends and fervent followers in political action committees to do the dirty work. Thus, the Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation faction attacks Gene Hernandez and Craig Young, while the United Citizens for Yorba Linda crowd blasts Ken Peterson, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing.

Maybe these attacks will cancel each other out or the group spending the most money on their ads and mailers will gain the upper hand in shaping voter opinion of the candidates.

Negative campaigning clearly lowers the level of political discourse, which undoubtedly keeps many outstanding citizens out of the political realm and certainly gives school-age youth a bad civics lesson.

In addition to offering few specifics about how they plan to reach some of their stated goals, candidates have become adept at not fully answering questions asked at forums.

One example at the Chamber of Commerce event was a query about compensation for council members, in which incumbents and challengers failed to mention the largest benefit council members receive—up to $945 monthly in a “cafeteria style” package.

Each contender focused on the $500 monthly salary, but didn’t comment on the fringe package that gives council members the same dollars as full-time city employees since council added itself to the plan on a 3-2 vote in 1996, with 5-0 renewals thereafter.

Also not discussed were the $100 to $212.50 per meeting pay some earn for serving on county bodies, the city’s self-insured dental and vision plans, a monthly phone allowance and the PERS pension for which the city pays both employee and employer contributions.

Council members sometimes mistakenly call the fringe package a “health” benefit, but the money can be taken in cash or used for deferred compensation in a 401k-style plan.

Since council members now qualify for both defined benefit (PERS pension) and defined contribution (401k-style) plans, fiscal conservative candidates should support dropping at least one of these tax-funded perks as a commitment to pension reform.

Candidates favor Black Gold subsidy

Scratch the city’s yearly subsidy to balance the books at the Black Gold Golf Club as a contentious issue in this year’s City Council election, since all seven candidates for the three open positions agree the annual bailout is acceptable in today’s economy.

The two incumbents and five challengers concur that the city-owned facility is a major component in the city’s recreational setting and will be an important contributor to the city’s future financial bottom line, especially after the construction bonds are retired.

Support for Black Gold and the taxpayer subsidy--conveyed at the recent Chamber of Commerce-sponsored candidates’ forum--is significant, since each contender is a self-described fiscal conservative championing limited government.

This election cycle seems to have quieted some of the questions raised in the 1990s about the role of city government in building and operating an upscale golf facility, as well as a few broached in recent years about the city subsidy needed to meet expenses.

For the 2012-13 fiscal year that began July 1, the city estimated Black Gold revenue at $5.8 million and expenses at $7 million (including an $850,000 entry for depreciation), leaving a $1.2 million gap ($350,000 not counting depreciation).

Black Gold also borrowed nearly $4.8 million from the city beginning in 2000 and paid interest through the 2006-07 fiscal year totaling $1.1 million. Interest was suspended for 2007-08 through 2010-11 (totaling some $350,000) but was resumed beginning 2011-12.

The good news from Black Gold is that total revenue and the number of rounds played in the 2011-12 fiscal year were up appreciably over the prior year and from projections made at the beginning of the year.

The 2011-12 fiscal year ended June 30, but the fourth quarter report for April through June wasn’t delivered to council members (and this columnist) until earlier this month.

Total revenue for fiscal year 2011-12 was a bit below $5.87 million, compared to a bit above $5.20 million in 2010-11 and the nearly $5.25 million estimate for 2011-12. The rounds were 56,352 in 2011-12, up from 48,846 in 2010-11 and the 48,890 forecast for 2011-12. That’s close to 13 percent more revenue and above 15 percent more rounds.

In a report to Parks and Recreation Director Bill Calkins, Black Gold General Manager Scott Heyn called the fourth quarter results “a fitting conclusion to a fantastic year” and the entire year “nothing other than a fantastic success.”

Catering income for the fourth quarter jumped 22 percent over the prior year, with the year “a club record for the catering department.” But tournament revenue dropped 21 percent “due to the increase in dates booked by the catering team,” Heyn said. “With one room for all events it sometimes can be a struggle for both sides to have huge successes.”

Daily golf fees are the largest revenue stream, showing “a huge recovery over the last 12 months,” Heyn stated. “This is the strongest indicator that the work being done on the course has an impact, as well as the fact that the economy is more stable than the previous year.”

New library not likely in Town Center

The location of a new, larger public library--once seen as settled for a significantly sized parcel on School Street in the proposed revitalization of the Old Town area--now is up in the air, with economics sure to be the determining factor in placing a new facility.

Recently discussed possibilities include a vacant parcel on Lakeview Avenue between Yorba Linda Boulevard and Lemon Drive (often referred to as the “strawberry field” or Site 13), the recently closed Von’s market on Valley View Avenue, the vacant site next to the Community Center and the “tank farm” adjacent to Lakeview Elementary School.

A final site decision for the city’s most-visited public building--an average of 1,100 daily patrons--is anticipated by City Council members after the Nov. 6 election in which seven candidates are running for a majority of three seats on the city’s governing body.

Should council move the proposed 50,000-square-foot facility out of the 31-acre Town Center District, more land would be available for sales-tax generating retail businesses, based on reports from Zellman Retail Partners, planners for the historic downtown area.

Brett Foy, the firm’s co-president, said a new library is “neutral” for the proposed Town Center project, which he’s dubbed Yorba Linda Commons: “It would bring people to the site, but [a library] is not a retail or entertainment draw that our targeted retailers seek.”

Foy’s comment came in a letter to a city official, in which he said “results have been fantastic” when the proposed Yorba Linda Commons has been discussed with “target retail anchors,” namely “several high-end theaters” and “several high-end markets.”

Foy added, “We believe the market will bring in daily traffic and the theater will bring in nightly traffic. Combined, we believe the draw will allow us to bring in the type of users to the site we envision.”

Relocating the library, Foy noted, “could add significant additional square footage to the project” and “better orient the buildings to satisfy the parking requirements of the markets and be able to open up visibility from the street to the project.”

The library’s current site, with frontage on busy Imperial Highway, is seen as a lucrative retail site, which Foy said Zellman would be interested in redeveloping in a future phase.

Cost estimates for alternate sites range from around $29 million to $47 million, with a two-story in Town Center, a one-story on the “strawberry field” and a one-story on the Von’s site at $29 million and Community Center plans at $41 and $47 million.

Funding for a new library also was once thought settled, but the dissolution of the city’s Redevelopment Agency has created some uncertainty regarding selling bonds to finance Town Center redevelopment, noted a recent report to the council.

The library has $12 million saved from its separate property tax revenue stream, $3 million could come from selling the current site and the library budget could afford payments and interest on an $8 million loan from the city, leaving a $6 million “funding gap” with “options to be further explored,” the report stated.

Updates for recent election columns

Here are updates on topics in recent columns about the upcoming election:

--Reader replies to a question in my Sept. 20 column about whether Barack Obama will be better off this year than he was four years ago with Yorba Linda’s voters matched the response I’ve received on such subjects as low-cost housing, the city-owned Black Gold Golf Club and the 3-2 City Council vote for a new police service provider.

Although not all survey respondents predicted the percentage of the Yorba Linda vote the president will win, all but one forecast he’d take the same or less than the 33.4 percent he won in 2008 against John McCain’s 63.6 percent.

Predictions for this November range from 21 to 38.9 percent, so far. You can still email your forecast to jimdrummond@hotmail.com; whoever comes closest to Obama’s per cent will be designated Yorba Linda’s “top political prognosticator” after the election.

Obama bested Al Gore’s 28.7 percent in 2000 and John Kerry’s 26.5 in 2004.Usually, about 80 percent of Yorba Linda’s registered voters (43,795 at current count) turn out for a presidential election.

--Another high-volume email topic every two years involves campaign signs posted on public rights-of-way. My Sept. 13 column mentioned some of Yorba Linda’s too-often-violated temporary sign rules, copies of which the city provides each council candidate.

Recent drives on Yorba Linda Boulevard and Imperial Highway within the city limits revealed fewer signs to date this year but several violations of city regulations, mostly involving sign size and placement within 15 feet of a driveway or intersection.

Fortunately, so far no candidate has affixed illegal signs to the fences near the Veterans Memorial on Valley View Avenue, a subject of considerable controversy two years ago.

Oddly, several signs, some violating the 15-foot rule, promote Carol Downey, Judi Carmona and Eric Padget for the Placentia-Yorba Linda school board, even though they won’t be on the ballot because nobody filed to run against them.

--Six of the seven council candidates are supported by competing political action committees: Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Representation favor incumbents Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing and newcomer Ken Peterson, and United Citizens for Yorba Linda is promoting Gene Hernandez, Lou Knappenberger and Craig Young.

Happily, leaders of both of these groups have stated they won’t be accepting donations from developers or city contractors, as have the candidates they support. Two PACs active in past elections, Past and Present Elected Officials Representing Yorba Linda and Committee for Improved Public Policy, were almost entirely financed by developers.

--Jim Winder ends his third council term in December as the first member impacted by the voter-approved term-limit law, which took effect Dec. 13, 1996. Others seated after that date retired or were defeated after one or two terms or are still serving. Members seated before the cut-off, including Mark Schwing, were eligible for three more terms. (Schwing won in 1988, 1992 and 1996, lost in 2000 and 2002 and won again in 2008.)