"Best," "not-so best" list for 2012 posted

Here’s my annual “best” and “not-so-best” list for 2012:

Most appreciated return of a cherished community tradition:  Craig Hall and Carrie Buck led volunteers in restoring the Fiesta Day parade and activities after a three-year absence.

Best news for students and parents:  Proposition 30’s passage will negate the need to add four more furlough days to an already shortened year at Placentia-Yorba Linda campuses.

Best decision by voters:  The election of two new City Council members in November promises to add fresh, more diverse perspectives to the governing body’s deliberations.

Best election news:  “Negative” City Council campaigns prove to be less effective when the targets are well-known and highly respected throughout the community.

Best vote by a new City Council member:  Gene Hernandez mercifully put the police contract issue to rest by casting a sensible deciding vote to not reopen talks with Brea.

Saddest loss to city government:  Longtime resident and employee Steve Rudometkin’s retirement as City Manager. He’ll now hear appeals to run for the City Council in 2014.

Worst electoral trend:  City Council candidates keep their own skirts clean with positive advertisements, mailers and robo calls, while friends and followers finance an avalanche of negative material against opponents through “political action committees.”

Most troubling trend:  After a couple of election cycles free from outside contributions, cash-rich unions, builders and real estate interests are back in this city’s political arena.

Least transparent City Council action:  A 3-2 vote kept a closed-session audio tape that would have revealed the real reason for a past City Manager’s resignation under wraps.

Oddest election statistic:  Of five female City Council members, only one served a second term. Carolyn Ewing didn’t run again in 1976, and Keri Wilson lost in 2006, Jan Horton in 2010 and Nancy Rikel in 2012. Barbara Kiley won a second term in 1996 by 16 votes.

Most fascinating ballot face-off:  Will political adversaries Jan Horton and Nancy Rikel run for City Council seats now occupied by John Anderson and Tom Lindsey in 2014?

Earliest political announcement:  In remarks he made after being sworn in for a fifth City Council term Dec. 4, Mark Schwing referred to the 2012 election as his “last campaign.”

Best example of bureaucracy:  The city’s Redevelopment Agency, created in 1983, was dissolved Feb. 1, but winding down the debt and other obligations could take until 2040.

Narrowest escape from a recall election:  The effort to recall Councilman John Anderson gathered 7,856 signatures out of 8,668 required, most collected in the city’s recall history.

Least progress on pension reform:  Despite talks, the city continues to pay employer and employee contributions to PERS for city employees and City Council members.

Most reader response:  Columns dealing with affordable housing, Town Center and City Council salaries and benefits drew the most email and comments from readers this year, the highest yet for reader reaction. Also, thanks for the many words of encouragement.

Updating issues that will impact city next year

Let’s update topics from past columns that will impact Yorba Linda next year:

--The City Council’s selection of a mayor and mayor pro tem for one-year terms in December is a harbinger of the five members’ ability to get along without allowing grudges and other personal animosities to take center stage during deliberations.

Whenever members depart from the rotation system wisely established by the first council in 1967 in selecting a presiding officer, the action accentuates the division between factions on the governing body that spills over into more serious business.

The best examples of personal discord among council members are periods in the 1990s and much of the 2000s, when three different majority factions isolated one or sometimes two minority council members from either or both of the mayor and mayor pro tem slots.

This year’s process had a promising start with the 5-0 elevation of Mayor Pro Tem Tom Lindsey to replace Mark Schwing as mayor. Lindsey was nominated by John Anderson with a second from Schwing.

But the unanimity didn’t last to the mayor pro tem selection. Gene Hernandez nominated Craig Young, who ran second to Schwing in the 2012 election, with Schwing nominating Anderson, who was mayor pro tem in 2009 and mayor in 2010. Young won 3-2.

The mayor pro tem slot is important, since whoever holds the post could be mayor in 2014, an election year. In 2008, 2010 and 2012, Jim Winder, Anderson and Schwing, respectively, won council contests after using the job as their occupation on the ballot. Young won’t be on the ballot in 2014, but Anderson might, if he seeks a third term.

--Two large residential developments on county land adjacent to Yorba Linda’s northern border near San Antonio Road are moving through the county’s planning apparatus, with nearby residents keeping a watchful eye on traffic, water and other infrastructure matters.

The 112-home Cielo Vista project on 83 acres will release a draft environmental impact report after the first of the year and the Esperanza Hills (Yorba Linda Estates) project of 340 homes on 469 acres will issue a notice of preparation for an EIR next month.

Community Development Director Steve Harris reported to council that city staff asked Esperanza Hills reps to “present their project to the city but they offered instead to meet individually with council members or to hold a study session after the first of the year.”

--Areas in Yorba Linda’s cash-strapped Landscape Maintenance Assessment District, which receives funding through assessments on property tax rolls and from this city’s general fund, were viewed by council members on a Dec. 15 bus tour.

Eight of the scheduled 12 stops were to view landscape areas, several of which require subsidies from the general fund because assessments paid by residents don’t meet total expenses incurred.

The annual shortfall was an issue in the recent council election, and if a solution is to be found, it needs to be in place before the next assessments amounts are sent to the county.

Next week: watch for my annual “best” and “not-so-best” list summarizing 2012.

'Ahead of schedule and under budget'

“Ahead of schedule and under budget” are words not frequently used when referring to a program undertaken by a government-run entity at any level--municipal, state or national.

Yet, Yorba Linda taxpayers who’ve been funding financial shortfalls at the city-owned Black Gold Golf Club for several years might be happy to learn that an expensive, five-year kikuyu grass transition plan is, at present, “ahead of schedule and under budget.”

The plan to covert 112 acres of fairways and rough at the 11-year-old facility to kikuyu grass--considered more suitable to local climate and growing conditions than rye grass-- is more than 50 percent complete with costs 10 percent less than anticipated.

City Council approved a $967,764 kikuyu grass transition and soil enhancement plan in 2010, and, so far, $442,505 has been spent, $97,348 under budget, according to a report from Parks and Recreation Director Bill Calkins.

Two more years of expenditures are expected, $250,175 this fiscal year and $177,735 in 2013-14, with Calkins stating, “The transition is occurring faster than expected and with less interference to the course players than anticipated.”

Black Gold reported hosting 108,073 guests in the 2011-12 fiscal year: 56,352 for golf rounds; 14,464 at the practice facility; 16,200 for weddings; 9,775 for tournaments and events; and 11,282 for dining. (See my Oct. 18 column for more on Black Gold finances.)

Of course, not all of Yorba Linda’s endeavors are “ahead of schedule and under budget.”

Renovation of the kitchen at the Community Center needs $163,000 more to complete a project that originally was estimated at $400,850.

That approval, which includes a $64,000 contingency for unanticipated costs, came with the contract awarding on a 3-2 vote at the Dec. 4 council meeting, with Gene Hernandez, Tom Lindsey and Mark Schwing in favor and John Anderson and Craig Young opposed.

The renovation, expected to take place during the first three months of next year, will add commercial-style cooking capabilities needed under a new pact with Black Gold manager KemperSports to operate non-exclusive catering services at the center.

The expenditure is expected to be recouped in the next five-to-six years, if added rental revenue from the center is taken into account. The catering services could boost profits $100,000 to $200,000 each year after the initial payback period, according to an estimate.

A Final Note: The usual suspects lined up for more-of-the-same charges and counter-charges during hours-long public comment at the Dec. 4 council meeting regarding a possible re-opening of the city’s police contract issue.

Here’s how the matter stands now: one or both of the newly seated council members, Gene Hernandez and Craig Young, will cast a deciding vote on Dec. 18 on whether or not to seek more information on a “last offer” from Brea for a contract to begin May 3.

Tom Lindsey initiated the discussion--with John Anderson and Mark Schwing opposed-- leaving Hernandez and Young to decide if the city will open a Pandora’s Box of potential litigation over a now-signed county contract.

Yorba Linda voters: percentage turnout drops

Yorba Lindans cast more ballots in last month’s general election than in any election in city history, but because more residents were registered to vote this year, the percentage of voters was smaller than in the presidential election four years ago.


Here are the numbers: 35,164 residents cast ballots out of 45,494 registered for a 77.3 per cent turnout, compared to the 81.6 percent turnout in 2008, when 35,092 ballots were cast out of 43,010 registered.

However, 34,822 residents voted for one of the six presidential tickets on the ballot in 2012, while 34,734 voted for one of the 10 tickets on the ballot in 2008, so 342 voting Yorba Lindans didn’t mark a presidential choice this year compared to 358 four years ago

As expected, Mitt Romney won Yorba Linda with 23,762 votes, or 68.2 percent of the presidential vote, while Barack Obama tallied 10,350, or 29.7 percent. The four minor parties on the ballot split the remaining 710 presidential votes.

Minor party totals were 432 votes for the Libertarian ticket, 119 for the Green Party, 80 for the American Independent party and 79 for the Peace and Freedom candidates.

Totals for the two county islands, Country Club and Fairlynn, not included in the above numbers, were 855 for Romney, 405 for Obama and 28 divided among the other parties. Turnout was 1,296 out of 1,682 registered, 77.1 percent (eight didn’t vote for president).

Obama’s 2012 total was less than the 11,710 he won in 2008, when he took 33.7 percent of the presidential vote. Romney’s 2012 tally was more than John McCain’s 22,328 in 2008 (64.3 percent). George Bush won 67.5 percent in 2000 and 71.1 percent in 2004.

Response to my Sept. 20 column asking readers to predict Yorba Linda’s presidential vote, is worth noting, with all but one replying Obama would win fewer local votes in 2012 than in 2008. Larry Cope came closest to Romney’s percentage, predicting 67.3.

An interesting down-ballot race this year was for one of seven trustee positions at the North Orange County Community College District, with 58,000 students at Fullerton and Cypress colleges and the School of Continuing Education.

Realignment of trustee boundaries split Yorba Linda into three of seven new areas. Area 7, with 42,868 Yorba Linda voters, featured a vigorous contest between incumbent Tony Ontiveros of Anaheim and Monika Koos of Brea, each endorsed by a past Yorba Linda mayor, which Ontiveros won 26,633 to 21,098 (14,082 to 11,088 in Yorba Linda).

Two Yorba Linda residents, who formerly represented this entire city as trustees, now serve areas with only slivers of city territory. Mike Matsuda has 1,739 south-central voters in Area 5 and Jeff Brown 881 west-end voters in Area 6. Trustees must live in the areas that elect them.

Yorba Linda opposed the Prop. 30 tax increase 71 to 29 percent, but backed Prop. 32’s political contribution rules 64 to 36 percent, at odds with results from state-wide voters.

Buena Park’s Roger Yoh again will represent this city at the Orange County Water District, defeating Frank Alonzo 58.5 to 41.5 percent (56.7 to 43.3 in Yorba Linda).