School bond sale has residents talking

Much of the talk around town the past week-and-a-half has focused on reporter Melody Peterson's revealing story in the Feb. 17 Orange County Register detailing the sale of a portion of $200 million in voter-approved Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District bonds.

The sale involved $22 million of the larger package, which, according to Petersen's reporting, will cost $280 million, nearly 13 times the original amount, with the non-callable payback period beginning in 2031 and running until 2049 at interest rates from 6.98 to 7.8 percent.

Interestingly, while the $200 million bond bundle was approved by district-wide voters in the February 2008 presidential primary, Yorba Linda voters didn't give the bonds the 55 percent necessary for passage.

This city's voters gave the bonds a 52.5 percent majority, 573 votes less than the 55 percent needed. County Club and Fairlynn county island voters were more generous, logging a 54.7 percent majority, just three votes shy of the threshold.

The measure passed, however, with a total 864 votes over 55 percent, due to the “yes” count in Placentia at 60.2 percent and the district's portions of Anaheim at 64.2 percent, Brea at 57 percent, Fullerton at 66 percent and other unincorporated county territory at 57.5 percent.

One reason for the higher “no” vote in Yorba Linda might have been the fact that the new Yorba Linda High School was already funded from other sources, including a portion of a $102 million measure approved by 66 percent of voters in 2002 and redevelopment revenue.

No organized opposition arose during the 2008 campaign, and, as I noted in a 2009 column, $263,773 was raised to support the pro-Measure A Campaign for Kids committee, mostly by nearly two dozen architectural, banking, construction and landscaping firms.

One of the emails I received from a resident about Petersen's investigation asked me why the matter was not brought up in the recent school board elections. Of course, Petersen's account came long after November 2012, but another reason is that no election was held.

Three incumbent trustees were scheduled for the ballot, but nobody filed to run against Judi Carmona, Carol Downey and Eric Padget, so the trio were appointed to four-year terms and their names didn't appear on the ballot, as state election law allows.

Of course, mounting a campaign to challenge incumbents in a district with 83,131 registered voters is expensive. My prior examinations of trustee election financial reports shows that most of the campaign cash comes from the Association of Placentia-Linda Educators, the union representing the district's approximate 1,200 teachers.

A non-union-supported candidate who slipped by was Rose Drive parent Carrie Buck, who knocked off appointed incumbent Kim Palmer in 2010 by 218 votes. Her term is up in 2014, along with Karin Freeman, who was named to the board in 1989 after the dissolution of the Yorba Linda Elementary School District.