Low-cost housing coalition praises Yorba Linda

A county-wide coalition of residents and community organizations that advocates for low-cost housing for families earning less than $20,000 per year has praised Yorba Linda's latest effort to support affordable homes in the city's most recent state-mandated housing plan.

The city's new “housing element” outlines methods to meet existing and projected housing needs for families in all economic brackets through 2021. The element will become part of the city's soon-to-be-revised General Plan, updating the 1971 original and 1993 revision.

Comment on the housing plan came from the Irvine-based Kennedy Commission, a non-profit that has been checking compliance with the state's low-cost housing mandates in Yorba Linda and the county's other 33 cities since 2001.

The group's recent letter to the city stated: “The commission would like to commend the city for its leadership and commitment in encouraging and facilitating the development of homes affordable to lower income families especially in the city's new multi-family zoning categories.”

The commission noted the city has “one affordable home development in the pipeline” to be completed next year, a 69-unit “sustainable” SAVI Ranch project, which will be “affordable to workforce families” and “create jobs and provide a boost to the local economy.”

As noted in previous columns, “regional housing needs assessment” numbers, as set by the Southern California Association of Governments for 2014-21 in Yorba Linda, are 669 units in all income categories – 160 very low, 113 low, 126 moderate and 270 above moderate.

That contrasts with a total 2,039 units for the 2008-14 period, including 460 very low, 371 low, 412 moderate and 796 above moderate. The city eventually met the “low” requirements after two rezoning measures for 11 parcels received majority votes on the June 2012 ballot.

Assigned numbers are targets, not quotas, so a city isn't penalized if it has identified sufficient sites for low-cost units and doesn't impose constraints to development. With the new, lower numbers, some of the 11 parcels can be developed with both low-cost and market-rate units.

Income categories are based on percentages of an “area median average”: “extremely low” is from $20,250 for one person and from $28,900 for four persons; “very low” from $33,750 and $48,150; “low” from $53,950 and $77,050; and “moderate” from $71,650 and $102,350.

In addition to the recent commendation, the commission has urged the city to “continue its support for the development of affordable homes” and has provided five recommendations that include continuing “the city's partnership with the commission to facilitate the develop-ment of affordable rental homes for lower-income working families in the city.”

Median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Yorba Linda is $1,700, but affordable rent is $975 for a very-low income household and $1,625 for a low-income household, the commission noted, adding, “The gap between market rent and affordable rent places a sig-nificant economic burden for lower income families who struggle financially to live and work in this city.”

Among 13 major Kennedy Commission sponsors are four bank foundations – Bank of America, Union Bank, Chase and Wells Fargo – and Orange County United Way.

Craig Young has chance for Assembly seat

On paper, Craig Young appears to have a good chance to be the second Yorba Linda City Council member to win higher elective office, following the genial Mike Duvall, who served three years in the state Assembly after six years on the city's governing body.

Young, elected to council a year ago, wants to replace termed-out Curt Hagman for a two- year stint in California's 80-member lower house. His first task is to survive the June 2014 primary that selects two contenders for the November ballot.

One advantage for Young is that a plurality of the 55^th Assembly District's registered voters reside in the Orange County portion of a voting area that includes all or parts of 10 cities in three counties, with a Republican edge of 40 percent to 32 percent Democratic and 23 percent no preference.

So far, Young has two announced GOP opponents from Los Angeles County: Ling-Ling Chang, a Diamond Bar councilwoman, and Phillip Chen, a Walnut Valley school trustee, while Democrat Chris Brown filed “intents” to run in this and another district.

Current numbers put Orange County ahead with 112,792 voters, followed by LA County with 88,764 and San Bernardino County with 39,309. Brea, La Habra, Placentia and Yorba Linda makeup this county's district populace.

Another Young asset will be his ballot title, since he'll probably be this city's mayor starting Dec. 3, with an almost-assured minimum of three council votes. “Mayor” is better in campaigning than “councilwoman” or “trustee,” especially to “low-information” voters.

But the “mayor” moniker might bring attention to Young's less-than-unanimous support, so far, from councilmates. John Anderson and Mark Schwing opposed Young as mayor pro tem last year, while Gene Hernandez and Tom Lindsey voted “aye” and now endorse his Assembly bid.

Endorsements and fundraising will impact the election, but there's no clear winner for either at present, and much will change before the voters begin casting mail-in ballots in seven months.

Chang claims support from Congressman Ed Royce and state Senator Bob Huff, who both represent Yorba Linda, while Chen notes backing by incumbent Hagman and officials in LA county and Young is endorsed by past Senate leader Dick Ackerman.

Young held a Yorba Linda Country Club fundraiser, but donations haven't yet been reported. Chang has raised $263,560 and Chen $319,000 but $100,000 for each are self-made loans.

Duvall won primary and general elections in 2006 and 2008 in the old 72^nd district that covered the westside but resigned in 2009 after a self-described incident of “inappropriate story-telling.”

Two past council members lost elections to higher office: John Gullixson to Marc Kelly in 2000 for Superior Court judge, and Barbara Kiley ran third to Ackerman and Chris Norby in 1995 for an Assembly vacancy. Before Gullixson's council service, he lost a 1988 primary for Congress to Bill Dannemeyer.

Emergency services agreements signed

Sometimes, amidst bickering and split decisions over such issues as the policing contract and using federal “entitlement” funds, City Council members encounter a “no-brainer” and easily cast votes that make good sense for every Yorba Lindan.

Two items that could impact the welfare of all residents came up at a recent council meeting and wisely received unanimous approval, partly because they won't need funding from an al-ready overburdened city budget.

However, this time the hope is the programs authorized by the council votes won't be used in real-life situations, since they involve preparations for serious public health emergencies or other life-threatening calamities.

One program establishes “point of dispensing” sites to distribute mass medication, vaccination services, food, water and medical supplies to city residents during a large-scale public health emergency, according to a report by Allison Estes, a city management analyst.

The two sites identified in Yorba Linda include Yorba Linda Friends Church on Lakeview Avenue on the west side and Santa Clara de Asis Catholic Church on Avenida de la Paz on the east side.

Council agreed in July to participate in the county Health Care Agency's plan to establish “point of dispensing” sites in all county cities and approved last month an agreement with the county involving, at county expense, equipment to be used at each site.

An important element for Yorba Linda's version of the plan is training response staff to fill key roles at the sites in an emergency situation, so the city will hold a point of dispensing exercise at the Friends Church location Oct. 25.

The exercise involves a free drive-through flu shot clinic in the church parking lot from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., using the Mountain View Avenue entrance. (Information: 714-961-7110)

In the event of an actual emergency, the two sites would operate simultaneously, noted Estes' report. The planning includes specific information on site utilization, traffic control, staffing and the equipment required to activate the sites.

The other emergency preparedness item involves an agreement with the American Red Cross that designates certain city facilities as possible shelter locations in the event of a disaster, with all costs involved handled by the Red Cross organization.

Already identified for use are the Thomas Lasorda Jr. Field House on Casa Loma Avenue on the west side and the Travis Ranch Activity Center on Via De La Escuela on the east side. A third site, Yorba Linda High School, is under evaluation for an accord with the school district.

The Red Cross would open, manage and close shelters and provide personnel, food, water, staging and signage.

The agreement outlines Red Cross responsibilities “to reimburse the city for damage to the facilities and for reasonable costs associated with custodial services and operational costs” and assume liability and risk from shelter activity, Estes noted.  

Nixon biographies set Yorba Linda scene

I recently added ”Nixonland” by Rick Perlstein to my collection of biographies about Richard Nixon, part of a sizeable haul from the Friends of the Library $2-a-bag sale.

One of my reasons for reading so many Nixon books is to see how different authors portrayed early Yorba Linda and used Nixon's young life to account for later events in his political career.

I've found that authors who treated Nixon favorably wrote kindly about Yorba Linda during his 1913-1922 residency and descriptions of his home and family drew positive adjectives.

But authors who depict Nixon as angry and conspiratorial, such as Perlstein in “Nixonland,” see early Yorba Linda in grim terms. For example, Perlstein uses “godforsaken” to describe the community settled by Quakers and others whose lives centered on church activities.

The town, according to Perlstein, was “cactus-covered” and Nixon's home was “a little plaster-frame house...across from a cruddy, oversize ditch” headed by a “self-destructive abstemiousness” father and an “honest” and “pious” mother, two attributes Perlstein attempts to refute.

The “Nixonland” book relies on several secondary sources, including heavy doses from Fawn Brodie's psychobiography “Richard Nixon,” which depicts Nixon's home and parents in harsh terms and partly to blame for Nixon's “divided” character.

However, Brodie, in an exception to a “repressed Yorba Linda” school of scholarship, presents the community in positive terms: “a languid paradise” with gnarled oaks accenting “undulating hills...covered with grass...a cool green in the rainy season and a glowing gold in the summer.”

Brodie describes the home as “an unpretentious frame house,” a better depiction than others for a structure occupied for some 80 years before a 1990 renovation by the Nixon Foundation.

“The Contender,” a favorable biography from Chapman University's Irwin Gelman, admits father Frank was “strict” and “stern” but notes Hannah as “the inner strength of the family.”

The family lived in Yorba Linda--“because land cost less there than in Whittier”--in a “modest house” in a “semi-arid” area with “rolling hills with few trees” and “powerful Santa Ana winds” alongside “plenty of coyotes” and “an abundance of ground squirrels and jackrabbits.”

In “Nixon,” Steven Ambrose notes Yorba Linda drew “mainly young couples...nearly all Quaker” who “imposed a Puritan streak on the town,” and Leonard Lurie's “The Running of Richard Nixon” claims Yorba Linda “was not a world of fun,” only “a world of duty, hardship, marginal existence, religious bigotry, where the presence of death was always felt....”

But Earl Mazo's “Richard Nixon” rapturously describes the railway near Nixon's home: “There were toughness, vigor and unbendable firmness in the smooth steel tracks that stretched beyond sight in both directions....”

And Nixon in his “Memoirs” says Yorba Linda was “for a child...idyllic,” where spring air “was heavy with the rich scent of orange blossoms,” and life “was hard but happy” in a “farming community...surrounded by avocado and citrus groves and barley, alfalfa and bean fields.”

Hagman, Huff file intents to switch jobs

Yorba Linda's representatives in the state legislature—Assemblyman Curt Hagman and Senator Bob Huff, both Republicans—have filed papers with election officials that signal intent to switch jobs in 2016.

And importantly, they've already raised considerable cash for campaigns three years from now, a tactic that, combined with their name recognition, will scare off potential opponents.

Hagman reaches the end of his term-limited six years in the Assembly in 2014, and Huff's maximum eight years in the Senate ends in 2016.They first won their current jobs in 2008.

Hagman's “statement of intention” is to seek nomination for Huff's Senate position, while the Huff filing is for nomination for Hagman's old Assembly seat, each in the June 2016 primary.

Candidates are required to file statements of intention to run for a specific office before collecting campaign funds. So far, only Hagman and Huff have filed intents in the 2016 primaries for the positions.

Hagman has raised $101,000 as of June 30, spending $48,000, with $53,000 in the bank. He held a fund-raising strategy meeting in March and events at Disneyland in June and the Yorba Linda County Club in July. He has about $145,000 leftover in his Assembly campaign account.

Huff has raised $164,000 as of June 30, spending $23,000, with $141,000 in the bank. He's held several fund-raising events and has $231,000 leftover in his Senate campaign account.

Huff served two Assembly terms from 2004-08, so under current law he can serve one more, while Hagman can serve two four-year Senate terms. A 2012 term-limit change doesn't apply to either candidate, since they held office when state voters approved the measure.

Interestingly, just $6,322 of the $266,151 donated to Hagman's and Huff's 2016 campaigns this year came from 12 individuals. The remainder was given by a variety of business- and industry-related political action committees, Indian tribes and other specific-interest groups.

Meanwhile, two Republicans have announced for Hagman's Assembly job in the 2014 primary, with Ling-Ling Chang, a Diamond Bar councilwoman, and Phillip Chen, a Walnut Valley school trustee, raising $262,000 and $319,000, respectively. Democrat Chris Brown filed his intent but hasn't formed a committee.

The 55^th Assembly District is 40 percent Republican, 32 percent Democrat and 23 percent no preference and includes Brea, La Habra, Placentia and Yorba Linda in the OC; Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights, Walnut and parts of Industry and West Covina in L.A. County; and Chino Hills in San Bernardino County. Population is 461,696, with 240,865 registered voters.

The 29^th Senate District is 38 percent Republican, 34 percent Democrat and 23 percent no preference and includes Brea, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia, Stanton, Yorba Linda and parts of Anaheim and Buena Park in the OC; Diamond Bar, Walnut and parts of Industry and West Covina in L.A. County; and Chino Hills in San Bernardino County. Population is 925,494, with 422,530 registered voters.