Yorba Linda: recession lingers, recovery slow

Two interesting financial documents – one from the city and the other from the school district – point to the lingering effects of the Great Recession, but both indicate the same slow recovery locally that is seen in state and national economic data.

The city report is a mid-year budget update from Finance Director Dave Christian, who notes general fund revenues, expected to be about $29.4 million this fiscal year, are still more than 9 percent lower than what was collected “just six years ago.”

Revenues “most affected” by the 2007-08 economic downturn were property taxes, sales taxes, franchise fees and other taxes, building permit and other plan check fees, charges for services and interest income, according to Christian.

Property tax income, the city's largest revenue source, continues “slightly higher” than expected, mainly due to the state-forced dissolution of the city's Redevelopment Agency, which siphoned redevelopment area tax increment from the city's general fund.

About $200,000 in taxes that would have gone to the agency have accrued to the general fund this year alone, to be spent on regular city services, such as policing, instead of redevelopment projects and the former agency's affordable housing fund.

Sales tax projections increased slightly this year but continue to lag 2007-08 by more than 6 percent, Christian says. “Because Yorba Linda's sales tax base weathered the economic storm better than some cities...our recovery may appear to be slower than other places....”

Building activity continues to increase, but the resultant income from permits and plan checks is $285,000 lower than expected, due to timing. Christian estimates – “assuming the anticipated projects continue to move forward” – the revenue “will most likely be realized” next year.

The interest earned on investing city funds continues to be 85 per cent lower than the yield from 2006-07, with the Local Agency Investment Fund rate at .2 percent, down from 5.2. Franchise fees, other taxes and charges for services are meeting the current projections.

With one-time income, including $430,000 from the sale of vacant property and $540,000 from the Orange County Transportation Authority for remediation of the former gas station site west of the library, the city expects an overall $885,000 revenue boost.

The school district's state-required interim financial report prepared by Fiscal Services Director Jennifer Miller sees income increasing from a bit more than $203 million this year to about $209 million next year and nearly $222 million the year after.

By 2014-15, the district expects nearly $4.7 million more income than expenses. This year the district anticipates spending about $3.2 million more than income, with the gap narrowing to some $1.7 million next year.

Happily, the district can cover excess expenditures with reserves, expected to end close to $11 million this year, about $9.4 million next year and nearly $14.3 million for 2014-15.

Recall, referendum, initiative: not easy processes

Yorba Lindans enjoy the political protections offered by recall, referendum and initiative provisions added to the state constitution during the Progressive movement of the early 1900s, but laws passed to implement these processes make victorious ventures a challenge.

This city has experienced a handful of successful referendums and initiatives, but no City Council member has ever been recalled, despite a number of attempts through the years.

Triumphal referendums and initiatives have dealt with density and development, issues that always have won attention from residents since the 1967 vote for cityhood, partly to put zoning decisions into the hands of locally elected leaders instead of county bureaucrats.

Past petition efforts led to voter rejection of an “apartment zone” in 1970, council back-tracking on a 40-acre auto mall in 1987 and adoption of an ordinance requiring public votes on major zoning changes and abandonment of a high-density Town Center plan, both in 2006.

But four prior recall attempts floundered, with only one gaining traction. Two efforts against John Gullixson, in 1993 and 1999, didn't reach the signature stage, and a 2006 drive targeting Allen Castellano, Ken Ryan, Keri Wilson and Jim Winder sputtered badly.

Opponents of second-term incumbent John Anderson gathered 7,856 signatures, short of the 8,668 necessary for a recall ballot in 2012. The signatures weren't checked against voter registration lists because petitioners didn't have the required number for a legal count.

Anti-Anderson petitioners didn't include his allies Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing in the recall effort, since both were up for re-election later that year. (Schwing won, but Rikel lost.)

Leaders of the current drive against Tom Lindsey and Craig Young are framing the recall largely on density and development decisions made by the pair. But Lindsey's term ends in December, when recall results are likely to be certified, if the recall reaches the Nov 4 ballot.

Gene Hernandez, who recall proponents deride as part of council's “high-density majority” is oddly not a recall target, despite his term running into December 2016, the same as Young's.

The entire recall effort – from an initial “notice to circulate a recall petition” through counting signatures and ballot placement – is governed by a strict set of procedures and time frames outlined in the state election code, and any deviation from the rules can derail the process.

Petitions must follow a specified format, including type size and spacing, and signatures and addresses must match those on voter registration documents. Circulators must be age 18 or over and answer truthfully when asked if they are paid for signatures.

City Clerk Marcia Brown can either verify each signature or a random sample. If a sampling yields more than 110 percent of the required number, the petitions will be certified, but if the sample runs from 90 to 110 percent, all signatures will be examined.

Yorba Linda recall: timeline has odd twist

An odd twist could make this year's City Council election the most unusual ballot ever put before Yorba Linda's voters, if the currently circulating recall petitions gather enough signatures.

The strange scenario would involve Tom Lindsey, who has announced he'll be a candidate for a second term in the Nov. 4 election, when seats now held by Lindsey and second-term incumbent John Anderson will be on the ballot.

But petitioners seeking to remove Lindsey from his current term have until May 14 to gather 8,100 valid signatures from 40,000-plus registered voters to force a recall election that – according to state law – also could be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot.

So Lindsey's name might appear twice, once to remove him from his current term and once as a candidate for a second term. If he's recalled from his present term but wins a new term, he could be out of office for a few days or only minutes, depending on when results are certified.

(Craig Young also is a recall target, but his term runs through 2016.)

Here's how state election law applies to Yorba Linda's upcoming ballot:

--City Clerk Marcia Brown has 30 days, excluding weekends and holidays, to verify signatures and certify results at the next regularly scheduled council meeting – July 1, if petitions are filed on or just before the May 14 deadline.

--The council has 14 days to set a recall election date, if Brown validates enough signatures. Should council not act, the county Registrar of Voters has five days to set a date.

--If a recall ballot is set at the July 14 council meeting, the recall would be combined with the Nov. 4 election, since that ballot date falls inside an 88- to 125-day window set by state rules.

--Only if Brown's certification came earlier, at a May or the June 3 council meeting, would the window close before Nov. 4, requiring a more costly special election in October. That would become necessary if successful petitions are submitted within the next couple weeks.

November results are usually certified at council's first meeting in December. While it's likely Lindsey would either survive recall and win a second term or lose both, he could lose the recall and win a new term, especially if regular election votes are spread among many candidates. If so, he could be removed from office Dec. 2 but sworn in for a new term minutes later.

In addition to voting “yes” or “no” on recalling Lindsey and Young, voters would be asked to select replacements, in case either or both recalls succeed. Possibly, candidates for the recall positions would also file for the two seats on the regular election ballot.

However, Lindsey can't file to replace himself in a recall, but he's allowed to file for the regular election. Filing to replace officials in a recall must be completed 75 days before the election, Aug. 21 for a Nov. 4 ballot. Regular election filing runs July 14-Aug. 8.

Savi Ranch, Town Center challenges await action

Significant challenges face Yorba Linda officials as they formulate a long-range vision for the city's 158-acre portion of Savi Ranch, especially in allotting more space to sales tax-generating retail businesses.

But, fortunately, lesser obstacles so far aren't impeding what a city management staffer is calling an “aggressive” project timeline for completion of Town Center construction in early 2016.

The Savi Ranch challenges are outlined in preliminary reports prepared for an upcoming Savi Ranch Land Use and Mobility Vision Plan that will picture the site up to 30 years from now,

under a state Transportation Department grant ($240,000) and city match funds ($24,000).

The consultant hired to prepare the report sees “untapped development potential,” since lot coverage now averages 23 percent, well below the range of 35 to 60 percent allowed in the city's zoning code, and only 10 of about 80 buildings have the permitted two or more stories.

Current standards could allow an added 400,000 square feet of ground-level space and one million square feet second story or above area, but it's “very difficult, given the city's existing off-street parking requirements, for projects to maximize...potential coverage and/or building height.”

For retail, the consultant found existing consumer spending could support an added 1.2 million square feet of building space, jumping to 1.6 million square feet in five years due to growth in household numbers and income.

But “attracting additional retail businesses...would be difficult because [the site] is difficult to get to, it has poor visibility and traffic congestion can make shopping unpleasant.”

And, since online shopping has changed the retail environment, “One strategy...is to develop retail destinations that cannot be replicated online....Fostering experience-oriented shopping might also position Savi Ranch to compete better with the retail in the surrounding region....”

In experience-oriented shopping, the consultant says, “the experience of the trip is of equal if not greater importance than the material need for a good or service,” with value coming from socialization with friends, entertainment or “the quality of the place.”

Meanwhile, the City Council-selected developer will work around challenges in building about 80,000 square feet of commercial retail in Town Center between Main Street and Lakeview Avenue that includes a six-screen, 30,500-square-foot movie theater complex.

One challenge, according to a report from Housing and Redevelopment Manager Pam Stoker, is the developer's “inability to acquire certain private properties along Lakeview, resulting in a reduced project scope, loss of retail space, removal of a parking structure and the inclusion of additional surface parking.”

Despite the setback, under an “aggressive” timeline, architectural and engineering plans are to be ready in June, theater negotiations completed by August, building construction documents due in November, with construction starting April 2015 and completion January 2016.