Yorba Linda's quirky liquor saga continues

From a single license tightly held for years to keep liquor sales out of Yorba Linda to today's 79 licenses and a recent application that will add sales to an area a state agency defines as “over-concentrated,” this community's quirky saga regarding alcoholic beverages continues.

Here's an update to two 2011 columns about legends surrounding Yorba Linda's first liquor license issued after Prohibition ended in 1933. (If you can't find these July 21 and 28 columns in the Yorba Linda Star print edition archive, I'll email them to you on request.)

Current licenses include 47 on-sale retail (restaurants, bars), 22 off-sale retail (grocery, liquor stores) and 10 non-retail (manufacturers, wholesalers), according to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control board.

An application for an off-sale license recently filed by The Fresh Market, still slated to open at the former Yorba Linda Bowl site northwest of the library, prompted the city to formalize procedures historically used to process requests from areas of “over-concentration.”

The state defines “over-concentration” as a license ratio in a census tract population that exceeds the ratio of licenses issued for the county-wide population (in this case, tract 2180.02).

Approval for a license in an over-concentrated area requires a local governing body or designee to adopt a “finding of public convenience and necessity,” according to a report from David Brantley, the city's principal planner.

The city manager has served as the City Council's designee for decades, and now that role has been authorized by a council vote.

The Fresh Market's tract “is permitted to have four off-sale licenses and there are five existing at this time,” Brantley noted. “This is common within geographic areas that have a concentration of commercial-retail stores that sell alcoholic beverages for off-sale consumption.”

A “public convenience and necessity” finding was made for the nearby CVS Pharmacy in 2004. Then-City Manager Terry Belanger told the state the license “would afford city residents the ability to purchase alcoholic beverages...while shopping for other convenience items.”

He also noted “efficiencies that will reduce the length and number of vehicular trips needed to complete household shopping needs, thereby reducing traffic impacts on local streets....”

And he dismissed increased crime or loitering as problems, so an added license would “not prove detrimental to the public health, safety (or) welfare within the area.”

Applications must be reviewed by the Community Development Department to check compliance for zoning and conditional use permits and amendments. The Sheriff's Department checks for disqualifying criminal records of applicants, managers and managing officers of applicant corporations.

The city can request restrictions or file a protest to initiate a hearing, but state officials make the final determination on all applications. 

Heated primary race foreshadows council battles

Despite a record-low election turnout – just one in four of Yorba Linda's registered voters bothered to visit a polling place or mail in a ballot – aspects of one June 3 primary race foreshadow the two upcoming contests for majority control of this city's governing body.

The presaging contest involved two conservative Republicans – Ling-Ling Chang and Phil Chen – waging wildly negative campaigns against each other for a two-year term in the 80-member state Assembly representing Yorba Linda and nine other cities.

Residents can expect all-Republican fields when candidates file to run in the special election to replace City Council members Tom Lindsey and Craig Young – if voters say “yes” to recall – and for seats now held by Lindsey and John Anderson in the November election.

And, if past races for council jobs are a guide, residents can expect candidates, as well as political action committees and independent expenditure groups supporting contenders, to loudly tout conservative credentials as they beat each other up in big-spending campaigns.

I counted 13 mailers from the Chang camp: four pro-Chang, seven anti-Chen and two responses to Chen's charges. The Chen count for 10 mailers: five pro-Chen, three anti-Chang and two answering Chang. As council races heat up, expect mailers of similar number and tone.

Chang won in Yorba Linda and district-wide, while Chen placed second in Yorba Linda but ran third district-wide, so Chang will face Democrat Greg Fritchle, who ran second district-wide (but last in Yorba Linda), in the Nov. 4 runoff, before she packs for her Sacramento sojourn.

Interestingly, a third Republican, late-comer Steve Tye, scored high in the vote count, despite spending 90 percent less than the front-runners (one mailer, no key endorsements and a few signs) in, perhaps, negative reaction to the Chang-Chen hostility.

The Lindsey recall ballot presents an intriguing possibility, since removal from office will take one vote more than 50 percent, with Lindsey potentially forced out at an October or November council meeting, depending on when the county Registrar of Voters certifies results.

As a candidate for a second term on the Nov. 4 ballot, Lindsey could win one of the two seats, based on past council election results, by taking from 16.7 to 23.3 percent of the vote – depending on how many candidates join the race – and re-assume office at the Dec. 2 meeting.

Only 10,622 out of 40,815 registered Yorba Lindans voted in the primary (7,196 by mail), the lowest percentage ever for a ballot with a race for governor or president. Governor contend-er Neel Kashkari won 3,970 votes, Tom Donnelly 2,846 and Jerry Brown 2,651.

Popular GOP Congressman Ed Royce beat Democrat Peter Anderson 8,141 to 2,042 in Yorba Linda (48,484 to 20,203 district-wide) in a little-noticed, low-budget campaign. The pair will compete again in November, since they were the only candidates in that contest.

A short history of the July 4 fireworks show

No doubt next month's July 4 city-sponsored fireworks show will again be Yorba Linda's most-watched event, with spectators crowding Veterans Park on Valley View Avenue and also viewing from backyards, front lawns and vehicles parked on nearby streets.

This year marks the 26^th anniversary of the popular gathering that years ago replaced thousands of block party and family celebrations featuring “safe and sane” fireworks sold by local non-profit organizations as fund-raising endeavors.

The City Council outlawed the sale and use of fireworks early in 1987, after a 1986 advisory vote in which residents cast 8,651 votes favoring a ban and 4,207 against.

At first, the show was financed from the city's General Fund budget, but as income tightened officials designated two sources to pay each year's expenses.

One is rent from the annual pumpkin patch and Christmas tree lot on city-owned property at the northeast corner of the Imperial Highway and Yorba Linda Boulevard intersection, which generated $15,000 last year.

The other is $23,350 earned yearly from a cell tower at Brush Canyon Park, with various corporate sponsorships and miscellaneous venue sales adding $9,565 to last year's total.

According to a report from Parks and Recreation Director Bill Calkins, the city expects to “maintain or exceed” those levels this year, raising $50,625 toward an anticipated cost of $53,600 for personnel, equipment, fireworks and entertainment.

If the ambitious timeline for Town Center redevelopment remains on track, property at the Imperial-Yorba Linda intersection won't be available to sell pumpkins and Christmas trees this year, so an alternate revenue source needs to be identified for 2015.

The show was nearly scrubbed in 2010 because of budget challenges, but a contract with fireworks supplier Pyro Spectaculars squeaked by on a 3-2 council vote, with Nancy Rikel, Mark Schwing and Jim Winder in favor and John Anderson and Jan Horton opposed.

The positive vote allowed a scaled-down event, eliminating 20 percent of the $60,000 cost of the previous year's celebration by trimming personnel and entertainment at the venue, which traditionally opens at 5 p.m.

Interestingly, five months after the much-debated 3-2 pro-fireworks vote, the same council adopted 5-0, without discussion, a 13.4 percent increase in members' “cafeteria plan” benefit, from $833 to $945 monthly.

A 2012 5-0 vote boosted the benefit to $1,095, currently placed in 401(k)-type accounts, part of monthly compensation that includes a $525 salary, $100 car and $36 phone allowances, dental and vision care and, as eligible, Public Employees' Retirement System contributions.

Advice to view this year's fireworks: you might need to get a little closer, since a county Fire Authority ruling last year reduced the height of the display due to safety regulations.

Earthquake valves: Yorba Linda man's mission

Having a mission in life is rewarding, and when the mission involves public safety and the possibility of saving lives, the personal payback is even greater.

That's the situation for Terry Dixon, a 76-year-old, 40-year Yorba Linda resident, as he's undertaken a mission to sell entire cities as well as individual residents and businesses on the need for earthquake-actuated gas shut-off valves.

Dixon, who spent 55 years in various sales-oriented roles, is now advising Pacific Seismic Products – which he says is the largest earthquake-safety product company in the world – in a largely voluntary capacity as National Sales Manager. (His sister, Sharon Harper, is a company principal.)

Although other companies sell similar products, Dixon is especially proud his firm produces all sizes of valves, from the three-quarter to one and one-half inch for residential installations up to a six- and eight-inch flange for commercial and industrial use.

St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church has two large valves, one installed in 2008 and another just this year, with valves scheduled for installation at other Orange Diocese churches, schools, rectories and convents, as facility upgrades are undertaken, Dixon notes.

“Even though I have sold the big box stores,” Dixon says, “I set up Yorba Linda Hardware to sell the valves (locally). Homeowners can install the valves themselves, but most people are leery because of the gas.

“A good handyman can install these valves in about one-half hour. We do include in each box complete instructions and warnings to have a qualified person to install it. Yorba Linda Hardware has on call three or four qualified people to install,” Dixon notes.

The valves are warranted for 30 years, with no maintenance required and are reset by the customer with a quarter or small screwdriver, adds Dixon.

Another Dixon goal is to mandate valves on all Yorba Linda construction, which gets complicated due to convincing elected officials on the need and navigating layers of bureaucracy. “Once I find out the formula, I'll replicate this for every city in Southern California,” he says.

In explaining his motivations, Dixon says, “After retiring in 2001, I took on the task of advising the company on ways to expand the business to the public and trying to get cities to mandate (installations), for I've seen the lives that have been saved and millions of dollars of property that was spared....”

“My mission is to save lives, even if it's one person at a time. I've been preparing carefully constructed packets to present to the cities of Yorba Linda, La Mirada, Fullerton, Brea, La Habra and the county,” Dixon notes.

“Whether we want to believe it or not, we will continue to have moderate (quakes) or a severe earthquake someday. The United States Geological Survey said Yorba Linda had over the last year 900 seismic waves of 1.5 magnitude or greater, like the 5.1 we had recently,” Dixon cautions.