School budget: the good news and the bad news

School budgets usually include a mixture of “good news” and “bad news” and this year's spending plan for an anticipated 25,459 students at 35 campuses in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District again exhibits both elements.

First, the good news: for the first time since 2007, the district will receive an increase in state funding for the 2014-15 fiscal year that began July 1. Income is expected to jump to a bit above $212 million from close to $207 million last year.

Revenue under California's two-year-old Local Control Funding Formula will be nearly 9 per-cent more than last year, while smaller sums from federal, other state and local sources will drop about 1, 22 and 52 percent, respectively, leaving an overall 2.6 percent increase.

Next, the bad news: expenditures also will grow, from just over $209 million last year to more than $216 million this year, related to salary and benefit increases, as capital outlay drops 69 percent and books and supply costs 16 percent for an overall 3.3 percent increase.

The revenue-expenditure gap will be erased by reducing a reserve fund built up during better financial times to about $8.8 million. Earlier projections indicated the state-mandated reserve fund will grow again soon, especially if state funding increases through 2020-21, as promised.

Here are some other good-bad news aspects of the 131-page budget document approved 5-0 by the district's elected trustees at last month's meeting:

--Teachers, counselors and administrators can expect a 2 percent salary increase starting July 1 and 1 percent beginning Feb. 1 over the 2007-08 salary schedule and continuation of step and column increases for years working and education levels. The health and welfare premium for active employees is $17,393.

--Costs for special education services mandated by federal and state regulations continue to outpace funds provided by the agencies, with this year's expenses for 2,961 students pegged at $36.8 million, $17 million more than federal and state income. Per-student underfunding stands at $5,770, up $220 from last year.

--State funding for transportation is nearly $1.5 million and the district raises $80,000 with a $2.20 per-day student fee, which nearly covers the $1.6 million home-to-school costs, but a $4.6 million expense for special education transportation mostly comes from general funds.

--The Local Control Funding Formula allows supplemental dollars for students eligible for free and reduced price meals, English learners and foster youth, totaling $5.8 million, for nearly 37 percent of the district's students.

--Funds from the sale of state lottery tickets will bring in $156 per average daily attendance this year. The use of $126 is unrestricted, while at least $30 must be used for instructional materials and textbooks, for a total of about $4 million.

--A modest decline of 65 is projected in average daily attendance this school year, from last year's 25,524 to 25,459. Recent high school enrollment: El Camino 214; Yorba Linda 1,750; Esperanza 1,853; El Dorado 1,922; Valencia 2,690.

--Costs to fund the State Teachers Retirement System and the Public Employees Retirement System are increasing, with the district cost rising from 8.25 to 12.43 percent of payroll by 2016-17 for STRS and from 11.44 to 15 percent for PERS. Employee costs also are up. 

Recall results depend on voter turnout

Yorba Linda's voters have elected 32 disparate individuals to City Council positions in 25 elections the past 47 years, so it's not surprising that often-times political and sometimes personal grudges have developed among council members and their loyal support groups.

What is surprising is that voters will cast ballots in a recall election for the first time, considering all of the contentious issues that have surfaced in the years since residents chose to incorporate a small, seven-square-mile community as a city in 1967.

Beginning with the city's second election in 1970, a prevailing issue has been maintaining a low-density identity, although a “slow-growth” corollary advocated by many early council members was largely discarded during a Redevelopment Agency era initiated in 1983 to boost future tax revenues.

A failed auto mall, myriad Old Town redevelopment plans, Imperial Highway improvements, eminent domain, council ethics, secretive bonuses, closed-door meetings, developer and union campaign contributions – these and other conflicts were all fodder for recall threats.

Most past recall efforts didn't get much past the talking stage, and the drive targeting four council members in the early 2000s sputtered when organizers began circulating petitions. The 2012 effort against John Anderson collected 7,856 names, short of the required 8,668.

But this year, promoters gathered enough signatures, with some help from paid petitioners, to qualify a recall of two council members, Tom Lindsey and Craig Young, for an Oct. 7 ballot, even though Lindsey is up for re-election Nov. 4.

The outcome of the separate Lindsey and Young recalls and the election for two council positions now held by first-termer Lindsey and second-termer John Anderson on ballots a month apart will be influenced by voter turnout.

Based on this city's past experience with special elections, turnout for the Oct. 7 recall contest could be light, although proximity to the Nov. 4 general election might boost the number of voters, since mailers, ads and computer-generated phone calls for the two elections will overlap.

The most recent council special election drew just 20 percent of registered voters in June 2007 when Hank Wedaa beat two opponents with 3,749 votes out of 8,309 cast.

The only other special council election occurred in March 2000 when Ken Ryan beat six other contenders, but the turnout reached 62 percent because the ballot was combined with a regularly scheduled primary election.

Even then, 1,712 of the primary's 20,432 Yorba Linda voters didn't mark a choice in the council contest. This city's turnout in the non-presidential 2010 November election was 28,522 voters or 65.3 percent and in the 2012 presidential year 35,164 voters or 77.3 percent.

Some academic research suggests that particularly nasty electoral contests bring out the hard-core, committed voters on each side, but that other potential voters are turned off by the negative charges and counter-charges and don't visit the polls or even mail in a ballot.

Recall, regular ballots overshadow recent decisions

A number of local government actions impacting Yorba Linda have been overshadowed by the turmoil surrounding the city's first-ever recall ballot targeting two City Council members Oct. 7 and the regularly scheduled general election to fill two council terms Nov. 4.

One key decision deserving wider recognition involves the repeal of the city's three-year-old “child safety zone” law restricting a registered sex offender's ability to visit city parks and recreation facilities without first obtaining permission from the chief of police services.

The law, similar to ordinances passed by other cities as recommended by the county's district attorney, was preempted by state laws dealing with registered sex offenders, according to the Court of Appeal decision that was left standing by the state Supreme Court in April.

This city's ordinance repealing the prior law noted council “declares that the city shall rely up-on enforcement by the Orange County Sheriff's Department...of applicable state law with respect to registered sex offenders.”

Other recent decisions:

--Council has contracted with Urban Land Institute to analyze uses for city-owned property on Bastanchury Road, most of which was leased for the unrealized Friends Christian High School, with a final report due by September at a cost of $15,500.

The non-profit group will use a panel of volunteer land-use experts to study the 40-acre site based – in part – on input from “selected public and private officials, representatives of other relevant organizations and other individuals familiar with the issues or problems involved....”

The site's three properties include 13.5 acres zoned residential estate with oil overlay worth $16.5 million; 19.37 acres zoned planned development with restrictions worth $19.9 million; and the 7.63-acre “tank farm” zoned planned development with restrictions worth $7.8 million.

--The state's July 1 minimum wage boost affects starting wages in four city worker classifications. Initial wages for maintenance worker trainee, office aide, office clerk and recreation aide jump to $9 per hour from $8.50 and $8.66.

School crossing guards, hired by a private company under a city contract, also will see an increase, and the city will pay the company an added $10,000 for the 2014-15 school year.

--City-owned palm trees will be trimmed each year instead of during the usual three-year cycle applied to the city's other tree types at an added annual expense of $15,000. A report from Public Works Director Mike Wolfe noted yearly palm trimming “is an industry standard.”

The city has about 315 palm trees of 11 species, according to Wolfe. He noted removing the palms and replanting other types would cost about $157,000. Annual trims would provide “better maintenance of the trees and mitigate any issues that would support their removal.”

--Yorba Linda has been declared a Purple Heart City to show respect for American soldiers wounded or killed in line-of-duty assignments, according to a council resolution. Orange County has more than 400 living recipients of the Purple Heart, a medal established in 1782 by George Washington that was revived in 1932 to honor war casualties.

Sign-ups begin for city, water, school elections

As political attention focuses on two upcoming elections impacting the make-up of Yorba Linda's battle-weary City Council, sign-ups also begin later this month for four-year positions on the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and Yorba Linda Water District boards.

And, while affordable housing, residential density and special-interest campaign financing issues will dominate the council contests, such topics as Common Core and the drought's effect on local water availability could be raised in the school and water district elections.

Two trustee positions – now held by 25-year board veteran Karin Freeman and current board president Carrie Buck – are slated for the ballot in the school district, while three director jobs – now held by Phil Hawkins, Bob Kiley and Gary Melton – are available in the water district.

Two years ago, elections in both districts were canceled because nobody filed to run against the incumbents, so school trustees Judi Carmona, Carol Downey and Eric Padget and water directors Mike Beverage and Ric Collett were appointed to new terms.

Filing for the school and water board slots, as well as council seats now held by John Anderson and Tom Lindsey, on the Nov. 4 ballot begins July 14 and ends Aug. 8, unless extended to Aug. 13 if an incumbent fails to file. Filing for the Oct. 7 council recall ballot ends July 24.

School and water district candidates file at the county Registrar of Voters' Santa Ana office, while council candidates file at City Hall. Contenders should pick up papers early in the process, since requirements are detailed and often complex.

One of the first decisions candidates must make is whether to pay for a statement of qualifications to be mailed to registered voters with sample ballots and other voting information.

The cost – which can run in the $900 to $1,300 range – pays for printing and translating into four other languages and is related to the number of registered voters in each district, which now stands at 40,814 in the city, 47,521 in the water district and 83,907 in the school district.

Unless a challenger has widespread name identification, raising campaign funds will be a daunting task, since first-timers in all races need some $30,000 or more to be competitive.

Although the Oct. 7 recall is – surprisingly – the city's first, two special elections have been held to replace council members: Ken Ryan won in 2000 after Gene Wisner resigned in 1999, and Hank Wedaa won in 2007 after Mike Duvall was elected to the state Assembly in 2006.

Just once was council able to agree on a fill-in without having to call an election: Wisner, runner-up in the 1982 election, was named to replace Ron McRoberts, who quit in 1983.

Interestingly, if Lindsey is recalled Oct. 7, his replacement would serve until Dec. 2, unless he or she also runs for and wins a seat in the separate Nov. 4 contest.