Yorba Linda's best and not-so-best, 2014

Here's my annual review of the best and sometimes less-than-best from the city's past year:

Best City Council decision: Acting quickly to tighten regulations for the city's 10 massage establishments – and 16 more that could be permitted – based on a new state “local control” law.

Most historic political event: The first recall ballot in 47 years of cityhood saw Tom Lindsey and Craig Young retain council seats in what can be labeled “a battle of negative mailers.”

Best grass-roots organization: Protect Our Homes and Hills keeps a watchful eye on developers using too lenient county standards to build 452 homes on fire-prone acres to the north.

Best news for college-bound students: A record number of Advanced Placement and Inter-national Baccalaureate exams were given (3,527 and 305) in Placentia-Yorba Linda schools.

Least understood concept by winning council candidates: Questionable tactics used to gain votes outweighs post-election rhetoric about being “humbled” by the choice made by voters.

Best example of “it's not broken, but we'll fix it anyway":  The council further politicizes the selection of commissioners and committee members by aligning terms with council election cycles.

Most anticipated council decision: Will council members “clean house” of political opponents when all 20 commission and 21 committee member slots are filled early next year?

Best decision by voters: Passing Measure JJ negates the need for columns criticizing “conservative” council members for approving two pension plans for themselves yearly since 1996.

Most lamentable trend: The June and November elections featured the lowest turnouts in city history for regularly scheduled elections – 26 percent in June and 49 percent in November.

Most surprising trend: Water supplied by the Yorba Linda Water District to 24,535 residential and business accounts rose from 18,684 acre-feet in 2011-12 to 22,343 acre-feet in 2013-14.

Most disturbing trend: The emergence of “independent expenditure” committees ensures only well-connected residents have the financial viability to compete in expensive council elections.

Longest contamination removal: A state report lists the clean-up timetable for the former gas station on Imperial Highway, west of the library (“completion” in 2015 and “closure” by 2019).

Most auspicious council action: For the first time in years, the members were unanimous in selecting a mayor and mayor pro tem, Gene Hernandez and Tom Lindsey, respectively.

Clearest shift to back burner: The city's Teen Action Committee listed a skate park as “a top priority,” but surveys and focus group interviews found “a very low percentage of residents favor building a skate park.”

Most intriguing historical note: Condo units approved for the Nixon library site? That's one of the topics of my Yorba Linda Historical Society talk at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 at the Community Center.  

Black Gold, developer fees, Nixon property

Let's catch up on some matters that merit attention:

--Although few conservatively governed cities own golf courses, Yorba Linda's Black Gold Golf Club has always enjoyed near-unanimous support from the city's elected leadership due to the prestige of the course's top-tier ranking and the potential to add cash to the municipal treasury.

The latest figures from KemperSports, hired by the city to manage Black Gold, show the course's industry ratings remain high and the facility's net income is increasing – but still a bit shy of the revenues that were estimated at the beginning of the 2013-14 budget year.

Here are the numbers: for the recently completed fiscal year, green fee revenue was 102.1 percent and food and beverage income 105.5 percent of the prior year, but green fee revenue was 99.4 percent and food and beverage income 95.1 percent of anticipated amounts.

And while golf shop and driving range incomes were 96.9 and 96.7 percent of the prior year, revenues were 103.5 and 99.7 percent of estimates in the budget set at the start of the year.

All of that translates into total revenues close to $5.8 million, with net operating income re-ported at $560,534, or $282,698, after investing $277,836 back into the 219-acre property.

Officials estimated 117,680 individual visitors at Black Gold in 2013-14: golf rounds, 57,476; practice facility, 14,022; weddings, 9,700; banquets and meetings, 12,700; events and tournaments, 11,000; and a la carte dining, 12,782.

Also, the City Council has approved adjustments to pricing expected to increase green fee and driving range income from $30,000 to $50,000 each year, depending on player counts.

--The council has closed an apparent loophole in the type of residential development that triggers fees developers must pay the city to fund new or rehabilitate existing park and recreational facilities, as allowed by state legislation.

Previously, the city collected a fee for each single- and multi-family residential unit built under a tentative tract or parcel map, a fee boosted to $9,030 for each single-family and $5,790 for each multi-family unit last year.

Now, the same fees will apply to developments that don't require such maps. The fees are based on formulas that call for three acres of parkland per 1,000 population, an appraisal of $1 million per acre and 3.01 persons per single-family and 1.93 persons per multi-family unit.

--One of the most controversial development proposals in city history occurred in 1985 for the land now occupied by the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, when top-level city staffers recommended approval of a 61-unit condominium project for 6.1 acres of the site.

Council's reaction and the number of condo units eventually approved will be among the topics of a presentation I'll make at the Monday, Jan. 12, public meeting of the Yorba Linda Historical Society at 7 p.m. in the Game Room at the Community Center.

Fireworks company offers Yorba Linda steep discount 'to redeem' this year's poor display

While Yorba Lindans are stringing lights, placing wreaths and completing other decorating tasks for Christmas, city officials already are planning for next year's July 4 festivities, hoping an earlier start will improve on this year's less-than-spectacular fireworks display.

The city's most-watched event will proceed with the same company supplying the pyrotechnics, as it has for all but one show since the first in 1989, but with a steep discount “to redeem” the poor 2014 presentation, according to a recent unanimous City Council vote.

Payment to Rialto-based Pyro Spectaculars for an 18-minute, 5,188-shell display is “not to exceed $20,000,” noted council's authorization, with a deposit due Jan. 1. Total discount is a $10,500 credit for the 2014 show, $10,000 for fireworks and $500 for post-show cleanup.

The company acknowledged unsatisfactory performance and offered a discount “contingent on the city signing a contract for the 2015 fireworks show,” giving the firm a chance “to redeem themselves with a show that is as good or better” than past displays, stated Parks and Recreation Director Bill Calkins in a report to council.

And the firm “has agreed to include additional language into the contract to help insure similar problems do not occur” in 2015, Calkins added. “The language includes specific times for product delivery and set up as well as experience guidelines for the lead fireworks technician and the fireworks crew.”

Total cost for next year's event is projected at $54,000, based on last year's cost for the fete, which started at 5 p.m. at Veterans Park on Valley View Avenue, and includes personnel, equipment, fireworks and entertainment, Calkins noted.

Two revenue streams help finance the event: The $23,360 yearly rent for the cell tower site at Brush Canyon Park and the $15,000 three-month rent from the pumpkin patch and Christmas tree lot on city-owned property at Imperial Highway and Yorba Linda Boulevard.

Calkins noted that 2015 “will most likely be the last year” for the latter revenue “due to the Town Center development.” Also, the city generated $9,050 from sponsorships and misce-llaneous sales at last year's event, which the city hopes to “maintain or exceed.”

The 2015 event will mark the 27^th anniversary of the popular gathering that replaced many block parties and family celebrations featuring “safe and sane” fireworks sold by local non-profit organizations as fundraisers.

The council outlawed the sale and use of individual fireworks in 1987 after a 1986 advisory vote in which residents cast 8,651 votes supporting a ban and 4,207 against. The city-sponsored display survived an effort to cancel the event in 2010 on a 3-2 council vote.

Seven county cities allow state-approved fireworks: Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Stanton. Westminster and Huntington Beach reversed 20-year-old voter-approved bans in 2010 and 2012.

How Yorba Linda uses federal grant program

Of the dozens of documents and thousands of pages of reports prepared by Yorba Linda's municipal employees each year, some of the most interesting deal with the identification of needs and use of funds from the federal Community Development Block Grants program.

Conceived during Richard Nixon's presidency and implemented with bipartisan support in Gerald Ford's term, grants have totaled $144 billion since 1974 and now go to 1,209 local governments. Yorba Linda has received a bit more than $3.2 million since 2003.

The most recent Yorba Linda grant report details the use of $247,570 in the 2013-14 fiscal year – the second in the city's current three-year program cycle – and was forwarded on a 5-0 City Council vote to the Housing and Urban Development department in November.

Grants “assist communities in providing decent housing and a suitable living environment and in expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of low and moderate income,” noted city Economic Development Manager Pam Stoker in a 53-page report to the council.

Report highlights:

--Up to $5,000 each assisted 12 low- and moderate-income single-family home owner-occupants “meet local codes, standards and ordinances and for general property improvements of a non-luxury nature.”

--Close to $32,000 was spent on the hot lunch program for senior citizens (age 62 or more) weekdays at the Community Center, serving 309 seniors, down from 328 the previous year and less than the 500 expected. Cost is $3 for 60-plus and $5 for 59 and younger.

--No applications were received to rehabilitate historically significant commercial buildings, so some $88,000 was shifted to improve disability access in local parks. One Main Street rehab started with last year's funding was completed during the year.

--Accessibility projects begun the previous year were completed at Eastside Community, Brush Canyon and Jessamyn West parks, with the year's nearly $39,000 allocation. Up- grades at Hurless Barton Park used dollars transferred from commercial rehabilitation.

--About $42,500 was spent on general administration; preparing budgets, applications, certifications and agreements; coordinating and monitoring programs; and writing annual action and performance evaluation plans.

--The Orange County Housing Authority coordinates the city's Section 8 rental assistance, with 95 participants out of an estimated 573 income-eligible households, including 87 voucher holders (18 family, 56 elderly and 13 disabled). A five-year goal is to issue 1,850 vouchers yearly to extremely low- and low-income residents.

--The city contracts with the Fair Housing Council of Orange County for services. Of the 66 files including allegations of discrimination in 2012-13, just one involved a Yorba Linda case.

--An estimated 874 renter and 1,677 owner households in Yorba Linda spend more than 30 percent of income for housing and utilities, defined as a “housing cost burden.”