Two often-overlooked, down-ballot June 7 primary election contests deserve attention in Yorba Linda

Two down-ballot contests in the June primary election – listed well below the presidential, legislative and judicial races – merit attention from Yorba Linda residents because of their potential impact on local governmental decision-making.

With record interest in the Republican and Democratic presidential races, a large June 7 turnout is anticipated, with a more-than-usual number of Yorba Lindans voting in the little-noticed contests at the bottom of the ballot.

The often-overlooked contests include balloting for a county Board of Education seat and six slots on the county Republican Central Committee representing regions that include this and several other cities.

One of the county school trustee positions on the ballot is the Area 3 seat now held by 20-year incumbent Ken Williams, Jr., a physician residing in Villa Park. He defeated a 20-year incumbent when he was first elected in 1996.

His opponents are Michael Parham, an Irvine schools trustee, and Margaret Brown, facilities director for Garden Grove schools. Only Williams and Parham paid a $3,591 deposit for a 200-word statement to be mailed to registered voters with sample ballots starting April 28.

Williams and Parham each list support from fellow trustees: Robert Hammond and Linda Lindholm for Williams and David Boyd and Jack Bedell for Parham. Local endorsers are Councilman Gene Hernandez for Williams and schools Superintendent Doug Domene for Parham.

An interesting contest has shaped up for the six positions on the Orange County Republican Central Committee representing this county's area of the 55^th Assembly District that includes Yorba Linda, Placentia, Brea and La Habra.

The posts are important because the committee makes endorsements in City Council, school trustee, water district and other local contests, especially valuable in GOP-rich areas, such as Yorba Linda, with two and one-half times as many registered Republicans as Democrats.

The group had a significant impact on Yorba Linda's 2014 council elections by opposing the failed recall against Craig Young and Tom Lindsey and later endorsing winners Lindsey and Peggy Huang. Endorsements are expected for this year's council and water board contests.

Currently, five of the six 55^th District slots are held by Yorba Lindans, including Brett Barbre, a former Yorba Linda Water District director now on the county Municipal Water District's board; council members Gene Hernandez and Peggy Huang; and Karla Downing and Dennis White.

The five and La Habra Councilman Tim Shaw are seeking new terms that start Jan. 1. Of the nine challengers, seven are from Yorba Linda and two from Placentia. Yorba Lindans include Councilman Craig Young and Parks and Recreation Commissioner Tara Campbell.

Others are nurses Susi Khan and Nadia White; business owners James Gerbus and Irene Yezbak; and projects manager Ed Gunderson. The two from Placentia are Desare Ferrano and Michael Withrow. 

Yorba Linda economy continues upward trend

Yorba Linda's economy continues on a post-recession upward trajectory, as measured by the reliable criterion of tax collections, specifically the dollars coming to city coffers so far this year from property and sales taxes.

And financial stability continues in the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district, based on another “positive certification” that the district “will meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and subsequent two fiscal years.”

In the city's current fiscal year, sales tax revenue is projected to be $683,000 above the amount expected when a two-year budget was approved six months ago. In the next fiscal year, property tax income is anticipated to be $508,000 more than expected.

So, the new revenue projection is $33.7 million this year, $532,000 more than expenses, according to a mid-year budget document prepared by the city's new finance director and treasurer, Scott Catlett, replacing Dave Christian, who was named assistant city manager.

The $532,000 surplus is after $919,000 in appropriations approved since the budget was adopted in September and $504,000 more voted by the City Council at a March 1 meeting.

Additions include $163,337 for higher water rates and penalties for turf maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department. While the city's overall water cutbacks have achieved a 36 percent reduction, officials said the budget was “too aggressive” in anticipating savings.

Another addition is $200,000 in workers compensation payments assessed by Brea to pay claims for officers on duty in Yorba Linda. When the Brea contract ended, officials estimated a total $1.7 million in claims would be due from Yorba Linda, usually costing $100,000 yearly.

The city's combined actual and projected budget surpluses for the last, current and next fiscal years is $2.8 million, with $2.2 million used to eliminate a deficit in the trash fund and resume payments to special reserve funds that were suspended during the recession.

Still, at the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year, the current projection is for the city to have a $570,000 surplus, which is in addition to a 50 percent operating budget reserve required under city policy.

The school district's most recent financial document, prepared by Fiscal Services Director James Pham, was a state-required report due March 15 that included the “positive certification.”

A confirmation the district can meet this year's financial obligations was sent to the county Superintendent of Schools

The nearly $255 million in revenues projected for the end of the current fiscal year will be close to $1.8 million more than expenses, leaving the district with a $17.6 million total reserve balance or a 5.5 percent unappropriated reserve balance.

Salaries and benefits make up close to 80 percent of the district's some $253 million in expenses. About 4.3 percent of total revenues, some $11 million, comes from federal government sources.

Two interesting Yorba Linda anniversaries: fireworks ban vote and Nixon enters politics

This year marks a couple of interesting anniversaries that continue to impact life in Yorba Linda – the 30^th year since residents voted to outlaw “safe and sane” fireworks and the 70^th year since native-son Richard Nixon was first elected to political office.

The fireworks ban resulted from a 1986 advisory vote, when residents chose to prohibit pyrotechnic sales and use by a 67 percent majority, 8,811 to 4,297. The City Council enacted the ban weeks later.

Council members had requested the Parks and Recreation Commission look into the possibility of a city-initiated fireworks program, but the first actual display was in 1989. Since then, the annual July 4 fireworks has become Yorba Linda's most-viewed event.

The 2016 display recently received approval with a $21,750 contract with Pyro Spectaculars, responsible for last year's show that Parks and Recreation Director Mike Kudron called “one of the best fireworks displays on record in Yorba Linda” in a report to the council.

After recent budget squeezes, council designated two revenue sources to finance the event: $26,300 yearly rent from a Brush Canyon Park cell tower and a $15,000 fee for using the vacant Imperial Highway/Yorba Linda Boulevard lot to sell pumpkins and Christmas trees.

Add cash from sponsorships, donations and sales at the event – they generated $11,259 last year – and the projected $56,029 cost is nearly met, with a small general fund outlay.

Nixon's 1946 election to Congress was a first step in a career that led to his private library opening in 1990 and becoming a National Archives facility in 2007. A major renovation is underway, with an anticipated October completion.

Past columns described Nixon's erroneous 1974 statement that oil was discovered on his father's property – “He sold it before they found oil on it” – and council's 1985 approval for condominiums on the site.

Now, the Rev. Canon John H. Taylor's “The Episconixonian” blog and a recent phone interview revealed two more fascinating facts. Taylor, a 26-year Yorba Linda resident and former Nixon chief of staff and past executive director of the Nixon Foundation and private library, currently is vicar of St. John's Episcopal Church and School in Rancho Santa Margarita.

His 2013 blog post “The Yorba Linda Plumbers” tells of the architect including a working toilet in the refurbished birthplace: Nixon “told me that the family had used an outhouse at first, though he conceded indoor plumbing might have been installed by the time they moved to Whittier....”

And amazingly, Taylor recounts that architects “wanted to pick (the house) up and turn it around” to face the library complex: “When I pitched the architects' idea, he didn't say a word; he just stared at me.”

The entry notes Taylor's response to Nixon's stare: “'On the other hand, Mr. President…we can leave it right where it is. I just wanted to let you know what these guys were up to.'”  

Most Yorba Linda taxpayers will benefit from new round of landscape maintenance zone voting

A sizable majority of tax-paying Yorba Lindans will benefit from a second round of balloting on fee increases in local landscape maintenance zones, even though only the zones' landowners can vote the hikes up or down.

That's because however the parcel owners vote, cash from the city's general fund revenue streams into which all taxpayers contribute will no longer subsidize the underfunded zones.

Once deficits are eliminated from all of the dozen or so of the city's 32 local landscape zones with expenses higher than income, the city can save the nearly $1 million in yearly subsidies.

If the property owners approve the increases, then the full cost of maintaining “special benefit” landscaping in their areas will be added to their property tax bills. If they oppose the hikes, the city still plans to drop the subsidies, resulting in severe maintenance cutbacks in the zones.

Already, property owners in three zones have approved increases, and balloting in five more zones ends April 5, when the separate tallies for each zone will be revealed at that evening's City Council meeting.

Increases proposed in this round are significant, ranging from 93 percent to 331 percent, representing added annual outlays of from $309 to $1,068. The zones voting earlier this year approved increases of $10, $384 and $536 for 1,930 homes in East Lake Village.

Ballots have already been mailed to property owners in the five zones in the current round, which are scattered through the city's central and eastern areas. If increases are approved for one or more of the zones, the new amounts will appear on owners' 2016-17 tax bills.

The five zones include 1,723 single-family homes,124 multi-family units and 82 other parcels, 30 exempt from fees. Close to $2 million could be collected from fees on these properties on the next tax billing.

And subsequent years will include an increase that corresponds to any consumer price index increase, but, interestingly, according to a city report: “If the percentage change in the CPI is negative, the maximum assessment rates shall not be adjusted from the previous fiscal year.”

The proposed jumps are from $323 to $1,391 on 614 homes in zone 1B (Bryant Ranch); from $331 to $781 on 301 homes in 2A (Y.L. Hills); from $331 to $882 on 217 homes in 2E (North Village Center); from $331 to $640 on 361 homes in 2K (Green Hills, Stonehaven); and from $331 to $1,097 on 230 homes in 2N (Hidden Hills).

Voting on hikes for four more zones (2L, 2P, 4A and 5A with 1,106 homes in northern and central parts of the city) is expected to take place before city officials are required to send assessment amounts to the county for inclusion on the next property tax bills.

The most recent count shows 12,149 or 57.5 percent of the city's 21,142 single-family homes and 624 or 57.6 percent of the 1,083 multi-family units – but none of the 288 mobile homes – paying fees in the 32 local zones.