New Yorba Linda Water District directors begin terms after district's most contentious election

Curious about the winds of change expected to blow through the Yorba Linda Water District upon the seating of four new directors after the most contentious election in district history?

Here's a look at some of the new board's actions since taking office:

--General Manager Marc Marcantonio's contract, due to expire in September, was extended three years into 2020. At the past board's final meeting, Marcantonio was granted a $25,225 raise to $216,900, but a contract extension was deferred until the new directors took office.

In an email, new board president Wayne Miller told me the board decided “its first priority was to maintain organizational stability while moving ahead....After some discussion, five directors and selected staff worked with/through our attorney and came to terms” with Marcantonio.

However, Public Information Manager Damon Micalizzi, whose salary became an issue in the past campaign, resigned and is now working as public affairs director at the county Municipal Water District, the wholesale water supplier for 28 agencies, including the Yorba Linda district.

--The board's regular meeting times were changed from 8:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month to evenings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, with closed sessions at 5:30 p.m. and public sessions at 6:30 p.m.

Prior boards resisted moving to evening meetings due to added costs and an alleged lack of interest on the part of residents. But now, work schedules of staff attending meetings will be adjusted, with extra pay for only one employee at an hourly overtime rate of $41.83.

--A discussion of director salaries and benefits was scheduled for the board's first Tuesday meeting on Jan. 24, at the request of Miller, although any potential changes would come at a future session when resolutions would be presented for formal action.

Currently, directors earn $150 per meeting for up to 10 meetings per month that also include City Council, planning commission and other agency meetings for a maximum $18,000 each year, unchanged since 2003. State law would allow $282 per meeting.

Directors also are eligible for the same medical, dental, vision and life insurance benefits as full-time employees. The past board's most recent annual benefits cost from $8,963 to $15,124 per participant.

--Potential reductions in the monthly basic service charge and possible rebates for past payments await a report from a committee directors are creating to study the agency's rate structure. The group replaces the Citizens Advisory Committee, organized after the district was criticized in the aftermath of the 2008 Freeway Complex fire.

The past board's increase in the basic charge was one factor that sparked the recall of two board members and defeat of an incumbent in November. Application deadline to serve on the volunteer, short-term committee is Feb. 16, with appointments announced March 1. 

PYLUSD school trustees handle multiple issues

Placentia-Yorba Linda school district trustees have been busy with the following matters:

--A report outlining the district's clear ability to meet financial obligations through June 2019 was approved with “a positive certification,” even though expenses are expected to outrun income in this and the next two fiscal years.

Budgets will be balanced with funds from reserves, with reserve cash remaining at five percent of expenditures, as recommended for schools. The report also sees a decline in average daily attendance from 24,650 this year to 24,404 in two years.

--A three-year plan to use a $409,883 state grant to increase the number of students who enroll at colleges and universities and complete an undergraduate degree in four years was reviewed.

The funds will serve 2,745 students who meet a state standard of participation in one or more of three programs: English language learner, foster youth or eligibility for free or reduced price meals. Funding is about $150 per student for the three years.

Specific plans include hiring trained tutors to support students in meeting college and university entrance requirements and sending teams to a summer institute to learn methods of increasing student writing scores and the number of university-eligible students.

Chromebook computers will be purchased to help students develop computer skills and aid in college research and work on college and scholarship applications and writing college essays.

--Negotiations on a new contract between the district and the teachers union are underway, with each party agreeing to examine wages and benefits. Also, the district wants to look at leaves and evaluation procedures, while the union seeks to consider professional day language.

Current salaries range from $49,649 for a beginning teacher with a California credential to $102,774 for a 30-year veteran with an advanced degree and/or additional college credits.

Also currently in place is an incentive for early notification of resignation or retirement. Teachers who provided notice prior to Jan. 16 will receive $2,000, and teachers who give notice by March 1 will receive $1,000.

And employees in three positions on a substitute salary schedule – Child Care Teacher 1, Food Service Worker and Bus Driver Trainee – received a 50-cent per hour Jan. 1 pay hike to $10.50 to comply with state law, costing about $10,000 for the remainder of the school year.

--Among several board policies undergoing revisions is one regarding the rights of pregnant, married, parenting or lactating students, which added two pages describing specific services related to support, absences, reasonable accommodations and complaints.

The revised policy states “the classroom setting” is “the preferred educational environment unless an alternative is necessary to meet the needs of the student and/or his/her child.” A second reading and adoption is expected at a Feb. 7 meeting.

City employee salary increases, landscape zones fee hike vote affect Yorba Linda finances in 2017

Three items affecting Yorba Linda's finances merit some ink this week:

--A five percent salary increase has been granted City Manager Mark Pulone, who is in the middle of his fourth year as the city's top administrative officer. The raise brings his annual pay to $229,545, not including health benefits, pension support and other payments.

The increase, noted a report from Assistant City Manager Dave Christian, is “based on merit and performance that correlates to increases in cost-of-living expenses.” Approval was on a 4-1 vote by the City Council in a meeting before two new members took office.

The only dissenter was Craig Young, who was denied a second term by voters in November. Along with the $10,931 increase, Pulone's contract was extended into 2021. His original pay when hired in 2013 was $205,000.

--The city's currently budgeted 94 other full-time employees were granted a two percent cost -of-living salary hike retroactive to Oct. 1, 2016, and another two percent increase starting on Oct. 1 this year on a 5-0 vote by the new council at a Jan. 3 meeting.

Annual pay after five steps at contract's end in September 2018 will range from $43,812 to $104,760 for 66 “miscellaneous” employees; $79,800 to $155,652 for 22 mid-management employees; and $166,080 to $200,736 for six top-level managers.

Costs associated with the salary boost and some benefit changes are estimated at $586,000 for the first year and an additional $380,000 for the second year. Some 80 percent will come from the city's general fund and the remainder from library and landscape district tax revenues.

--Property owners in four of the city's 33 local landscaping zones are voting on increases to assessments they would pay beginning with next year's property tax bills for the Landscape Maintenance Assessment District for special benefits.

Mail-in votes are due before the close of a public hearing scheduled for a Feb. 21 City Council session, at which the results are expected to be announced. Voting involves zones that turned down similar increases last year.

The four zones include owners of 1,025 single-family homes, 124 multi-family units and 65 acres of non-residential and vacant land. Last year, a majority of owners of 1,930 homes in three zones approved hikes, while a majority of owners of 2,953 residences in nine zones opposed increases.

The current annual payments are $334 for all four zones, with each zone balloting separately on hikes to $500, $645, $768 and $1,007. Costs involved in the voting will be paid from each zone's reserve account if the increases are approved or from the city's general fund if denied.

Based on a 2016 report from Willdan Financial Services, the city-hired consultant that handles landscape district matters, 12,149 of the city's 21,142 single-family homes are in one of the 33 zones requiring special benefit payments, along with 624 of the city's 1,083 multi-family units. 

Yorba Linda economy moving in positive direction for 2017, reports from city finance director show

A new year – the 50^th since Yorba Linda incorporated as a city in 1967 – finds the economy moving in a positive direction, as measured by increases in property and sales tax revenue collected to fund municipal operations during the current fiscal year.

Here's a breakdown of the latest budget numbers from recent financial reports compiled by city Treasurer and Finance Director Scott Catlett for examination by City Council members:

--Property taxes, the city's largest revenue source, were expected to produce a bit more than $16.4 million from July 1, 2016, through June 30 of this year, when the current two-year budget was adopted. The latest projection stands at close to $17.6 million, up 7 percent.

Sales tax revenue was initially pegged at more than $6.9 million, but the latest projection is close to $7.8 million, an increase of 12.3 percent. The city's third-largest revenue source is franchise taxes from cable television and utilities, which remains steady at about $2 million.

Interestingly, Catlett noted that part of the additional sales tax revenue received from July through September of last year was “due to misallocations to other jurisdictions that have been corrected through the efforts of the city's sales tax consultant....”

And, Catlett stated, the projection “does not yet include the anticipated positive impact related to the opening of the JStar Motors Maserati dealership in Savi Ranch. Because no sales tax data is available for the dealership since its relocation to Yorba Linda, staff is not yet comfort-able forecasting the impact of the dealership's sales on the city's sales tax revenue.”

--The city's operating expenses should total some $32.7 million by fiscal year-end, June 30.

Transfers to other funds (nearly $2.8 million to the city's Landscape Maintenance Assessment District, $1.6 million for capital projects and $567,000 to special reserves) is expected to bring the total to just over $37.6 million.

Catlett hasn't yet projected possible savings from the expenditure side of the budget, but he stated, “...consistent with past fiscal years, it is anticipated that...savings will be identified....”

--The latest estimate from Catlett is the city will add $733,000 to an already robust operating reserve of nearly $21.1 million, about 68 percent of general fund expenditures. Add close to $8.3 million in special reserves, and the total nears $29.4 million, 94 percent of expenditures.

Based on a policy adopted in October, whenever operating reserves are more than 60 percent of expenses, “staff must present a plan to the City Council to utilize the excess funds,” Catlett noted, adding that the excess totaled about $1.6 million last June 30.

Catlett will present a plan incorporating the excess into a multi-year program “for addressing the city's liabilities and unfunded needs,” when the next two-year budget is presented before the current fiscal year ends June 30.