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.