Fifty years ago in Yorba Linda: state Supreme Court clears hurdle for public vote on cityhood

Fifty years ago this week a final hurdle to allowing Yorba Lindans to vote on incorporating as a city was overcome, when the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled a plebiscite on cityhood should proceed.

Opponents to incorporation had challenged a 1966 Court of Appeals decision overturning a 1964 Superior Court ruling that owners of oil and gas leases qualified as landowners when they protested an incorporation vote.

While the Supreme Court didn't rule on the legal right of the leaseholders to protest a vote, the court did say that many of the mineral rights owner protests were filed too late to count.

The assessed value of land and separately assessed mineral rights in Yorba Linda at the time totaled $4.1 million. Owners of $2.4 million worth of the land and rights, or 58 percent, signed protest letters opposing the cityhood vote.

The appeals court said none of the mineral rights valuations should be included when deciding the validity of protests, but the Supreme Court ignored that aspect of the case and ruled that some $800,000 of the protesting valuations were filed three weeks past deadline.

“This holding,” the court wrote in a decision released May 25, 1967, “renders it unnecessary to consider other attacks made by the plaintiffs,” who supported the incorporation vote. The trial court's decision was reversed, and the county Board of Supervisors ordered to schedule an election.

Many past supervisors opposed incorporation efforts because they saw their power waning as new cities were created, and significant funding for their campaigns came from large land-owners and leaseholders wary of increasing regulation from more municipal governments.

Now, supervisors support the county's 34 cities annexing unincorporated areas encircled by or adjacent to the cities. The county has encouraged Yorba Linda to annex the Country Club and Fairlynn islands over the years, but a majority of the some 1,500 registered voters in the two areas always have opposed joining the city when the issue has appeared on the ballot.

The then-supervisors didn't appeal the court's 1967 decision and in August held a public hearing to establish boundaries for the proposed city and set an election date for Oct. 24.

The legal firm Rutan & Tucker argued the case for the public vote, with Homer McCormick and James Erickson as lead attorneys. Erickson became Yorba Linda's first City Attorney, and Rutan & Tucker currently represents the city in legal matters.

Seventy-two percent of voters turned out to support cityhood with a 3-1 margin, 1,963 to 638. Twenty-seven candidates filed for the five City Council positions on the same ballot, including at least four who opposed incorporation.

The winners – attorney Roland Bigonger, pharmacy owner Burt Brooks, former postmaster Whit Cromwell, state safety engineer Bill Ross and sales manager Herb Warren – held the first council meeting Nov. 2, selecting Bigonger as first mayor.

PYLUSD financial report notes per-pupil spending; new principals to begin work

A listing of per-pupil spending by grade levels is one of the more interesting items included in the most recent state-required financial report reviewed by the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district's five elected trustees.

Dollars spent educating each of the district's some 25,000 students are based on average daily attendance and are projected to increase from 1.5 percent to 2.8 percent for each of the next two years, depending on grade level.

This year's funding for each kindergarten through grade 3 student is $8,398; for each grade 4 through 6 student $7,720; for each grade 7 and 8 student $7,950; and for each grade 9 through 12 student $9,451, all figured on an average daily attendance basis.

Interestingly, average daily attendance is expected to dip a bit, about 1 percent at each grade level, from this year to the 2018-19 school year, according to current projections. District-wide, average daily attendance is anticipated to drop 246 kindergarten through grade 12 students.

The kindergarten through grade 3 decline is expected to be from 7,124 to 7,053; grade 4 through grade 6 from 5,451 to 5,397; grades 7 and 8 from 3,843 to 3,804; and grades 9 through 12 from 8,233 to 8,151.

In other school-related matters:

--Two new high school principals will be in place before the next school year begins. Ken Fox, selected as principal of Esperanza High School in 2008, will retire after a 38-year career in education. His replacement beginning July 1 will be one of Esperanza's current assistant principals, Gina Aguilar.

Hector Vasquez has resigned after serving one-year at Valencia High School. The application period for this position closes June 2. Also retiring are Cameron Malotte, principal at Yorba Linda Middle School, and Kevin McConnell, athletic director at Valencia High School.

--Alyssa Griffiths has been named district Public and Media Relations Specialist, replacing Doug Schultz, who is now Supervisor of Communications for Citrus College in Glendora.

--Trustees granted $750 stipends to five 2016-17 “employees of the year”: Tiffany Badger, Suzanne Borgese, Ann Rago, Debra Silverman and Janice Weber.

--Trustees approved an agreement with the county Department of Education and a memorandum of understanding with the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance to partly implement a district-wide focus area, providing a “safe and respectful environment.”

The county agreement provides training for teams of teachers at elementary and secondary schools in a program to increase attendance, access to learning and positive behaviors and decrease discipline referrals, bullying and suspensions.

The memorandum of understanding addresses student needs by providing prevention and intervention services through group work, individual counseling, classroom workshops and referrals to community services, as well as career development, after-school programs and leadership training.

Yorba Linda adopts first-ever policy on debt; school district revises policy on student clubs

A new, state-mandated policy related to managing city debt has been adopted by the Yorba Linda City Council, and a revised policy allowing non-curricular student clubs at elementary and middle schools is now in place throughout the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district.

Council members, acting in three roles – City Council, Successor Agency to the former Re-development Agency and Public Financing Authority – adopted the city's first-ever policy on debt management with a unanimous vote in April.

Currently, the city doesn't have any outstanding debt other than bonds issued by the Successor Agency, and this debt is under study for possible refunding to take advantage of lower interest rates, according to a report to the council from Finance Director Scott Catlett.

“Staff has discussed with the council the possibility of issuing debt for the library and arts center project, and the council has directed staff (to) do so for the library component of the project, pending additional analysis on funding alternatives for the art center,” Catlett stated.

A new state law requires a city's debt policy be in place 30 days before new debt is issued, with annual reports submitted to the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission.

Required components include outlining purposes for debt proceeds; the types of debts that can be issued; the debt's integration with the city's budget, capital improvements and goals and objectives; and internal control procedures to ensure debt is used as intended.

This city's policy also includes limitations on debt capacity, monitoring of revenues to service outstanding and proposed debt and compliance with regulation and disclosure requirements.

The school district's newly named “student organizations and equal access” policy updates a previous document first adopted in 1989 limiting elementary and middle schools to clubs with ties to district-approved curriculum, often called a “closed forum” policy.

Now, rules for elementary and middle school student clubs follow the same regulations in place at high school campuses, often called a “limited open forum” policy that allows non-curriculum-related student groups, as authorized by a principal or designee.

The policy, unanimously approved by trustees, states the board “encourages students to pursue interests and clubs which may not directly relate to the district's curriculum,” while requiring meetings be “voluntary and student-initiated.”

The policy states schools and staff are not allowed to promote, lead or participate in meet-ings, and employees “shall be present at religious meetings only in a non-participatory capacity,” and “non-school persons shall not direct, conduct, control or regularly attend activities of student groups.”

School officials told trustees the policy updates “reflect the changes in the state and federal statue and provide more explicit guidance for school site administration.”

Yorba Linda City Council adopts budget priorities for next two years, readopts four citywide goals

Several strategic budget priorities have been adopted by Yorba Linda's City Council to guide the city's top-level management staff in drafting a two-year budget for council's consideration.

Spending plans for the 2017-18 fiscal year that begins July 1 and the 2018-19 fiscal year are expected to be presented at an upcoming council meeting. Income and expenditures will be in the $33 million to $34 million range, based on figures for the current and last budget years.

Four citywide goals originally approved in 2011 were readopted on a unanimous council vote in April, but new, shorter-term priorities were established to steer budget-building for the next two years, replacing the 22 that were adopted six years ago.

Some of the priorities crafted are general: “deliver excellent public safety services,” “improve the city's communications efforts” and “utilize technology to improve operational efficiencies.”

Improving communications involves an updated website and “increased use of social media.”

But others are more specific, and implementation could solve some longstanding problems.

For example, one priority is to “address the remaining General Fund subsidies” for funding shortfalls in a few of the individual zones in the city's Landscape Maintenance Assessment District.

Currently, citywide taxpayers are on the hook for providing services to some areas, since a few zones don't collect enough cash from property-owner assessments for needed upkeep. Election results are mixed, with owners in some zones approving higher fees and others opposed.

The problem is one of the city's thorniest ever, with solutions such as raising rates, cutting service, re-votes for assessment increases and identifying special benefits, all drawing ire from many of the affected residents.

Another key priority is to address liabilities and unfunded needs, subject of a report to council by Finance Director Scott Catlett last year, in which he identified unfunded $14.9 million in pension and $15.3 million for other post-employment liabilities, along with other city needs.

Additional priorities expected to be targeted are ensuring the city's pavement condition is maintained and setting aside money for replacement of vehicles, equipment and facilities.

And among other priorities: “enhance and add additional parks and other city facilities available to the public” and “maintain quality customer service and turnaround time for planning, building and engineering services.”

The city's four readopted goals certainly won't cause controversy: “provide a high quality community environment for all Yorba Linda residents and businesses” and “provide high quality, constituent-friendly city services.”

Also: “establish, maintain, and encourage a vibrant commercial and retail environment that provides business opportunities throughout the community” and “ensure the short-term and long-term financial security of the community.”