Yorba Linda's City Council, school boards, water agencies choose officers for 2018 calendar year

No surprises surfaced during the annual election of officers for Yorba Linda's City Council and the several school and water district governing boards with jurisdiction in Yorba Linda.

Each panel wisely follows a rotation method of choosing officers, giving all of each board's elected representatives the opportunity to serve a one-year term as mayor and mayor pro-tem for the city or president and vice president for the school and water district boards.

Most exceptions have occurred in the yearly selection of the mayor and mayor pro-tem, when members on the short side of 3-2 and 4-1 voting splits have been, at times, pettishly excluded from the largely ceremonial positions.

This time, however, the council hewed to the rotation policy practiced when the first five members each served six months in the top offices in order of the vote totals won in the

first council election in 1967.

Gene Hernandez was named mayor and Tara Campbell mayor pro tem on 5-0 votes. Hernandez, elected to a second council term in 2016, also served as mayor for 2015.

Campbell was the top vote-getter in the 2016 election, and if a rotation policy is followed next year, will be mayor in 2019, with Beth Haney next in line for the mayor pro tem slot.

One advantage to serving as mayor – or as president of the school and water boards – is higher visibility in the community, which is especially helpful in an election year. However, the council positions on this year's ballot are now held by Peggy Huang and Tom Lindsey.

In the Yorba Linda Water District, Al Nederhood was selected president and Brooke Jones vice president. Both were elected to two-year terms in 2016 recall elections, with the slots they now hold scheduled for the November ballot.

Yorba Linda resident and Esperanza High grad Brett Barbre was named president of the seven-member board of directors of the county's Municipal Water District. He represents Division 1, which includes Yorba Linda, Placentia, La Palma, La Habra, Buena Park and Brea.

Barbre also represents the Municipal district on the 38-member board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that serves some 19 million residents in six counties.

The seat held by Barbre since 2000 is scheduled for the November ballot. He is a past Yorba Linda Water District director and recently was named the district's assistant general manager.

In the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district, Placentia's Carol Downey was named president, and Yorba Linda's Carrie Buck and Eric Padget vice president and clerk. Seats held by Buck and immediate past president Karin Freeman are slated for the November ballot.

In the North Orange County Community College District, Anaheim's Jacqueline Rodarte was selected president and Yorba Linda's Jeff Brown and Ryan Bent vice president and secretary. All three represent parts of Yorba Linda, with Brown's seat scheduled for the November ballot.