School safety, cancelled election, pay raises in Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

Several school-related topics deserve attention this week, as more than 25,000 students begin classes at 34 campuses in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District that include 17 sites in Placentia, 12 in Yorba Linda, four in Anaheim and one in Fullerton.

--Additional steps have been taken for school safety, with new fencing at several sites, implementation of new front office procedures and installation of camera systems costing some $335,000 at El Dorado, Esperanza, Valencia and Yorba Linda high schools.

School Resource Officers will continue to be placed at high schools, with trustees approving contracts with Placentia and Yorba Linda. The district and Placentia share the cost of officers at El Dorado and Valencia highs, while the district and Yorba Linda share the cost of a Yorba Linda High officer.

The officers are available to serve all schools in their respective jurisdictions. Costs to the district are about $221,000 for the two Placentia officers and $108,000 for the Yorba Linda officer.

--Instead of an election in two of the five new trustee areas implemented this year, the only candidates to file for the positions will be appointed to new four-year terms that start in December. Carrie Buck, in Area 5, will serve a third term, while Karin Freeman, in Area 4, will serve an eighth full term.

Freeman will be Yorba Linda's longest-serving official in the same elective office at the end of her new term, at 33 years, eclipsing Hank Wedaa's 30 years on the City Council. Paul Armstrong was a Yorba Linda School District trustee 12 years and Yorba Linda Water District director 28 years, for a record 40 years in public office.

One of the three trustee areas scheduled for the 2020 ballot doesn't have an incumbent now residing in the area. Carol Downey and Eric Padget reside in Area 1, while Judi Carmona lives in Area 3. The vacancy will be in Area 2, on the district's southwestern side.

--Contract extensions and 2.5 percent pay raises have been granted the district's top four administrators. Superintendent Greg Plutko's new contract will run through June 30, 2022, and he'll earn $309,499 annually beginning Jan. 1.

Deputy Superintendent Candy Plahy will earn $204,225, Assistant Superintendents David Giordano (business services) and newly named Rick Lopez (human resources) $185,660, all starting Jan.1 under pacts running through June 30, 2021.

In addition, Plutko, upon retirement, will receive health and welfare benefits until age 65, if he completes a minimum of four years of district employment. He was hired July 1, 2016.

--Under a $14,000 contract with ImPACT Applications, athletes will receive baseline and post-injury testing, if an injury occurs, to assist doctors in assessing readiness to return to competition and classroom (also available to non-athletes for a nominal fee).

--Caelyn Smith of El Dorado will serve as student trustee for the first semester, 2018-19.

Yorba Linda City Council race: two Republicans, one Democrat; Yorba Linda Water District race: Kileys oppose incumbents in Nov. 6 balloting

Yorba Linda voters will see two intriguing match-ups on the Nov. 6 general election ballot – two staunch Republicans and an active Democrat seeking two City Council positions and a recalled water district director and his wife running against three water board incumbents.

Council positions are nominally non-partisan, but the county's two major official party organizations, the Republican and Democratic central committees, endorse selected candidates, in part to build a bench of potential future contenders for partisan offices.

Candidates who receive party endorsements publicize the support in advertisements, mailings, roadway signage, automated telephone calls and on social media platforms.

Expected to receive the GOP endorsements are Peggy Huang, who begins her quest for a second term with $24,550 in her campaign kitty, as of June 30, and Carlos Rodriguez, who already has been endorsed by the five sitting council members, all Republicans.

Huang, a state deputy attorney general, was the top vote-getter in 2014. The 15-year city resident has been an elected county GOP committee member since 2012, representing Republicans in Brea, La Habra, Placentia and Yorba Linda.

Rodriguez, a 10-year resident, was appointed by the council to the Parks and Recreation Commission last year. He is chief executive officer for the Baldy View chapter of Building Industry Association of Southern California and serves on the endorsement committee of Yorba Linda's chapter of the California Republican Assembly.

Lourdes Cruz, a 25-year resident who attended local schools, is an Orange County budget and contract monitor and part-time anthropology department professor at Fullerton College. She is the local Richard Nixon American Legion auxiliary's Girls' State chair, county Democratic committee alternate member and Orange County Labor Federation delegate.

Tom Lindsey is retiring after two terms. He placed second out of six contenders for two seats in 2010 and 2014 and survived a 2014 recall election with a 59 percent vote against removal from office. He lost a 2000 council contest, placing eighth out of 10 candidates for three seats.

At last count, Yorba Linda had 40,871 registered voters: 21,267 Republicans (52 percent); 9,109 Democrats (22.3 percent); 8,976 no party preference (22 percent); and 1,519 minor parties (3.7 percent).

In the Yorba Linda Water District, former director Robert Kiley, who beat an incumbent when he was elected to the board in 2010 and was recalled in 2016, and his wife, Barbara, who served two council terms from 1992 to 2000, are running against incumbent directors Phil Hawkins, Brooke Jones and Al Nederhood.

In a controversy regarding increased water fees due to drought conditions, Robert Kiley was recalled by 71 percent of the vote and replaced by Jones. Nederhood replaced Gary Melton, who was recalled by 70 percent. Hawkins has served since first appointed to the board in 2010.

Yorba Linda: equestrian center lease extended; crime insurance coverage quadrupled; money for Veterans Memorial repairs appropriated by city

Three Yorba Linda City Council actions merit ink this week: A 20-year lease extension for the Phillip Paxton Equestrian Center, a quadrupling of the city's crime insurance coverage and an appropriation to repair the Veterans Memorial.

The new 20-year lease for the 5.5-acre equestrian center on Buena Vista Avenue replaces a year-to-year pact with the Orange County Flood Control District in place since 1975. The lease continues the center's rent-free preservation of open space with a non-commercial recreation facility.

One clause allows the flood control district to terminate the lease on 180 days notice if the center's activities “interfere with the district's use of the impound area or impede a critically important public infrastructure project,” Parks and Recreation Director Mike Kudron reported.

However, Kudron noted, the lease “also states that every effort will be made by the district to allow continuance of the lease.” The lease states the city acknowledges the primary purpose of the leased area is for flood control.

The city can't collect money for use of the premises, and “under no circumstances shall an entrance, spectator or gate fee be charged to those who use the premises,” Kudron stated. The city can issue permits in which parts of the premises are temporarily used by a group.

The city's capital improvement program's long-range budget contains several maintenance and improvement projects for the center, with some to be initiated within the next two years.

The city's crime insurance coverage will increase from $5 million to $20 million as a safeguard against possible fraud or embezzlement of city funds. The $5 million coverage will remain with California Insurance Pool Authority, with added coverage by Great American Insurance.

“The city has a robust set of internal controls designed to minimize the risk of any fraud or embezzlement on the part of city employees or contractors,” Scott Catlett, finance director, reported to council members.

“However,” he noted, “there is always a small possibility that a situation could avoid detection, at least for a period of time,” adding that “staff have specifically analyzed examples of failures from other agencies to ensure that similar weaknesses do not exist in the city's controls.”

The new coverage has a $50,000 deductible and $8,500 annual premium. Catlett deemed the new policy as “prudent and cost-effective.”

Cost to repair the Veterans Memorial on Valley View Avenue north of Yorba Linda Boulevard will be $121,172. In December 2017 a eucalyptus branch fell and damaged the eagle statue and a granite bench.

Repairs are to be made by Building Construction Specialties, whose owner, Gary Brattain, created the eagle. His son, Joel, an Esperanza High School graduate, was killed in Iraq in 2004. The memorial was dedicated in 2009.

Insurance will cover repairs, except for a $10,000 deductible. Expected completion is Oct. 31.

New Yorba Linda Water District contract for employee salaries is unusual in two respects

A newly adopted contract outlining employment terms at the Yorba Linda Water District is unusual for a public agency in two respects – it sets salary increases for a five-year period and structures a mixture of lump sum payments with base salary hikes through June 2023.

The district services some 25,000 water connections in Yorba Linda and parts of Placentia, Brea and Anaheim, including the East Placentia, Country Club and Fairlynn county islands, and provides sewer service in most of the areas.

The district's Employees Association bargaining unit has 52 members, while unrepresented employees, formerly known as professional, confidential and management employees, total 27, with six considered management. General Manager Marc Marcantonio has a separate contract.

Bargaining on the new contract, which the district calls a “memorandum of understanding,” took seven months. Unrepresented employees do not bargain on salaries and benefits but are usually granted the same terms as the bargaining unit.

Generally, local city and school district employees work under a one- or three-year contract, with possible wage reopeners each year on a three-year pact. The water district employees have been given 3 percent increases for the current year and each of the next four years.

Each year's increases are structured to include a combination of a base salary increase and lump sum payment, with the latter ameliorating the compounding effect on the base salaries.

For example, this year's base pay increase is 1 percent with a 2 percent lump sum to be paid in November. Next year's increase is 2 percent base pay and 1 percent lump sum. The future increases will follow the same alternating pattern through the end of June 2023.

One interesting upgrade is that education reimbursement is now allowed for graduate work, in addition to the undergraduate level, with prorated repayment if the employee leaves prior to three years. Also, employees receive up to a 2 percent match for deferred compensation.

This year's pay range for first-year bargaining unit members is $34,091 to $78,146, based on classification, advancing to $43,659 and $100,048 at 11 years on the job. At contract's end, first-year range will be $36,192 to $82,909, advancing to $46,322 and $106,184 at 11 years.

This year's range for first-year unrepresented employees is $55,557 to $179,234, based on classification, advancing to $71,136 and $229,445 at 11 years on the job. At contract's end, first-year range will be $58,947 to $188,344, advancing to $75,483 and $241,072 at 11 years.

In a water-related note, addition of a monthly 95-cent tax on drinking water was dropped from the state budget in June. The tax sought to raise $110 million to clean up contaminated water.

The tax was dropped three days after the June 5 primary, which saw state Sen. Josh Newman recalled, based largely on his support for a 12-cent per gallon state tax hike.

Yorba Linda, Anaheim view Savi Ranch mobility study to improve entrance, circulation pattern

Easier entrance to and better circulation throughout the Savi Ranch retail, office and industrial areas could become a reality, if proposals in a final draft Savi Ranch Mobility Feasibility Study are implemented.

Funding “opportunities” have already been identified to achieve some of the near-term goals identified in the 70-page study that's been reviewed by both Yorba Linda and Anaheim officials.

The mobility study builds on an extensive, 30-year “vision plan” for land use at Savi Ranch completed in 2014. The new mobility report was viewed by Yorba Linda's City Council at a July 17 meeting and commented on by Anaheim's planning staff in a June 26 letter.

One near-term project is widening Yorba Linda Boulevard from La Palma Avenue to Santa Ana Canyon Road, including the bridge over the Santa Ana River, allowing longer turn lanes.

Another project is widening Savi Ranch Parkway and providing for three westbound left-turn lanes and two westbound right-turn lanes on Savi Ranch Parkway at Yorba Linda Boulevard.

Estimated cost for the Yorba Linda Boulevard widening is $19.2 million. A $375,000 Orange County Transportation Agency grant will partially fund some engineering and environmental clearance. The Savi Ranch Parkway widening is estimated at $3.3 million.

Both projects have been added to Yorba Linda's seven-year capital improvement program, with the city hoping to add Savi Ranch Parkway to the transportation agency's master plan for arterial highways, which would qualify the street for future grant funding.

Among the longer-term projects evaluated in the study is a refined Santa Ana River bridge alignment that would allow a secondary access to Savi Ranch commercial establishments.

Eastpark Drive would be extended through the parking lot between Kohl's and Michael's, across the Santa Ana River and connect to La Palma Avenue at a signalized intersection.

The roadway and bridge improvements could be implemented with no displacement of existing buildings to create “an entertainment zone, outdoor family area and increased food and retail opportunities,” the study states.

The estimated cost is $44.3 million. The study notes, “Further cost-benefit analysis is warranted, and funding mechanisms necessary to raise the capital will have to be evaluated.”

Other sections of the study deal with a number of proposals for improving circulation within the complex, including a refined version of an “outer ring road” detailed in previous reports. The study also presented plans for greater pedestrian and bicycle routes protected from traffic.

One interesting comment from Anaheim regarding financing: “A long-term funding source, such as a Community Facilities District, tied specifically to the changes in land use, should be considered to implement the improvements driven by the proposed project.”

Yorba Linda's response to Anaheim's Mello-Roos tax proposal: “Comment received.”