Placentia-Yorba Linda school employees settle on raises for 2018-19: 2.5 percent salary hikes

Tentative agreements have been reached for 2.5 percent salary hikes retroactive to the beginning of the school year for 2,679 employees in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

The agreements were signed earlier this month by district negotiators and officers of the two unions representing certificated and classified employees, with final adoption anticipated at a March 5 meeting of district trustees.

The 1,144 certificated employees, generally classroom teachers, are in line for a 2 percent across-the-board pay hike and an added 0.5 percent boost due to compression of the salary schedule to 26 annual steps from the 28 years previously required to reach the top pay level.

Salaries for the 2018-19 school year will range from $51,148 for a certified first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree and an additional 30 units of education credits to $110,978 for a teacher with 26 or more years of service and from 60 to 75 advanced education credits.

Unchanged from past years is a $1,500 stipend for an earned doctorate from an accredited institution and added pay for academic or athletic coaching, committee assignments and department chair and lead teacher positions, among other extra-pay duties.

The 1,325 classified employees, generally maintenance, transportation and office workers, along with classroom aides, can expect a 2.5 percent across-the-board increase.

A first-year child care aide would earn $13.04 hourly ($2,259 monthly), while a computer systems trainer and a senior programmer analyst would earn $44.80 hourly ($7,764 monthly) after five years of service.

Classified workers are represented by the Placentia-Yorba Linda Chapter 293 of the California School Employees Association. The unit's 70-page, three-year contract with the district runs though June 30, but wage and other specified sections are reviewed each year.

Certificated workers are represented by the Association of Placentia-Linda Educators. The unit's 74-page, three-year contract runs through June 2020, but again, wage and other specified sections are reviewed each year.

Two other groups, the 144 certificated management employees and 66 classified management employees, each year receive the same increases negotiated by the unions.

The certificated management pay range will run from $83,964 for a first-year wellness specialist to $174,351 for an executive director with six years of service, plus increasing longevity pay at 17, 21, 25 and 30 years ranging to $8,172 at 30 years.

Principal ranges will be $133,429 to $150,959 (high school); $116,644 to $131,975 (middle school); and $114,309 to $129,331 (elementary school), plus any longevity pay. Counselors will start at $93,508 and earn $105,795 at six years, plus any longevity pay.

Full-year classified management positions will earn from $40,237 for a confidential clerk to $174,351 for an executive director, plus longevity pay at 10, 15, 20 and 25 years.

How Yorba Linda's city and water district governments invest revenue they receive

All of the various taxes and fees residents pay to keep Yorba Linda's city government and independent water district functioning aren't just sitting in checking accounts waiting to be paid out in salaries and other expenses incurred in providing services.

The elected officials who lead these public agencies allow the managers they hire to oversee operations to put portions of the revenue received into short-, medium- and long-term invest-ments to earn returns on the cash held in reserve.

But unlike many private investor accounts, the types of accounts utilized by the city and water district are risk-adverse, as required by state regulations and policies adopted by City Council members and water board directors.

Instead of individual stocks, mutual funds, real estate trusts and a variety of other speculative investment vehicles, the local governmental ledgers are packed with a conservative blend of money market accounts, certificates of deposit, government bonds and securities, corporate notes and similar components.

Yorba Linda's city government has nearly $69 million and the Yorba Linda Water District close to $38 million in cash and investment holdings, according to the most recent reports available.

Yields on the city's investments range from 0.42 percent for cash and money market accounts to 2.88 percent for a U.S. government agency collateralized mortgage investment. The bulk of the city's portfolio, close to $45 million, is managed by a private investment company.

The Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management firm, with an office in Los Angeles, has the city in nine types of medium-term investments that yield an average 2.29 percent. Yields on the individual investment types range from 1.64 percent to 2.88 percent.

Other city investment vehicles, both short-term, include the California Asset Management Program ($13.2 million invested at a 2.36 percent yield) and the Local Agency Investment Fund ($6.8 million invested at a 2.21 percent yield).

A Bank of the West account (with a recent $3 million total) funds city operations, while a Bank of America account (nearly $400,000 recently) funds Black Gold golf course operations. A US Bank account recently totaled about $500,000 for “investment safekeeping.”

The bulk of the Yorba Linda Water District's portfolio, a bit over $31.5 million, is managed by CalTRUST and the Local Agency Investment Fund. Short- and long-term investments in the former earn 2.54 and 2.73 percent yields, respectively, and the latter has a 2.29 percent yield.

The district keeps $3.7 million in money market accounts, mostly with US Bank, and about $2 million in certificates of deposit in nine banks that earn an average 1.74 percent yield with ma-turities ranging from May of this year to March of 2022.

A checking account at Wells Fargo Bank recently totaled some $664,000. Overall yield for all of the district's investments is 2.42 percent.

New record set in a Yorba Linda City Council contest: most campaign contributions collected

A significant election-related record has been set in Yorba Linda that's an almost certain harbinger of the amounts of money that will be required to win positions on the city's governing body in the coming years.

The record: Most campaign contributions ever collected by a single candidate in a contest for a seat on the City Council, based on state-mandated campaign finance reports filed with City Clerk Marcia Brown by a Jan. 31 deadline.

Carlos Rodriguez put together a campaign kitty that totaled $102,722 during an eight-month period, from May 1 through Dec. 21, 2018, to win one of two council seats on the November ballot. He ran second out of three candidates, receiving 16,120 votes.

Rodriguez collected $84,731 in cash; $8,491 in in-kind contributions; and loaned his campaign $9,500. He spent $87,494 in the election, a $5.43 per-vote outlay.

According to rules set by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, candidates must list the source of each contribution of $100 or more. Rodriguez listed 121 contributions, 14 from individuals with Yorba Linda addresses and 107 from individuals, companies and committees with addresses outside of the city.

Contributions from the Yorba Linda addresses netted the campaign $7,900, while donations from addresses outside of the city totaled $76,296. Donations that were not itemized totaled $535.

The largest donation, $10,000, came from Quang To Pham of Newport Beach, a managing member of TK Properties. The Orange County Association of Deputy Sheriffs made an independent expenditure of $2,698 for robo calls, according to a separate filing.

Rodriguez is chief executive officer of the Baldy View chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California. He served one year on the Parks and Recreation Commission and was endorsed by the county Republican Party and all five council members.

Peggy Huang, who ran first to win a second term, raised $37,774; loaned her campaign $25,000; and spent $62,890 in 2018. She won a city-record 18,764 votes for a $3.35 per-vote outlay. Her 2018 reports list donations from 28 Yorba Linda addresses ($15,275) and 54 outside-the-city addresses ($22,500).

A state deputy attorney general, Huang also was endorsed by the county Republican Party and her council colleagues.

Third-place finisher Lourdes Cruz, who was raised in Yorba Linda and was endorsed by the county Democratic Party, collected $8,250 and spent $7,545. She won 10,917 votes for a per-vote outlay of 69 cents.

Recent council winners spent less than the 2018 winners: In 2012, Gene Hernandez spent $48,995, and in 2016, he spent $42,832; in 2016, Beth Haney spent $44,927; and in 2016, Tara Campbell spent $33,188, according to documents they filed with the city.

Serious contenders for the three seats on the 2020 ballot should take heed of a new campaign finance reality and carefully plot funding strategy if they want to win a council position.

Will another Democrat be elected to represent Yorba Linda in special election for supervisor?

Yorba Linda residents might find themselves represented by another Democrat in an elective position, based on the party affiliation of the better-known candidates in the March 12 special election to fill a vacant seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The most prominent candidates to fill the unexpired 3^rd District term of Todd Spitzer, elected District Attorney in November, include three Republicans and one Democrat, all expected to raise enough funds to be competitive in a race that's drawn seven contenders.

Based on the district's party registration – 34.8 percent Republican, 31.1 percent Democratic and 30.1 percent “no party preference” – a likely scenario is that the Republicans will split the GOP vote, allowing the Democrat to win the contest.

Some Yorba Linda Republicans are still stunned by last year's election of Gil Cisneros as the first Democrat to represent the community in Congress, so a Democratic supervisor could be a second punch for one of only two county cities with a majority GOP voter registration.

Yorba Linda's 42,869 registered voters represent about 13 percent of the district's 339,550 registrants. Other cities: Orange (21 percent of district voters), Tustin (11 percent) and Villa Park, the other county city with a Republican registration of more than 50 percent (1.3 percent).

Included in the 258-square-mile district are portions of Irvine (33 percent of district voters), Anaheim (13 percent) and county territory (8 percent), making the district second largest in land and fourth largest in population of five supervisorial districts.

Supervisor positions are non-partisan, but the county's two major party organizations, the Democratic and Republican central committees, have endorsed candidates in the contest,

as the groups do in most city council and many school and water board elections.

The 52-member GOP committee endorsed Don Wagner on a motion by Yorba Linda Council-man Gene Hernandez. The strongest objection came from a former Villa Park councilwoman, Deborah Pauly, who is also running for the position.

Attorney Wagner is a former community college trustee and state Assemblyman who was re-elected Irvine mayor last year. Also in the contest is Kris Murray, a former two-term Anaheim councilwoman who is endorsed by Yorba Linda Mayor Pro Tem Beth Haney.

Yorba Linda Mayor Tara Campbell, Councilwoman Peggy Huang and Hernandez endorsed Wagner.

The 60-member Democratic committee endorsed former Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez for the position. Sanchez was elected to the House in 1996 by upsetting GOP stalwart Bob Dornan and retired in 2016 to seek the Senate seat won by Kamala Harris last year.

Other candidates include attorney Kim-Thy “Katie” Hoang Bayliss, retired county employee Larry Bales and small business owner Katherine Daigle. All candidates except Daigle paid a fee for a 200-word statement to be included in a packet mailed to voters.