Yorba Linda's City Council 'era of good feelings' with shortest meetings ever; city's emergency declaration renewed at each council session

Yorba Linda's current City Council members – already known for holding some of the shortest meetings in the city's near-53-year history – have appreciably lessened the time they've spent in formal sessions since the state's coronavirus shutdown was initiated.

Council meetings have lasted less than an hour for each of the three sessions held since the governor's March 19 stay-at-home declaration: 48 minutes on May 5, 46 minutes on April 21 and 52 minutes on April 7, with the five members mostly participating from their homes.

The length of the five meetings held earlier this year ranged from one hour and 22 minutes to one hour and 53 minutes, close to the usual session times since Carlos Rodriguez joined Tara Campbell, Beth Haney, Gene Hernandez and Peggy Huang on the dais in late 2018.

A majority of the 2019 meetings lasted less than two hours, with only one meeting finishing past the four-hour mark. In 2018, 10 meetings took less than two hours and just one ended after four hours.

By contrast, eight meetings in each year from 2014 through 2017 ran from four to six hours, and in 2013, 19 meetings lasted from four to six hours, with one session ending at 1:17 a.m. the next day.

However, the city's longest-ever meeting times occurred in 2012, during the period when a 3-2 council division dropped Brea as the city law enforcement contractor and hired the Orange County Sheriff's Department to provide policing services for the 20-square-mile city.

Of the 26 regular and adjourned meetings that year, 14 lasted from four to 10 hours. One session, on April 24-25, ended at 3:15 a.m., and another, on July 17-18, adjourned at 3:10 a.m.

Again, in contrast to past councils, the current members rarely express disagreements with each other on major matters. And, in a significant departure from councils in the 1990s and the 2000 to 2016 period, personal animosities among members are not evident at the dais.

Of course, all current members are active Republicans, though nearly all past members were Republicans, with one or two registered as “declined to state.” But that didn't stop the digs and slights they directed at one another during contentious sessions littered with 3-2 votes.

Maybe there's a lack of controversial issues lately, but it will be interesting to see how long this “era of good feelings” lasts.

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One item on the past four council agendas is a “proclamation of the existence of a local emergency” issued March 16 by City Manager Mark Pulone amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Pulone's proclamation was ratified by a unanimous council vote on March 17 and upheld at the April 7, April 21 and May 5 meetings because council determined “the need for the local emergency proclamation continues.”

The proclamation empowers Pulone “to adopt rules, policies and regulations to protect the public, to protect life and property, and to ensure the availability of essential city services.”