The year 2020 saw some notable firsts for Yorba Linda's city, schools and water governing bodies

 

Note: This column was published online on Dec. 24, 2020, and in print Dec.31, 2020.

Clearly, 2020 won't fade from memory as have some past years, since so many aspects of daily life have been upended by the surprise appearance of the coronavirus pandemic.

Early this year, Yorba Linda City Manager Mark Pulone, acting in his role as the Director of Emergency Services, issued a Proclamation of the Existence of a Local Emergency, which was ratified by the City Council on March 17.

The proclamation has been renewed at each council meeting since the initial declaration, including the most recent Dec. 15 session. 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.”

The year 2020 saw some notable firsts in local politics, including the first-ever cancellation of a council election because only the three incumbents, Tara Campbell, Beth Haney and Gene Hernandez, filed for the Nov. 3 ballot.

The first council election in 1967 saw 27 candidates seeking five positions. Candidate filings have steadily dwindled in the 28 elections since then to only three contenders running for the two seats open in 2018 because of ever-increasing campaign costs.

The lack of challengers this year was partly due to the ability of incumbents to raise the large sums of cash needed to reach the city's 47,491 registered voters. A city record was set in the 2018 race by second-place finisher Carlos Rodriguez, who raised $102,722 in cash and services.

The Yorba Linda Water District has canceled nine of 31 elections since converting from a mutual company to a public agency in 1959. That includes the 2020 ballot, when just two candidates filed for two open slots in a district with an expensive-to-reach 55,971 registered voters.

All 26 directors elected since 1959 have been men, but now the first woman, Trudi Kew DesRoches, has been named a director, replacing Andy Hall, who didn't seek a second term. Reportedly, all of the mutual directors from the 1909 founding to 1959 were men.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District held a first election with candidates running in specific areas rather than district-wide. The 2018 ballot was scheduled as the first by-area election, but it was canceled when only incumbents Karin Freeman (Area 4) and Carrie Buck (Area 5) filed for office.

The smaller areas and the retirements of two incumbents drew a rare field of 10 candidates. Winners Shawn Youngblood (Area 1), Marilyn Anderson (Area 2) and Leandra Blades (Area 3) were endorsed by the county Republican Party. For the first time, none of the contenders endorsed by the teachers union won a seat.

Voter registration figures were 22,083 (Area 1); 11,069 (Area 2); 23,743 (Area 3); 21,779 (Area 4); and 21,462 (Area 5), making campaigning in the areas much less expensive than running a district-wide campaign to reach more than 100,000 registered voters in five cities.

Yorba Linda's city government weathers pandemic 'exceptionally well,' official says in report on taxes

 

So far, Yorba Linda “has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well in comparison to many neighboring jurisdictions,” due to better-than-expected sales tax collections, regular property tax revenue and continued strong building construction activity.

That's the judgment of Finance Director Scott Catlett, as outlined in his most recent report to City Council members detailing the city's current financial condition and offering projections for the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021.

The “brightest news” of the past fiscal year, noted Catlett, was a pickup in sales tax income during the final months. While the year ended $442,000 below an estimate when the budget was adopted in June 2019, the city's portion of the tax was $448,000 above an April 2020 revised projection.

According to Catlett, declines in sales tax revenue were smaller than what was experienced state and countywide because of the city's retailer mix, identified as Costco, office furniture and grocery stores, among others.

Also, growth in the city's allocation from the county's sales tax pool, which includes revenue from online sales that have taken the place of brick-and-mortar sales during the pandemic, was larger than anticipated.

“With major theme parks and shopping centers closed...the city's share of the pool is now measurably higher than it was prior to the stay-at-home order. Unfortunately for some neighboring cities, this growth in Yorba Linda's pool allocations was balanced against reductions in the pool allocations to these cities,” Catlett stated.

At the June 30 close of the past fiscal year, sales tax revenue, the city's second-highest income stream, totaled $7.2 million. Property taxes brought in $20.5 million and fees and permits related to building, engineering and planning totaled $2 million, up $100,000 from April's revised projection.

And while park and recreation revenues were $780,000 below the 2019 adopted budget and $440,000 below the April revision, most of the decline was offset by savings in part-time staffing and contract costs, according to Catlett.

The city is projected to end the current fiscal year with a $1.3 million general fund surplus, which, when added to present-day reserves, would total 58% of a year's operating budget, above a city policy of retaining a 50% reserve balance.

The city-owned Black Gold Golf Club also is expected to do better this fiscal year, probably without another city subsidy.

Officials were expecting to support operations with a $530,000 subsidy from the city's general fund due to the course closure earlier this year, but only $410,000 was needed because the club reopened earlier than expected.

So, the city is using the $120,000 remaining subsidy for deferred capital improvement projects, including new furniture for the restaurant and new carpeting to “improve the marketability of the facility and enhance the experience for customers.”