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.