Startling switch in voting patterns by Yorba Linda City Council members and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District trustees for the past year

 Someone returning to Yorba Linda after a two- or three-year absence might be surprised at a noteworthy change in the community's political scene, a change most often reflected this year by voting patterns of City Council members and Placentia-Yorba Linda school district trustees.

In past years, most controversies centered on council's decision-making, with numerous 3-2 votes on issues, and with meetings too often highlighted by personal feuds among members.

For most of the city's 54-year history, council controversies were punctuated by contentious elections, including a 2014 unsuccessful recall ballot. Many elections involved slates of candidates contesting for majority control of the five-member governing body.

But lately, most council votes have been 5-0, or 4-0 when a member is absent. And elections have been sedate affairs, with only three candidates seeking two seats in 2018 and the 2020 ballot canceled – for the only time in city history – when just the three incumbents filed to run.

Past controversies, such as zoning and land use matters or the contract with the Sheriff's Department for police services, now are settled by 5-0 votes and draw little attention from residents, as an almost empty council chambers at a majority of meetings attests.

And any personal enmity among council members is non-existent, as members Tara Campbell, Beth Haney, Gene Hernandez, Peggy Huang and Carlos Rodriguez often compliment each other during meetings. Even 4-1 votes are rare.

By contrast, in the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district, decades of consistent 5-0 and 4-0 board votes have ended, with numerous 3-2 and occasional 4-1 votes since the election of three new trustees last year.

The 2020 ballot had 10 candidates seeking seats in three trustee areas compared to the few candidates running in past years, with the 2018, 2012 and 2004 elections canceled because only incumbents filed nomination papers.

And public turnout at the meetings has skyrocketed, especially since trustees returned to meeting in person after several months of Zoom sessions. On Nov. 16, 26 individuals spoke at a late afternoon study session, and 56 individuals spoke at that evening's regular meeting.

The major concern of speakers was a district resolution on banning critical race theory from classrooms, with some speaking in favor of a ban and others opposed. Mandates for masks and vaccines, ethnic studies, civility, free speech and school safety were other topics.

Trustee Marilyn Anderson appears to be the swing vote on many of the split decisions. Some-times she votes with Leandra Blades and Shawn Youngblood, and other times she aligns with Carrie Buck and Karin Freeman.

Two council and two school board positions are slated for the 2022 ballot. Huang and Rodriguez now hold the council seats, since 2014 and 2018, respectively. Buck and Freeman now hold the school board seats, since 2010 and 1989, respectively.

Yorba Linda adopts ordinance to comply with state mandate to separate food waste from regular trash

 A major change in how residents dispose of food scraps and other organic material is on the horizon as the Yorba Linda City Council has adopted a new ordinance regulating solid waste disposal to comply with a state mandate.

Basically, residents will need to dump food waste, including such items as banana peels, melon rinds, potato skins, corn cobs and other organic scraps, with landscape waste. In other words, food scraps will need to be placed in brown containers, not black containers used for regular trash.

The state mandate requires cities and other jurisdictions to implement a mandatory organic recycling ordinance by Jan. 1. Yorba Linda approved a first reading of an ordinance at a Nov. 16 meeting and scheduled a second reading at a Dec. 7 meeting to meet mandate conditions.

Also required under the state mandate is an enforcement mechanism, which is included in the city's ordinance with $100, $200 and $500 fines for first, second and subsequent violations. Administrative fines ($50, $100 and $200) can be imposed after 60 days of non-compliance.

The new city ordinance runs to 13 pages and includes other revisions to comply with current laws and terms of contract provisions with the city's longtime trash hauler, Republic Services.

City Attorney Todd Litfin said at the Nov. 16 session that enforcement would involve spot checks by Republic Services personnel, who would inform the city of potential violations.

The city is conducting negotiations with Republic Services “to align to the requirements of SB 1383 and other related legislation,” according to a report to the council by Jamie Lai, the city's director of public works.

Goal of the state mandate, as outlined in Senate Bill 1383, “is to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% and increase edible food recovery by 20% by 2025,” Lai's report said.

“This legislation requires all businesses, residents and multi-family apartments to have ac-cess to recycling programs that capture food scraps, landscaping waste and other organic waste materials,” Lai stated.

Other mandates of SB 1383 include the establishment of an edible food recovery program and updating the city's procurement policy to purchase recycle content paper and recycled organic waste products, such as compost, mulch and renewable natural gas, at a volume of 0.08 tons per resident.

Other mandates include providing outreach and education for generators, facilities, edible food recovery organizations and municipal departments and securing access for recycling and edible food recovery capacity.

SB1383 dates to 2016, as signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, with the bill establishing methane emission reduction targets. Last year, the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, known as CalRecycle, released regulations to achieve the state's organic waste disposal goals by 2025.

The goals attack methane produced by landfills, the state's third-largest producer of methane.