YORBA LINDA : City Delays Program for Senior Citizens

Faced with the potential loss of $500,000 in revenue in coming months, the City Council this week decided to delay a program that would allow senior citizen volunteers to help police with community services such as bicycle licensing and checking on shut-ins.

Two residents had proposed the “senior community activity team” as a way for elderly volunteers to provide extra manpower for city services. Other proponents said their ultimate goal is to establish a program that is an expanded version of the Neighborhood Watch system, in which volunteers of all ages would help fight the growing problem of graffiti and other crimes in the city.

“This program would provide more eyes and ears for the Police Department,” said Chris Naughton, an 11-year resident.

Naughton and another resident, Jackie Harrison, suggested the program after hearing about similar setups in Mission Viejo and San Clemente, which train senior citizen volunteers in first aid and police policies and procedures, and provide them with vehicles, radios and uniforms.

“A lot of cities have residents grouping together to combat community crime,” Naughton said. “We felt it would be something good for Yorba Linda. This is a (large) city; it’s hard to patrol.”

City officials who studied the programs in Mission Viejo and San Clemente estimated that the cost to run such a program here would reach $26,000 if the city wanted to provide all the training, supervision, equipment and vehicles.

The city can’t afford to spend so much right now because, although the budget is balanced and in good shape, the financially strapped state is considering keeping certain revenues such as motor vehicle license fees and cigarette taxes that traditionally have been apportioned to cities, City Manager Arthur C. Simonian said.

Yorba Linda, which expects to get $2 million in license revenues during the 1992-93 fiscal year, would be forced to trim expenses by $500,000 if the state opted to keep just 25% of that revenue, Simonian said.

“I think we must be very cautious and look to Sacramento and what they’re doing there,” he said. “We should not haphazardly increase the expenditures.”

Simonian suggested that the council postpone discussion of the community program for a year, but Naughton and Harrison begged the council to start up a basic program now.

“I’m not arguing the fact that $26,000 is a lot of money . . . however, there are options available for reducing the cost,” Harrison said.

The council agreed to discuss the issue again in August, after the state has settled its budget. The council will also wait until late summer to consider Mayor Irwin M. Fried’s proposal to place a Drug Awareness Resistance Education police officer at Esperanza High School at a cost of $76,000.