Press Conferences

 

KUSI-TV99 (Ind, San Diego), February 1, 2011

https://www.kusi.com/story/13943266/lenderman-pkg

San Diego fights to keep redevelopment money

A key and controversial component of the Governor's budget deficit plan is to abolish redevelopment agencies. But California's cities, including San Diego, are fighting back. KUSI's Ed Lenderman has the latest developments as our Mayor heads to Sacramento to fight for our funds.

The Governor remains adamant that there is no other way. So, the regions leaders are trying to rally the public as well. Residents and city officials gathered together in the Urban Village neighborhood of City Heights to show how redevelopment dollars have changed this formally blighted neighborhood. 

They now have a community college district to educate more residents in City Heights. There is also a 125-unit affordable housing project for residents living below the income standards of the community, they have a library on the corner, all this in one location. Residents and city officials call it smart growth for the community that redevelopment funds built.
The point city leaders want to make is that redevelopment isn't just Petco Park or a new Chargers stadium--  it's affordable housing in Chula Vista, La Mesa and Vista. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Governor Brown wants to abolish redevelopment agencies and use the property tax money toward balancing the budget.
City officials say they understand the Governor's plight, but argue there's little to be gained toward reducing the deficit, but an awful lot to be lost.

Last week we told you that Mayor Sanders was among nine big city Mayors to meet privately with the Governor. Before the meeting, Brown said, "redevelopment has done a lot of good things, but now we're facing a hard truth." Let the negotiations continue.


 

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 27, 2011 *Also ran in San Bernardino Sun, Contra Costa Times

https://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17209499

Local officials opposed to shutting down redevelopment agencies

Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer

Local cities are trumpeting the importance of redevelopment funds in hopes of preventing the state from taking their share of property tax revenue.

Faced with a $25 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed doing away with redevelopment agencies and diverting their funds - more than $5 billion - to pay for basic services such as education and public safety.

"These cuts are serious," Brown said on Wednesday before a meeting with mayors from nine of state's largest cities seeking alternatives to his proposal. "They're a retrenchment in what California was attempting to do in recent years, but they're necessary because we just don't have the money. I don't think they're going to say anyone will die because redevelopment is eliminated."

While Brown spoke with the mayors, Inland Valley officials voiced their opposition to Brown's plan at a press conference held Wednesday at San Sevaine Villas, a housing complex built through the assistance of the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon listed several affordable housing projects in his city that were recently completed with the help of redevelopment funds, including the recently opened City Center Senior Apartments.

"If Sacramento has not yet understood the value of the redevelopment to the communities of California, I'm sure they'll understand when 3,142 people apply for unemployment due to the loss of those funds for our city," Leon said, referring to the estimated loss of jobs should Ontario's agency be closed down.

RDA's supporters say redevelopment activities support an average of 304,000 full- and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs. According to California Redevelopment Association, if local RDAs are eliminated, San Bernardino County is poised to lose 33,596 jobs.

Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo named the infrastructure projects in his city which were funded in part by redevelopment money and are catalysts to economic growth - San Sevaine storm drain, Foothill Boulevard improvements and Pacific Electric Trail. Spagnolo also said the 15 Freeway/ Base Line interchange improvement project is in jeopardy if state takes action to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Randall Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis Group of Cos., made parallels to President Barack Obama's Tuesday's State of The Union Address and importance of keeping the competitive edge.

"Redevelopment is what is going to help us keep competitive with other states and other countries," Lewis said. "Public-private partnerships can offer you a lot of it together than any one side can do alone. There is just not enough money. It takes these public-private partnerships to make things happen. Without participation of redevelopment agencies a lot of these partnerships would not happen at all.

"It's a shame to do something like this now when you need jobs more than anything."

"We're tired," said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. "Every time they've been short up north, they decide to take it from RDAs."

Legislators don't really understand what redevelopment agencies do, Warren said.

"They have this perception that all these funds go to developers, and it's a big corporate thing," she said. "It was an easy target at first but what they've done is activate us all.

"They are trying to pin us against schools and I think it's horrible. What are you doing, bringing money back for pensions? What does that do for jobs?"

Warren also questioned Brown's timing. Last November, 60 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which largely prevents the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting local government funds.

"What does that mean, people don't matter?" she said.

"This is a pushback to the cities for all their efforts put in on Proposition 22," Spagnolo added.

On Monday, state Controller John Chiang announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state in an effort to determine how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.

Warren said her city was a paycheck away from going bankrupt in 1993 and has since reinvented itself.

"Nobody has time to be corrupt," she said.

"You get too busy taking care of business. We get audited all the time. I don't know what (Brown) was doing when he was (mayor) in Oakland, but we are not on the take. It's not corporate giveaway, it's for community well-being."

In Los Angeles, the Democratic governor told the mayors he is more sympathetic to health care advocates and welfare providers who told legislative committees Wednesday that the cuts could devastate the lives of those who need adult day care, some who cannot afford to pay more for health care services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]
909-483-9329


 

KCRA-TV3 (NBC, Sacramento), January 26, 2011 *Video clip on website

https://www.kcra.com/politics/26629611/detail.html

Brown Levels With Mayors On Redevelopment Funds

Cities 'Would Not Go Down Quietly,' Sacramento Mayor Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown told big-city mayors Wednesday that "the money's not there" as he defended his controversial plan to take $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from cities during an hourlong meeting in a corner Capitol office.

Brown gathered reporters around a long picnic table in his office beforehand, telling them that "defenders of redevelopment have a hard sell," if the alternative is to make deep cuts in K-12 education and the state's universities.

After the meeting, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he told the governor, "This is the wrong time to move away from job creation," noting that Los Angeles has had to slash 4,000 workers from its payroll because of budget troubles.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the cities "would not go down quietly" and would seek to defend the redevelopment funds.

The mayors said Brown had agreed to set up a working group to discuss other options to cutting redevelopment.

San Francisco Examiner, January 26, 2011 *Also ran in CalWatchdog

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/california/2011/01/big-city-mayors-bulldoze-gov-brown-s-plan-cut-redevelopment-agencies

Big-city mayors bulldoze Gov. Jerry Brown’s redevelopment plan

By:Katy Grimes

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, second from right, discusses the meeting he and the mayors of some of the state's largest cities had with Gov. Jerry Brown,at the Capitol in Sacramento. Also seen from left are Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, second from left, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, right. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Redevelopment is crucial to creating jobs in California to fight the plague of 12.5 percent unemployment, the mayors of the state’s nine largest cities insisted in a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.

That theme was echoed by every mayor in attendance. Each spoke positively about the meeting and the governor’s promise to work with them on a compromise.

“I had a chance to invite the governor to watch the San Francisco Giants, and noted that all of the housing surrounding the stadium was done using redevelopment funds,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. Lee said all the newest areas in cities throughout California can be attributed to the use of redevelopment money.

Lee warned against the elimination of the agencies and said redevelopment was the way to do smart development.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayors had come to an agreement with Brown not to make the sweeping, across-the-board agency elimination, although several mayors later said no formal agreement had actually been reached.

Villaraigosa said Brown agreed to name the mayors of the 10 largest cities to a formal working group. The group would work together until the cities and state could come to a resolution about redevelopment that everyone can live with.

That means Brown’s proposal to eliminate all 425 redevelopment agencies already has been severely downsized.

“We’re not going down quietly,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said, calling redevelopment projects “magical things.”

Johnson said several of the revitalized downtown streets in his city would not have been built without redevelopment.

“The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the citizens again,” he said.

“Many of us here serve on the board of directors of the League of California Cities,” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.

“We all use the redevelopment money — sometimes it’s the only money we have.”

Quan said with 18 percent unemployment in Oakland, and 40 percent unemployment among black male youths in her city, redevelopment means jobs.

“It makes no sense to pit the money against the kids,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed described the 1 million jobs the state of Texas added to its work force last year, along with the 400,000 jobs new to Arizona.

“California has zero new jobs, which is a big part of the budget problem,” he said. “It would be a bad idea to eliminate redevelopment agencies — they are some of the most important tools
we have.”

“All good things in our cities have been touched by redevelopment,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said. He said mayors shared with Brown the importance of the agencies and how the elimination would be a setback for cities.

When asked about widespread waste and abuse within redevelopment agencies, and exorbitant salaries and compensation, Villaraigosa said the jobs created by redevelopment were his focus. “For every statistic you have, I’ve got 10 jobs,” he said.

Villaraigosa welcomed an audit of redevelopment agencies by the state Controller’s Office. When asked what mayors were willing to negotiate with Brown, Villaraigosa said, “I am not willing to not have a seat at the table.”

Los Angeles Times, PolitiCal Blog, January 21, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/cities-may-sue-governor-over-his-redevelopment-proposal.html

Cities may sue governor over his redevelopment proposal [Updated]

In show of strength, more than 100 mayors and city council members from throughout California came together Friday to protest Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shutter their redevelopment agencies, calling it an illegal money grab and warning that they will sue the state if it is adopted.

Standing together with labor activists and business executives at the Sacramento Convention Center, the city leaders said they would vigorously oppose the governor's redevelopment proposal in the Legislature and, if necessary, in the courts.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it if we are forced to do it," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities.

Brown has proposed that redevelopment programs, which divert tax revenue from schools and other government coffers to pay for economic development projects, should be shut to free up $1.7 billion for basic services, including education and public safety. The proposal is part of his plan to reorganize government and close a $25-billion budget deficit.

But two days after Brown spoke to the city leaders and urged their cooperation, the mayors and council members said Friday that the governor needs to find another way of fixing the state's budget mess.

"It would prevent us from continuing to address the blighted communities, and these are focused on low-income areas," said Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez.

Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor said his city recently sold $24 million in bonds to pay for new redevelopment and has counted on it to significantly improve the isolated community.

Several city leaders said they generally like Brown, but it was clear that his proposal has struck a nerve, and some took a jab at him, pointing out that Brown had redevelopment funds at his disposal when he was mayor of Oakland.

"I don't think it's right to deprive the leaders of Oakland or any city the use of a tool that he [Brown] used in order to create jobs and create housing in Oakland," McKenzie said.

The city leaders, who were already in Sacramento to attend a conference, said Brown's proposal is in conflict with the will of the voters, who in November approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that sought to prevent the state from taking or borrowing local government funds, including redevelopment money. McKenzie, who is an attorney, contends that the proposal to shut the state's 398 redevelopment agencies also violates the state Constitution, which requires the tax increment money to be paid to redevelopment agencies to repay the public cost of redevelopment.

[Updated at 12:25 p.m.: Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor, said later Friday that the state had done a "thorough legal review" of the redevelopment proposal before it was made.

"We are confident that the governor's budget proposal is legally sound," Westrup said. "Redevelopment agencies were created by an act of the Legislature, and they can be eliminated by an act of the Legislature. It's time for all of us, including local government leaders, to set aside narrow perspectives and turf wars and act as Californians first to address the state’s budget deficit."]

-- Patrick McGreevy


 

Sacramento Business Journal, January 21, 2011

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/01/21/fight-over-redevelopment-funding-contin.html

Fight over redevelopment funding continues

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw , Staff writer

California’s local governments won’t rule out legal action against the state if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment funding and agencies moves forward.

“We would hate to take the state to court to uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, while backed by more than 100 California city council members and mayors at a news conference Friday. “But we will do it.” McKenzie said it was too early in the process to look at legal avenues as local governments hope to reason with the governor over the proposal. But he noted that voters “overwhelmingly” supported a constitutional amendment measure in November that barred the state from taking redevelopment funds.

California has more than 400 redevelopment agencies and Brown has proposed eliminating them to free up tax money for education and other services.

“This flies in the face of the clear will of voters,” McKenzie said.

The group that gathered Friday at the Sacramento Convention Center claims the proposal will kill jobs and development and ultimately be worse for the state budget. The impact on the region, according to Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn and Angelique Ashby, will be the loss of 19,000 jobs and $170 million in redevelopment funds over the long haul.

Redevelopment channels tax dollars back into troubled districts and often results in public-private partnerships. Agencies also support affordable-housing projects.

But critics have claimed the process can channel tax money into projects that benefit a handful of private developers.

The debate is expected to heat up in the California legislature.


Vacaville Reporter, January 22, 2011

https://www.insidebayarea.com/california/ci_17167380

Solano County council members join city leaders in taking stand against Brown

By Kimberly K. Fu / The Reporter

The ire over Gov. Jerry Brown's threat to ax local redevelopment agencies grew exponentially on Friday in Sacramento as leaders from across the state -- including three Solano cities -- gathered in protest.

The possibility of a lawsuit against the state was also floated.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it," said Chris McKenzie, an attorney and executive director of the League of California Cities.

"This proposal is to obliterate, eliminate, annihilate redevelopment," he continued, addressing the mayors, council members and community leaders flanking him at the Sacramento Convention Center. "This proposal is seriously flawed."

Brown has said that in order to get the state's financial affairs in order, a complete overhaul is needed. A component of the fix includes shuttering local redevelopment agencies, which he said has outlived their usefulness. His proposal is to repurpose the redevelopment funds for services such as education and public safety.

Leaders say that the move would slash job employment opportunities, kill affordable housing and, essentially, wreak more havoc on the economy.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby worried about the "tens of thousands of cuts to jobs" caused by the action, and relative impacts on the community.

"We're in the highest worldwide recession," added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Now is not the time."

Local city council members Catherine Moy of Fairfield, Michael Hudson of Suisun City and Thom Bogue of Dixon agreed.

"My feeling on it is, frankly, that it's immoral and, listening to that lawyer, illegal. We're here to fight this," Moy said. "They (the state) need to balance their budget, we need to balance ours and they need to stay out of it."

Hudson emphasized that his city is 99 percent redevelopment.

"So this would hurt us. Suisun City is the poster child for redevelopment," he added, pointing out the expansive improvements made over the years in terms of affordable housing and boosts to the business sector. "It has transformed our city."

Freshman councilman Bogue said he's not sold on the idea -- or on the governor, for that matter.

"I strongly feel that he's not taking responsibility for the state," he said. "Instead of addressing issues on the state level and cutting at the state level, he's going back to the cities and saying, 'I'm taking these monies from you, taking these assets from you,' and then dumping them into the counties' laps to deal with. ... It's highly irresponsible and very selfish of him to do that because he's hurting the community and the people."


Sacramento Press, January 21, 2011

https://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/44185/City_protests_Browns_redevelopment_plan

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

by Kathleen Haley

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Clubin Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Parkin Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiplemedia outlets. 

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conferenceon Tuesday that the city should consider doing so. 

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. 


 

KUSI-TV99 (Ind, San Diego), February 1, 2011

https://www.kusi.com/story/13943266/lenderman-pkg

San Diego fights to keep redevelopment money

A key and controversial component of the Governor's budget deficit plan is to abolish redevelopment agencies. But California's cities, including San Diego, are fighting back. KUSI's Ed Lenderman has the latest developments as our Mayor heads to Sacramento to fight for our funds.

The Governor remains adamant that there is no other way. So, the regions leaders are trying to rally the public as well. Residents and city officials gathered together in the Urban Village neighborhood of City Heights to show how redevelopment dollars have changed this formally blighted neighborhood. 

They now have a community college district to educate more residents in City Heights. There is also a 125-unit affordable housing project for residents living below the income standards of the community, they have a library on the corner, all this in one location. Residents and city officials call it smart growth for the community that redevelopment funds built.
The point city leaders want to make is that redevelopment isn't just Petco Park or a new Chargers stadium--  it's affordable housing in Chula Vista, La Mesa and Vista. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Governor Brown wants to abolish redevelopment agencies and use the property tax money toward balancing the budget.
City officials say they understand the Governor's plight, but argue there's little to be gained toward reducing the deficit, but an awful lot to be lost.

Last week we told you that Mayor Sanders was among nine big city Mayors to meet privately with the Governor. Before the meeting, Brown said, "redevelopment has done a lot of good things, but now we're facing a hard truth." Let the negotiations continue.


 

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 27, 2011 *Also ran in San Bernardino Sun, Contra Costa Times

https://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17209499

Local officials opposed to shutting down redevelopment agencies

Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer

Local cities are trumpeting the importance of redevelopment funds in hopes of preventing the state from taking their share of property tax revenue.

Faced with a $25 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed doing away with redevelopment agencies and diverting their funds - more than $5 billion - to pay for basic services such as education and public safety.

"These cuts are serious," Brown said on Wednesday before a meeting with mayors from nine of state's largest cities seeking alternatives to his proposal. "They're a retrenchment in what California was attempting to do in recent years, but they're necessary because we just don't have the money. I don't think they're going to say anyone will die because redevelopment is eliminated."

While Brown spoke with the mayors, Inland Valley officials voiced their opposition to Brown's plan at a press conference held Wednesday at San Sevaine Villas, a housing complex built through the assistance of the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon listed several affordable housing projects in his city that were recently completed with the help of redevelopment funds, including the recently opened City Center Senior Apartments.

"If Sacramento has not yet understood the value of the redevelopment to the communities of California, I'm sure they'll understand when 3,142 people apply for unemployment due to the loss of those funds for our city," Leon said, referring to the estimated loss of jobs should Ontario's agency be closed down.

RDA's supporters say redevelopment activities support an average of 304,000 full- and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs. According to California Redevelopment Association, if local RDAs are eliminated, San Bernardino County is poised to lose 33,596 jobs.

Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo named the infrastructure projects in his city which were funded in part by redevelopment money and are catalysts to economic growth - San Sevaine storm drain, Foothill Boulevard improvements and Pacific Electric Trail. Spagnolo also said the 15 Freeway/ Base Line interchange improvement project is in jeopardy if state takes action to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Randall Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis Group of Cos., made parallels to President Barack Obama's Tuesday's State of The Union Address and importance of keeping the competitive edge.

"Redevelopment is what is going to help us keep competitive with other states and other countries," Lewis said. "Public-private partnerships can offer you a lot of it together than any one side can do alone. There is just not enough money. It takes these public-private partnerships to make things happen. Without participation of redevelopment agencies a lot of these partnerships would not happen at all.

"It's a shame to do something like this now when you need jobs more than anything."

"We're tired," said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. "Every time they've been short up north, they decide to take it from RDAs."

Legislators don't really understand what redevelopment agencies do, Warren said.

"They have this perception that all these funds go to developers, and it's a big corporate thing," she said. "It was an easy target at first but what they've done is activate us all.

"They are trying to pin us against schools and I think it's horrible. What are you doing, bringing money back for pensions? What does that do for jobs?"

Warren also questioned Brown's timing. Last November, 60 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which largely prevents the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting local government funds.

"What does that mean, people don't matter?" she said.

"This is a pushback to the cities for all their efforts put in on Proposition 22," Spagnolo added.

On Monday, state Controller John Chiang announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state in an effort to determine how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.

Warren said her city was a paycheck away from going bankrupt in 1993 and has since reinvented itself.

"Nobody has time to be corrupt," she said.

"You get too busy taking care of business. We get audited all the time. I don't know what (Brown) was doing when he was (mayor) in Oakland, but we are not on the take. It's not corporate giveaway, it's for community well-being."

In Los Angeles, the Democratic governor told the mayors he is more sympathetic to health care advocates and welfare providers who told legislative committees Wednesday that the cuts could devastate the lives of those who need adult day care, some who cannot afford to pay more for health care services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]
909-483-9329


 

KCRA-TV3 (NBC, Sacramento), January 26, 2011 *Video clip on website

https://www.kcra.com/politics/26629611/detail.html

Brown Levels With Mayors On Redevelopment Funds

Cities 'Would Not Go Down Quietly,' Sacramento Mayor Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown told big-city mayors Wednesday that "the money's not there" as he defended his controversial plan to take $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from cities during an hourlong meeting in a corner Capitol office.

Brown gathered reporters around a long picnic table in his office beforehand, telling them that "defenders of redevelopment have a hard sell," if the alternative is to make deep cuts in K-12 education and the state's universities.

After the meeting, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he told the governor, "This is the wrong time to move away from job creation," noting that Los Angeles has had to slash 4,000 workers from its payroll because of budget troubles.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the cities "would not go down quietly" and would seek to defend the redevelopment funds.

The mayors said Brown had agreed to set up a working group to discuss other options to cutting redevelopment.

San Francisco Examiner, January 26, 2011 *Also ran in CalWatchdog

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/california/2011/01/big-city-mayors-bulldoze-gov-brown-s-plan-cut-redevelopment-agencies

Big-city mayors bulldoze Gov. Jerry Brown’s redevelopment plan

By:Katy Grimes

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, second from right, discusses the meeting he and the mayors of some of the state's largest cities had with Gov. Jerry Brown,at the Capitol in Sacramento. Also seen from left are Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, second from left, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, right. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Redevelopment is crucial to creating jobs in California to fight the plague of 12.5 percent unemployment, the mayors of the state’s nine largest cities insisted in a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.

That theme was echoed by every mayor in attendance. Each spoke positively about the meeting and the governor’s promise to work with them on a compromise.

“I had a chance to invite the governor to watch the San Francisco Giants, and noted that all of the housing surrounding the stadium was done using redevelopment funds,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. Lee said all the newest areas in cities throughout California can be attributed to the use of redevelopment money.

Lee warned against the elimination of the agencies and said redevelopment was the way to do smart development.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayors had come to an agreement with Brown not to make the sweeping, across-the-board agency elimination, although several mayors later said no formal agreement had actually been reached.

Villaraigosa said Brown agreed to name the mayors of the 10 largest cities to a formal working group. The group would work together until the cities and state could come to a resolution about redevelopment that everyone can live with.

That means Brown’s proposal to eliminate all 425 redevelopment agencies already has been severely downsized.

“We’re not going down quietly,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said, calling redevelopment projects “magical things.”

Johnson said several of the revitalized downtown streets in his city would not have been built without redevelopment.

“The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the citizens again,” he said.

“Many of us here serve on the board of directors of the League of California Cities,” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.

“We all use the redevelopment money — sometimes it’s the only money we have.”

Quan said with 18 percent unemployment in Oakland, and 40 percent unemployment among black male youths in her city, redevelopment means jobs.

“It makes no sense to pit the money against the kids,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed described the 1 million jobs the state of Texas added to its work force last year, along with the 400,000 jobs new to Arizona.

“California has zero new jobs, which is a big part of the budget problem,” he said. “It would be a bad idea to eliminate redevelopment agencies — they are some of the most important tools
we have.”

“All good things in our cities have been touched by redevelopment,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said. He said mayors shared with Brown the importance of the agencies and how the elimination would be a setback for cities.

When asked about widespread waste and abuse within redevelopment agencies, and exorbitant salaries and compensation, Villaraigosa said the jobs created by redevelopment were his focus. “For every statistic you have, I’ve got 10 jobs,” he said.

Villaraigosa welcomed an audit of redevelopment agencies by the state Controller’s Office. When asked what mayors were willing to negotiate with Brown, Villaraigosa said, “I am not willing to not have a seat at the table.”

Los Angeles Times, PolitiCal Blog, January 21, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/cities-may-sue-governor-over-his-redevelopment-proposal.html

Cities may sue governor over his redevelopment proposal [Updated]

In show of strength, more than 100 mayors and city council members from throughout California came together Friday to protest Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shutter their redevelopment agencies, calling it an illegal money grab and warning that they will sue the state if it is adopted.

Standing together with labor activists and business executives at the Sacramento Convention Center, the city leaders said they would vigorously oppose the governor's redevelopment proposal in the Legislature and, if necessary, in the courts.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it if we are forced to do it," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities.

Brown has proposed that redevelopment programs, which divert tax revenue from schools and other government coffers to pay for economic development projects, should be shut to free up $1.7 billion for basic services, including education and public safety. The proposal is part of his plan to reorganize government and close a $25-billion budget deficit.

But two days after Brown spoke to the city leaders and urged their cooperation, the mayors and council members said Friday that the governor needs to find another way of fixing the state's budget mess.

"It would prevent us from continuing to address the blighted communities, and these are focused on low-income areas," said Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez.

Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor said his city recently sold $24 million in bonds to pay for new redevelopment and has counted on it to significantly improve the isolated community.

Several city leaders said they generally like Brown, but it was clear that his proposal has struck a nerve, and some took a jab at him, pointing out that Brown had redevelopment funds at his disposal when he was mayor of Oakland.

"I don't think it's right to deprive the leaders of Oakland or any city the use of a tool that he [Brown] used in order to create jobs and create housing in Oakland," McKenzie said.

The city leaders, who were already in Sacramento to attend a conference, said Brown's proposal is in conflict with the will of the voters, who in November approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that sought to prevent the state from taking or borrowing local government funds, including redevelopment money. McKenzie, who is an attorney, contends that the proposal to shut the state's 398 redevelopment agencies also violates the state Constitution, which requires the tax increment money to be paid to redevelopment agencies to repay the public cost of redevelopment.

[Updated at 12:25 p.m.: Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor, said later Friday that the state had done a "thorough legal review" of the redevelopment proposal before it was made.

"We are confident that the governor's budget proposal is legally sound," Westrup said. "Redevelopment agencies were created by an act of the Legislature, and they can be eliminated by an act of the Legislature. It's time for all of us, including local government leaders, to set aside narrow perspectives and turf wars and act as Californians first to address the state’s budget deficit."]

-- Patrick McGreevy


 

Sacramento Business Journal, January 21, 2011

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/01/21/fight-over-redevelopment-funding-contin.html

Fight over redevelopment funding continues

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw , Staff writer

California’s local governments won’t rule out legal action against the state if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment funding and agencies moves forward.

“We would hate to take the state to court to uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, while backed by more than 100 California city council members and mayors at a news conference Friday. “But we will do it.” McKenzie said it was too early in the process to look at legal avenues as local governments hope to reason with the governor over the proposal. But he noted that voters “overwhelmingly” supported a constitutional amendment measure in November that barred the state from taking redevelopment funds.

California has more than 400 redevelopment agencies and Brown has proposed eliminating them to free up tax money for education and other services.

“This flies in the face of the clear will of voters,” McKenzie said.

The group that gathered Friday at the Sacramento Convention Center claims the proposal will kill jobs and development and ultimately be worse for the state budget. The impact on the region, according to Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn and Angelique Ashby, will be the loss of 19,000 jobs and $170 million in redevelopment funds over the long haul.

Redevelopment channels tax dollars back into troubled districts and often results in public-private partnerships. Agencies also support affordable-housing projects.

But critics have claimed the process can channel tax money into projects that benefit a handful of private developers.

The debate is expected to heat up in the California legislature.


Vacaville Reporter, January 22, 2011

https://www.insidebayarea.com/california/ci_17167380

Solano County council members join city leaders in taking stand against Brown

By Kimberly K. Fu / The Reporter

The ire over Gov. Jerry Brown's threat to ax local redevelopment agencies grew exponentially on Friday in Sacramento as leaders from across the state -- including three Solano cities -- gathered in protest.

The possibility of a lawsuit against the state was also floated.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it," said Chris McKenzie, an attorney and executive director of the League of California Cities.

"This proposal is to obliterate, eliminate, annihilate redevelopment," he continued, addressing the mayors, council members and community leaders flanking him at the Sacramento Convention Center. "This proposal is seriously flawed."

Brown has said that in order to get the state's financial affairs in order, a complete overhaul is needed. A component of the fix includes shuttering local redevelopment agencies, which he said has outlived their usefulness. His proposal is to repurpose the redevelopment funds for services such as education and public safety.

Leaders say that the move would slash job employment opportunities, kill affordable housing and, essentially, wreak more havoc on the economy.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby worried about the "tens of thousands of cuts to jobs" caused by the action, and relative impacts on the community.

"We're in the highest worldwide recession," added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Now is not the time."

Local city council members Catherine Moy of Fairfield, Michael Hudson of Suisun City and Thom Bogue of Dixon agreed.

"My feeling on it is, frankly, that it's immoral and, listening to that lawyer, illegal. We're here to fight this," Moy said. "They (the state) need to balance their budget, we need to balance ours and they need to stay out of it."

Hudson emphasized that his city is 99 percent redevelopment.

"So this would hurt us. Suisun City is the poster child for redevelopment," he added, pointing out the expansive improvements made over the years in terms of affordable housing and boosts to the business sector. "It has transformed our city."

Freshman councilman Bogue said he's not sold on the idea -- or on the governor, for that matter.

"I strongly feel that he's not taking responsibility for the state," he said. "Instead of addressing issues on the state level and cutting at the state level, he's going back to the cities and saying, 'I'm taking these monies from you, taking these assets from you,' and then dumping them into the counties' laps to deal with. ... It's highly irresponsible and very selfish of him to do that because he's hurting the community and the people."


Sacramento Press, January 21, 2011

https://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/44185/City_protests_Browns_redevelopment_plan

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

by Kathleen Haley

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Clubin Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Parkin Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiplemedia outlets. 

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conferenceon Tuesday that the city should consider doing so. 

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. 


 

KUSI-TV99 (Ind, San Diego), February 1, 2011

https://www.kusi.com/story/13943266/lenderman-pkg

San Diego fights to keep redevelopment money

A key and controversial component of the Governor's budget deficit plan is to abolish redevelopment agencies. But California's cities, including San Diego, are fighting back. KUSI's Ed Lenderman has the latest developments as our Mayor heads to Sacramento to fight for our funds.

The Governor remains adamant that there is no other way. So, the regions leaders are trying to rally the public as well. Residents and city officials gathered together in the Urban Village neighborhood of City Heights to show how redevelopment dollars have changed this formally blighted neighborhood. 

They now have a community college district to educate more residents in City Heights. There is also a 125-unit affordable housing project for residents living below the income standards of the community, they have a library on the corner, all this in one location. Residents and city officials call it smart growth for the community that redevelopment funds built.
The point city leaders want to make is that redevelopment isn't just Petco Park or a new Chargers stadium--  it's affordable housing in Chula Vista, La Mesa and Vista. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Governor Brown wants to abolish redevelopment agencies and use the property tax money toward balancing the budget.
City officials say they understand the Governor's plight, but argue there's little to be gained toward reducing the deficit, but an awful lot to be lost.

Last week we told you that Mayor Sanders was among nine big city Mayors to meet privately with the Governor. Before the meeting, Brown said, "redevelopment has done a lot of good things, but now we're facing a hard truth." Let the negotiations continue.


 

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 27, 2011 *Also ran in San Bernardino Sun, Contra Costa Times

https://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17209499

Local officials opposed to shutting down redevelopment agencies

Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer

Local cities are trumpeting the importance of redevelopment funds in hopes of preventing the state from taking their share of property tax revenue.

Faced with a $25 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed doing away with redevelopment agencies and diverting their funds - more than $5 billion - to pay for basic services such as education and public safety.

"These cuts are serious," Brown said on Wednesday before a meeting with mayors from nine of state's largest cities seeking alternatives to his proposal. "They're a retrenchment in what California was attempting to do in recent years, but they're necessary because we just don't have the money. I don't think they're going to say anyone will die because redevelopment is eliminated."

While Brown spoke with the mayors, Inland Valley officials voiced their opposition to Brown's plan at a press conference held Wednesday at San Sevaine Villas, a housing complex built through the assistance of the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon listed several affordable housing projects in his city that were recently completed with the help of redevelopment funds, including the recently opened City Center Senior Apartments.

"If Sacramento has not yet understood the value of the redevelopment to the communities of California, I'm sure they'll understand when 3,142 people apply for unemployment due to the loss of those funds for our city," Leon said, referring to the estimated loss of jobs should Ontario's agency be closed down.

RDA's supporters say redevelopment activities support an average of 304,000 full- and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs. According to California Redevelopment Association, if local RDAs are eliminated, San Bernardino County is poised to lose 33,596 jobs.

Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo named the infrastructure projects in his city which were funded in part by redevelopment money and are catalysts to economic growth - San Sevaine storm drain, Foothill Boulevard improvements and Pacific Electric Trail. Spagnolo also said the 15 Freeway/ Base Line interchange improvement project is in jeopardy if state takes action to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Randall Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis Group of Cos., made parallels to President Barack Obama's Tuesday's State of The Union Address and importance of keeping the competitive edge.

"Redevelopment is what is going to help us keep competitive with other states and other countries," Lewis said. "Public-private partnerships can offer you a lot of it together than any one side can do alone. There is just not enough money. It takes these public-private partnerships to make things happen. Without participation of redevelopment agencies a lot of these partnerships would not happen at all.

"It's a shame to do something like this now when you need jobs more than anything."

"We're tired," said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. "Every time they've been short up north, they decide to take it from RDAs."

Legislators don't really understand what redevelopment agencies do, Warren said.

"They have this perception that all these funds go to developers, and it's a big corporate thing," she said. "It was an easy target at first but what they've done is activate us all.

"They are trying to pin us against schools and I think it's horrible. What are you doing, bringing money back for pensions? What does that do for jobs?"

Warren also questioned Brown's timing. Last November, 60 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which largely prevents the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting local government funds.

"What does that mean, people don't matter?" she said.

"This is a pushback to the cities for all their efforts put in on Proposition 22," Spagnolo added.

On Monday, state Controller John Chiang announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state in an effort to determine how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.

Warren said her city was a paycheck away from going bankrupt in 1993 and has since reinvented itself.

"Nobody has time to be corrupt," she said.

"You get too busy taking care of business. We get audited all the time. I don't know what (Brown) was doing when he was (mayor) in Oakland, but we are not on the take. It's not corporate giveaway, it's for community well-being."

In Los Angeles, the Democratic governor told the mayors he is more sympathetic to health care advocates and welfare providers who told legislative committees Wednesday that the cuts could devastate the lives of those who need adult day care, some who cannot afford to pay more for health care services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]
909-483-9329


 

KCRA-TV3 (NBC, Sacramento), January 26, 2011 *Video clip on website

https://www.kcra.com/politics/26629611/detail.html

Brown Levels With Mayors On Redevelopment Funds

Cities 'Would Not Go Down Quietly,' Sacramento Mayor Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown told big-city mayors Wednesday that "the money's not there" as he defended his controversial plan to take $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from cities during an hourlong meeting in a corner Capitol office.

Brown gathered reporters around a long picnic table in his office beforehand, telling them that "defenders of redevelopment have a hard sell," if the alternative is to make deep cuts in K-12 education and the state's universities.

After the meeting, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he told the governor, "This is the wrong time to move away from job creation," noting that Los Angeles has had to slash 4,000 workers from its payroll because of budget troubles.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the cities "would not go down quietly" and would seek to defend the redevelopment funds.

The mayors said Brown had agreed to set up a working group to discuss other options to cutting redevelopment.

San Francisco Examiner, January 26, 2011 *Also ran in CalWatchdog

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/california/2011/01/big-city-mayors-bulldoze-gov-brown-s-plan-cut-redevelopment-agencies

Big-city mayors bulldoze Gov. Jerry Brown’s redevelopment plan

By:Katy Grimes

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, second from right, discusses the meeting he and the mayors of some of the state's largest cities had with Gov. Jerry Brown,at the Capitol in Sacramento. Also seen from left are Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, second from left, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, right. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Redevelopment is crucial to creating jobs in California to fight the plague of 12.5 percent unemployment, the mayors of the state’s nine largest cities insisted in a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.

That theme was echoed by every mayor in attendance. Each spoke positively about the meeting and the governor’s promise to work with them on a compromise.

“I had a chance to invite the governor to watch the San Francisco Giants, and noted that all of the housing surrounding the stadium was done using redevelopment funds,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. Lee said all the newest areas in cities throughout California can be attributed to the use of redevelopment money.

Lee warned against the elimination of the agencies and said redevelopment was the way to do smart development.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayors had come to an agreement with Brown not to make the sweeping, across-the-board agency elimination, although several mayors later said no formal agreement had actually been reached.

Villaraigosa said Brown agreed to name the mayors of the 10 largest cities to a formal working group. The group would work together until the cities and state could come to a resolution about redevelopment that everyone can live with.

That means Brown’s proposal to eliminate all 425 redevelopment agencies already has been severely downsized.

“We’re not going down quietly,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said, calling redevelopment projects “magical things.”

Johnson said several of the revitalized downtown streets in his city would not have been built without redevelopment.

“The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the citizens again,” he said.

“Many of us here serve on the board of directors of the League of California Cities,” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.

“We all use the redevelopment money — sometimes it’s the only money we have.”

Quan said with 18 percent unemployment in Oakland, and 40 percent unemployment among black male youths in her city, redevelopment means jobs.

“It makes no sense to pit the money against the kids,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed described the 1 million jobs the state of Texas added to its work force last year, along with the 400,000 jobs new to Arizona.

“California has zero new jobs, which is a big part of the budget problem,” he said. “It would be a bad idea to eliminate redevelopment agencies — they are some of the most important tools
we have.”

“All good things in our cities have been touched by redevelopment,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said. He said mayors shared with Brown the importance of the agencies and how the elimination would be a setback for cities.

When asked about widespread waste and abuse within redevelopment agencies, and exorbitant salaries and compensation, Villaraigosa said the jobs created by redevelopment were his focus. “For every statistic you have, I’ve got 10 jobs,” he said.

Villaraigosa welcomed an audit of redevelopment agencies by the state Controller’s Office. When asked what mayors were willing to negotiate with Brown, Villaraigosa said, “I am not willing to not have a seat at the table.”

Los Angeles Times, PolitiCal Blog, January 21, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/cities-may-sue-governor-over-his-redevelopment-proposal.html

Cities may sue governor over his redevelopment proposal [Updated]

In show of strength, more than 100 mayors and city council members from throughout California came together Friday to protest Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shutter their redevelopment agencies, calling it an illegal money grab and warning that they will sue the state if it is adopted.

Standing together with labor activists and business executives at the Sacramento Convention Center, the city leaders said they would vigorously oppose the governor's redevelopment proposal in the Legislature and, if necessary, in the courts.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it if we are forced to do it," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities.

Brown has proposed that redevelopment programs, which divert tax revenue from schools and other government coffers to pay for economic development projects, should be shut to free up $1.7 billion for basic services, including education and public safety. The proposal is part of his plan to reorganize government and close a $25-billion budget deficit.

But two days after Brown spoke to the city leaders and urged their cooperation, the mayors and council members said Friday that the governor needs to find another way of fixing the state's budget mess.

"It would prevent us from continuing to address the blighted communities, and these are focused on low-income areas," said Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez.

Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor said his city recently sold $24 million in bonds to pay for new redevelopment and has counted on it to significantly improve the isolated community.

Several city leaders said they generally like Brown, but it was clear that his proposal has struck a nerve, and some took a jab at him, pointing out that Brown had redevelopment funds at his disposal when he was mayor of Oakland.

"I don't think it's right to deprive the leaders of Oakland or any city the use of a tool that he [Brown] used in order to create jobs and create housing in Oakland," McKenzie said.

The city leaders, who were already in Sacramento to attend a conference, said Brown's proposal is in conflict with the will of the voters, who in November approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that sought to prevent the state from taking or borrowing local government funds, including redevelopment money. McKenzie, who is an attorney, contends that the proposal to shut the state's 398 redevelopment agencies also violates the state Constitution, which requires the tax increment money to be paid to redevelopment agencies to repay the public cost of redevelopment.

[Updated at 12:25 p.m.: Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor, said later Friday that the state had done a "thorough legal review" of the redevelopment proposal before it was made.

"We are confident that the governor's budget proposal is legally sound," Westrup said. "Redevelopment agencies were created by an act of the Legislature, and they can be eliminated by an act of the Legislature. It's time for all of us, including local government leaders, to set aside narrow perspectives and turf wars and act as Californians first to address the state’s budget deficit."]

-- Patrick McGreevy


 

Sacramento Business Journal, January 21, 2011

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/01/21/fight-over-redevelopment-funding-contin.html

Fight over redevelopment funding continues

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw , Staff writer

California’s local governments won’t rule out legal action against the state if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment funding and agencies moves forward.

“We would hate to take the state to court to uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, while backed by more than 100 California city council members and mayors at a news conference Friday. “But we will do it.” McKenzie said it was too early in the process to look at legal avenues as local governments hope to reason with the governor over the proposal. But he noted that voters “overwhelmingly” supported a constitutional amendment measure in November that barred the state from taking redevelopment funds.

California has more than 400 redevelopment agencies and Brown has proposed eliminating them to free up tax money for education and other services.

“This flies in the face of the clear will of voters,” McKenzie said.

The group that gathered Friday at the Sacramento Convention Center claims the proposal will kill jobs and development and ultimately be worse for the state budget. The impact on the region, according to Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn and Angelique Ashby, will be the loss of 19,000 jobs and $170 million in redevelopment funds over the long haul.

Redevelopment channels tax dollars back into troubled districts and often results in public-private partnerships. Agencies also support affordable-housing projects.

But critics have claimed the process can channel tax money into projects that benefit a handful of private developers.

The debate is expected to heat up in the California legislature.


Vacaville Reporter, January 22, 2011

https://www.insidebayarea.com/california/ci_17167380

Solano County council members join city leaders in taking stand against Brown

By Kimberly K. Fu / The Reporter

The ire over Gov. Jerry Brown's threat to ax local redevelopment agencies grew exponentially on Friday in Sacramento as leaders from across the state -- including three Solano cities -- gathered in protest.

The possibility of a lawsuit against the state was also floated.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it," said Chris McKenzie, an attorney and executive director of the League of California Cities.

"This proposal is to obliterate, eliminate, annihilate redevelopment," he continued, addressing the mayors, council members and community leaders flanking him at the Sacramento Convention Center. "This proposal is seriously flawed."

Brown has said that in order to get the state's financial affairs in order, a complete overhaul is needed. A component of the fix includes shuttering local redevelopment agencies, which he said has outlived their usefulness. His proposal is to repurpose the redevelopment funds for services such as education and public safety.

Leaders say that the move would slash job employment opportunities, kill affordable housing and, essentially, wreak more havoc on the economy.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby worried about the "tens of thousands of cuts to jobs" caused by the action, and relative impacts on the community.

"We're in the highest worldwide recession," added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Now is not the time."

Local city council members Catherine Moy of Fairfield, Michael Hudson of Suisun City and Thom Bogue of Dixon agreed.

"My feeling on it is, frankly, that it's immoral and, listening to that lawyer, illegal. We're here to fight this," Moy said. "They (the state) need to balance their budget, we need to balance ours and they need to stay out of it."

Hudson emphasized that his city is 99 percent redevelopment.

"So this would hurt us. Suisun City is the poster child for redevelopment," he added, pointing out the expansive improvements made over the years in terms of affordable housing and boosts to the business sector. "It has transformed our city."

Freshman councilman Bogue said he's not sold on the idea -- or on the governor, for that matter.

"I strongly feel that he's not taking responsibility for the state," he said. "Instead of addressing issues on the state level and cutting at the state level, he's going back to the cities and saying, 'I'm taking these monies from you, taking these assets from you,' and then dumping them into the counties' laps to deal with. ... It's highly irresponsible and very selfish of him to do that because he's hurting the community and the people."


Sacramento Press, January 21, 2011

https://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/44185/City_protests_Browns_redevelopment_plan

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

by Kathleen Haley

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Clubin Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Parkin Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiplemedia outlets. 

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conferenceon Tuesday that the city should consider doing so. 

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. 


 

KUSI-TV99 (Ind, San Diego), February 1, 2011

https://www.kusi.com/story/13943266/lenderman-pkg

San Diego fights to keep redevelopment money

A key and controversial component of the Governor's budget deficit plan is to abolish redevelopment agencies. But California's cities, including San Diego, are fighting back. KUSI's Ed Lenderman has the latest developments as our Mayor heads to Sacramento to fight for our funds.

The Governor remains adamant that there is no other way. So, the regions leaders are trying to rally the public as well. Residents and city officials gathered together in the Urban Village neighborhood of City Heights to show how redevelopment dollars have changed this formally blighted neighborhood. 

They now have a community college district to educate more residents in City Heights. There is also a 125-unit affordable housing project for residents living below the income standards of the community, they have a library on the corner, all this in one location. Residents and city officials call it smart growth for the community that redevelopment funds built.
The point city leaders want to make is that redevelopment isn't just Petco Park or a new Chargers stadium--  it's affordable housing in Chula Vista, La Mesa and Vista. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Governor Brown wants to abolish redevelopment agencies and use the property tax money toward balancing the budget.
City officials say they understand the Governor's plight, but argue there's little to be gained toward reducing the deficit, but an awful lot to be lost.

Last week we told you that Mayor Sanders was among nine big city Mayors to meet privately with the Governor. Before the meeting, Brown said, "redevelopment has done a lot of good things, but now we're facing a hard truth." Let the negotiations continue.


 

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 27, 2011 *Also ran in San Bernardino Sun, Contra Costa Times

https://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17209499

Local officials opposed to shutting down redevelopment agencies

Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer

Local cities are trumpeting the importance of redevelopment funds in hopes of preventing the state from taking their share of property tax revenue.

Faced with a $25 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed doing away with redevelopment agencies and diverting their funds - more than $5 billion - to pay for basic services such as education and public safety.

"These cuts are serious," Brown said on Wednesday before a meeting with mayors from nine of state's largest cities seeking alternatives to his proposal. "They're a retrenchment in what California was attempting to do in recent years, but they're necessary because we just don't have the money. I don't think they're going to say anyone will die because redevelopment is eliminated."

While Brown spoke with the mayors, Inland Valley officials voiced their opposition to Brown's plan at a press conference held Wednesday at San Sevaine Villas, a housing complex built through the assistance of the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon listed several affordable housing projects in his city that were recently completed with the help of redevelopment funds, including the recently opened City Center Senior Apartments.

"If Sacramento has not yet understood the value of the redevelopment to the communities of California, I'm sure they'll understand when 3,142 people apply for unemployment due to the loss of those funds for our city," Leon said, referring to the estimated loss of jobs should Ontario's agency be closed down.

RDA's supporters say redevelopment activities support an average of 304,000 full- and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs. According to California Redevelopment Association, if local RDAs are eliminated, San Bernardino County is poised to lose 33,596 jobs.

Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo named the infrastructure projects in his city which were funded in part by redevelopment money and are catalysts to economic growth - San Sevaine storm drain, Foothill Boulevard improvements and Pacific Electric Trail. Spagnolo also said the 15 Freeway/ Base Line interchange improvement project is in jeopardy if state takes action to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Randall Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis Group of Cos., made parallels to President Barack Obama's Tuesday's State of The Union Address and importance of keeping the competitive edge.

"Redevelopment is what is going to help us keep competitive with other states and other countries," Lewis said. "Public-private partnerships can offer you a lot of it together than any one side can do alone. There is just not enough money. It takes these public-private partnerships to make things happen. Without participation of redevelopment agencies a lot of these partnerships would not happen at all.

"It's a shame to do something like this now when you need jobs more than anything."

"We're tired," said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. "Every time they've been short up north, they decide to take it from RDAs."

Legislators don't really understand what redevelopment agencies do, Warren said.

"They have this perception that all these funds go to developers, and it's a big corporate thing," she said. "It was an easy target at first but what they've done is activate us all.

"They are trying to pin us against schools and I think it's horrible. What are you doing, bringing money back for pensions? What does that do for jobs?"

Warren also questioned Brown's timing. Last November, 60 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which largely prevents the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting local government funds.

"What does that mean, people don't matter?" she said.

"This is a pushback to the cities for all their efforts put in on Proposition 22," Spagnolo added.

On Monday, state Controller John Chiang announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state in an effort to determine how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.

Warren said her city was a paycheck away from going bankrupt in 1993 and has since reinvented itself.

"Nobody has time to be corrupt," she said.

"You get too busy taking care of business. We get audited all the time. I don't know what (Brown) was doing when he was (mayor) in Oakland, but we are not on the take. It's not corporate giveaway, it's for community well-being."

In Los Angeles, the Democratic governor told the mayors he is more sympathetic to health care advocates and welfare providers who told legislative committees Wednesday that the cuts could devastate the lives of those who need adult day care, some who cannot afford to pay more for health care services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]
909-483-9329


 

KCRA-TV3 (NBC, Sacramento), January 26, 2011 *Video clip on website

https://www.kcra.com/politics/26629611/detail.html

Brown Levels With Mayors On Redevelopment Funds

Cities 'Would Not Go Down Quietly,' Sacramento Mayor Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown told big-city mayors Wednesday that "the money's not there" as he defended his controversial plan to take $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from cities during an hourlong meeting in a corner Capitol office.

Brown gathered reporters around a long picnic table in his office beforehand, telling them that "defenders of redevelopment have a hard sell," if the alternative is to make deep cuts in K-12 education and the state's universities.

After the meeting, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he told the governor, "This is the wrong time to move away from job creation," noting that Los Angeles has had to slash 4,000 workers from its payroll because of budget troubles.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the cities "would not go down quietly" and would seek to defend the redevelopment funds.

The mayors said Brown had agreed to set up a working group to discuss other options to cutting redevelopment.

San Francisco Examiner, January 26, 2011 *Also ran in CalWatchdog

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/california/2011/01/big-city-mayors-bulldoze-gov-brown-s-plan-cut-redevelopment-agencies

Big-city mayors bulldoze Gov. Jerry Brown’s redevelopment plan

By:Katy Grimes

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, second from right, discusses the meeting he and the mayors of some of the state's largest cities had with Gov. Jerry Brown,at the Capitol in Sacramento. Also seen from left are Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, second from left, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, right. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Redevelopment is crucial to creating jobs in California to fight the plague of 12.5 percent unemployment, the mayors of the state’s nine largest cities insisted in a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.

That theme was echoed by every mayor in attendance. Each spoke positively about the meeting and the governor’s promise to work with them on a compromise.

“I had a chance to invite the governor to watch the San Francisco Giants, and noted that all of the housing surrounding the stadium was done using redevelopment funds,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. Lee said all the newest areas in cities throughout California can be attributed to the use of redevelopment money.

Lee warned against the elimination of the agencies and said redevelopment was the way to do smart development.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayors had come to an agreement with Brown not to make the sweeping, across-the-board agency elimination, although several mayors later said no formal agreement had actually been reached.

Villaraigosa said Brown agreed to name the mayors of the 10 largest cities to a formal working group. The group would work together until the cities and state could come to a resolution about redevelopment that everyone can live with.

That means Brown’s proposal to eliminate all 425 redevelopment agencies already has been severely downsized.

“We’re not going down quietly,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said, calling redevelopment projects “magical things.”

Johnson said several of the revitalized downtown streets in his city would not have been built without redevelopment.

“The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the citizens again,” he said.

“Many of us here serve on the board of directors of the League of California Cities,” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.

“We all use the redevelopment money — sometimes it’s the only money we have.”

Quan said with 18 percent unemployment in Oakland, and 40 percent unemployment among black male youths in her city, redevelopment means jobs.

“It makes no sense to pit the money against the kids,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed described the 1 million jobs the state of Texas added to its work force last year, along with the 400,000 jobs new to Arizona.

“California has zero new jobs, which is a big part of the budget problem,” he said. “It would be a bad idea to eliminate redevelopment agencies — they are some of the most important tools
we have.”

“All good things in our cities have been touched by redevelopment,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said. He said mayors shared with Brown the importance of the agencies and how the elimination would be a setback for cities.

When asked about widespread waste and abuse within redevelopment agencies, and exorbitant salaries and compensation, Villaraigosa said the jobs created by redevelopment were his focus. “For every statistic you have, I’ve got 10 jobs,” he said.

Villaraigosa welcomed an audit of redevelopment agencies by the state Controller’s Office. When asked what mayors were willing to negotiate with Brown, Villaraigosa said, “I am not willing to not have a seat at the table.”

Los Angeles Times, PolitiCal Blog, January 21, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/cities-may-sue-governor-over-his-redevelopment-proposal.html

Cities may sue governor over his redevelopment proposal [Updated]

In show of strength, more than 100 mayors and city council members from throughout California came together Friday to protest Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shutter their redevelopment agencies, calling it an illegal money grab and warning that they will sue the state if it is adopted.

Standing together with labor activists and business executives at the Sacramento Convention Center, the city leaders said they would vigorously oppose the governor's redevelopment proposal in the Legislature and, if necessary, in the courts.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it if we are forced to do it," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities.

Brown has proposed that redevelopment programs, which divert tax revenue from schools and other government coffers to pay for economic development projects, should be shut to free up $1.7 billion for basic services, including education and public safety. The proposal is part of his plan to reorganize government and close a $25-billion budget deficit.

But two days after Brown spoke to the city leaders and urged their cooperation, the mayors and council members said Friday that the governor needs to find another way of fixing the state's budget mess.

"It would prevent us from continuing to address the blighted communities, and these are focused on low-income areas," said Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez.

Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor said his city recently sold $24 million in bonds to pay for new redevelopment and has counted on it to significantly improve the isolated community.

Several city leaders said they generally like Brown, but it was clear that his proposal has struck a nerve, and some took a jab at him, pointing out that Brown had redevelopment funds at his disposal when he was mayor of Oakland.

"I don't think it's right to deprive the leaders of Oakland or any city the use of a tool that he [Brown] used in order to create jobs and create housing in Oakland," McKenzie said.

The city leaders, who were already in Sacramento to attend a conference, said Brown's proposal is in conflict with the will of the voters, who in November approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that sought to prevent the state from taking or borrowing local government funds, including redevelopment money. McKenzie, who is an attorney, contends that the proposal to shut the state's 398 redevelopment agencies also violates the state Constitution, which requires the tax increment money to be paid to redevelopment agencies to repay the public cost of redevelopment.

[Updated at 12:25 p.m.: Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor, said later Friday that the state had done a "thorough legal review" of the redevelopment proposal before it was made.

"We are confident that the governor's budget proposal is legally sound," Westrup said. "Redevelopment agencies were created by an act of the Legislature, and they can be eliminated by an act of the Legislature. It's time for all of us, including local government leaders, to set aside narrow perspectives and turf wars and act as Californians first to address the state’s budget deficit."]

-- Patrick McGreevy


 

Sacramento Business Journal, January 21, 2011

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/01/21/fight-over-redevelopment-funding-contin.html

Fight over redevelopment funding continues

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw , Staff writer

California’s local governments won’t rule out legal action against the state if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment funding and agencies moves forward.

“We would hate to take the state to court to uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, while backed by more than 100 California city council members and mayors at a news conference Friday. “But we will do it.” McKenzie said it was too early in the process to look at legal avenues as local governments hope to reason with the governor over the proposal. But he noted that voters “overwhelmingly” supported a constitutional amendment measure in November that barred the state from taking redevelopment funds.

California has more than 400 redevelopment agencies and Brown has proposed eliminating them to free up tax money for education and other services.

“This flies in the face of the clear will of voters,” McKenzie said.

The group that gathered Friday at the Sacramento Convention Center claims the proposal will kill jobs and development and ultimately be worse for the state budget. The impact on the region, according to Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn and Angelique Ashby, will be the loss of 19,000 jobs and $170 million in redevelopment funds over the long haul.

Redevelopment channels tax dollars back into troubled districts and often results in public-private partnerships. Agencies also support affordable-housing projects.

But critics have claimed the process can channel tax money into projects that benefit a handful of private developers.

The debate is expected to heat up in the California legislature.


Vacaville Reporter, January 22, 2011

https://www.insidebayarea.com/california/ci_17167380

Solano County council members join city leaders in taking stand against Brown

By Kimberly K. Fu / The Reporter

The ire over Gov. Jerry Brown's threat to ax local redevelopment agencies grew exponentially on Friday in Sacramento as leaders from across the state -- including three Solano cities -- gathered in protest.

The possibility of a lawsuit against the state was also floated.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it," said Chris McKenzie, an attorney and executive director of the League of California Cities.

"This proposal is to obliterate, eliminate, annihilate redevelopment," he continued, addressing the mayors, council members and community leaders flanking him at the Sacramento Convention Center. "This proposal is seriously flawed."

Brown has said that in order to get the state's financial affairs in order, a complete overhaul is needed. A component of the fix includes shuttering local redevelopment agencies, which he said has outlived their usefulness. His proposal is to repurpose the redevelopment funds for services such as education and public safety.

Leaders say that the move would slash job employment opportunities, kill affordable housing and, essentially, wreak more havoc on the economy.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby worried about the "tens of thousands of cuts to jobs" caused by the action, and relative impacts on the community.

"We're in the highest worldwide recession," added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Now is not the time."

Local city council members Catherine Moy of Fairfield, Michael Hudson of Suisun City and Thom Bogue of Dixon agreed.

"My feeling on it is, frankly, that it's immoral and, listening to that lawyer, illegal. We're here to fight this," Moy said. "They (the state) need to balance their budget, we need to balance ours and they need to stay out of it."

Hudson emphasized that his city is 99 percent redevelopment.

"So this would hurt us. Suisun City is the poster child for redevelopment," he added, pointing out the expansive improvements made over the years in terms of affordable housing and boosts to the business sector. "It has transformed our city."

Freshman councilman Bogue said he's not sold on the idea -- or on the governor, for that matter.

"I strongly feel that he's not taking responsibility for the state," he said. "Instead of addressing issues on the state level and cutting at the state level, he's going back to the cities and saying, 'I'm taking these monies from you, taking these assets from you,' and then dumping them into the counties' laps to deal with. ... It's highly irresponsible and very selfish of him to do that because he's hurting the community and the people."


Sacramento Press, January 21, 2011

https://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/44185/City_protests_Browns_redevelopment_plan

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

by Kathleen Haley

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Clubin Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Parkin Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiplemedia outlets. 

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conferenceon Tuesday that the city should consider doing so. 

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. 


 

KUSI-TV99 (Ind, San Diego), February 1, 2011

https://www.kusi.com/story/13943266/lenderman-pkg

San Diego fights to keep redevelopment money

A key and controversial component of the Governor's budget deficit plan is to abolish redevelopment agencies. But California's cities, including San Diego, are fighting back. KUSI's Ed Lenderman has the latest developments as our Mayor heads to Sacramento to fight for our funds.

The Governor remains adamant that there is no other way. So, the regions leaders are trying to rally the public as well. Residents and city officials gathered together in the Urban Village neighborhood of City Heights to show how redevelopment dollars have changed this formally blighted neighborhood. 

They now have a community college district to educate more residents in City Heights. There is also a 125-unit affordable housing project for residents living below the income standards of the community, they have a library on the corner, all this in one location. Residents and city officials call it smart growth for the community that redevelopment funds built.
The point city leaders want to make is that redevelopment isn't just Petco Park or a new Chargers stadium--  it's affordable housing in Chula Vista, La Mesa and Vista. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Governor Brown wants to abolish redevelopment agencies and use the property tax money toward balancing the budget.
City officials say they understand the Governor's plight, but argue there's little to be gained toward reducing the deficit, but an awful lot to be lost.

Last week we told you that Mayor Sanders was among nine big city Mayors to meet privately with the Governor. Before the meeting, Brown said, "redevelopment has done a lot of good things, but now we're facing a hard truth." Let the negotiations continue.


 

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 27, 2011 *Also ran in San Bernardino Sun, Contra Costa Times

https://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17209499

Local officials opposed to shutting down redevelopment agencies

Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer

Local cities are trumpeting the importance of redevelopment funds in hopes of preventing the state from taking their share of property tax revenue.

Faced with a $25 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed doing away with redevelopment agencies and diverting their funds - more than $5 billion - to pay for basic services such as education and public safety.

"These cuts are serious," Brown said on Wednesday before a meeting with mayors from nine of state's largest cities seeking alternatives to his proposal. "They're a retrenchment in what California was attempting to do in recent years, but they're necessary because we just don't have the money. I don't think they're going to say anyone will die because redevelopment is eliminated."

While Brown spoke with the mayors, Inland Valley officials voiced their opposition to Brown's plan at a press conference held Wednesday at San Sevaine Villas, a housing complex built through the assistance of the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon listed several affordable housing projects in his city that were recently completed with the help of redevelopment funds, including the recently opened City Center Senior Apartments.

"If Sacramento has not yet understood the value of the redevelopment to the communities of California, I'm sure they'll understand when 3,142 people apply for unemployment due to the loss of those funds for our city," Leon said, referring to the estimated loss of jobs should Ontario's agency be closed down.

RDA's supporters say redevelopment activities support an average of 304,000 full- and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs. According to California Redevelopment Association, if local RDAs are eliminated, San Bernardino County is poised to lose 33,596 jobs.

Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo named the infrastructure projects in his city which were funded in part by redevelopment money and are catalysts to economic growth - San Sevaine storm drain, Foothill Boulevard improvements and Pacific Electric Trail. Spagnolo also said the 15 Freeway/ Base Line interchange improvement project is in jeopardy if state takes action to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Randall Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis Group of Cos., made parallels to President Barack Obama's Tuesday's State of The Union Address and importance of keeping the competitive edge.

"Redevelopment is what is going to help us keep competitive with other states and other countries," Lewis said. "Public-private partnerships can offer you a lot of it together than any one side can do alone. There is just not enough money. It takes these public-private partnerships to make things happen. Without participation of redevelopment agencies a lot of these partnerships would not happen at all.

"It's a shame to do something like this now when you need jobs more than anything."

"We're tired," said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. "Every time they've been short up north, they decide to take it from RDAs."

Legislators don't really understand what redevelopment agencies do, Warren said.

"They have this perception that all these funds go to developers, and it's a big corporate thing," she said. "It was an easy target at first but what they've done is activate us all.

"They are trying to pin us against schools and I think it's horrible. What are you doing, bringing money back for pensions? What does that do for jobs?"

Warren also questioned Brown's timing. Last November, 60 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which largely prevents the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting local government funds.

"What does that mean, people don't matter?" she said.

"This is a pushback to the cities for all their efforts put in on Proposition 22," Spagnolo added.

On Monday, state Controller John Chiang announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state in an effort to determine how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.

Warren said her city was a paycheck away from going bankrupt in 1993 and has since reinvented itself.

"Nobody has time to be corrupt," she said.

"You get too busy taking care of business. We get audited all the time. I don't know what (Brown) was doing when he was (mayor) in Oakland, but we are not on the take. It's not corporate giveaway, it's for community well-being."

In Los Angeles, the Democratic governor told the mayors he is more sympathetic to health care advocates and welfare providers who told legislative committees Wednesday that the cuts could devastate the lives of those who need adult day care, some who cannot afford to pay more for health care services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]
909-483-9329


 

KCRA-TV3 (NBC, Sacramento), January 26, 2011 *Video clip on website

https://www.kcra.com/politics/26629611/detail.html

Brown Levels With Mayors On Redevelopment Funds

Cities 'Would Not Go Down Quietly,' Sacramento Mayor Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown told big-city mayors Wednesday that "the money's not there" as he defended his controversial plan to take $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from cities during an hourlong meeting in a corner Capitol office.

Brown gathered reporters around a long picnic table in his office beforehand, telling them that "defenders of redevelopment have a hard sell," if the alternative is to make deep cuts in K-12 education and the state's universities.

After the meeting, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he told the governor, "This is the wrong time to move away from job creation," noting that Los Angeles has had to slash 4,000 workers from its payroll because of budget troubles.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the cities "would not go down quietly" and would seek to defend the redevelopment funds.

The mayors said Brown had agreed to set up a working group to discuss other options to cutting redevelopment.

San Francisco Examiner, January 26, 2011 *Also ran in CalWatchdog

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/california/2011/01/big-city-mayors-bulldoze-gov-brown-s-plan-cut-redevelopment-agencies

Big-city mayors bulldoze Gov. Jerry Brown’s redevelopment plan

By:Katy Grimes

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, second from right, discusses the meeting he and the mayors of some of the state's largest cities had with Gov. Jerry Brown,at the Capitol in Sacramento. Also seen from left are Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, second from left, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, right. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Redevelopment is crucial to creating jobs in California to fight the plague of 12.5 percent unemployment, the mayors of the state’s nine largest cities insisted in a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.

That theme was echoed by every mayor in attendance. Each spoke positively about the meeting and the governor’s promise to work with them on a compromise.

“I had a chance to invite the governor to watch the San Francisco Giants, and noted that all of the housing surrounding the stadium was done using redevelopment funds,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. Lee said all the newest areas in cities throughout California can be attributed to the use of redevelopment money.

Lee warned against the elimination of the agencies and said redevelopment was the way to do smart development.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayors had come to an agreement with Brown not to make the sweeping, across-the-board agency elimination, although several mayors later said no formal agreement had actually been reached.

Villaraigosa said Brown agreed to name the mayors of the 10 largest cities to a formal working group. The group would work together until the cities and state could come to a resolution about redevelopment that everyone can live with.

That means Brown’s proposal to eliminate all 425 redevelopment agencies already has been severely downsized.

“We’re not going down quietly,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said, calling redevelopment projects “magical things.”

Johnson said several of the revitalized downtown streets in his city would not have been built without redevelopment.

“The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the citizens again,” he said.

“Many of us here serve on the board of directors of the League of California Cities,” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.

“We all use the redevelopment money — sometimes it’s the only money we have.”

Quan said with 18 percent unemployment in Oakland, and 40 percent unemployment among black male youths in her city, redevelopment means jobs.

“It makes no sense to pit the money against the kids,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed described the 1 million jobs the state of Texas added to its work force last year, along with the 400,000 jobs new to Arizona.

“California has zero new jobs, which is a big part of the budget problem,” he said. “It would be a bad idea to eliminate redevelopment agencies — they are some of the most important tools
we have.”

“All good things in our cities have been touched by redevelopment,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said. He said mayors shared with Brown the importance of the agencies and how the elimination would be a setback for cities.

When asked about widespread waste and abuse within redevelopment agencies, and exorbitant salaries and compensation, Villaraigosa said the jobs created by redevelopment were his focus. “For every statistic you have, I’ve got 10 jobs,” he said.

Villaraigosa welcomed an audit of redevelopment agencies by the state Controller’s Office. When asked what mayors were willing to negotiate with Brown, Villaraigosa said, “I am not willing to not have a seat at the table.”

Los Angeles Times, PolitiCal Blog, January 21, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/cities-may-sue-governor-over-his-redevelopment-proposal.html

Cities may sue governor over his redevelopment proposal [Updated]

In show of strength, more than 100 mayors and city council members from throughout California came together Friday to protest Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shutter their redevelopment agencies, calling it an illegal money grab and warning that they will sue the state if it is adopted.

Standing together with labor activists and business executives at the Sacramento Convention Center, the city leaders said they would vigorously oppose the governor's redevelopment proposal in the Legislature and, if necessary, in the courts.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it if we are forced to do it," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities.

Brown has proposed that redevelopment programs, which divert tax revenue from schools and other government coffers to pay for economic development projects, should be shut to free up $1.7 billion for basic services, including education and public safety. The proposal is part of his plan to reorganize government and close a $25-billion budget deficit.

But two days after Brown spoke to the city leaders and urged their cooperation, the mayors and council members said Friday that the governor needs to find another way of fixing the state's budget mess.

"It would prevent us from continuing to address the blighted communities, and these are focused on low-income areas," said Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez.

Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor said his city recently sold $24 million in bonds to pay for new redevelopment and has counted on it to significantly improve the isolated community.

Several city leaders said they generally like Brown, but it was clear that his proposal has struck a nerve, and some took a jab at him, pointing out that Brown had redevelopment funds at his disposal when he was mayor of Oakland.

"I don't think it's right to deprive the leaders of Oakland or any city the use of a tool that he [Brown] used in order to create jobs and create housing in Oakland," McKenzie said.

The city leaders, who were already in Sacramento to attend a conference, said Brown's proposal is in conflict with the will of the voters, who in November approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that sought to prevent the state from taking or borrowing local government funds, including redevelopment money. McKenzie, who is an attorney, contends that the proposal to shut the state's 398 redevelopment agencies also violates the state Constitution, which requires the tax increment money to be paid to redevelopment agencies to repay the public cost of redevelopment.

[Updated at 12:25 p.m.: Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor, said later Friday that the state had done a "thorough legal review" of the redevelopment proposal before it was made.

"We are confident that the governor's budget proposal is legally sound," Westrup said. "Redevelopment agencies were created by an act of the Legislature, and they can be eliminated by an act of the Legislature. It's time for all of us, including local government leaders, to set aside narrow perspectives and turf wars and act as Californians first to address the state’s budget deficit."]

-- Patrick McGreevy


 

Sacramento Business Journal, January 21, 2011

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/01/21/fight-over-redevelopment-funding-contin.html

Fight over redevelopment funding continues

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw , Staff writer

California’s local governments won’t rule out legal action against the state if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment funding and agencies moves forward.

“We would hate to take the state to court to uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, while backed by more than 100 California city council members and mayors at a news conference Friday. “But we will do it.” McKenzie said it was too early in the process to look at legal avenues as local governments hope to reason with the governor over the proposal. But he noted that voters “overwhelmingly” supported a constitutional amendment measure in November that barred the state from taking redevelopment funds.

California has more than 400 redevelopment agencies and Brown has proposed eliminating them to free up tax money for education and other services.

“This flies in the face of the clear will of voters,” McKenzie said.

The group that gathered Friday at the Sacramento Convention Center claims the proposal will kill jobs and development and ultimately be worse for the state budget. The impact on the region, according to Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn and Angelique Ashby, will be the loss of 19,000 jobs and $170 million in redevelopment funds over the long haul.

Redevelopment channels tax dollars back into troubled districts and often results in public-private partnerships. Agencies also support affordable-housing projects.

But critics have claimed the process can channel tax money into projects that benefit a handful of private developers.

The debate is expected to heat up in the California legislature.


Vacaville Reporter, January 22, 2011

https://www.insidebayarea.com/california/ci_17167380

Solano County council members join city leaders in taking stand against Brown

By Kimberly K. Fu / The Reporter

The ire over Gov. Jerry Brown's threat to ax local redevelopment agencies grew exponentially on Friday in Sacramento as leaders from across the state -- including three Solano cities -- gathered in protest.

The possibility of a lawsuit against the state was also floated.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it," said Chris McKenzie, an attorney and executive director of the League of California Cities.

"This proposal is to obliterate, eliminate, annihilate redevelopment," he continued, addressing the mayors, council members and community leaders flanking him at the Sacramento Convention Center. "This proposal is seriously flawed."

Brown has said that in order to get the state's financial affairs in order, a complete overhaul is needed. A component of the fix includes shuttering local redevelopment agencies, which he said has outlived their usefulness. His proposal is to repurpose the redevelopment funds for services such as education and public safety.

Leaders say that the move would slash job employment opportunities, kill affordable housing and, essentially, wreak more havoc on the economy.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby worried about the "tens of thousands of cuts to jobs" caused by the action, and relative impacts on the community.

"We're in the highest worldwide recession," added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Now is not the time."

Local city council members Catherine Moy of Fairfield, Michael Hudson of Suisun City and Thom Bogue of Dixon agreed.

"My feeling on it is, frankly, that it's immoral and, listening to that lawyer, illegal. We're here to fight this," Moy said. "They (the state) need to balance their budget, we need to balance ours and they need to stay out of it."

Hudson emphasized that his city is 99 percent redevelopment.

"So this would hurt us. Suisun City is the poster child for redevelopment," he added, pointing out the expansive improvements made over the years in terms of affordable housing and boosts to the business sector. "It has transformed our city."

Freshman councilman Bogue said he's not sold on the idea -- or on the governor, for that matter.

"I strongly feel that he's not taking responsibility for the state," he said. "Instead of addressing issues on the state level and cutting at the state level, he's going back to the cities and saying, 'I'm taking these monies from you, taking these assets from you,' and then dumping them into the counties' laps to deal with. ... It's highly irresponsible and very selfish of him to do that because he's hurting the community and the people."


Sacramento Press, January 21, 2011

https://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/44185/City_protests_Browns_redevelopment_plan

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

by Kathleen Haley

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Clubin Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Parkin Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiplemedia outlets. 

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conferenceon Tuesday that the city should consider doing so. 

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. 


 

KUSI-TV99 (Ind, San Diego), February 1, 2011

https://www.kusi.com/story/13943266/lenderman-pkg

San Diego fights to keep redevelopment money

A key and controversial component of the Governor's budget deficit plan is to abolish redevelopment agencies. But California's cities, including San Diego, are fighting back. KUSI's Ed Lenderman has the latest developments as our Mayor heads to Sacramento to fight for our funds.

The Governor remains adamant that there is no other way. So, the regions leaders are trying to rally the public as well. Residents and city officials gathered together in the Urban Village neighborhood of City Heights to show how redevelopment dollars have changed this formally blighted neighborhood. 

They now have a community college district to educate more residents in City Heights. There is also a 125-unit affordable housing project for residents living below the income standards of the community, they have a library on the corner, all this in one location. Residents and city officials call it smart growth for the community that redevelopment funds built.
The point city leaders want to make is that redevelopment isn't just Petco Park or a new Chargers stadium--  it's affordable housing in Chula Vista, La Mesa and Vista. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Governor Brown wants to abolish redevelopment agencies and use the property tax money toward balancing the budget.
City officials say they understand the Governor's plight, but argue there's little to be gained toward reducing the deficit, but an awful lot to be lost.

Last week we told you that Mayor Sanders was among nine big city Mayors to meet privately with the Governor. Before the meeting, Brown said, "redevelopment has done a lot of good things, but now we're facing a hard truth." Let the negotiations continue.


 

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 27, 2011 *Also ran in San Bernardino Sun, Contra Costa Times

https://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17209499

Local officials opposed to shutting down redevelopment agencies

Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer

Local cities are trumpeting the importance of redevelopment funds in hopes of preventing the state from taking their share of property tax revenue.

Faced with a $25 billion budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed doing away with redevelopment agencies and diverting their funds - more than $5 billion - to pay for basic services such as education and public safety.

"These cuts are serious," Brown said on Wednesday before a meeting with mayors from nine of state's largest cities seeking alternatives to his proposal. "They're a retrenchment in what California was attempting to do in recent years, but they're necessary because we just don't have the money. I don't think they're going to say anyone will die because redevelopment is eliminated."

While Brown spoke with the mayors, Inland Valley officials voiced their opposition to Brown's plan at a press conference held Wednesday at San Sevaine Villas, a housing complex built through the assistance of the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon listed several affordable housing projects in his city that were recently completed with the help of redevelopment funds, including the recently opened City Center Senior Apartments.

"If Sacramento has not yet understood the value of the redevelopment to the communities of California, I'm sure they'll understand when 3,142 people apply for unemployment due to the loss of those funds for our city," Leon said, referring to the estimated loss of jobs should Ontario's agency be closed down.

RDA's supporters say redevelopment activities support an average of 304,000 full- and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs. According to California Redevelopment Association, if local RDAs are eliminated, San Bernardino County is poised to lose 33,596 jobs.

Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo named the infrastructure projects in his city which were funded in part by redevelopment money and are catalysts to economic growth - San Sevaine storm drain, Foothill Boulevard improvements and Pacific Electric Trail. Spagnolo also said the 15 Freeway/ Base Line interchange improvement project is in jeopardy if state takes action to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Randall Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis Group of Cos., made parallels to President Barack Obama's Tuesday's State of The Union Address and importance of keeping the competitive edge.

"Redevelopment is what is going to help us keep competitive with other states and other countries," Lewis said. "Public-private partnerships can offer you a lot of it together than any one side can do alone. There is just not enough money. It takes these public-private partnerships to make things happen. Without participation of redevelopment agencies a lot of these partnerships would not happen at all.

"It's a shame to do something like this now when you need jobs more than anything."

"We're tired," said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. "Every time they've been short up north, they decide to take it from RDAs."

Legislators don't really understand what redevelopment agencies do, Warren said.

"They have this perception that all these funds go to developers, and it's a big corporate thing," she said. "It was an easy target at first but what they've done is activate us all.

"They are trying to pin us against schools and I think it's horrible. What are you doing, bringing money back for pensions? What does that do for jobs?"

Warren also questioned Brown's timing. Last November, 60 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which largely prevents the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting local government funds.

"What does that mean, people don't matter?" she said.

"This is a pushback to the cities for all their efforts put in on Proposition 22," Spagnolo added.

On Monday, state Controller John Chiang announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state in an effort to determine how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.

Warren said her city was a paycheck away from going bankrupt in 1993 and has since reinvented itself.

"Nobody has time to be corrupt," she said.

"You get too busy taking care of business. We get audited all the time. I don't know what (Brown) was doing when he was (mayor) in Oakland, but we are not on the take. It's not corporate giveaway, it's for community well-being."

In Los Angeles, the Democratic governor told the mayors he is more sympathetic to health care advocates and welfare providers who told legislative committees Wednesday that the cuts could devastate the lives of those who need adult day care, some who cannot afford to pay more for health care services.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]
909-483-9329


 

KCRA-TV3 (NBC, Sacramento), January 26, 2011 *Video clip on website

https://www.kcra.com/politics/26629611/detail.html

Brown Levels With Mayors On Redevelopment Funds

Cities 'Would Not Go Down Quietly,' Sacramento Mayor Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown told big-city mayors Wednesday that "the money's not there" as he defended his controversial plan to take $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from cities during an hourlong meeting in a corner Capitol office.

Brown gathered reporters around a long picnic table in his office beforehand, telling them that "defenders of redevelopment have a hard sell," if the alternative is to make deep cuts in K-12 education and the state's universities.

After the meeting, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he told the governor, "This is the wrong time to move away from job creation," noting that Los Angeles has had to slash 4,000 workers from its payroll because of budget troubles.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the cities "would not go down quietly" and would seek to defend the redevelopment funds.

The mayors said Brown had agreed to set up a working group to discuss other options to cutting redevelopment.

San Francisco Examiner, January 26, 2011 *Also ran in CalWatchdog

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/california/2011/01/big-city-mayors-bulldoze-gov-brown-s-plan-cut-redevelopment-agencies

Big-city mayors bulldoze Gov. Jerry Brown’s redevelopment plan

By:Katy Grimes

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, second from right, discusses the meeting he and the mayors of some of the state's largest cities had with Gov. Jerry Brown,at the Capitol in Sacramento. Also seen from left are Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, second from left, and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, right. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Redevelopment is crucial to creating jobs in California to fight the plague of 12.5 percent unemployment, the mayors of the state’s nine largest cities insisted in a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.

That theme was echoed by every mayor in attendance. Each spoke positively about the meeting and the governor’s promise to work with them on a compromise.

“I had a chance to invite the governor to watch the San Francisco Giants, and noted that all of the housing surrounding the stadium was done using redevelopment funds,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. Lee said all the newest areas in cities throughout California can be attributed to the use of redevelopment money.

Lee warned against the elimination of the agencies and said redevelopment was the way to do smart development.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the mayors had come to an agreement with Brown not to make the sweeping, across-the-board agency elimination, although several mayors later said no formal agreement had actually been reached.

Villaraigosa said Brown agreed to name the mayors of the 10 largest cities to a formal working group. The group would work together until the cities and state could come to a resolution about redevelopment that everyone can live with.

That means Brown’s proposal to eliminate all 425 redevelopment agencies already has been severely downsized.

“We’re not going down quietly,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said, calling redevelopment projects “magical things.”

Johnson said several of the revitalized downtown streets in his city would not have been built without redevelopment.

“The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the citizens again,” he said.

“Many of us here serve on the board of directors of the League of California Cities,” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said.

“We all use the redevelopment money — sometimes it’s the only money we have.”

Quan said with 18 percent unemployment in Oakland, and 40 percent unemployment among black male youths in her city, redevelopment means jobs.

“It makes no sense to pit the money against the kids,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed described the 1 million jobs the state of Texas added to its work force last year, along with the 400,000 jobs new to Arizona.

“California has zero new jobs, which is a big part of the budget problem,” he said. “It would be a bad idea to eliminate redevelopment agencies — they are some of the most important tools
we have.”

“All good things in our cities have been touched by redevelopment,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said. He said mayors shared with Brown the importance of the agencies and how the elimination would be a setback for cities.

When asked about widespread waste and abuse within redevelopment agencies, and exorbitant salaries and compensation, Villaraigosa said the jobs created by redevelopment were his focus. “For every statistic you have, I’ve got 10 jobs,” he said.

Villaraigosa welcomed an audit of redevelopment agencies by the state Controller’s Office. When asked what mayors were willing to negotiate with Brown, Villaraigosa said, “I am not willing to not have a seat at the table.”

Los Angeles Times, PolitiCal Blog, January 21, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/cities-may-sue-governor-over-his-redevelopment-proposal.html

Cities may sue governor over his redevelopment proposal [Updated]

In show of strength, more than 100 mayors and city council members from throughout California came together Friday to protest Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shutter their redevelopment agencies, calling it an illegal money grab and warning that they will sue the state if it is adopted.

Standing together with labor activists and business executives at the Sacramento Convention Center, the city leaders said they would vigorously oppose the governor's redevelopment proposal in the Legislature and, if necessary, in the courts.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it if we are forced to do it," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities.

Brown has proposed that redevelopment programs, which divert tax revenue from schools and other government coffers to pay for economic development projects, should be shut to free up $1.7 billion for basic services, including education and public safety. The proposal is part of his plan to reorganize government and close a $25-billion budget deficit.

But two days after Brown spoke to the city leaders and urged their cooperation, the mayors and council members said Friday that the governor needs to find another way of fixing the state's budget mess.

"It would prevent us from continuing to address the blighted communities, and these are focused on low-income areas," said Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez.

Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor said his city recently sold $24 million in bonds to pay for new redevelopment and has counted on it to significantly improve the isolated community.

Several city leaders said they generally like Brown, but it was clear that his proposal has struck a nerve, and some took a jab at him, pointing out that Brown had redevelopment funds at his disposal when he was mayor of Oakland.

"I don't think it's right to deprive the leaders of Oakland or any city the use of a tool that he [Brown] used in order to create jobs and create housing in Oakland," McKenzie said.

The city leaders, who were already in Sacramento to attend a conference, said Brown's proposal is in conflict with the will of the voters, who in November approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that sought to prevent the state from taking or borrowing local government funds, including redevelopment money. McKenzie, who is an attorney, contends that the proposal to shut the state's 398 redevelopment agencies also violates the state Constitution, which requires the tax increment money to be paid to redevelopment agencies to repay the public cost of redevelopment.

[Updated at 12:25 p.m.: Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor, said later Friday that the state had done a "thorough legal review" of the redevelopment proposal before it was made.

"We are confident that the governor's budget proposal is legally sound," Westrup said. "Redevelopment agencies were created by an act of the Legislature, and they can be eliminated by an act of the Legislature. It's time for all of us, including local government leaders, to set aside narrow perspectives and turf wars and act as Californians first to address the state’s budget deficit."]

-- Patrick McGreevy


 

Sacramento Business Journal, January 21, 2011

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/01/21/fight-over-redevelopment-funding-contin.html

Fight over redevelopment funding continues

Sacramento Business Journal - by Michael Shaw , Staff writer

California’s local governments won’t rule out legal action against the state if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment funding and agencies moves forward.

“We would hate to take the state to court to uphold the will of the voters,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, while backed by more than 100 California city council members and mayors at a news conference Friday. “But we will do it.” McKenzie said it was too early in the process to look at legal avenues as local governments hope to reason with the governor over the proposal. But he noted that voters “overwhelmingly” supported a constitutional amendment measure in November that barred the state from taking redevelopment funds.

California has more than 400 redevelopment agencies and Brown has proposed eliminating them to free up tax money for education and other services.

“This flies in the face of the clear will of voters,” McKenzie said.

The group that gathered Friday at the Sacramento Convention Center claims the proposal will kill jobs and development and ultimately be worse for the state budget. The impact on the region, according to Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn and Angelique Ashby, will be the loss of 19,000 jobs and $170 million in redevelopment funds over the long haul.

Redevelopment channels tax dollars back into troubled districts and often results in public-private partnerships. Agencies also support affordable-housing projects.

But critics have claimed the process can channel tax money into projects that benefit a handful of private developers.

The debate is expected to heat up in the California legislature.


Vacaville Reporter, January 22, 2011

https://www.insidebayarea.com/california/ci_17167380

Solano County council members join city leaders in taking stand against Brown

By Kimberly K. Fu / The Reporter

The ire over Gov. Jerry Brown's threat to ax local redevelopment agencies grew exponentially on Friday in Sacramento as leaders from across the state -- including three Solano cities -- gathered in protest.

The possibility of a lawsuit against the state was also floated.

"We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters, but we will do it," said Chris McKenzie, an attorney and executive director of the League of California Cities.

"This proposal is to obliterate, eliminate, annihilate redevelopment," he continued, addressing the mayors, council members and community leaders flanking him at the Sacramento Convention Center. "This proposal is seriously flawed."

Brown has said that in order to get the state's financial affairs in order, a complete overhaul is needed. A component of the fix includes shuttering local redevelopment agencies, which he said has outlived their usefulness. His proposal is to repurpose the redevelopment funds for services such as education and public safety.

Leaders say that the move would slash job employment opportunities, kill affordable housing and, essentially, wreak more havoc on the economy.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby worried about the "tens of thousands of cuts to jobs" caused by the action, and relative impacts on the community.

"We're in the highest worldwide recession," added Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Now is not the time."

Local city council members Catherine Moy of Fairfield, Michael Hudson of Suisun City and Thom Bogue of Dixon agreed.

"My feeling on it is, frankly, that it's immoral and, listening to that lawyer, illegal. We're here to fight this," Moy said. "They (the state) need to balance their budget, we need to balance ours and they need to stay out of it."

Hudson emphasized that his city is 99 percent redevelopment.

"So this would hurt us. Suisun City is the poster child for redevelopment," he added, pointing out the expansive improvements made over the years in terms of affordable housing and boosts to the business sector. "It has transformed our city."

Freshman councilman Bogue said he's not sold on the idea -- or on the governor, for that matter.

"I strongly feel that he's not taking responsibility for the state," he said. "Instead of addressing issues on the state level and cutting at the state level, he's going back to the cities and saying, 'I'm taking these monies from you, taking these assets from you,' and then dumping them into the counties' laps to deal with. ... It's highly irresponsible and very selfish of him to do that because he's hurting the community and the people."


Sacramento Press, January 21, 2011

https://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/44185/City_protests_Browns_redevelopment_plan

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

by Kathleen Haley

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Clubin Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Parkin Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiplemedia outlets. 

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conferenceon Tuesday that the city should consider doing so. 

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.