One More Thing They Forgot to Tell the City Council --State Controller Tells Cities To Put RDA Assets Back

State Controller John Chiang

Don't let anyone tell you that being on the City Council if a part time job. It isn't. Especially when I have to research what other cities are doing on the same issues Long Beach needs to deal with so that I can find out what the Long Beach City Council isn't being told.

Here we go again. Remember when the City Council wasn't told about the deadline for opting out as the "Successor Agency" after redevelopment was abolished by state law?

Well, it gets better. The City Council in anticipation of the end of redevelopment transferred redevelopment properties and assets to the city. Most cities in California did the same. Then when the Supreme Court clarified that yes, redevelopment was abolished and a schedule was established (that included that pesky drop dead date when the City could opt out of the obligations of being a successor agency). The City Council became the successor agency.

A successor agency was charged with wrapping up and disposing of formerly owned redevelopment properties and assets and to make sure that legally enforceable obligations were met. These legally enforceable obligations are those that redevelopment had before redevelopment was abolished.

On April 17th, the City Council was asked to approve the sale of property formerly owned by the redevelopment agency that had been transferred to the City. It was approved.

Then this week while researching what was going on in San Diego, I came across an article and a link to a letter that had been issued to all cities and counties by State Controller John Chiang ordering them to reverse all RDA asset transfers they had done before redevelopment was abolished and to transfer these assets to the successor agency. The letter was issued by the State Controller on April 20, 2012.

So here's what I (and you should) want to know:

• Did the City know that this letter was going to be sent (because rumor is that cities knew it was coming)
• And if so, why wasn't the City Council advised so before it took formerly owned redevelopment property and sold it?
• (Here's the best question of all) Why hasn't the City Council yet been given a copy of the State Controller's letter ?

Here's the State Controller's letter. Had I seen it before I was asked to approve the sale of formerly owned redevelopment property -- my vote would have been a "NO".
State Controller's Letter to Cities Reverse Transfer