Monrovia Officials Blast State on Eve of Vote to Kill Redevelopment Agencies

The demise of redevelopment agencies is destined to be a slow and painful process of litigation if the state goes through with a plan to kill them, city officials said Tuesday.

City Manager Scott Ochoa said the legislature is expected to vote Wednesday on Governor Jerry Brown's and redistribute their funds in a bid to close the state's $25.4 billion budget deficit. But City Attorney Craig Steele believes the law is unconstitutional and predicted a protracted court battle if the governor gets his way.

"This bill is just so filled with problems that as a lawyer I guess I have to say I'm happy that it's going to keep lawyers employed for the next few years," Steele said. "It's really going to be nothing but litigation over the next two or three years."

The electorate last year, which barred the state from taking money from redevelopment agencies. But the state is now trying to circumvent that measure by eliminating redevelopment agencies altogether, Ochoa said.

"If they vote to do this, they will have been slapping our citizens' votes in the face," Mayor Mary Ann Lutz said.

Ochoa said the bill, dubbed the "Local Education and Public Safety Act," was being pushed through under false pretenses of helping to fund education.

"Who could be against education and safety?," Ochoa asked. "The argument here is not education versus redevelopment, it's I guess education versus horrible public policy."

The bill, which has gone through several revisions, still includes a provision that would delegate the responsibility of overseeing funds from redevelopment agencies to a 7-member committee of appointees. But now the composition of that committee has changed, allowing for more local representation.

The catch is that the State Department of Finance, overseen by the governor, would have the final say over committee decisions, which Ochoa said effectively undermines any semblance of local control.

"It absolutely makes no sense," Ochoa said.

The city called an to shield about $40 million in land assets from the state by transferring the property over to the city. The fate of those assets could be decided by litigation as well.

Mayor Mary Ann Lutz called on residents to call their representatives in the California legislature--Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge), Tim Donnelly (R-Claremont) and State Senator Bob Huff (R-Walnut) to protest the bill.

"If they can change a whole country using Twitter and Facebook in Egypt, we can do this," Lutz said.