From the Los Angeles Times:
Turning up the heat on cities and counties in California, state Controller John Chiang announced Monday that his office will scour the books of 18 redevelopment agencies across the state to make sure dollars are being spent as the law intends.
Chiang will deploy staff to the selected agencies over the next few weeks, spokesman Garin Casaleggio said, with a goal of having a report in hand by early March. "It will be swift,'' he said.
The agencies to be reviewed include those in Los Angeles, Fresno, San Jose and the counties of Sacramento and Riverside. They also include smaller cities such as Placentia in Orange County and the border city of Calexico.
Chiang's move comes as municipal governments are pushing back against Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to do away with redevelopment agencies, a move he said will save the state as much as $1.7 billion. In the weeks since the governor made his pitch, cities have hastily earmarked redevelopment funds for future projects, seemingly putting the dollars out of the governor's reach.
Redevelopment agencies take property tax dollars that normally would fund schools and other programs to pay for development projects in blighted areas. Cities say they are critical to breathing new life into aging business centers. Critics, though, see the funds as a giveway to developers.
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Capistrano's not on the audit list, but Placentia is.
Capistrano officials, who have used redevelopment to lure car dealers to town and are counting on it to help with a downtown revitalization, have discussed how to battle the governor's proposal.
Here's the controller's news release:
SACRAMENTO – State Controller John Chiang today announced his auditors were beginning reviews of 18 redevelopment agencies (RDA) across the state in an effort to obtain facts on how RDA funds are used and the extent to which they comply with laws governing their activities.
“The heated debate over whether RDAs are the engines of local economic and job growth or are simply scams providing windfalls to political cronies at the expense of public services has largely been based on anecdotal evidence,” Chiang said. “As lawmakers deliberate the Governor’s proposal to close RDAs and divert those funds to local schools and public safety agencies, I believe it is important to provide factual, empirical information about how these agencies perform and what they bring to the communities they serve.”
The 18 RDAs selected for the reviews represent urban, suburban and rural communities. They are geographically diverse and represent a mix of varying populations. The reviews will look at, among other things, how the RDAs define a “blighted” area, whether they are appropriately paying for low- and moderate-income housing as required by law, whether they are accurately “passing through” payments to schools within their community, and how much RDA officials, board members and employees are being compensated for their services.
To assist lawmakers in their budget debates, the reviews will be completed in early March. The chosen RDAs are as follows:
- Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Jose (Santa Clara County)
- Redevelopment Agency for the County of Riverside
- Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (Los Angeles County)
- Richmond Redevelopment Agency (Contra Costa County)
- Redevelopment Agency of the County of Sacramento
- Redevelopment Agency of the City of Pittsburg (Contra Costa County)
- Redevelopment Agency of the City of Fremont (Alameda County)
- Pasadena Community Development Commission (Los Angeles County)
- Redevelopment Agency of the City of Fresno (Fresno County)
- City of Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency (Riverside County)
- Placentia Redevelopment Agency (Orange County)
- Parlier Redevelopment Agency (Fresno County)
- Hercules Redevelopment Agency (Contra Costa County)
- Anderson Redevelopment Agency (Shasta County)
- Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Citrus Heights (Sacramento County)
- Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Calexico (Imperial County)
- Community Development Agency of the City of Coronado (San Diego County)
- City of Desert Hot Springs Redevelopment Agency (Riverside County)
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