Fullerton City Council Got It Wrong

The Fullerton City Council got it wrong.  The ire is not over the low-income housing as council members suggested before they stuck us with a $45 million bill; it is the fact that they busted out the taxpayer’s credit card.  Like Councilman Jones analogized at Tuesday’s Council/Redevelopment Agency meeting, Council went to the bank and took out a loan.  And the collateral is the future property tax increment on properties in Redevelopment Agency zones.  That property tax increment should be going towards the infrastructure, public safety, and education.  Instead, the tax increment will go into other redevelopment boondoggles with at least 15% of it annually being used to pay off the $29 million bond plus the interest and fees totaling around $45,500,000 over the next 16 years.  Shame on the Redevelopment Agency staff for taking taxpayers for a ride and shame on all four council members for growing our debt.  To say that the end justifies the means is unacceptable.  Council members have a fiduciary duty which was clearly neglected by the intoxicating allure of taxpayer MONEY. 

And council members point their fingers at “mandates” from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG).  They point to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) that SCAG performs.  Who is SCAG?  As the name implies, our city, our county, and neighboring agencies.  Who runs it?  Our council members along with those of the member agencies in much the same manner that our council represents Fullerton taxpayers on water and sanitation boards.  SCAG is a governmental agency which receives taxpayer funding from, among others, Fullerton residents and businesses. 

Let’s not forget that the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency was ready, willing, and able to spend $6 million to move a McDonalds 150 feet.  Succumbing to public scrutiny and pressure, Fullerton City Council backed out of the deal. Let’s also no forget that the Fullerton Redevelopment agency spent $22.7 million to move 600 low-income residents out of the Richman Park area so that they could build fewer units than those bulldozed.  According to project manager Charles Kovac, “…the agency doesn't know yet how many more properties it will acquire or how much money it will spend. It depends, in part, on what funding is available.” (July 2010, OC Register)  Pushing our low-income problem onto another community through a taxpayer-subsidized mass relocation is one way to do erase Fullerton’s problem from SCAG’s tally sheet, but it certainly isn’t ethical. 

There is no end in sight for the insatiable appetite of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency under the direction of our current council. 

For more informmation on Redevelopment Agencies go here:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/agency-256370-kovac-housing.html
http://www.coalitionforredevelopmentreform.org/references/morrreport.php
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-redevelopment-20101002,0,1187883,full.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/me-redevelop-housing-20101003,0,3080263.story

More Bad News for Redevelopment Agencies

In a two-part series penned by Jessica Garrison, Kim Christensen, and Doug Smith of the LA Times, there is a faint glimmer of a spot light on Fullerton’s Redevelopment Agency and the damage being done.

To recap, Redevelopment Agencies exist to clean up blighted areas.  There is very little the agencies can do that City Hall cannot already do except sell bonds without taxpayer approval.

Part I of the LA Times article has horror story after horror story of redevelopment agency mishaps, mismanagement, and outright corruption up and down the Golden State.  Some of the article’s facts and figures are mind numbing. 

“The Times found widespread instances of corruption, questionable spending and poor accountability at such agencies, which take in $5 billion in property tax revenues each year. Under state law, the agencies are allowed to keep any increases in tax revenue in areas they improve.”

“Auditors also found that the City of Industry reported to the state that it gave $2.5 million to schools and the county in 2006. The problem was the payment should have been $21 million.”

“A recent report by the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes concluded that no state agency oversees redevelopment. Instead, ‘oversight is left largely to the city council members and county supervisors who sit as local redevelopment agency board members.’”

Those are just a few of the findings which are followed up by Part II, titled Arrested Redevelopment.  Part II discusses the low-income housing element which should account for 20% of Redevelopment Agency spending. 

“State law requires municipal redevelopment agencies to spend 20% of the approximately $5 billion in property taxes they collect each year on building and preserving homes for poor and moderate-income people.

But affordable housing is not politically popular, and The Times found that many projects face inexplicable delays. Others end up worsening blight and hurting the people they were supposed to help. Land ostensibly set aside for affordable housing was in some cases turned over to commercial developers, raising questions about whether cities ever intended to build the housing in the first place.”

In a July 2010 article by Orange County Register reporter, Kristine Guerra, the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency was highlighted spending $22.7-million and evicting more than 600 people.  The Agency’s goal?  “…to revitalize the neighborhood, which has had old, dilapidated homes and high crime rates.” 

“The agency has bought a total of 30 properties in the Richman Park area. It also paid more than $1.6 million to relocate 117 households with nearly 600 residents, more than half of whom were 18 years old and younger. Part of the relocation cost is one-time financial assistance to the families.

Olson Company and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County are developing most of the properties into single-family condominium units that target very low-, low- and moderate-income home buyers.”

The bottom line, the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency has made our low-income housing shortage WORSE at the expense of the 600 residents and Fullerton’s taxpayers.