Our City Budgets and Agenda 21

What do the Cities of San Bernadino, Mammoth Lakes, & Stockton have in common?    All three cities follow RDA and the League of California Cities, all circumvented AB26, and all three went bankrupt within a year.

Tax revenue is collected for the basic needs and services of the community, not to fund the private sector. The League of California Cities and the RDA Association are not on the side of the people. They are lobbyist groups who’s purpose is to divert money to themselves and their affiliates.

In 1945 California authorized Redevelopment Agencies (RDA’s) to alleviate urban blight. Blight is defined by state law as a combination of physical and economic conditions – vacant buildings, declining property values, poverty, high crime rate – that prevent private enterprise from developing in the area.

In the beginning very few cities used RDA, now most not only use but abuse RDA. Half of California cities are declared between 11-30% blight and 20% of cities claim over 30% blight to acquire land for RDA. The entire city of Imperial Beach has been declared blight. Imperial Beach is 1 ½ miles of beach-front property in Southern California; Does that sound ‘blight’ to you?

Powers of RDA:

Eminent Domain – Once an area is declared blight the city has the right to exercise the powers of eminent domain. The League of California Cities considers the powers of eminent domain an ‘important tool’ and encourages city officials to declare areas of their city blight to obtain eminent domain powers.

Take Out Loans & Issue Bonds without Voter Approval – RDA’s use a federal Community Development Block Grant to start a project, but the remainder of the funding comes from issuing debt. By declaring a city blight the city is able to side-step Prop 13 to take out loans and issue bonds without voter approval.

Funding of RDA:

RDA gives the impression that the money is from state or federal grants, but 97% of all RDA finances are funded by the city. RDAs receive the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to begin work, but all redevelopment activity is financed by taking out loans that the city backs with future property taxes.

Tax Increment Financing: When Prop 13 passed RDAs feared a limited money stream, so they lobbied for special property tax revenues. After an RDA area has been established all property tax increases – less 2% for inflation – goes entirely to RDA instead of being used for the basic needs of the city. In the case of Imperial Beach all of IB is declared blight so ALL property tax increases go to the RDA program. The payments to RDA last as long as there is debt outstanding, and RDAs no longer have plans to conclude their projects, so eminent domain remains on the properties.

Cost of RDAs:

We can see the results of RDAs in the bankruptcies of Stockton, San Bernadino, and Mammoth Lakes. RDA eats up $1.5 billion/year of our cities budgets in the State of California. By reviewing the financial records of Imperial Beach shows the actual costs of RDA.

City Services vs RDA: 97% of all RDA funding is from the city itself. Taxes are collected for the general needs of the community, not to fund the private sector. Originally an RDA project took about 2% of a city’s budget, now RDAs are swallowing up to 30% of city budgets.

The bigger problem is that the cities are spending even more on RDA than they are acknowledging. Imperial Beach’s RDA is 32% of the budget, but I also found $4 million spent on RDA that is being funneled through ‘dump accounts’. The budgets of numerous city departments have ‘ABC’ accounts listed with their expenditures. The ABC accounts pad the departments’ budget by as much as 25%. The ABC accounts on the IB Fire Department’s $2.3 million budget is $450,000 – 19% of their budget is being padded with RDA costs and legal fees.

Legal Fees:

Google ‘RDA’ and you’ll find dozens of lawsuits pending. The Imperial Beach Financial Report for the year ending 06/30/11 stated City Attorney Fees at $244,000 – but paid out over $500,000 defending RDA lawsuits. This year the City Attorney Fees are budgeted at $200,000, but have already spent $600,000. In 2011 the City of IB also cut two checks to the RDA Association to help pay for their legal fees.

Massive Payrolls:

Another similarity of every city that belongs to RDA and the League of California Cities is massive payrolls for the top elected and appointed officials. Mammoth Lakes has a population of 8,000 people yet the Comptrollers’ 2010 report shows their City Manager’s salary is $198,533; Assistant City Manager at $186,358; and Exec Assistant to the City Manager at $71,708; and Airport Director at $151,431.

What are the salaries of elected and appointed officials in the city of Imperial Beach? That is information the City refuses to disclose. The new budget shows the City Council and Appointed City Officials shifted half of their payrolls to RDA accounts to avoid the State Wage Limits. City elected and appointed officials are giving themselves multiple titles to double dip wages.

How To Tell If Your City Is RDA? Simply look at the City Council Agenda.

“..JOINT REGULAR MEETING OF THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO, MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO ACTING AS THE SUCCESSOR AGENCY TO THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY, MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO ACTING AS THE SUCCESSOR HOUSING AGENCY TO THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY, AND MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO ACTING AS THE HOUSING AUTHORITY ..”