Conflict of Interest? Good Financial Condition?

Is it a Conflict of Interest for the City Council and Redevelopment Agency Directors to Raise the Debt Level of the RDA? I think so.

For the City Manager and City Attorney to make such a recommendation a conflict of interest exists. This will allow them to increase their incomes and billing hours.

For the Members of the Council with Property and Investment in Grand Terrace this is a conflict of interest. For those Council Members who are supported by Real Estate Brokers, Developers and Construction Unions there is a conflict.

The RDA should be closed and 100 percent of our taxes should go for Roads and REAL City Business. Raising the Debt increases the Obligations of General Funds on activities that don't help build a sustainable community. In addition it bloats the City Manager/Redevelopment Directors function and budget including the salary expectation. Those associated obligations that come with the added debt will continue to drain funds off of the city's budget.

More Debt is NOT a GOOD THING... The TEA PARTY Types should start with reform of RDA's and the Debt of Small Cities and work their way up to the National Debt. There is a relationship between the two. It would be like paying off higher interest credit cards first then pay off the house mortgage at an accelerated rate. You don't pay off your house loan first and carry a huge credit card debt do you. I hope not. Government finances could be looked at in the same way. It is the hundreds of little governments, little city managers, that start the problem. Then the county governments, regional bodies, states and finally the federal government.

The people on the City Council call themselves Republicans... Are they going to limit the Debt of their own Community? Are they going to cut Taxes and Tax Spending in Grand Terrace? Or are they going to bloat the Tick on the City known as the RDA and continue the financial mismanagement of the taxpayer?

SAY NO to An INCREASE RDA DEBT... Work to end the RDA just like we are all working to end our personal debt.

Is it time to ask Mr. Schwab and Mr. Berry to pay back the city they managed right into Debt City? Is it time to ask the City Attorney to refund the income he got from selling the debt bonds, and other resulting legal fees he collected on his bad legal advise?

Let us hope the new city manager is better at the job. Perhaps she will see she has taken a pay level the city can not support and will down negotiate her contract as a first step in good management. The second step is to find a new city attorney.

Grand Terrace may up redevelopment fund ceiling


10:00 PM PST on Friday, January 15, 2010
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise

The Grand Terrace City Council has approved a draft plan that calls for a dramatic increase in the amount of money the city's redevelopment agency can collect and borrow.

The approval came in a 4-1 vote this week of the council, which was sitting as the governing board of the citywide Redevelopment Agency.
Councilwoman Lee Ann Garcia voted against it despite assurances from city staff members that the draft is only preliminary and that there will be three more months of fine tuning before the plan becomes official.

"This is a very big step in the history of our city," Garcia said, telling fellow council members that she wants a formal study session to be briefed on details of the plan.

Councilwoman Bea Cortes said she too wants the council to meet in a study session with staff to discuss the plan, but voted with the majority.
Grand Terrace Community and Economic Development Director Joyce Powers warned the council Tuesday night that the city Redevelopment Agency will reach its $15 million legal maximum of bond debt some time next year, about the same time it will have collected its maximum of $70 million in property tax revenue.

She explained by phone after the meeting that those two numbers are substantially different because the bond money is used to pay for specific development-related projects and the rest of the money raised in property taxes pays for such expenses as housing assistance for low-income families, interest on debt and portions of city staff members' salaries.

City Attorney John Harper told the council that half of the city manager's salary, for example, is charged to the redevelopment agency.

The draft plan calls for the maximum bond money the city can borrow to increase three-fold to $75 million and for the maximum amount of tax money the agency can raise to jump from $70 million to $225 million.

Powers said she doesn't know for certain if the city's actual bond debt and revenue will approach those totals.

"If all the commercial properties built out with nice quality projects yes, there is a possibility," she said.

There are no specific redevelopment projects in the draft plan, but the city has used redevelopment money to pay for everything from the design of a ball field at Pico Park to road improvements and the movement of utility lines underground.

The council will be asked next month to make a determination that the redevelopment plan conforms to Grand Terrace's general plan for future development. A public hearing would be held April 27, Powers said, followed by adoption of a final draft at the May 11 and May 25 council meetings.

Reach Darrell R. Santschi at 951-368-9484 or dsantschi@PE.com