(See pdf below)
The latest imaginative import from the kings and queens of busywork, the state Legislature, is a toothless concoction for the powerless peasants in 400 California communities to amuse themselves with this spring when they run out of money, creatively called the OversightBoard.
Previously it was going to be called Go Away, Kid.
Other suggestions were Bingo for the Bored and Pinochle for the Penurious.
Culver City’s homegrown, board (or bored) game version of the Oversight Board will convene on Thursday afternoon at 2 o’clock in Council Chambers.
It apparently has no more power over hometown policies than it has over the weather in Boston or Culver City.
Tomorrow will be the three-month anniversary of Gov. Brown’s assassination of Redevelopment Agencies.
Moving, typically, with the speed of a long extinguished light, the under-busy appointing agencies have yawned, stretched, walked around the block, picked their left ears and still appointed only five of the seven members to the Rube Goldberg Committee. Since its power is amoeba-sized, it may not matter whether or when the straggling appointees are chosen.
New Mayor Andy Weissman, the City Council’s delegate to the Board, took a run at describing the handcuffed group’s scope of authority:
“Say the Oversight Board takes an action, deems something to be enforceable. That decision is forwarded to the state Dept. of Finance in Sacramento. If the department requests a review, they have 10 days to approve it or send it back for reconsideration.
“I don’t know if the Dept. of Finance is, in blanket form, going to refer everything back for consideration. “(County Supervisor) Zev Yaroslavsky spoke on this subject at a meeting a couple weeks ago. He said that after conversations with the Director of the Dept. of Finance, he could say, without equivocation, that she is not going to let any of these things go through.”
Mr. Weissman is adopting a wait-and-see attitude, at least until after Thursday’s get-acquainted meeting, if not longer.
Since Gov. Brown’s dominant motivation for eliminating the Agencies – valued by small communities – was to funnel Agency revenues into his pocket, it hardly seems likely the so-called successor agencies will be permitted meaningful fiscal leeway.
Evaluating a Group’s Worth
“It seems to me,” Mr. Weissman said, “that if all the Dept. of Finance and the others want is the money, then if they get fair market value, the right price, it should not matter what the (redevelopment-type) project is. Why should they care who is building Parcel B as long as the state gets the money?”
You may recall that last winter when Gov. Brown decreed that California’s 400 Redevelopment Agencies should die because Sacramento needed the money more than the 400 cities, guilty-sounding legislators stormed to microphones to deliver two rationalizations for their extreme votes:
At the time of the killing off – which Culver City’s state delegates, Sen. Curren Price Jr. (D-Culver City) and state Assemblymember Holly J. Mitchell (D-Culver City) enthusiastically endorsed – both indicated their support for a stripped-down successor.
Envisioning a peanut-sized version of the late Redevelopment Agency, they suggested the shriveled committee would have one reason for existence, to foster affordable housing.
That option held less appeal for city governments around the state than the opposite sex does for a gay person.
Said differently, it is like asking a 7-year-old boy to choose between a daily diet of hot fudge sundaes and stale spinach for the next year.
[img]1396|exact|Agenda – Oversight Board – 3 MAY 2012 – FINAL||no_popup[/img]
