I’m confused.
Culver City Mayor Andrew Weissman, City Councilman Mehaul O’Leary, and several other prominent local officials are listed as supporters on Assemblyperson Holly Mitchell’s (D-Culver City) website.
Do these people not realize that this is the same Assemblyperson Holly Mitchell who last year voted to eliminate our city’s Redevelopment Agency (along with all the other Agencies in the state)?
This is the person who helped kill the Redevelopment Agency that subsidized a lot of the things that make our town so special – our dynamic Downtown, the movie theaters, the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the “new” Westfield Mall, the Washington Boulevard improvements, summer concerts, The Farmers Market, and other art programs.
The Agency also provided various subsidies for public safety and schools. The city even started building its first affordable housing project last month, thanks to its Redevelopment Agency.
All told, the Redevelopment Agency brought an additional $5 million to $7 million a year into the city. These are taxes that would have otherwise gone to the state, but thanks to the unique mechanism of Redeveloment Agencies, these funds were kept here in Culver City . And spent here in Culver City .
But that’s over. Thanks to Mitchell’s vote, several millions dollars of our City’s money are being dumped into Sacramento ’s budgetary sinkhole, instead of being spent here in our City.
I’ve heard people occasionally complain about our Redevelopment Agency, but pretty much everyone agrees: It was a major force for good in this city.
All that is now gone – the money, the Agency and most likely all the programs it funded as well. We are starting to see the first fallout from the loss of those funds – uncertainty over the summer concert series and now 14 layoffs at City Hall.
It’s stunning to see some of our most prominent officials, who actually have to deal with the loss of the Agency, now support the person who helped destroyed it.
Thus, my question: have they gone mad?
Mr. Derevlany may be contacted at derevlany@sbcglobal.net
