[img]1349|exact|||no_popup[/img]
One of these persons is Mayor Weissman.
Ever since Gov. Brown decided a year ago this month to put himself in charge of every California hamlet’s Redevelopment Agency – to quench his spending thirst – city leaders from Culver City to Yreka have been hanging out on abandoned street corners while their term in offices quietly evaporates. To pass the time, they twiddle each other’s thumbs.
The City Council of Culver City has conducted less business than President Truman has since last October. Meeting monthly, they have spent most of these brief, dull sessions memorizing each other’s faces in case they accidentally re-meet.
They will mark another of their occasional reunions on Monday evening at 7 in Council Chambers when they choose six new members of a Financial Advisory Board from a pool of 24 applicants. They also will make selections to the Fiesta La Ballona Planning Committee. There are seven openings and six applicants.
Meanwhile, back at the former Redevelopment Agency ranch, it is swirling with inactivity.
Previously agreed-upon projects, Parcel B and Washington/National, the light rail site that awaits a green light on construction of businesses, are growing dusty with inertia.
Shall We Twiddle or Dance?
Council members are alternately drumming their fingers and polishing their thumb twiddling while waiting for an arcane but powerful Sacramento agency, the Dept. of Finance, to validate approval that City Hall gave a year ago to the builders of both properties.
Last week, Mayor Andy Weissman, City Manager John Nachbar and Community Development Director Sol Blumenfeld made a hurried several-hour trip to Sacramento. Their purpose: To look inertia in the eye without making any of the state actors feel guilty. They succeeded.
What did the field trip yield?
Said the droll Mayor Weissman:
“We got to hear the Dept. of Finance articulate their vision, which is one all deliberate speed in processing paperwork. When I had a chance to speak, I told them we had three projects of significance (including the Habitat for Humanity affordable housing scheme on Globe Avenue) that were stalled. I said we thought the Dept. of Finance was taking erroneous interpretive positions. They could act if they chose to do so.
This Way or That?
“They are interpreting the language of 1484 one way, and we are interpreting it another. The Legislature could clarify this, either by telling the Dept. of Finance they could do something if they wanted, or by passing legislation that would clarify the ambiguities.”
A few years have passed since the city purchased so-called remnant property from the widening of the 405 Freeway.
“We purchased it from CalTrans,” Mr. Weissman said, “specifically for affordable housing. It is covenanted and only can be used for affordable housing.
“We proposed it as an ‘affordable housing project,’ and the Dept. of Finance said no. I don’t know what the reason was.”
(To be continued)
