First in a series
If you thought the denouement of the state’s Redevelopment Agencies three months ago yesterday was messy, do not put away your mop and bucket because Son of Mess makes a global-sized blob look tidy.
Even though Culver City’s version of something called the Oversight Board, a sort of terminally ill successor agency, is scheduled to convene in a little more than 24 hours, its mysterious mission remains marinated in mud.
When the seven-person group meets at 2 o’clock on Thursday in Council Chambers, Culver City faces on the dais will include Mayor Andy Weissman, former City Councilman Steve Rose, city planner Richard Bruckner and financial analyst Nick Kimball.
The Oversight Board’s purpose for Being is as shapeless as your mother-in-law after she polishes off a jumbo bucket of gravy-saturated fried chicken in 2 minutes flat.
If Gov. Brown and the state Legislature planned for a future beyond the present day when they wiped out the more than 400 Redevelopment Agencies in California last year, it is a secret they are taking to the grave.
Help may be on the way. The counsel from Dan Rosenfeld, the knowledgeable Senior Deputy for Economic Development in the office of County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, is wait and you will see.
Mr. Ridley-Thomas appointed some members to the Culver City Oversight Board, which should give his office insight into the Oversight. But the explanation offered by Mr. Rosenfeld, while patiently detailed, has the feeling of being led blindfolded through a labyrinth.
There are 71 so-called successor agencies in the County, seven in Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s district, including Lynwood, Carson, Compton, Hawthorne, Los Angeles and Lawndale.
Even though the terms “Oversight Board” and “Successor Agency” seem to have been used interchangeably lately, they are not co-equal. Instead, says Mr. Rosenfeld, “there are several levels.
“Here is how the ladder goes: The former Redevelopment Agencies are winding down.
“A three-person governance board is over each of the former Redevelopment Agencies. In all cases but one, the City Council is the governance board.
“The governance board, in turn, reports to a seven-member Oversight Board. Their work is reviewed by County Counsel – which will have a keen interest in their activities – and, ultimately, the County Auditor General and the state Dept. of Finance.”
(To be continued)
