Council leaning towards returning $54 million to the State of California

It looks like our Santa Ana City Council is beginning to wave the white flag as the State of California continues to demand the return of millions of dollars of redevelopment funds.   

“Santa Ana City Council members Tuesday night in a closed-door meeting decided to freeze payments to affordable housing developers depending on funds central to a $54-million standoff between city officials and the state Department of Finance. The move reverses a defiant stance council members took last December to continue paying the developers, despite the threatened use of “clawback” measures allowed under the redevelopment dissolution bills that empower Sacramento to withhold sales and property tax revenue. Such a punitive move could cripple the city’s already fragile financial position,” according to the Voice of OC.

The Voice of OC also reported that “Council members had expressed confidence about the city’s claim to the funds. But council members reversed that stance because of concerns about adverse impacts to the general fund, City Attorney Sonya Carvalho announced Tuesday night, signaling that city officials could be losing confidence in their position.”

The Council has fired their capable City Manager, Paul Walters, and are now paying a temp City Attorney, Kevin O’Rourke, over $22K a month.  And now it looks like the city is going to have to fork over $54 million to the State of California.

Remind me again what the Santa Ana Spring was all about?  It looks like an epic fail!

Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.
Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

View Comments

  • There was no way that Governor Brown was going to allow Santa Ana RDA to keep that money. This would have provided a precedence that would have cost California hundreds of millions of dollars.

    The uninformed poorly educated (on issues and govenrment) council did not understand this until it was repeatedly bashed into their heads. Finally, even the NEW city cmanager agreed this was a losing proposition.

    But, the good news is Michele enjoyed a Kahlua and cream on her Dead mom's birthday! WTF

  • Again, lots of talk but not much fight from the Santa Ana Springsters. How do you say Wimped out in Spanish?

  • Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't City Manager Walters have a plan in place that protected the city from having to return those funds? If so, why are we now going to bankrupt our city to return this money at the risk of destroying our cities ability to maintain it's infrastructure?

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