Fillmore’s Bartels appointed to RDA Successor Oversight Board
April 25, 2012
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
A Santa Clara River Valley man has been appointed by the Board of Supervisors to one of the nine spots on the boards that are dismantling redevelopment agencies in the county, including Santa Paula.
Bill Bartels, a Fillmore rancher and the former assistant city manager, was appointed earlier this month to the help the “successor agencies” start their work by filling out agencies that lack enough members to create a quorum.
Santa Paula is the only city in Ventura County that passed on overseeing the dissolution of its Redevelopment Agency, created in the early 1990s. The City Council opted in January not to take over as the successor agency for the RDA and its business, which included debts totaling about $44.8 million. Its housing set aside fund had about $1.9 million.
The agency has two properties in its portfolio, the long vacant Tower Theater and the South Paseo, which provides access from South Alley parking to the downtown. The Paseo has a retail store, small office and public restaurants.
The City Council appointed retired fire chief and interim city manager Paul Skeels and Elisabeth Amador, the assistant to City Manager Jamie Fontes, to the committee. They join three appointees made by Governor Jerry Brown: Sidney White of Ventura was appointed chairman of the new panel that includes David Maron of Camarillo and Rodney Diamond of Newbury Park. Other members - Santa Paula’s Successor Agency still lacks one member - will be appointed by other agencies to meet state mandates.
The seven member successor agencies are mandated to represent county and city governments, special districts, schools, government employee unions and the public. Panels will handle bond payments and completion of existing projects - there is none of the latter in Santa Paula - and other duties related to the former RDAs until all obligations are taken care of. In some cases it could take decades to pay off all of the long-term debt.
There are only a handful of similar panels statewide that mirror Santa Paula’s “opt out” of acting as successor agencies: the City of Los Angeles, which has millions of RDA funds invested in real estate holdings, also handed their successor agency over to the state rather than have it dissolved in-house.
California’s 400-plus redevelopment agencies were abolished February 1 after a law enacted last year was upheld by a California Supreme Court decision in December.
Redevelopment Agencies were special government districts, usually controlled by city councils or county boards of supervisors that received a higher cut of property taxes to funnel into blighted or underdeveloped neighborhoods. Over the years certain agencies came under fire for their expenditures including Thousand Oaks, which used millions to create the Civic Arts Center, home to two theaters and its City Hall.
The takeover of Redevelopment Funds was seen by many as yet another “money grab” by the cash-strapped state. Now that agencies are in the process of being eliminated, tax revenue is being redirected to the state general fund.
Successor agencies are supposed to sell off the redevelopment agencies’ property as soon as possible, finish any pending work, and pay any remaining debts. In Ventura County alone that could mean that millions of dollars in property could come on the market. Santa Paula paid approximately $90,000 to $110,000 for the Tower Theater and the old plumbing building that later was renovated to become the South Paseo.
The Board of Supervisors is responsible for filling three positions on each of the 12 oversight boards in Ventura County. They are expected to complete the appointments in the next few weeks.
