Watchdog group gets the axe

The Chico City Council is preparing to jettison an activist oversight committee it created as a watchdog to guard it against overspending redevelopment funds.

The city Internal Affairs Committee (IAC) has recommended to the council that it disband the Citizens Redevelopment Oversight Committee that the council last January recognized but did not formally sanction.

Following the observation by City Manager Greg Jones that city staff thought the oversight body had fulfilled its mission, the committee (Dan Herbert, chair, Andy Holcombe, and Ann Schwab) voted unanimously on Holcombe’s motion to recommend to the council that it look into incorporating the redevelopment watchdog function into some existing council committee, presumably the Finance Committee.

Such action would be taken at its Dec. 19 meeting, when the council will consider a comprehensive staff report that will review all existing committees. Holcombe’s motion also directed that a part of that review explore the advisability of creating a formally appointed city redevelopment oversight subcommittee that would be required to conform to provisions of the state’s open-meeting law.

Because it lacked formal sanction, the original citizens committee’s membership was not only open-ended but also could meet with no secrecy restrictions.

The IAC took action at the urging of Mayor Scott Gruendl as expressed in an e-mail. In that e-mail, Gruendl, always less than enthusiastic about the committee, wanted the Internal Affairs Committee to examine its “accountability and continuation” and added, “I believe the committee has met the original charge requested of them.”

The committee emerged a year ago from the actions of a small group of citizens who expressed public concern about $70 million in redevelopment bonds issued two years ago without specific spending objectives, the controversial $3.5 million Downtown Plaza Park renovation project, and a proposed $27 million new police station.

During the annual redevelopment budget process last spring, the watchdog committee presented a detailed report suggesting the Chico Consolidated Redevelopment Agency (RDA) directors pause and carefully consider what specific spending direction they wanted to follow and presented an economical scaled-down list of projects for initial attention and funding. The councilmembers, in their capacity as RDA directors, subsequently adopted much of the list.

The RDA borrows to raise money by issuing bonds—$240 million worth of debt to date—without a vote of approval from the public. It also draws off all money from property tax increases—called tax increment revenue—dating from the time the four separate RDAs in the now-consolidated RDA were formed in 1980, 1983, 1985, and 1993. The bond and tax increment money is separate from city general fund money and is intended for public capital-improvement projects.

Mark Sorensen, chairman of the now defunct committee, said when questioned that he knew in advance what the Internal Affairs Committee would do and thought the Finance Committee would take over the watchdog function.

Bob Best, the Chico resident most responsible for the creation and council recognition of the oversight committee, stressed when asked that he would continue to push for “public transparency and openness” of the RDA process.

“What I would like to see is that the [future] body with oversight responsibility devote one full session each quarter [three months] to a public discussion of RDA matters,” Best said.

Lon Glazner, a watchdog committee member, stressed a different aspect when asked: “Whatever kind of committee they have, I think they need to concentrate on how that committee focuses its time. It needs to stay within the scope of its oversight function, not digress into tangential matters like, say, how the cops do their job or where the new police station is located.”