Maintenance Yard Not Yet a Done Deal for Monrovia

By Susan Motander
On Friday, Habib Balian, Chief Executive Officer of the Gold Line Construction Authority (GLCA) announced that that entity had reached an agreement with the City of Monrovia regarding the sale of property from its redevelopment agency. The property is planned for maintenance and operations (M & O) yard for the Gold Line and potentially other light rail line cars.
According to Monrovia Mayor Mary Ann Lutz, this announcement is a bit premature. “Neither the GLCA board nor the Monrovia City Council has yet approved the tentative agreement,” she explained. Expanding on that, Lutz said that the Council could not act as the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency Board until the issue with the state of California was resolved.
Lutz was referring to the state actions through AB X26 which dissolved redevelopment agencies throughout the state and seized their properties. The state did provide a sort of escape plan through AB X27 which allows individual cities to make annual payments to the state to redeem their own redevelopment agency properties. This has been referred to by some of those opposed to the state’s action as everything from ransom to blackmail to extortion. It has also been called high handed and illegal by some.
The Monrovia Council has just had the first reading of the action which is required to pay the state its mordita. There will be a second reading of the motion at the next Council Meeting, August 2. The action will not go into effect for 30 days. According to Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa this means that the first time the Council can act upon selling the property is their first meeting after the reinstatement of the redevelopment agency. This will occur at the council’s September 6 meeting, the first after its reinstatement.
“If adopted this would be a simple purchase and sale agreement,” Ochoa said. He explained that this means the action could take effect immediately.
As the situation now stands, the GLCA board has set the matter on its agenda for Wednesday morning, July 27. This matter along with a discussion of acquiring the other properties necessary for the development of the M & O yard are the matters to be discussed at the meeting which will be held at Arcadia’s City Council Chambers at 9:30 a.m. The full agenda and reports are available on line at the GLCA web site: www.metrogoldline.org and click on the Meetings/Events section.
Further complicating this issue are two pending legal matters, the first is a lawsuit brought by the California Redevelopment Agency to have AB X26 & 27 declared unconstitutional. The CRA has applied to the California Supreme Court asking it to assert original jurisdiction. This means that the state Supreme Court would hear the matter immediately without going through the entire appellate process.
The second matter is the Writ of Quo Warranto which was brought by attorneys for one of the property owners in the area adjacent to the redevelopment agency land. The Writ demands that those members of the Gold Line Construction Authority Board or Alternates who also serve as Council members in individual cities, this includes Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, John Fasana of Duarte and Monrovia Mayor Mary Ann Lutz. The State Attorney General has set August 22 as the deadline for responses from these and the other individuals served with the writ. She will then decide if the case has merit and opt to have her office pursue the issue or allow the petitioner (in this case the property owner opposed to the sale of the land for the M & O yard) to follow through on the matter.
For now the matter is in limbo until the GLCA Board acts and the Monrovia City Council is able to act as the Board of its reestablished Agency.

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