Staff 'agendizes' RDA remittance, defers due diligence for rushed projects to council

From the Woodland Record:

On June 21 Woodlanders witnessed rampant spending (allocations in city-speak) of Redevelopment Agency (RDA) money to avoid a threatened abolishment of California redevelopment agencies. That night, the RDA board (city council) gave away nearly all of the available $4.8 million in the pot. $4 million was awarded to only two recipients, Black Pine Holdings (Jeff Morgan) and the Woodland Opera House, Inc. (Mrs. Bill Marble, et. al.). The other recipients included the property owners of the Porter Building, the Simmons/Diggs Block Building (formerly occupied by Muscle World), and the Odd Fellows building (consistently referred to in error by the city as Oddfellows).

Tonight, it's expected that the RDA will approve the staff recommendation to pay the State of California a voluntary community remittance so that its operations can continue. Staff placed this item on the agenda – an important point that will be realized later in this article. See the agenda.

Back to June 21: The RDA passed a resolution to approve money for second story improvements to the Odd Fellows building. The resolution's purpose was to "Approve an Owner Participation Agreement for the Oddfellows [sic] Building second floor interior loan in the amount of $125,000, in substantially the form attached to the staff report." See the report.

Speaking of odd, part of tonight's resolution to approve the remittance includes reasons for doing so. Here is one of the reasons:

Read more at WoodlandRecord.com.