Strict Pomona Development Policy : Council Votes to Exert More Control Over Agency Projects

When he first proposed it this week, City Council member C. L. (Clay) Bryant called it a “redevelopment freeze.”

For the three other council members who voted for the measure, however, the new policy doesn’t mean a halt to redevelopment projects in the city, but merely ensures that the council will exert more control over the projects.

Whatever it’s called, Mark A. T. Nymeyer, Nell Soto and Tomas Ursua joined Bryant on Monday night in voting to require the redevelopment staff to get council approval for all correspondence, consultation and expenditures of more than $500.

Bryant said the policy was needed after “numerous” instances in which staff sent out requests for proposals, reviewed plans and negotiated with developers on key projects without the council’s approval or knowledge.

Before casting the only dissenting vote, Mayor Donna Smith cautioned that the measure was overly restrictive.

“Whether we call it a freeze or whether we don’t call it a freeze, what disturbs me in the memo is it says any expenditure, consultation or correspondence,” Smith said. “That bothers me. If the redevelopment staff has to wait a week for a council meeting to respond to a letter, if someone calls, is staff going to be allowed to return that call? That may sound a little farfetched but there’s nothing in the memo that tells me otherwise.”

Bryant had chastised the staff for negotiating an agreement in January to lease additional space for community programs and some redevelopment offices with the owners of the Investment Center Building on South Thomas Street.

“The council didn’t know a damn thing about it and when we did we killed it,” Bryant said. “We won’t take this as long as staff is meeting behind closed doors. We have to put a halter on our staff so everything has to come before the council.”

At another point, holding up several progress reports compiled by the redevelopment staff for the city administrator, Bryant said “you feel like an idiot when someone puts together monthly reports” of actions taken without council approval.

But interim City Administrator Tom Fee said that communication between staff and council had improved and that the new policy will slow down negotiations with developers now that council approval is required to prepare formal documents for proposed projects.

“The council has the right to set any policies that they like,” Fee said in an interview after the vote. “My only reservation is that I don’t want the policy set so stringently that it hampers the day-to-day operations that the redevelopment staff performs. I don’t feel the need for each of the expenditures to come to the council.”

Although he originally called his proposal a redevelopment freeze, Bryant renamed it “redevelopment staff direction” at Councilwoman Nell Soto’s urging.

Smith said that although she agrees that the council should keep abreast of redevelopment projects, Bryant’s proposal “was nothing more than a leash law” that would restrain the staff from performing routine functions.

Claims Challenged

Smith also challenged Bryant’s and Soto’s claims that the council was left uninformed on one project, the construction of a horse sales pavilion on the Los Angeles County fairgrounds. Smith said the council had given informal approval for staff to issue $27 million in bonds and to contribute $2.5 million of its own funds toward the project.

But tight, centralized control over millions of dollars in redevelopment projects is just what is needed, Bryant said. And he hinted that a clause in the policy could result in a review of staff and the eventual dismissal of “more than one” redevelopment employee.

Bryant was instrumental in the unexpected firing of former City Administrator A. J. Wilson in May. The action sparked the formation of a citizens’ group that is trying to recall Bryant.

“Our staff needs a complete overhaul,” he said. “It’s in such a state of disarray you’d be appalled. I’ve just opened a crack in the door.”

The clause states that “It is further recommended that this freeze be in place until the management survey is completed, the redevelopment staff is confirmed, and the city administrator requests lifting of the freeze.”