ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : NOTEBOOK : Silva Nears End of Balancing Act

Timing is everything: Jim Silva has announced that he will resign from the Huntington Beach City Council at noon Tuesday, the “exact moment” he will join the County Board of Supervisors.

In his resignation letter to Mayor Victor Leipzig, Silva urged council members to fill his seat “with a person who is of honest character.”

The resignation will end what has been a tough balancing act for the supervisor-elect. The City Council on Wednesday voted to sue the county if it does not return more than $2 million in property tax revenues frozen in the county treasury.

Silva decided to formally recuse himself from any special council meetings dealing with the bond crisis, said Huntington Beach City Clerk Connie Brockway.

Silva walked out of one of the first closed-session bond meetings, instructing Brockway to make sure his absence was noted in the minutes.

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The bankruptcy defense: In Cypress, which has about $5.8 million in the county investment pool, a political furor erupted Friday. But it only tangentially involves the county’s bankrupt fund.

A new citizens group announced it is targeting Mayor Cecilia Age and Councilwoman Gail Kerry for recall because they approved a plan to build a carpet warehouse in the city.

Age said the proposed warehouse would generate $1.2 million a year in revenues. “In view of the county’s bankruptcy, the city . . . badly needs this income,” she said.

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You’ve gotta spend it to make it: The bond crisis has forced Newport Beach officials to take a second look at more than $1 million of planned expenditures.

So far, the city has spiked plans to buy a $311,000 firetruck. It also postponed awarding an $800,000 highway interchange design contract.

But the city is still willing to spend money on items that will eventually generate revenue.

Despite its $16-million investment in the pool, the council decided to spend $100,000 to raze a bank building next to City Hall and replace it with a parking lot. Officials expect the lots’ parking meters to bring in $60,000 a year. And nearby merchants said the extra parking will boost sales--and sales tax revenues.

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On guard: The various government officials and lawyers who attended Wednesday’s Pool Participants Committee meeting in Irvine got a taste of how seriously the proceedings are viewed.

Just before the meeting began, committee members announced it would be closed to reporters, who were ushered out of the Irvine Council Chambers.

And to make sure no one slipped back in, a uniformed police officer was stationed at the chamber entrance.

Behind closed doors, representatives of cities, schools and other agencies discussed how they could receive emergency disbursements from the frozen county pool.

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Can’t please everyone: The county auditor-controller’s office thought it was doing cities and school districts a favor when it disbursed property tax revenues a week earlier than usual.

The idea was to get funds to the agencies as soon as possible.

But decision has met with little praise from city leaders, who are still fuming over an earlier county decision to withhold more than $20 million in property tax revenues that are frozen in the county treasury.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” La Habra City Manager Lee Risner said of the latest county move. “They seem to be doing a lot of things that are not logical.”