City joins suit to save funds

Fountain Valley’s redevelopment agency has joined another city and the California Redevelopment Assn. in a lawsuit that aims to stop the state from diverting cities’ redevelopment funds toward education.

The Fountain Valley Agency for Community Development, along with the Union City Redevelopment Agency and the statewide nonprofit, filed the suit Tuesday in hopes of nullifying a state bill passed in July. The state has mandated that city redevelopment agencies give back $2.05 billion over the next two years to fill gaps in the school budget, a move the plaintiffs call unconstitutional.

Fountain Valley, according to the association, would have to pay back $3.3 million by May 2010. Because the bill requires that the funds go to serve students living in the redevelopment area, that would mean spreading the $3.3 million among 64 students who live in the part of Fountain Valley targeted for redevelopment, said John Shirey, the association’s executive director.

“This is exactly what happens when lawmakers don’t think things through,” Raymond Kromer, Fountain Valley’s city manager and executive director of its Agency for Community Development, said in a release. “You wind up with unintended consequences that clearly aren’t in anyone’s best interests, especially not the students’.”

— Michael Miller