By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

February 16, 2012 -- The City Council did some housekeeping Tuesday night to assure that Santa Monica will make as smooth a transition as possible to a city without a Redevelopment Agency (RDA).

During the meeting, the council took action to solidify its position as the successor agency for the now-defunct RDA by adopting bylaws that named the City Council as the governing board of the Successor Agency that will guide Santa Monica through the transition.

“This is just the next necessary step for us to fulfill promises to the residents of our city,” said Council member Kevin McKeown, who along with the rest of the council is now also a board member of the Successor Agency.

One of the most immediate of the new agency's functions will be the drafting a schedule of enforceable obligations -- RDA money that was committed to projects before the December 30 California Supreme decision to end Redevelopment Agencies in the state.

Successor agencies across California are required to submit a list of enforceable obligations for review to their county oversight committees, which will sort through – and determine the legitimacy of – the numerous payment schedules submitted by local successor agencies by March 1.

Mayor Richard Bloom, who under the newly-adopted bylaws serves as chair of the Successor Agency Board, also was required to make two appointments to the seven-member County oversight committee.

Bloom appointed Paul Silvern, a member of the Financial Oversight Committee for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, and Lisa Luboff, a senior development analyst with the Housing Division.

Two more members will be appointed by the county board of supervisors, one by the special districts in the former RDA, one by the county school superintendent, and one by the community college chancellor.

The Board also passed a reimbursement and operating agreement that assures that the Successor Agency would pay for “use of City staff, facilities and administrative services,” according to the staff report.