State Challenging San Jose Creek Project

In another fallout from last year’s decision by Sacramento to eliminate redevelopment agencies statewide, the California Department of Finance is challenging the use of such funds to pay for the ongoing San Jose Creek project, and now the City of Goleta — like many other jurisdictions in the same boat — must take a special trip north to defend the $23 million project in a meeting with finance officials on 4/25. With a decision expected within weeks of that meeting, city officials, who say they had legally transferred funds for the project long before the end of redevelopment was even on the table, are also analyzing other options for funding the project to completion. While Mayor Roger Aceves expressed anger at the state for trying to “steal our local dollars without regard for the impact,” Tina Rivera, the city’s finance director, said that city will remain in “good fiscal health … regardless of the outcome.”