The Morgan Hill City Council is set to extend the city’s
redevelopment agency in the next few months
– it’s a pivotal decision. Council members, who serve dual roles
as RDA directors, are talking seriously about granting themselves
the power to condemn property at the same time.
The Morgan Hill City Council is set to extend the city’s redevelopment agency in the next few months – it’s a pivotal decision. Council members, who serve dual roles as RDA directors, are talking seriously about granting themselves the power to condemn property at the same time.
The extension of the RDA should proceed only if two key restrictions are placed upon the agency’s powers:
– The RDA cannot build any facility that has an operating budget deficit that must be covered by the city’s general fund
– The RDA cannot use eminent domain on behalf of private parties.
Flush with RDA money, Council members have been on a building spree over the last decade, giddily constructing facilities that require city general funds to operate. The list includes the community center, the playhouse, the aquatic center and the under-construction recreation center. One-time building costs come from the RDA budget, but costs associated with staffing, lighting, heating, maintenance and so on come from the general fund.
A million-dollar budget deficit exists today because the city cannot afford to operate these facilities. Residents should not tempt elected officials to build more facilities – history shows that city council members cannot resist that temptation. If the RDA is extended, it must be stripped of the power to build any facility that has an operating budget deficit that must be covered by the city’s general fund.
Under this plan, the library and the county courthouse could use RDA funds, because their operating budgets are covered by other entities. But any facility that doesn’t cover its own costs could not be built.
When the RDA was extended by voters – not city council members, an important difference – a decade ago, the city had to renounce the power of eminent domain in order to gain majority support. Residents were right a decade ago. After the Supreme Court’s harebrained ruling last year in Kelo v. New London that extended eminent domain powers for local governments, limiting that power locally is even more crucial.
Private property rights should be more important than most arguments for eminent domain. That power should be used only when a property is the only suitable location for a compelling public facility.
To trust a succession of city council members to use carte blanche eminent domain powers judiciously is foolish. History shows that eminent domain use on behalf of private parties often involves well-connected, well-to-do private parties who want to force sales against poor, minority populations.
It’s good that mayoral and city council races are just around the bend. There simply isn’t a more important issue facing Morgan Hill.
