City takes over redevelopment’s responsibilities

From SFGate's blog,

As it races to shut down, San Francisco’s redevelopment agency will transfer its projects and functions to the city at large, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday.

The supervisors approved a resolution that puts the city in charge of the agency’s current responsibilities, following a California Supreme Court ruling that allows the state to abolish its 67-year-old redevelopment program. Those roughly 400 departments must shut down by Feb. 1.

The resolution, introduced by Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Malia Cohen, transfers the agency’s affordable housing assets to the Mayor’s Office of Housing. The city administrator will take over non-affordable housing assets.

The board also confirmed the mayor’s appointees to the seven-member oversight board that will guide the agency’s dissolution. This board, required to be created under state law, will oversee the repayments and implementation of projects under way, including Mission Bay, Hunters Point Shipyard and parts of Transbay.

Its members will include John Rahaim, director of the San Francisco Planning Department, and Bob Muscat, director of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21, who will have two-year terms. Olson Lee, director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing, and Nadia Sesay, director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Finance, will have four-year terms.

“Given the short time frame and the nature of the board and the board’s obligation, I am comfortable with these appointees, that they will be able to make the decisions necessary to keep projects moving forward,” Cohen said.

While the redevelopment agency in its current form will shut down by next week, its 100 employees could stay for a transition period to the end of March. Christine Falvey, Mayor Ed Lee’s spokeswoman, has said it is unclear whether there will be layoffs.