Opinion Comes in Wake of Dissolution of Redevelopment Agencies
Local entities making appointments to oversight boards are prohibited from compensating the appointee, or reimbursing expenses incurred as a result of the service on the oversight board, the California Attorney General confirmed in an opinion issued last week. However, if the appointee is an employee of the appointing authority, the employee is not prohibited from receiving his or her normal compensation or expense reimbursement associated with his or her duties as an employee. The opinion clarifies the application of Health and Safety Code section 34179, subdivision (c), which regulates the compensation for oversight boards assembled to oversee the dissolution of California’s redevelopment agencies.
Since 1945 until their elimination in 2011, redevelopment agencies were charged with identifying and turning around underperforming areas throughout the state. However, when they were dissolved by statute, redevelopment agencies were replaced by a successor agency whose activities are overseen by a seven-member oversight board.
Health and Safety Code section 34179(c) provides that oversight board members are to serve without compensation or reimbursement for expenses. A question arose as to whether the appointing authority could provide compensation and reimbursement of expenses to the oversight board member — despite that the successor agency and the oversight board cannot compensate the appointee. The Attorney General opined that “the apparent severity of the no-compensation provision is tempered in several respects.” The opinion clarifies that the law prohibits the oversight board member from receiving compensation for the service on the oversight board, but does not bar an appointed oversight board member from receiving his or her usual compensation from the appointing agency itself. This is true even if the compensation covers the time the employee spends on the board.
Generally, the Attorney General concluded that, because the law allows the oversight boards to delegate much of its work to the successor agency and the successor agency staff, the prohibition on compensation was not overly burdensome.
Local oversight boards will be dissolved effective July 1, 2016, and dissolution activities will be overseen by a regional oversight board thereafter.
