STAFF REPORT - CITY COUNCIL/SUCCESSOR AGENCY/PUBLIC FINANCE AUTHORITY

Board of Directors of the Successor Agency to the Former Redevelopment Agency of the City of Coalinga Adopt Resolution No. SA-327 Approving the Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule 2019-20 for July 2019 Through June 2020 and Fiscal Year 2019-20 Administrative Budget.    

A Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule (“ROPS”) covering the period of July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020 is due by February 1, 2019 pursuant to Health and Safety Code (“HSC”) Section 34177(o).  The ROPS requests necessary payments for each enforceable obligation of the former Coalinga Redevelopment Agency for Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2019-20.  

ROPS 19-20 has been prepared for the Successor Agency Board’s consideration, and is attached to this staff report.  The Fresno Countywide Oversight Board (“Oversight Board”) will also review the ROPS 19-20 at its meeting on January 24, 2019. Once approved, staff will transmit it electronically to the Department of Finance (“DOF”), State Controller, and Fresno County Auditor-Controller (“CAC”) for their review.  The adopted ROPS must be transmitted by February 1, 2019; if it is not transmitted on time, the Successor Agency will be subject to a penalty of $10,000 per day.  With DOF approval, the Auditor-Controller will be authorized to disperse property tax revenue to pay ROPS obligations on June 1, 2019 and January 2, 2020.

Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule

DOF provided the Successor Agency with a partially completed ROPS form to standardize the form and make it consistent with the automated tracking system. DOF continues to make minor annual changes to the ROPS forms and process for submitting the ROPS.  The current version of the ROPS form no longer contains a Prior Period Adjustment analysis. Instead, commencing October 1, 2018 and annually thereafter, the differences between actual payments and past estimated and approved obligations on the ROPS shall be submitted by the Successor Agency to the Fresno County Auditor-Controller for review and adjustment to future distributions through a PPA form. The County Auditor-Controller has until February 1 to submit the reviewed PPA to DOF for DOF approval.

A Prior Period Adjustment form for ROPS 16-17 was submitted by the Coalinga Successor Agency staff to the County Auditor-Controller before the October 1, 2018 deadline.  The PPA showed $17,801 of unspent RPTTF funds from ROPS 16-17. Because the ROPS is an estimate of the funds need to pay enforceable obligations, often times the requested amounts are higher or lower than the actual expenditure. However, there was also an RPTTF shortfall on ROPS 16-17 for Item #19 in the amount of $3,000.  Because the amount was not approved by DOF on ROPS 16-17, it cannot be corrected by deducting from the unspent RPTTF and a new item must be request on the next ROPS.  As such, a new line item #47 has been added to ROPS 19-20 for a $3,000 shortfall, with funds being requested from Other Funds.

The remaining items on the ROPS are effectively the same as those included on ROPS 18-19 except that the 2000 and 2009 bonds have been refunded to the 2018 Tax Allocation Refunding Bonds (‘TARB”). As such, the debt service payments, fiscal agent fees, and other reporting requirements for the 2000 and 2009 bonds have been retired from ROPS 19-20, and new line items have been added for the 2018 TARB. For ROPS 19-20, the Successor Agency is requesting a total of $1,472,396 in Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund money to fund ROPS obligations, $1,247816 for the first half of the fiscal year and $224,580 for the second half of the fiscal year. The obligations listed on the ROPS include:

1993 B Refunding Tax Allocation debt service payment

1993 B Revenue Bonds Police Station debt service payment

Fiscal Agent Fees for the 1993 bonds

2018 Tax Allocation Refunding Bonds debt service payment

2018 TARB Fiscal Agent Fees

2018 TARB Continuing Disclosure report

Successor Agency Administration

Oversight Board Consolidation

Oversight boards have broad authority to set administrative budgets, approve the transfer of properties pursuant to a long-range property management plan, approve enforceable obligations, and otherwise direct the successor agency to perform activities to wind down the former redevelopment agencies. 

The Dissolution Act (specifically Health and Safety Code Section 34179(j)), provides that local oversight boards are to be succeeded by a single Countywide oversight board (with the exception of Los Angeles County, where 5 oversight boards would be created) on July 1, 2018.  The Auditor-Controller’s office is responsible for coordinating the creation of these new succeeding oversight boards. The ROPS and Administrative Budget prepared by the Successor Agency for FY 2019-20 will be approved by the new Fresno County Oversight Board.

For ROPS 19-20, the Successor Agency is requesting a total of $1,472,396 in Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund money to fund ROPS obligations, $1,247816 for the first half of the fiscal year and $224,580 for the second half of the fiscal year.