It’s not only local government and development insiders who are dismayed by the county money grab unleashed by the clawback provisions of the RDA dissolution law passed by the state legislature last year.
The county’s denial of $62 million in Santa Clara’s affordable housing obligations drew a sharp response from Bill Wilson Center (www.billwilsoncenter.org) Executive Director Sparky Harlan last week at SanJoseInside.com
“Apparently, the payment to Bill Wilson Center for our rehab last August was not put on the ROPs by the city last spring,” Harlan wrote, referring to the Center’s Peacock Commons transitional housing project, which renovated an existing, untenanted Santa Clara apartment complex. Initial work on the project began in 2007, and construction contracts were signed in April 2010.
“As a result, we were not supposed to be paid, so the state disallowed the payment. Even though the county admits that Bill Wilson Center is owed the money, their CPAs suggested that we pay money back to the city so that the city can pay it back to the state…I guess if I follow the logic of all this, I should ask the contractors to pay Bill Wilson Center back the money we paid them, so I can then pay the city to pay the state.”
