Council set to dissolve agency; Frazier would hold 2 positions
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune The former Redevelopment Agency building on East Yosemite Avenue.
The Madera City Council has plans to push forward the dissolution of the “Successor Agency to the former Madera Redevelopment Agency” Wednesday night when the council meets in regular session starting at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Part of the plan includes changing the governance of the former Madera Redevelopment Agency, now that its long-time executive director, James E. Taubert has retired. Taubert left the post in December.
Replacing Taubert would be Interim City Administrator Steve Frazier, who replaced former City Administrator David Tooley, who also left in December.
Frazier, who formerly was chief of police, would hold both positions, according to information in the agenda backup for Wednesday night’s meeting.
An ad hoc committee has been formed to look for permanent replacements for both Tooley and Taubert. Advisors and headhunters are expected to be retained to assist.
It is unknown what Frazier would be paid for holding both jobs.
Tooley and Taubert together made more than $590,000 a year, counting benefits, according to the website transparentcalifornia.com
The business offices of the agency would be moved to City Hall from agency’s building at 428 E. Yosemite.
The business offices would be staffed by Successor Agency business manager Bob Wilson and Claudia Mendoza, who has been the agency’s secretary.
Wilson would report to Frazier, and Mendoza would report to City Clerk Sonia Alvarez, who apparently would become the agency’s secretary.
Several million dollars remain in the agency account, designated to complete projects which were under way when the governor and the Legislature dissolved all redevelopment agencies in the state in order to grab the incremental tax income those agencies were generating from improvements that had been financed by agency tax income or bond sales. Some of those projects remain unfinished.
It was estimated by one agency employee who asked not to be named that it would take at least two years from now for all the projects to be completed.
The Legislature and governor ordered that eventually the successor agencies would have to be phased out.
The City Council, meeting as the successor agency board, will have the authority to approve or disapprove appointments, projects, purchases and sales of property and the handling of money.
Usually the agency board meets on the second Wednesday of each month, but that will change. It is proposed that agency board meetings occur on the third Wednesday of each month, following meetings of the City Council, and Madera Housing Authority board, which also have been held on second Tuesdays.
An ad hoc committee of council-agency board members will be formed to conduct a search for a permanent executive director.
