On Tuesday, San Jose’s City Council/Redevelopment Agency will hold a session (7 PM, Council Chambers) to approve the co-op agreement that was to be drafted after last Wednesday’s special meeting. At five pages, the co-op agreement (PDF) is short and is mostly concerned with setting aside funds for affordable housing projects. If the City Council approves, $58 million of funds currently on-hand would be set aside for those housing projects and other RDA activities, which would presumably include the ballpark project once proceeds from agency land sales became available.

Another item on the agenda is the long awaited Good Neighbor Committee presentation, which will go over the new Diridon Station Area Master Plan. The Plan, which came about after more than a year worth of meetings, divides the area into 3 sectors:

• North: Above The Alameda (Santa Clara Street) and west to Stockton Avenue. Most of the area is covered by HP Pavilion.
• Central: The ballpark land and the parking lots and other properties between the ballpark and The Alameda. If the ballpark is not built, an alternative including commercial or office space on the ballpark land.
• South: Area south of Park Avenue, including fire training land (future park) and area to the east towards downtown.

In other news… as part of the ongoing fight over redevelopment, Controller John Chiang is undergoing a review of 18 agencies throughout the state. The task?

“The reviews will look at how RDAs define a `blighted’ area, whether they are appropriately paying for low and moderate income housing as required, whether they are accurately passing through payments to schools within the community,” Chiang said.

The 18 agencies picked cover a broad range of agency sizes, from the enormous (LA, SJ) to merely large (Fresno, Fremont) to small (Hercules, Desert Hot Springs). San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has long been adamant about how productive SJRA is compared to some of its counterparts. We’ll see if that holds up. Oakland, whose agency is not part of the review, could stand to gain $10 million for the general fund (enough to fill its budget gap) if the elimination of RDAs statewide goes through. It also means that without ORA, the City would have to raise some other type of bond for an Oakland ballpark – one that would require a referendum.

The A’s will employ the dreaded dynamic ticket pricing system for “premium” home games this season. In the past, the policy was to simply charge more for those games, now it’ll be a baseline price that rises based on demand. This season, dynamic pricing will extend to Opening Night vs. Seattle and the home series vs. SF, BOS, and NYY. If you want to get those seats cheap, you’d best get them early – which is the whole point of the system.

Escondido will not rush to sell $50 million in bonds after all, because they wouldn’t actually be selling bonds. They’d be selling “bond anticipation notes,” which would not necessarily be immune to a RDA raid the same way actual bonds would be.

Rangers co-owner Chuck Greenberg talks about the new video board going up where the old one was at Rangers Ballpark, on top of the right field roof. Too bad the location is so neck-strain inducing from much of the park. He also talked about Cliff Lee and Adrian Beltre, if you’re into reliving that stuff.

This rather innovative beer dispensing system is quite brilliant.

Another new Cactus League ballpark is almost complete. This time it’s Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. IIRC it will be the only such ballpark to sit on tribal land.

The Hornets reached their attendance goal, which means that the team will be staying in NOLA until at least 2014, giving the NBA some time to find a new owner.

Finally, in Cleveland things are so bad at Progressive Field that the Indians are throwing in some serious perks for season ticket holders.

As the team announced Jan. 7, all renewing and new season ticket customers — including those who take advantage of a new offer of bleacher seats for $9 apiece — receive a free suite rental, two free tickets in the club section (where all food, fancy or not, is free) and free membership to the fine-dining Terrace Club.

I’d consider a bleacher full season plan for that. The big takeaway is that they overbuilt the premium facilities by having 121 suites in a three deck stack. While this shows the Indians’ desperation in selling the premium accommodations, there’s a danger in devaluing the premium product. Also, the number of full-season ticket equivalents is 8,000, a number that seems shockingly low and yet all too familiar.

Update 1/20 12:15 AM – Governor Brown spoke at League of California Cities event, indicating that the recent moves by cities and RDAs to protect and assign redevelopment funds may be illegal.

Brown characterized the difficulty the state faces this way:

“I have to tell you, none of the choices are easy,” Brown said at a hotel across from the Capitol. “We haven’t got the votes on the budget. And you might win on redevelopment.

“But then we take something else away. And then the wheels come off. We don’t know exactly how this is all going to unfold,” the new Democratic governor said. He invited local officials to suggest alternatives.

Wonder if Brown will listen to multiple voices calling for oil severance (drilling) fees.

San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency Board (the City Council/Mayor) have pushed the big item – how to protect RDA funds – out to next Tuesday (1/25). A new co-op agreement to be written by the City Attorney should be available by then, and they will be able to vote on how RDA responsibilities will continue.

RDA head Harry Mavrogenes hinted that the co-op agreement would allow all existing and under contract projects under the control of the RDA would be transferred to the City. He didn’t say anything beyond that. I take that to mean that San Jose will take a page out of Los Angeles’ book and allow for the creation for a successor agency (which Gov. Brown has said would be allowed).

Mayor Reed mentioned that he and the other mayors of the 10 largest cities in the state would meet with Brown on January 26. Whether this means they’d be throwing their weight around or groveling isn’t clear. One person in the crowd mentioned that the City’s lobbyist in the Capitol has been keeping tabs on whether any new legislation that would affect RDAs is in motion. So far no dice, but anything could happen at any time after this week. Whatever bill the legislature and the governor approve could stop RDA activities immediately, it could stop things retroactive to a specific date. They’re that scared. Reed laid out the City’s position:

(The state) Taking money this year and promising to give it back next year is one of the oldest tricks in the budget gimmick book. And I can’t put any faith that if they take redevelopment funds that we’ll ever get a nickel of it back, that Santa Clara County will ever see a nickel of it back, because the legislature doesn’t have a great track record of doing that even though they have promised it.

The upshot is that Tuesday is the day of reckoning and will be followed by the regular City Council hearing to approve the new co-op agreement. So far I so no dissension among the ranks, leading me to believe that it’ll be approved. Tuesday also happens to be the date of the Good Neighbor session, so the Council Chambers should be full of RDA “supporters” and detractors.

As far as the ballpark goes, the RDA and/or City would have to be under contract with the A’s really really soon to be able to escape the raid. As much as the cities are talking about taking legal action to stop the raids, getting an injunction is not exactly a viable short or long term strategy, so they can’t assume that they’ll be able to get a lengthy enough delay to complete certain projects. They need to plan for several years from now.

I wonder how often Selig is getting calls from Wolff about this. Selig is not known for reacting well under pressure.

So, what was that we were saying about San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency being broke?

Well, it’s true. From an operational standpoint, they’re very close. From an asset standpoint, not really. RDA head Harry Mavrogenes authorized the sale of $25 million of property in the downtown core, or 11% of its land holdings. The Merc’s Tracy Seipel has the details.

Said Mayor Chuck Reed: “A lot of people have been wondering how we’re going to put together the transaction to do the land for a baseball stadium. I think this is an answer. And it’s a message for Major League Baseball — just in case they had any questions.”

In an interview with the Mercury News, Mavrogenes acknowledged that the governor’s proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies could throw a wrench in the city’s plan to acquire the land for the ballpark.

He and the mayor said Friday that the agency’s land-sale plan has been in the works for at least a month. Reed added that the memo about the plan was prepared in advance of a discussion he has been trying to have with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig about “how we can finish the land deal.”

While the $25 million should cover the land, there’s still the cost of the Autumn Parkway project, which will probably exceed whatever is remaining (depending on how many corners are cut).

Interestingly, two of the properties are adjacent to Lew Wolff’s Fairmont Hotel. One is the parking garage underneath, while another is a small retail strip underneath the hotel’s annex, which has a McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant as one of its tenants. Two others are parking facilities. The final property is an undeveloped lot.

One way to think of how San Jose approaches redevelopment is like what Alan Mulally did with Ford several years ago. In what is now considered a highly prescient move, Mulally arranged for Ford to borrow $23.6 Billion to help aid the company in its restructuring efforts. GM and Chrysler chose to try to tough it out, and the economic collapse killed them both in the process. Instead of having to raise new bonds for every project while dealing with whatever the market conditions are at the time, San Jose has chosen to buy large properties early on with the idea of reselling them down the road – for profit or future project. While there is a legitimate argument as to whether or not this is how the RDA should operate, the fact is that San Jose has been in the position to make key moves when the time was right. Now they have assets they can sell as needed, and unlike Oakland, they don’t have to raise bonds or worry as much about the state impacting their timeline to raise bonds (also Oakland).

Does this mean San Jose is a done deal? Of course not. But it is yet another small yet consequential move that comes from a strategy borne of small yet consequential moves. Judging by the reactions of Wolff and Baseball San Jose head honcho Michael Mulcahy, they’re not small moves in the least.