Agency Dissolved: City Must Pay $39 Million

The Mission Viejo City Council will be asked Monday night to approve a plan to wipe out the city's own redevelopment agency, in accordance with state law.

The city's owes almost $39 million dollars in unpaid bonds and services.

The first steps of the dissolution are expected to cost $94,600 from Jan. to June 2013—that's $438.65 an hour in staff fees. That money will be paid to 10 staff positions, including the city manger, who costs the city $63.33 for every hour worked.

Staffers will be determining how to pay the city's remaining redevelopment obligations. These obligations are collectively known as the Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule, or ROPS in the language of the state legislature's bill requiring the dissolution.

The money will come from low income housing funds, bond proceeds, reserve balances and other sources.

By far the most expensive obligation the city is required to pay is $25.4 million. That comes from a debt incurred in 1999 chiefly to build two public parking structures at . The Mission Viejo mall renovation cost $150 million, and the city issued $41.6 million in bonds to be paid by 2028 for its share in the private/public partnership.

Here are more obligations the city must find a way to pay. Note that the administrative costs are an estimate of how much it will cost the city over the next 45-55 years to fund the other obligations, said Cheryl Dyas, the city's director of finance.