City Council Pulls Gold Line Deal from Agenda

The City Council will again delay action on a proposed deal with the Gold Line Construction Authority as the two sides continue to negotiate the terms of an arrangement that would bring a rail maintenance yard to town.

Though the council was once again set to vote Tuesday on a deal approved by city staff spelling out terms of a deal, it pulled the item from the agenda to continue negotiations with the GLCA, City Manager Scott Ochoa wrote in his weekly report.

"This removal is not an indication that Monrovia is walking away from the negotiating table," Ochoa wrote. "To the contrary, we continue to negotiate and work through our differences with GLCA."

Monrovia and the GLCA have been in for months in an effort to strike a deal that would allow the Gold Line Foothill Extension to progress, but lawsuits and disagreement over the structure of the deal have led to myriad delays.

The most recent delays stem from the state's threatened elimination of redevelopment agencies, Ochoa wrote. The city must make an estimated $1.2 million payment to the state for the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency to survive, and until that payment is made, no deal with the GLCA can be acted upon by the council, according to Ochoa.

"...If and when we reach an agreement with the GLCA, then we will have to re-notice and convene an all new public hearing," Ochoa wrote.

The deal the council would have considered is essentially symbolic anyway. Even if the city had approved the deal, it would not be binding on the Gold Line to accept the terms. that the deal has not been agreed to and that the purchase and sale agreement drafted by the city would have no bearing on the final terms of a deal.