Laserfiche WebLink
III. The City Cannot Support Its Position that the Parcels Are Exempt from the <br />Act's Requirements <br />During a February 19, 2019 phone call with OCCORD's attorney, Ben Beach, City Attorney <br />John Funk took the position that the Act does not apply to the Parcels because the Parcels <br />have been held by the City "for the purpose of exchange," thereby qualifying them for the <br />exception set forth in Cal. Gov. Code § 54221 (b). But the City's own words and deeds <br />severely undercut this position. <br />First, the Staff Report contravenes the idea that the Parcels were being held for the <br />purposes of exchange. The Report makes no mention of this concept. Rather, the Report <br />suggests the City's purposes for the Parcels can shift and have shifted: "[o]ver time, the <br />need for these assets and interests can change, thereby creating an opportunity for their <br />use for... purposes" [other than those for which they were originally acquired]. In this case, <br />the Staff Report explains, the City's original purposes for holding the parcels were for <br />"municipal operations and various improvement projects." Now, the Report states, the City <br />proposes to sell these parcels for the purposes of revenue generation and workforce <br />development. Nowhere in the City's recounting of its purposes for the Parcels or, indeed, in <br />any other part of the public record is any indication that the Parcels have been held for the <br />purpose of exchange. <br />This is no small matter. The Surplus Land Act is the primary state law governing the sale of <br />city -owned parcels of land. If the City intends to sell over 400,000 square feet of land and <br />rely on a single exemption in the Act to avoid, wholesale, the application of the Act, it must <br />establish a record that supports its position. The City has plainly not met that burden and, <br />instead, has built a record that strongly suggests the City held the Parcels for purposes <br />other than exchange and believed that it could freely shift its use of the Parcels. <br />Second, there is no exception in the Act for land held for the purpose of sale, and holding <br />the Parcels for sale does not qualify as holding land for the purpose of exchange under the <br />Act. Several provisions of the Government Code indicate that the use of term "exchange" in <br />the Act refers to an exchange of surplus lands for other lands, not the sale of surplus lands. <br />See, e.g., Cal. Gov't Code § 11011(d) ("In recommending or determining the disposition of <br />surplus lands, the Director of General Services may give priority to proposals by the state <br />that involve the exchange of surplus lands for lands listed in those reports"); Cal. Gov't <br />Code § 11011(f) (requiring report on disposition of surplus lands identifying "the date of <br />sale and price received, or the value of the land received in exchange"). <br />Indeed, the City itself has distinguished "sale" from "exchange" with regard to the <br />disposition of other Bristol corridor parcels. In a January 15, 2019 Request for Council <br />