County of Sonoma v. Cohen
Annotate this CaseThis case was one of many arising out of the 2011 legislation that brought about the “Great Dissolution” of California’s redevelopment agencies. Plaintiff County of Sonoma, in its capacity as the “successor agency” to the former Sonoma County Community Redevelopment Agency, “reentered” into agreements between the Sonoma Redevelopment Agency and itself that were invalid, after it received authorization from its “oversight board” in March 2012 to take this action. Defendant Department of Finance, through its Director, Michael Cohen appealed a trial court’s ruling that these were “enforceable obligations” of a former redevelopment agency that continue to be payable out of property taxes before distribution of the remainder to the taxing entities. The Department argued the agreements were not enforceable obligations because the definition specifically excluded agreements between former redevelopment agencies and “sponsoring” entities. The Department asserted that the statutory power of an oversight board to authorize a successor agency to reenter into this type of agreement was contrary to legislative intent, and to June 2012 legislation. After review, the Court of Appeal disagreed, and affirmed the trial court’s judgment and writ directing the Department to treat two county redevelopment agency agreements as enforceable obligations.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.