Cohen

Given the dire condition of state finances, in the summer of 2011 the Legislature enacted legislation (Stats. 2011, 1st Ex. Sess. 2011-2012, ch. 5X (hereafter chapter 5X)), primarily within the Health and Safety Code, that barred any new redevelopment agency obligations, and established procedures for the windup and dissolution of the obligations of the nearly 400 redevelopment agencies then existing. (California Redevelopment Assn. v. Matosantos (2011) 53 Cal.4th 231, 241, 246, 250-251, 253 [ 135 Cal.Rptr.3d 683 , 267 P.3d 580 ] (Matosantos).) This case stems from a dispute arising out of a process we might call the “Great Dissolution.”

Defendant Department of Finance (the Department) disapproved two items included in the “Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule” (ROPS) of plaintiff City of Pasadena (the City). The City acts as “successor agency” to the Pasadena Community Development Commission (§§ 34171, subd. (j), 34173), determining that these were not enforceable obligations of the Pasadena redevelopment agency. Both obligations expire in 2014; the first apparently involved reimbursement for pension bonds and the other for subsidized housing bonds, both pursuant to a…