Oakland City Council held an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon in a bid to protect redevelopment projects and funds from the state of California as part of the tussle over eliminating local redevelopment agencies.

Council members voted to fast track funds already in the pipeline for some redevelopment projects. The Council also voted to both buy and sell some city properties to its redevelopment agency as a way of guarding against the possibility of the state taking control of  the properties if redevelopment is eliminated. Projects that are a part of the transfer include the Oakland Army Base and the headquarters for the Oakland Police Department.

While contracts for the transfers were finalized, no money was exchanged. The Council can still reverse its decision if the state legislature decides against the elimination of redevelopment agencies or if the courts rule against the plan.

City leaders said it is important to take immediate steps because the state legislature is likely to vote on the budget in the next several days.

Mayor Jean Quan said that Oakland must protect its assets.

"Under the governor's proposal, they could actually seize the redevelopment properties, including properties like the Army Base," Quan said. "The main thing is we don't want all of assets tied up in legal battles for years and years. So this is our way to protect them while the legal battle is going on and to keep them in the city's hands."

City Administrator Dan Lindheim agreed.

'We decided that we had to protect Oakland and to do so what we've come up with are a series of measurements to protect Oakland, Oakland's assets and Oakland's future," he said at the meeting.

Earlier this week, the California state Senate and the state Assembly began working together to iron out differences in Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget.

Last week, both the state senate and the assembly voted to approve most of Brown’s budget proposal, which eliminates more than $12 billion in spending for nearly every state program.

Oakland joins a growing list of California municipalities taking proactive measures in the wake of Brown's decision to put redevelopment agencies on the chopping block in a quest to save the state money.

Proponents of redevelopment funds argue that redevelopment contributes more than $40 billion annually to California's economy and contributes an average of 304,000 full and part-time private sector jobs in a typical year, including 170,600 construction jobs.

Locally, if funds were cut, Oakland would lose $40 million in the first year and about $24 million per year thereafter.

At Thursday's meeting, Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan had a message for the governor's office.

"To the Governor or his staff, if they are listening, you can bring in a lot more money to the state by not shutting down local economic development," she said. "We hope you will continue to consider that while we continue to do what we have to do to ensure economic development happening in Oakland."

City officials said that while they had been working on the redevelopment plans previously, they were taken off guard by the state's sudden decision to speed up its actions. In addition, details on the budget proposal was not available until just a few days ago.

It's unclear if the City Council's actions on Thursday - particularly the decision to fast-track redevelopment funds - will withstand a possible legal challenge by the state.

"Whether that will pass muster in a legal sense nobody knows," Lindheim said. "Lots of cities are doing it, lots of cities are hoping."

At the meeting, Quan said that the legal challenges are almost inevitable.

"This (action) is really necessary for us to keep as much legal control over major parts of  the city while this happens," she said. "Either it''s going to be a land grab or it's going to be caught up in the courts and we can't afford that."