The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday formally dissolved its redevelopment agency to meet a state-ordered shutdown effective today. The deadline affects about 400 redevelopment agencies statewide. “This is a very, very sad day,” Supervisor Shirlee Zane, chairwoman of the board, said before the vote.

Opponents of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train apparently have failed in their attempt to force a repeal election on the sales tax that is the agency’s major source of funding. Marin County numbers won’t be available until Monday, but the Sonoma County figures fell well short of the threshold for a ballot measure. RepealSMART vowed to start a new petition drive next week.

Work on the SMART commuter rail system through Sonoma and Marin counties will begin Tuesday, nearly four years after voters approved a ballot measure to help fund the project and despite current efforts to derail it. The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Board of Directors on Monday voted unanimously to approve a $103.3 million contract with Alameda-based Stacy and Witbeck Inc. and Herzog Contracting Corp. to build the first phase of the project.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District this week began selling millions of dollars in construction bonds, but officials refused to acknowledge that or disclose the terms. “If it is available, the bonding will be announced on the 21st,” said SMART Chairwoman Valerie Brown, referring to a board meeting set for Wednesday. Critics say it is another example of SMART not doing business in public.

In a shake-up at the top of Sonoma County government, the Board of Supervisors on Monday appointed David Sundstrom to Sonoma County’s vacant chief financial officer post. He currently serves as the elected auditor-controller of Orange County. The board bypassed a recommendation by Rod Dole to select his longtime No. 2 administrator, Donna Dunk.

David Heath, the chief financial officer of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District, has been dismissed. SMART Chairwoman Valerie Brown said Heath was terminated without cause on Oct. 24 but declined to state the reason for his departure.

Without a major overhaul of its retirement system, Sonoma County government faces “untenable consequences,” including the continued skyrocketing of pension costs and the further erosion of funding for public services. That is the message being delivered Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors in a 135-page report by two of its members.

Sonoma County is set to spend nearly $3.4 million this budget year and add more than 21 probation, jail, health and counseling positions to deal with the new shift of some criminals and state parolees to county supervision. The plan, which was approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, calls for 19 new jobs in the probation department and the Sheriff’s Office.

In the face of a tax repeal effort, officials and supporters of the Sonoma-Marin commute train are fighting back with their own informational campaigns. The SMART board has approved spending as much as $200,000 on public relations work. And Friends of SMART, a coalition of 18 North Bay groups, is gearing up to battle efforts to repeal the quarter-cent sales tax that funds the rail system.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed on the need to revise the county’s 2006 medical marijuana ordinance, but they differed sharply over the details of a proposed cap on the number of medical pot dispensaries operating outside city limits. The board ultimately endorsed a tentative cap of nine shops, two more than proposed.