OXNARD : New Harbor District Clears Requirement

About 80,000 county residents will soon receive a notice that they have been excluded from the Oxnard Harbor District.

The notice is one of the last legal requirements before the district’s boundaries can be reduced, Port Hueneme City Manager Dick Velthoen said.

Over strenuous objections from the harbor district, a county agency last month voted to reduce district boundaries to the cities of Oxnard and Port Hueneme, eliminating Camarillo, portions of Thousand Oaks and unincorporated areas. Oxnard and Port Hueneme supported the change.

The public notice will advise residents of the boundary change, which wipes out their right to vote for board members. Unless 25% file a protest, triggering an election, the decision will become final after a last public hearing.

But the bitter, long-running dispute over port boundaries may be revived by the port district commissioners.

“I’m still hoping that the district will not shrink,” said board President Edward Millan, a resident of Camarillo, who would be barred from seeking reelection in November under the decision by the Local Agency Formation Commission.

“We have not determined what action we are going to take,” Millan said, “but you can bet your bottom dollar that we will do what we can.”

Harbor District Executive Director Anthony Taormina said that delays are still possible in the LAFCO boundary-change process. If Ventura city officials seek to have that city included in port boundaries, as they have suggested, the process could be delayed.

Port attorneys also have said in past weeks that they see grounds for a potential lawsuit over LAFCO’s decision.