ELECTIONS PROPOSITIONS : Oxnard Tax Behind During Early Balloting

A 5% utility users tax designed to solve Oxnard’s financial crisis by generating $5 million annually seemed headed for defeat in early election returns Tuesday.

In Simi Valley, a ballot measure that amends the city’s slow growth limits seemed destined for approval. And in Santa Paula, a bond measure designed to raise funds to renovate the city’s only public high school appeared on its way to approval.

The Oxnard City Council had placed Measure C on the ballot in hopes it would generate revenue to wipe away a projected $2.8-million deficit next year and help the city fatten its reserves, which have been drained in the past four years.

City officials had warned that without the revenue from the measure the city would be forced to make drastic cuts in services and personnel, possibly including police and firefighters.

The measure has been at the center of the most expensive ballot measure campaign in Oxnard’s history--generating nearly $40,000 in support. It also has been one of the most controversial, sparking accusations of deception and charges that developers are bankrolling the measure and have attempted to bribe a city councilwoman.

Supporters, including the city’s police and firefighter associations, said in campaign statements that defeat of the measure could lead to drastic layoffs in the city’s already understaffed police and fire departments.

“I think it will be a terrible thing for the city” if the measure is rejected, said Councilman Manuel Lopez, who said he was surprised by early returns. “We are faced with such a revenue shortfall that we will be hard-pressed to implement all the things we will have to do in order to balance the budget.”

The opponents, including the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce and a group of residents and business owners who call themselves Oxnard Residents for Responsible Government, have blamed the city’s financial woes on government mismanagement. They urged residents to reject the tax increase and put a stop to the city government’s “free-spending attitude.”

Opponents said developers donated a lion’s share of the contributions to Citizens for Public Safety, a pro-tax group, only to win favor with the council, an accusation that developers denied.

Last month, Councilwoman Ann Johs accused one developer of offering to employ a Westwood public relations firm to assist in approving the tax in exchange for her support of a controversial building project. The developer, Warmington Homes of Orange County, denied the accusation.

Marc L. Charney, an Oxnard attorney and vocal opponent of the measure, said he believes voters were reluctant to give the city a new source of revenue given its history of financial troubles.

When voters are asked to pass a tax increase, “it’s always an uphill battle but that’s not the whole picture,” he said.

Curtis Davison, treasurer for Oxnard Residents for Responsible Government, said many voters in Oxnard opposed the tax increase because they feel their voice is not heard in City Hall.

The tax, to have taken effect July 1, would have been added to telephone, cable, electric, gas and garbage-collection fees and would have cost the average household about $4 a month.

In a related matter, a divided Oxnard City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to approve a deadline extension for a Washington-based firm hired to draft a management audit designed to uncover the cause of the city’s financial crisis.

Cresap Management Consultants wrote a letter to the city dated May 30 saying it could not meet the May 31 deadline for completing the audit.

City officials had repeatedly said the results of the audit would be released before voters go to the polls to decide the utility tax increase.

Councilwomen Dorothy Maron, Geraldine (Gerry) Furr and Johs voted to give Cresap until June 19 to complete the audit. Mayor Nao Takasugi and Lopez opposed the deadline extension.

The three councilwomen said they supported the extension because they believe that the city is partly to blame for the audit’s delay. They said Cresap was forced to do additional work on the audit because council members asked Cresap to meet with each member to discuss their concerns about the city’s financial problems.

Takasugi and Lopez urged that the council cancel its contract with Cresap for missing the deadline.

Lopez and Takasugi both said it was vital that voters know the cause of the city’s financial crisis before they decide to approve another revenue source for the city.

Takasugi said that Cresap never warned the city that the additional meetings with council members would delay the completion of the audit.

In early returns, Simi Valley voters were approving a ballot measure that amends the city’s controlled growth ordinance by giving priority to developers planning to build affordable housing for low-income senior citizens.

Measure B amends a 1986 ordinance that allows about 43 building permits to be issued every three months until it expires in mid-1996. Under the amendment, developers building low-income senior citizens housing units are allowed to exceed the permit limit by borrowing from future permit allocations.

But there was virtually no opposition to the measure and no ballot argument was submitted against Measure B.

Voters in Santa Paula, according to early returns, were approving Measure A, a bond initiative that provides the city’s only public high school $5 million to renovate the cracking, peeling historic landmark. The measure requires support of two-thirds of the voters.

Supporters of the bond measure say Santa Paula High School, with buildings that date back to the 1930s, is a stately but decaying structure that badly needs attention.

The measure requires homeowners to pay $30 per $100,000 in assessed valuation over the next 25 years to finance repairs to the high school. There was virtually no opposition to the measure.

Times correspondent Ken McAlpine contributed to this story.