Homeowners Along Waterways Assail Increase in Harbor Tax Bills : Oxnard: A projected $2.8-million deficit forced the city to pass some costs to Mandalay Bay and Channel Islands residents.

When Oxnard resident Edward Fernandez received his property tax bill this week, he was surprised and angry to find a $68 increase in the fee he pays the city to maintain the harbor channel that runs past his back yard.

Fernandez aimed his anger at City Council members who voted in June to increase the fee for the 875 homeowners who live along the waterways in the Mandalay Bay and Channel Islands neighborhoods.

“They’re a bunch of idiots,” he said.

Like many other residents in his neighborhood who received their tax bills this week and last, Fernandez said he was caught off guard by the increase. “I hadn’t heard anything,” he said.

City officials defend the increase, saying the city was faced this year with a $2.8-million deficit and was forced to pass some costs to residents to help avoid the shortfall.

“We have to pass that on to the people who benefit from living there,” Public Works Director James Frandsen said.

The increase--averaging about $55 for each property owner, or about 13%--was approved by the council as part of the city’s annual budget. The fee increase will raise the waterway maintenance fee to $417 for the average homeowner and to $144 for the average condominium owner.

The waterfront residences assessed are mostly large, expensive houses with well-manicured lawns and small docks attached to the back where yachts and sailboats are berthed.

Several residents have objected to the increase, saying the channels are public passageways and the cost of maintaining them should be a burden carried by everyone.

“Why should we have to pay for it,” said George Buur, who has lived off a channel on Romany Drive for 19 years. “Everybody else can put their boats in the channel.”

Assistant City Manager John Tooker said he has heard some griping about the fee increase. “We are aware that the homeowners are not pleased with these assessments.”

The fee increase would raise an additional $89,000 toward waterway maintenance, city officials said. This year’s maintenance budget will be $497,800, generated mostly through fees to residents along the waterways.

Part of the fee increase will replace $64,000 that the council cut from the city budget, city officials said. In the previous year, the city donated $64,000 to help residents pay for the cost of dredging, landscaping, algae removal and seawall repairs along the waterways.

Another part of the increase will finance a new $25,000 program to remove sunken boats from the channels and to correct such code violations as poorly maintained docks, city officials said.

While some residents say they were never asked their opinion on the fee increase, Frandsen said residents were represented in the budget hearings by City Council members.

“They are getting their say in their representatives on the council,” he said.

Fred Schwartz, a candidate for City Council who owns a residence along a channel on Jamestown Way, said the increase “is probably legal, but it’s not ethical.”

Fernandez said his waterway maintenance fee was $321 in 1988, increased to $440 in 1989 and jumped to $508 this year.

“Everybody uses this waterway,” he said. “It’s not ours. We can’t keep other people out.”

Frandsen said the city made an effort to notify residents about the increase through area homeowner associations.

Sheldon Berger, president of the Channel Islands Waterfront Homeowners Assn., said he knew about the increase and tried unsuccessfully to get residents to protest when it came before the council in June.

Berger attended a council meeting and objected to the fee increase, but said his concerns “just fell on deaf ears.” Berger hopes that residents will begin to complain about the increased fee now that it has begun to hit them in the pocketbook.

“I have been telling them to call their council representative,” he said. “If they get one call, it won’t do it. If they get two, it will help. But unless they get deluged we won’t get anything done.”