West County Issue Dredging the Ventura...

Richard Francis, Ventura mayor

At this juncture, the matter is in litigation, and the council has not taken an official perspective. I need to keep an open mind and wait until I hear from the public. The last official action taken by the city in 1964 says, as a condition to allow the development of the Keys, “a maintenance district shall be formed, encompassing all of the area within the subdivision benefited by the proposed channels.” The developer wanted to build expensive homes, and he wanted to build them at the end of the drainage system of the city. The city said, “Wait! That’s at the end of the drainage system, and we don’t want to have to clean it up.” The developer said, “No problem. Let’s form an assessment district, and the homeowners will pay to clean it up.” The city knew going in that this was a problem, and protected itself by the requirement that the assessment district be formed. I think there is a general consensus that the city should assist in some manner.

James W. Majewski, Save the Keys Committee, Ventura Keys Assn.

Of course they should, and the reason they should pay for dredging is that the Keys serve as a basin, a reservoir, for all the storm drains within the city. Without the Ventura Keys for the storm drains to drain into, all of the stuff that washed down into the Keys here in the past couple of weeks would have been washed out into the city’s streets. In fact, there have been examples in some areas where the drains couldn’t handle the flow of water. Either that, or the drains had gotten plugged up and the streets became buried in garbage. The city is shirking its responsibility by not maintaining the drains that are in place now. Those drains have not been maintained for years--the Arundell Barranca and the storm drains. What happens now is that it all just washes straight into my back yard and others. I believe a number of homeowners would consider paying for the dredging if all of the storm drains were blocked off. When we had the heavy rains we had lemons and all kinds of citrus, good-sized pieces of trees and railroad ties in our back yard!

John S. Baker, Ventura city manager

The city of Ventura has consistently stated that the city should participate in the payment for dredging the Keys. The amount of the city’s participation is subject to the original conditions of approval by the city of Ventura for the 1964 Keys housing development, and the specific conditions that exist at the time of dredging. The city of Ventura has never stated that it would not participate in the payment. We must perform the technical studies in preparation for the actual dredging, to determine how much the general taxpaying population of the city should contribute toward a specific neighborhood requirement, as this is where the city must get its portion of the funding to complete the dredging. I say this, recognizing that deposits in the Keys come from more than just Keys properties.

Ray Russum, Chairman, Venturians for Honest Government

In my opinion the city owns the channels. The city took control of these public waterways along with the obligation to keep them cleaned up when they made a deal with the developer back in 1959. Also, the city and the county decided not to put in adequate storm drains and that they would dredge instead. Now it’s time for them to do it, and they want to put in an assessment district. Part of this assessment district thing is that they want to establish an enabling ordinance to use assessment districts all over the city, and they’re using the rich folks in the Keys to establish this new method of taxation. The mayor has called us freeloaders. We really have the highest property taxes in the city of Ventura. They’re trying to establish an enabling ordinance for benefit assessment districts. Once they establish that principle in this neighborhood, they’ve got plenty of other areas where they’re going to use assessment districts. No one is safe! Ninety-eight percent of the city’s sludge drains right into the Keys.

James L. Monahan, Ventura councilman

I feel the Keys community is like any other community in our city. We have various areas that have different amenities. In the Keys, they have waterfront homes, they pay large property taxes, and they are entitled to the same kind of protection as all homes in the city. I feel the city should clean up the Keys. They should have maintained it and not let it go for five years. I think many of the homeowners would have been happy to participate in the cleanup at one time, but when the city has been so determined not to participate, I think the lines have been drawn and sides taken. I feel the city’s responsibility should be lived up to. I’m only one council member and what I’m saying may not be what the council chooses to do as a majority. I can understand their concept--why should all the taxpayers of the city have to pay the cost of this cleanup? But all the taxpayers of the city have to pay the cost of anything that goes on in the city. The Keys homes do get the brunt of all the runoff. They get all the dead cats and dogs and lemons and oranges dumped right in their front yard.