NEWS ANALYSIS : Tax Foes Line Up Lawsuits to Fight O.C. School Fees : Assessments: As a second district imposes repair levy, angry opponents vow legal fights and recall drives.

The decision by a coalition of four Huntington Beach-area school districts to charge homeowners $50 annually for school repairs has sparked a call for legal action against such fees anywhere in the state.

The first lawsuits against schools imposing these fees are expected to be filed in Orange County as early as next week. Another suit brought by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a Los Angeles-based, anti-tax group, also is expected to be filed against the Orange Unified School District, which was the first in the county to impose such a levy.

“This is like some kind of tax invasion,” said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Jarvis group. “It’s the invasion of the weird assessment district. These fees keep popping up in one school district after the other.”

Vosburgh said his group is prepared to fight this statewide. It also supports a bill by state Sen. John Lewis (R-Orange), which would require voter approval of any new fees.

The school maintenance fee has become attractive for schools that have been hit hard by the state’s massive deficit. Using the state Lighting and Landscape Act of 1972, school district officials say they can charge property owners for the upkeep and improvement of public recreational facilities. But the idea has turned usually sleepy school board meetings into loud and emotional debates, where vehement opponents nearly always outnumber supporters.

James M. Righeimer, president of the Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley Board of Realtors, said he believes the idea of assessing property owners for school maintenance has planted the seeds of a new tax revolt.

Such a movement appeared to be afoot Thursday night at a meeting of four school districts, which drew more than 1,000 people, most of them vocal opponents of the fee. But it had little effect. After listening to impassioned pleas for more than six hours, the panel--an umbrella group of trustees from the Huntington Beach Union High, Huntington Beach City, Ocean View and Westminster school districts--approved the $50 levy without comment.

Flanked by police officers called to maintain order at the Huntington Beach High School auditorium, the panel stoically defied the incensed protesters, touching off jeers and shouts of “Recall!” “See you in court!” and “This isn’t Russia!”

Throughout the hearing, the vast majority of the 85 speakers chided the trustees.

Opponent Robert Scott of Huntington Beach told the board: “I am retired, and I don’t use these facilities. I believe in the 10 Commandments of God: Thou shalt not steal!”

By the time the meeting ended--seven hours after it started--a member of the Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley Board of Realtors had dropped copies of a lawsuit that the board plans to file in front of each trustee.

“I wondered if they were going to start throwing things,” Jerry Sullivan, a member of the joint authority, said of the crowd. “Some of them were nasty enough.”

A recall drive against the trustees of the joint authority was launched Friday. The group, calling itself Citizens for Accountability in Education, will meet Sunday to carve out its strategy, leader Bryan Bridges said.

After the vote, trustees said they felt they had no choice but to approve the levy, which would raise more than $4 million a year for the financially strapped districts.

Sullivan, who was elected to the Huntington Beach high school board in 1985, said the threat of recall does not worry him. He said he does not plan to seek reelection when his current term expires in November, 1994.

“The only reason I did this is because I know this is my last term, so I figured I would do something noble for the district and get it some money,” said Sullivan, a Cal State Long Beach professor of English and education. “I knew I could take the risk because I’m not going to run again. I’ve had enough.”

Board members said they sympathized with protesters’ concerns, but their financial predicaments forced them to approve the fee.

“I understand the frustrations of these people and I know people are hurting because of the recession,” Ocean View Trustee Sheila Marcus said. “But you look at schools and how little money is available for the children. We are down to the bare minimum. You can’t educate children like that.”

All of the districts have withstood deep spending cuts during the past decade because of decreased state funding, exacerbated by plummeting enrollment. The Huntington Beach Union High School District, for example, has slashed $11.6 million from its budgets during the past five years, including $2.6 million in cuts last April. District officials say they expect to make similar reductions next year, which could prompt layoffs of nurses and psychologists and the closing of a swimming pool.

On Friday, reaction to the authority’s approval was immediate.

In a written statement, Sen. Lewis said: “I’m disappointed that the joint authority chose to disregard the overwhelming majority of property owners and saddling them with long-term bonded debt without their consent.”

Lewis’ bill would require two-thirds voter approval for assessment districts. His proposal has been backed by state Sen. Robert Beverly (R-Redondo Beach), the author of the 1972 assessment law.

“I accept the premise that schools need funds,” Beverly said. “But to form an assessment district that effectively taxes people to maintain school grounds is far-fetched. I never intended this for the act.”