City, Residents Squabble Over Dredging Costs

Residents of the Ventura Keys quarreled again Thursday with city engineers as the engineers tried to explain why Keys homeowners must bear most of the $2.7-million cost of dredging the man-made boat channels in their back yards.

Assistant City Manager Barbara Fosbrink and a panel of engineers faced down two dozen grumbling Keys residents in the Ventura High School cafeteria and explained that the 299 Keys homeowners will have to pay 75%, or $1,680 a year each for the dredging, with the city picking up the other 25%. The assessments would be made for an indefinite period of time.

As their waterways began silting up with debris washed into the harbor from east Ventura drainage systems--particularly after last March’s heavy storms--the Keys residents began clamoring more loudly for the city to take responsibility for the dredging because the debris comes from city-owned drains.

“Did we as property owners dump 40,000 cubic yards of sand into that barranca?” asked Russell Thomas, a Keys waterfront resident since 1980. “No!”

But the city has long argued that the original developer of the Keys signed an agreement in 1964 allowing the residents to be assessed for regular maintenance of the waterways.

When engineer Bill Stookey repeated that history, several of the Keys residents protested.

“But none of us here agreed to that proposition,” said Peter Cannon, who has owned a waterfront home on Seaview Avenue since 1976.

In answer to objections that Proposition 13 prohibits such assessments, Stookey said the dredging of the waterways is not maintenance but an improvement, for which homeowners can be assessed under state law.

“Improvement?” several residents muttered. “Improvements?”

The meeting was the first of two in which the engineers planned to get input from Keys residents before presenting their final report to the City Council.

Another workshop is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Ventura High School cafeteria, 2155 E. Main St.

Engineers agreed to have answers to questions that residents posed by Thursday. They include defining “improvement” and “maintenance,” describing the city’s liabilities for injuries in the waterways and gathering statistics comparing the amount of debris flowing into the waterways in 1964 and 1991.

The engineers will present the report to the City Council on Sept. 23. After holding a public hearing that night, the council is expected to vote on whether to establish the assessment district.

Meanwhile, what began in jest has turned serious: Some Keys residents want to secede.

Disgusted with the city’s treatment of their neighborhood, a group of Keys residents is proposing that the 299 homes in the Ventura Keys and the businesses in the Ventura Port District secede from Ventura and incorporate into a new city called Ventura-by-the-Sea.

“It really did start out as a joke, and we’re actually looking at it seriously now,” said Brad Barnes, chairman of the committee studying the secession idea. “It’s not as difficult as we originally thought.”

However, port district General Manager Richard Parsons said, “I think it’s ludicrous because they have no concept of what it costs to run a city.”

The secessionists plan to meet Monday with Robert Braitman, executive officer of the Ventura County Local Agency Formation Commission.

Braitman said the proponents first must persuade 5% of the residents and merchants in the area to petition LAFCO to help them study the matter. LAFCO then would hold public hearings.

If 50% of the residents and merchants in the area support the idea, a vote would be held, Braitman said. If 75% or more approve, the area could leave Ventura without an election--so long as the City Council approves the idea, Braitman said.

Barnes said the secessionists have not worked out details of how to pay for the dredging and other essential services such as police, fire protection and street maintenance.

“I’m treating this as a serious request for information but . . . there’s got to be some questions regarding the economics,” Braitman said.

Keys resident Don Adams, who filed a class-action suit in January to compel the city to pay for the dredging, called secession “a half-baked idea.”

“It’s going to cost more in the long run to secede from the city than it would be just to stand our ground and fight the city on the issue of dredging and get a fair and equitable solution,” Adams said. “The idea has not been thought out that well.”