OAK PARK : County to Consider Sales Tax Inquiry

Some private sleuthing by an Oak Park resident may lead to an investigation of whether Ventura County receives its fair share of sales taxes, officials said Friday.

Ron Stark, a member of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council, noticed recently that a newly opened fast-food franchise in the Oak Park Shopping Center charged the Los Angeles sales tax rate of 8.25% rather than the Ventura County rate of 7.25%.

Concerned that the El Pollo Loco franchise might be sending its sales tax revenues to Los Angeles County, Stark contacted the office of Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, whose district includes Oak Park.

The county’s Revenue Enhancement Committee, which VanderKolk chairs, will consider Monday whether to recommend that the Board of Supervisors hire a private consultant to investigate sales tax collection at businesses throughout the county, VanderKolk said.

This would be the first such investigation for Ventura County, although cities around the county regularly conduct sales tax audits, said Robert L. Braitman, executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission.

The consultants would not charge the county for the service, but would get a percentage of the amount of taxes they found were owed to the county, Braitman said. The usual percentage payment is 25%, he said.

In Oak Park, many business owners and residents do not realize that they are in Ventura County, Stark said. The unincorporated community has an 818 telephone area code and a Los Angeles County ZIP code.

Stark said he makes a purchase at each new business that opens at the Oak Park Shopping Center to check their receipts. The sales tax rate is not shown on the receipts, he said.

“I get my calculator and I figure it out,” Stark said.

Employees at the El Pollo Loco in Oak Park told officials that they corrected their sales tax this week, said a spokesman for the State Board of Equalization.