Port Hueneme Puts Limits on Passport Service

Ventura County residents lost another place to apply for passports last week when Port Hueneme decided to limit its processing service to residents after a recent deluge of applicants.

The city, one of the few in California that still provides the service, processed 84 passport applications last month, up from 11 in January, 1991, City Clerk Karen Jackson said. Only seven were submitted by city residents.

“We got started just as a convenience,” said Jackson, whose office’s workload soared after Camarillo stopped taking applications in October. “It turned into a headache, and we weren’t able to cover our cost for the service.”

Fillmore is now the only city in the county that will take passport applications regardless of residence. Thousand Oaks accepts applications from residents and those employed in the city.

The U.S. Postal Service is the only other government agency that accepts passport applications in Ventura County and only at its post offices in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and the main Oxnard office one day a week.

The Port Hueneme City Council, which raised the processing fee last fall from $10 to $15, increased the fee to $30 Wednesday night at the same time it restricted the service to residents only.

Fillmore charges a $15 processing fee, and Thousand Oaks charges $18, on top of the $55 fee for adult passports charged by the State Department. The Postal Service charges $10 for processing, a spokesman said.