OJAI : Long Dispute Over Sewer System Repairs Is Settled

A mediator has decided that the city of Ojai and the Ojai Valley Sanitary District should share the costs of major repairs to the city’s sewer system, ending a longstanding dispute over improving the area’s ability to handle storm runoff.

In a decision released Wednesday, retired Judge Jerome H. Berenson ruled that the citizens of Ojai should pay half of the $6-million to $7-million cost of refurbishing the city’s sewer system, while the other half of the cost should be borne by other residents of the sanitary district.

The district annexed the city after its formation in 1985, but part of the annexation agreement stated that residents of the city would be responsible for needed repairs of the city’s sewer system, said Eric Oltmann, the sanitary district’s general manager.

When the repairs turned out to be much greater in scope than expected, Ojai officials demanded that the district assume some of the costs, Oltmann said.

City officials threatened to sue over the issue, which led both parties to seek a mediator in 1990. Berenson was asked to study the dispute and issue a binding resolution, Oltmann said.

Representatives of both sides said they were delighted that the matter has been settled.

“It is a compromise ruling, and not as good as one side or the other would have hoped for, but it is a decision and will let us finally go forward,” Oltmann said. “The important thing is that we avoided spending time in court.”

Ojai City Manager Andrew Belknap said the ruling “is definitely a better result than if we had to go with what the Ojai Valley Sanitary District had proposed, which was the city of Ojai paying all the costs.”

Oltmann said the district would seek bids on the project as early as August, with construction under way by October and scheduled for completion within a year.

Neither city nor district officials have decided how to finance the repairs or what it would cost city residents and others who live in the sanitary district.