Countywide : Cities Learn Fees Already Allocated

Santa Paula is the latest city to ask for a portion of the $1 increase that was added to motor vehicle registration fees in December.

The fee increase is expected to generate about $500,000 during this fiscal year, and several cities apparently believed that there would be money left over after the district attorney’s office receives its allotted share.

However, all the revenue available this year has already been allocated in the district attorney’s budget, said Bert Bigler, the county’s manager of the budget. “There has been a misunderstanding,” Bigler said. “There is no money left over.”

The issue came up before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday in response to a letter from Santa Paula Police Chief Walter H. Adair, who said he believed that the district attorney’s office would use only $297,000 for its auto theft prosecution program.

Believing that the remainder of the revenue was not allocated, he sought $35,000 to help Santa Paula fight an increase in auto thefts. The city experienced 127 auto thefts in 1991, a 111% increase over the previous year.

Bigler said Oxnard and Ventura had also requested money to assist with auto thefts in their cities.

Special Assistant Dist. Atty. Don Coleman said: “We’re attempting to understand whether there has been a misunderstanding or not. If there is money left over, it is not in our budget.”

He said efforts are being made to track the revenue and how the county has budgeted it. “Then it will be clearer whether there is any more money anywhere.”