OXNARD : Raiders Team Pays $30,000 Back Taxes

The Los Angeles Raiders have paid about $30,000 in back taxes owed the city of Oxnard on property leased to the professional football team for its summer training camp.

Last month, the city filed a lawsuit against the Raiders to collect the money that had been assessed by Ventura County but not paid by the team over the past three years.

City Finance Director Rudy Muravez said Friday that a check, with a tiny Raider’s emblem in the corner, arrived in the mail last week to cover the amount due. The check came without a note or explanation.

“No one knew what it was and it floated around for awhile,” Muravez said. “Once it got to me, I knew exactly what it was for.”

Still at issue is about $1,500 in legal fees paid out by Oxnard to recover the tax money. The city attorney has sent a letter to the Raiders requesting that money.

In the lawsuit filed last month in Ventura County Superior Court, an attorney for Oxnard said the city had repeatedly asked the National Football League team for the back taxes.

According to the lawsuit, the city contended that under the terms of the lease, the Raiders were required to pay a tax simply for having possession of practice fields and a field house on city-owned land near the River Ridge Golf Course on West Vineyard Avenue.

Muravez said such a tax is no longer an issue because the city has formed a joint-powers agency that controls the property, and is exempt from the assessment.

The Raiders have used the Oxnard site for their summer training camp since 1986. The current four-year lease was signed in 1990.