Proposed Landscape Fee Sparks Tax Revolt : Oxnard: Homeowners say they are being overcharged for maintenance. Campaign could change how the city delivers services.

Oxnard’s tax revolt started with a simple one-page advisory.

City officials last month mailed notices to about 1,500 homeowners warning of new taxes to groom vegetation bordering some of Oxnard’s priciest neighborhoods.

The notices, required for the first time by state law, sparked protests and petition drives, and launched a citywide campaign to change the way the city delivers some municipal services.

“We’re being overcharged,” said John Daykin, a homeowner in the California Lighthouse subdivision sprouting in the shadow of the Oxnard Airport. “Nobody has a problem paying a fair price for a fair service, but we are not going to be gouged just because the city thinks we are an easy and accessible target.”

From Oxnard’s high-priced waterfront communities to budding housing tracts on the city’s east side, homeowners are banding together to oppose special taxes being levied by the city to manicure neighborhood landscaping.

In communities with names like Mandalay Bay, Strawberry Fields and Pelican Pointe, residents are complaining about the cost and quality of the gardening service the city provides and are demanding that officials look into hiring private landscapers to do the work instead.

“When I say their work stinks, it does,” said Jim Moore, president of one of five homeowners associations in the city’s River Ridge area. “I don’t think anybody minds paying the tax if it’s a legitimate tax and we’re receiving a dollar spent in services.”

The homeowners live in maintenance assessment districts, established by city officials over the past six years as conditions of approval for residential and industrial projects.

The districts require homeowners to pool their money to pay city crews to maintain landscaped walkways and medians.

There are 16 landscape districts citywide, encompassing 1,500 homeowners and about 1.6 million square feet of greenery. For fiscal year 1993-94, homeowners are being asked to pay more than half a million dollars to beautify public landscaping throughout Oxnard.

“The idea is that increased landscaping has a direct positive benefit on the homes in the area,” said Michael Henderson, the city’s parks superintendent. “Without those districts, there would be no money and there would be no landscaping.”

Even though assessments for homeowners in half a dozen of the districts would decrease under the city’s new tax proposal, many residents remain concerned about the level of service their neighborhoods receive.

Association President Moore said since he moved into the River Ridge subdivision five years ago, his annual landscaping bill has increased from $112 to $243. At the same time, he said landscaped areas have been allowed to become weed-choked and overgrown.

“I see those workers sitting in their trucks, listening to their radios for two or three hours at a time,” said Moore, who is being asked to split a $118,000 gardening bill with his 515 neighbors this year. “I feel like walking up to them and saying, ‘Hey buddy, you’re spending my money, get to work!’ ”

Henderson said he encourages residents to call City Hall when employees aren’t doing a good job.

“Not every employee we have is an outstanding employee,” he said. “Get a truck number and a description of the individual, videotape them if they are goofing off. Part of our job is to keep them working.”

Many of the concerns were aired at a public hearing earlier this month, during which a majority of council members sided with residents.

“We ought to at least have some pride in our workmanship,” Councilman Andres Herrera told the homeowners who packed the council chambers two weeks ago. “I think we are entitled to a better product and to better service.”

No one is complaining louder than homeowners from California Cove, a quiet residential tract on the city’s north side.

Residents of the 212-unit subdivision received notices advising that they each would have to pay $179 a year to beautify narrow strips of vegetation on the outskirts of the neighborhood. Because the tract is only about a year old, no assessment was charged this year.

More than 100 homeowners signed a petition opposing the proposed assessment.

Asked homeowner Diane Lydick at the public hearing: “Where is this money going?”

For California Cove, the proposed landscape bill for fiscal year 1993-94 is $38,023. Of that, more than $27,000 will go toward labor; about $5,000 toward supplies; $2,200 for utilities; $200 for minor equipment; $100 for uniforms and $100 for the county to collect the assessment that is tacked onto property tax bills.

The remainder--about $3,000--goes toward what Henderson labels “indirect costs.”

Council members have ordered a closer look at the assessments and the indirect costs. And they asked city staff to investigate the idea of allowing private contractors to bid to provide services currently performed by the city.

Oxnard city staff members are seeking bids for private contracts on five districts.

“In the private sector, if you are unhappy with the job that is being performed you change contractors,” said Councilman Tom Holden. “One thing that will stimulate people to seek privatization is to provide a lesser quality product for more money.”

Developers of the Channel Islands Business Park were so concerned about the cost and quality of publicly maintained landscaping that they successfully petitioned city officials to allow a private contractor to do the work.

Patrick McIlhenney, vice president of development for the Told Corp., which built the park, said he showed city officials that a private landscaper could do the job for 13 cents a square foot, 17 cents less than the city intended to charge.

The city still charges a $1,000 annual assessment to inspect landscaping at the business park.

“A lot of the catalyst for this was that we went around and looked at what the city was doing in terms of its own street maintenance,” said McIlhenney, who didn’t like what he found. “We decided that if that’s what the streets were going to look like for the money we would pay, we didn’t want any part of it.”

Throughout Oxnard, many residents are expressing similar sentiments. In River Ridge, homeowners groups are considering a letter-writing campaign to demonstrate opposition.

And at California Cove, residents plan to join forces with other neighborhoods to send their anti-tax message to City Hall.

“I feel if they can’t be competitive, they should privatize,” said homeowner Rabia Weaman. “There is just so much of our money you can take to feed the monster just to keep the monster alive.”