Port Hueneme Weighs Task Force on Beach, Parks Taxes : Finances: Panel would find new ways to raise funds for maintenance and study merging assessment districts.

Facing a lawsuit over its infamous view tax, the Port Hueneme City Council on Wednesday will consider creating a Blue Ribbon Task Force to find new ways to raise money for the upkeep of the city’s beach and parks.

Under the proposal, the task force will study merging the beach maintenance assessment district, which collects property taxes from those closest to the beach, with a new park maintenance district that collects taxes throughout the city.

City Manager John R. Velthoen said he proposed a merger between the two districts in April, when the council approved the parks district.

“The question is whether everyone in the city should pay equally, or whether the costs should be spread more appropriately in the area (the parks and beach) serve,” Velthoen said.

The financially strapped city now collects $457,500 a year in property assessments from the two districts, with residents nearest the beach and parks paying the greatest share.

In 1991, many beach residents were infuriated when the city established the beach maintenance district. They dubbed the new levy a “view tax,” complained to Sacramento and a few of them filed a lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court to overturn it.

In the suit, the beachfront residents complained that they were unfairly paying a disproportionate amount for the upkeep of a public facility. The case is getting close to trial.

Some opponents of the view tax are optimistic that any task force would recommend changing an unfair system of taxation.

“This is an opportunity to take the assessment districts and make them more palatable to the residents,” said Councilwoman Toni Young, who is one of two proposed council members to serve on the task force.

“The city hasn’t given me a goal,” Young said. “They haven’t suggested I can get rid of the 25% share that park neighbors pay or the tier system for beach fees. All they’ve said is they’re not sure how to do it.”

Dorothy Blake, one of nine individuals who filed the lawsuit against the city, was asked to represent beachfront residents on the task force. Blake, president of the Hueneme Homeowners Coalition, said her first reaction to the proposed task force was that the beach fee opponents had won their fight.

“The first thought that ran through my head was that this was a form of capitulation by the city,” Blake said. “I applaud the City Council for taking a somewhat courageous step to resolve their financial problem.”

Blake said she has not changed her mind about the fairness of the beach maintenance fee, which charges residents south of Hueneme Road between $80 and $207 a year, depending on their proximity to the ocean.

“I was very disappointed when they chose to single out a small portion of residents to pay for part of the maintenance of a 100% public-access beach,” Blake said.

At the same time, Blake questioned whether a flat fee charged to all city residents would be fair either. “Someone who owns a mansion would then pay the same rate as someone with a shack,” she said. “I don’t know how to do it fairly.”

David Kanter, another plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city, expressed doubt that the creation of a community task force would lead to a more equitable beach or park maintenance fee.

“I wouldn’t get too excited about it personally,” said Kanter, who dismissed it as “an exercise in public relations.” Kanter said city officials have invited individual beach residents to City Hall in recent weeks in an effort to create divisions.

“This lawsuit has merit, the city knows it and this is a way to stop it,” Kanter said.

Joel Fox, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and a Port Hueneme property owner, described the call for a task force as a positive sign.

“When 50% of the residents (in the beach maintenance district) protested three years ago, the City Council overrode them,” Fox said. “Now they’re asking for citizen input, and Dorothy Blake is not a person handpicked by City Hall. That seems to be a hopeful sign.”

Philip Bohan, another resident named to the proposed seven-member task force, said the challenge facing the group would be formidable.

“Port Hueneme is a small town and we don’t want to create anything that causes divisions,” Bohan said. “We need an equitable solution that is easy for people to understand and to live with.”