County Says Oxnard Cannot Annex Harbor : Waterway: Moving it into another jurisdiction would require tax concessions, lawyers say, and break a 1963 agreement.

Oxnard’s plan to annex Channel Islands Harbor is illegal, lawyers for Ventura County contend in a two-pronged counterattack aimed at keeping the tax-rich waterway in county jurisdiction.

In a letter Tuesday to a state agency that presides over annexations, County Counsel James L. McBride argues that a technicality regarding the transfer of property taxes between Oxnard and the county should indefinitely sideline the city’s proposal.

McBride said in an interview that the county will also argue--in a lawsuit if necessary--that the harbor annexation would breach a 1963 pact between Oxnard and the county that states that the city would never annex the waterway.

“If you sign agreements, they stick, no matter how old they are,” McBride said. “China has been trying to take Hong Kong back for a long time.”

The county would have to agree to transfer its claim on property taxes to the city before the Local Agency Formation Commission could make a decision on Oxnard’s request, McBride said.

Such negotiations could take years, he said.

The LAFCO board is set to review the annexation in October.

Stanley Eisner, executive director of LAFCO, said his agency’s attorneys are examining the county counsel’s claims to determine whether they are valid.

Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig said he had not yet researched the county’s arguments and was not prepared to comment.

“I’ll give Jim McBride some credit for creative thinking, that’s for sure,” Gillig said. “This is not a bombshell, but it’s unexpected.”

Former LAFCO director Bob Braitman, hired by Oxnard to steer the plan through the agency, also declined comment because he had not heard of the letter.

County Supervisor John K. Flynn, who has vowed that Oxnard’s plan will happen only over his dead body, said if McBride is right, the county has squelched the city’s maneuver.

“It will be impossible for Oxnard to proceed with the annexation,” Flynn said. “(A tax agreement) would take 20 years.”

Opened in 1965, county-owned Channel Islands Harbor covers more than 300 acres of land and water. The county leases most of the surrounding land to developers, who have built restaurants, condominiums and about 3,600 boat slips.

Leases and taxes at the marina generate about $2 million for the county each year. But the waterway tussle between Oxnard and the county involves less than $200,000 in annual property tax.

Oxnard leaders say the Y-shaped waterway should be in their jurisdiction because it has benefited for years from city fire and police services, and is reachable only by city roads. The City Council voted last month to annex the waterway.

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But county leaders say the small-craft marina, which cost them $1 million to dig and $7 million to renovate, is a valuable investment they will fight to protect.

“The issues are much bigger than working out an agreement for taxes,” McBride said. “The issues are whether there can really be an annexation of that water without the approval of the county.”

Gerard Kapuscik, general manager of the adjacent Channel Islands Beach Services District, said his attorneys have determined independently that the tax technicality could delay the annexation indefinitely.

Kapuscik and other leaders of the beach district--which includes Silver Strand, Hollywood-by-the-Sea and Hollywood beaches--say the annexation is only the beginning of an Oxnard ploy to take the district over.

“I believe that the city’s long-term game plan is to surround the beach district and annex the area,” Kapuscik said.