VENTURA : Taxes OKd Again for Keys Homeowners

Despite complaints from residents and a pending court decision that could do away with the assessment district, the City Council has approved another year of taxes for homeowners in the Ventura Keys.

The council voted 5 to 2 late Monday to tax about 300 Ventura Keys homeowners nearly $2,000 to pay for dredging the waterways behind the upscale homes. There was no change in the amount of the assessment.

Councilmen Jim Monahan and Jack Tingstrom voted against the annual assessment, which was first levied in 1991.

“Anything new that might be a shred of hope to settle this we should pursue,” Tingstrom said, referring to a proposal by former Keys resident Ray Ellison to buy a dredge rather than pay millions of dollars to a contractor to clean the canals.

“I hate to see this go back and forth,” Tingstrom said.

But a majority of council members overruled Tingstrom and Monahan, saying the Keys residents should pay most of the costs because they benefit the most from the waterways.

“I’m frustrated to be voting at this point,” Councilman Gregory L. Carson said. “I was hoping by this time we’d have an agreement.”

More than 75% of the Keys homeowners last month rejected a settlement offer negotiated over two years that would have lowered the assessments to $813 a year, with $64 annual increases.

Residents instead are hoping a judge will rule that the district is illegal and should be disbanded. A decision from Kern County Judge Sidney P. Chapin is expected within weeks.

Several Keys homeowners said Monday night that even if they lose the case, they will appeal. “You know what this means,” resident Robert Therrien said after the vote. “This means war.”