Business Owners Complain Oxnard Fails to Maintain Harbor Parks

For the past five years, the city of Oxnard has failed to honor an agreement with the county to maintain parks and restrooms in the Channel Islands Harbor, say business owners in the waterfront area.

Complaints by the Channel Islands Harbor business owners and residents have led to a meeting today between Oxnard’s city manager and the county’s harbor director to try to resolve the situation.

Some business owners have said that the city is violating a 1963 agreement with the county that states that Oxnard has “responsibility for maintenance and operation of the public park and recreation areas” that are owned by the city.

“The real disappointing thing is that the city and the county had an agreement and the city is not holding up its end of the bargain,” said Richard Fairchild, owner of Anacapa Marine Services boatyard.

County Harbor Director Lyn Krieger, who will meet today with interim Oxnard City Manager Prisilla Hernandez, said the city’s Parks and Facilities department does mow the lawn on the four parcels around the harbor.

But Krieger said the county handles most other maintenance, including cleaning restrooms, weeding, tree trimming, replacement of equipment and repairs.

Krieger said she hopes to resolve the issue soon, saying cleaning up Peninsula Park and other areas has put a heavy burden on the county Harbor Department’s six-person maintenance crew.

“We are operating on a very tight budget,” said Krieger, who met with then-City Manager Tom Frutchey last fall. “Certainly, we hope this becomes an important issue for them.”

Hernandez said she hopes the meeting with Krieger today will resolve any problems and plans to take a walking tour of the area.

“I still would like to take more time to look at the agreement,” Hernandez said. “I’d like to be able to work with the county in collaboration and cooperation.”

Channel Islands Harbor is owned by the county but is in the city of Oxnard.

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As part of a 1963 annexation agreement, Oxnard agreed to maintain park properties, parking lots and offer its police and fire services to the county, according to the agreement.

In return, the city receives about $1 million in bed-and-tax revenue from the harbor, according to harbor officials.

Better maintenance would help tourism at the harbor, business owners say.

“I’m frustrated that we as the harbor business people have to suffer the results of a breakdown in communication between the city and the county,” said Susan O’Brien, executive director of Channel Islands Harbor Marketing Inc. “If people arrive and its not appealing, they are probably going to go north to Santa Barbara.”

Oxnard’s poor maintenance of the parks has been criticized before. In 1994, when the city attempted to annex the entire harbor area, county Supervisor John K. Flynn fought the proposal and said the county had to take over landscaping because Oxnard did “such a sloppy job.”

On Monday, Parks and Facilities Supervisor Michael Henderson declined to discuss the issue.

Some harbor tenants questioned why seven Parks and Facilities employees had received more than $39,000 in bonuses from an incentive program called the Shared Savings Plan while the parks around the Harbor have been neglected.

“Have people saved money for not providing services that would be a part of the city’s regular function?” asked harbor tenant Randy Short.

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Complaints have been made about overgrown weeds, untrimmed palm fronds that blow into the street on windy nights and broken playground equipment at Peninsula Park. Others complain that some of the city’s restrooms at the harbor have been locked up because they are not maintained.

Short, of Anacapa Isle Marina, said his company had to invest more than $500 to clean up dead palm fronds from untrimmed trees on city property that flew onto the street after a recent wind storm.

In addition to the street debris, Peninsula Park, a play area for many local children, sorely needs routine upkeep, some residents and business owners say.

“I take my kids to parks in Ventura and Ojai where they have put in an effort to improve their communities and playgrounds,” said Brian Dunn, a harbor tenant who lives in Orange County but visits the harbor on weekends.

The complaints about Peninsula Park are similar to criticisms voiced by other Oxnard residents in recent years about the upkeep of most parks in the city.

Last year, three Oxnard Parks and Recreation commissioners quit, complaining that city staff and the City Council were not receptive to the city’s needs for well-maintained parks.