County, Ventura Call Truce on Tax Dispute

The city of Ventura said Thursday that it will abandon plans to stop paying its share of county sales tax if it can get the money back in services, resources or property.

County officials looking to defuse an explosive situation quickly embraced the idea.

“I’m very pleased with it,” said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathy Long. “It took what could have been a very complicated situation and made it easier.”

The move not only jettisons the contentious tax issue but also eliminates the larger threat that other cities in the county, following Ventura’s lead, might join in the tax revolt.

“The sales tax is off the table if the county agrees to what was adopted by the city managers,” said Ventura Mayor Sandy Smith, referring to a meeting Thursday of city managers in which the plan was announced.

Smith will talk with county officials next week about ways to be reimbursed for the $572,000 that Ventura will pay in county sales tax this year.

The money could come back in the form of leases, county services and office space, Smith said. A county-owned building behind Ventura City Hall is one item the city might try to acquire under the plan.

Last month the Ventura City Council voted to stop paying the part of the sales tax revenues it owes the county, which triggered outrage among supervisors. The move broke a 1956 agreement in which cities paid $3.30 of every $1,000 in sales tax to the county in return for services.

The Board of Supervisors responded with an emergency ordinance that would kill the 1.25% county sales tax and cost local cities a total of $85 million a year.

Now the two sides are scrambling back from the brink of diving off a financial cliff. The effort began Tuesday when Smith wrote supervisors to ask for a meeting of negotiating teams from both sides.

The county agreed and the two sides will meet next week.

After their meeting, the Ventura County City Managers group released a statement saying sales tax should be off the agenda. Instead, the parties should concentrate on giving Ventura equivalent services and resources for what it spends in sales tax, the managers said.

MaryJane Lazz, Thousand Oaks city manager and chairwoman of the group, said Ventura is unique because it is the seat of county government and services. Other cities will be watching what kind of deal is made, she said, but they have no plans to force similar deals on the county.

“The cities have said, ‘Go ahead and negotiate even if it means services for Ventura, we won’t interfere,’ ” Supervisor Frank Schillo said.

Thursday’s meeting came after Smith, Ventura City Manager Donna Landeros and City Atty. Bob Boehm tried to find a solution to the impasse that would let them keep the $572,000 the city wants for road repairs.

Smith expects whatever deal is reached to be permanent.

“By taking the sales tax off the table we can talk about services like road and flood services,” said County Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford. “It doesn’t create an entitlement for other cities.”

To keep neighboring communities from feeling slighted, Hufford said whatever resources or services are given to Ventura should be unique to the city.

“If there is a way to modify the method or style of how we deliver services to the city we can look at that,” Hufford said.

Long thinks there is a broad negotiating area in the phrase “equivalent services.”

“It leaves a lot of room to determine what equivalent is,” she said.