Santa Ana Property Owners Nix Fee

Santa Ana property owners have overwhelmingly rejected assessing themselves a fee to pay for street, median and park maintenance, the city announced Monday.

The tax assessment would also have also funded graffiti removal and street lighting improvements.

In an election in which ballots were weighted by the value of the proposed assessment, 29.4% of the weighted vote favored the district and 70.6% opposed it. Only 36% of property owners participated.

Ballots were mailed May 23 and had to be returned by July 7. City officials tabulated the results last week and announced them Monday.

“We’re surprised at how big a loss it is,” said City Manager David Ream. “It is something we can understand, though. People are reluctant in these times with other taxes like the vehicle license fee going up.”

Facing a $3-million municipal budget shortfall, the city wanted to assess homeowners fees of $33 and apartment owners $24 per unit annually. Industrial and commercial property owners annually would have paid $256 and $328 an acre, respectively. The special assessment would have appeared on property tax bills. The assessments had no expiration but could have been reduced or eliminated during a yearly review by the City Council.

Jeff Adler, a political consultant hired by the city to promote the assessment district, said the resounding defeat was a “bellwether of things to come.”

“We got caught in the political riptide of fiscal woes, [the governor’s] recall and a very angry electorate that I do not think will cool down for quite a while,” he said. “This will be the political reality in California for at least a year.”

Ream said he expects that road improvements on secondary streets and lawn maintenance in city parks will be immediately reduced.

Even opponents were surprised at the strong defeat, given the city’s forceful campaign.

Santa Ana spent $275,000 to establish the balloting process and on three newsletters detailing the consequences if the measure did not pass. City officials also held public meetings and attended sessions with clubs and organizations to explain the measure.

Even so, the Apartment Assn. of Orange County and other groups had threatened to sue.

“I thought it was going to pass. I’m glad it didn’t. It saves everyone a lot of time and expense, considering the possibility of litigation,” said Howard Keiffer, a city resident who was prepared to organize plaintiffs to challenge the special assessment district.

“They wasted a lot of money on this project.”