City Approves Maintenance Tax Despite Protests : Port Hueneme: Funds will pay for park upkeep, graffiti removal and lifeguards. Homeowners say the council is ‘nickel and diming’ them to death.

Over the protests of property-tax payers, the Port Hueneme City Council on Wednesday decided to implement a new tax-assessment district to raise money for maintaining city parks, removing graffiti and keeping lifeguards patrolling Hueneme Beach.

The council also decided to renew three other existing assessment districts that force property owners to subsidize maintenance of city street lights, tree-trimming on median strips and upkeep of the city’s beaches.

Council and city staff members said they must collect revenue from special assessments because the city faces tremendous shortfalls in property-tax revenue allocated by state officials.

“If you stop and think about it, you have to be concerned about the long-term health of Port Hueneme,” said Brady Cherry, the city’s director of recreation and community service. “The city has already given up a lot of good things. Let’s not compromise park maintenance.”

Wednesday’s action angered scores of taxpayers who crowded into the Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center to voice their objections.

“I don’t believe that everyone here would object to the assessment district,” said William E. Hunt, one of the 150 residents who showed up Wednesday to debate the tax. “But you guys are nickeling and diming us to death.”

Under the new park-maintenance assessment, scheduled to go into effect July 1, owners of single-family houses in Port Hueneme will be assessed $37.14 for the 1993-94 fiscal year. If the houses are close to city parks, owners could face an additional yearly tax of as much as $13.95.

Owners of property between Pleasant Valley Road and Hueneme Beach would be assessed the maximum amount.

The park tax, which officials say would raise $300,000 for the city, is intended to help pay for general park upkeep, lifeguard services and graffiti removal. The total annual cost of park maintenance, they say, is $641,884.

A protest by those who own more than 50% of the assessed properties would have canceled the park-assessment plan without a council vote.

According to Laura Phillips, a junior civil engineer for the city, only 15.8% have filed protests.

The council met with little opposition in renewing the three existing assessments.

Of those taxes, the Beach Assessment District or so-called view tax, has raised the most controversy in the community because it levies taxes more sharply on those closest to the beach.

“We tried a protest movement on the second year of the beach assessment,” said Dorothy Blake, a resident of Surfside I condominiums, which fall within the assessed district. “We found out once it’s in, it’s in.”

Blake is one of eight homeowners in the taxed area who have filed a lawsuit contesting the fairness of the beach tax.

At Wednesday night’s meeting, the council decided to extend the beach assessment for its third year and ultimately combine it with the new park-assessment tax. The beach assessment is tacked onto tax bills of properties within an area bordered by Surfside Drive to the east and west, Port Hueneme Road to the north, and the coastline to the south.

Owners are assessed between $79.95 and $206.83 a year based on proximity to the beach and the size of the property. Duffy said the assessment generates $157,500 annually.

Port Hueneme’s Lighting Maintenance Assessment District, established in 1988, is a citywide tax of $21.90 to owners of single-family houses. Total revenue from the assessment is $153,500.

The Median and Parkway Assessment District, which is designed to help with the cost of tree and other maintenance of the city’s medians, taxes homeowners citywide $24.62 a year. The assessment also was renewed for a third year.