City Asked to Pay ‘View Tax’ Suit Fees

Attorneys representing 1,252 Port Hueneme homeowners are seeking $559,000 in costs and fees associated with winning a unique 1991 “view tax” lawsuit against the city that achieved national notoriety.

The city, which has appealed last August’s original ruling, is offering $69,000.

On Monday, attorneys for both sides pressed their cases in Ventura County Superior Court in Simi Valley. Judge Ken Riley said he will make a decision by March 5.

The judge will probably pick a figure between the two, said the homeowners’ attorney, Glen Reiser. If that occurs, the city would probably appeal, City Manager Dick Velthoen said.

Last year, Riley ordered the city to repay residents of oceanfront properties about $600,000. The city improperly collected the money when it singled out residents to tax for the costs of maintaining the municipal beach because they lived within view of it, Riley ruled. Port Hueneme has since instituted a citywide park district.

The $559,000 figure is triple the fees incurred in the case, Reiser said. The law allows such a “bounty” partly to encourage law firms to take such public-interest cases.

Backers of Proposition 218, which voters passed last year, cited the view tax in their arguments for the measure. The proposition makes such taxes illegal without voter approval.

But Velthoen called the legal fees excessive, saying the situation would have serious financial implications for a city that is already unable to pay for millions of dollars of capital improvements needed to maintain basic services.

“Where is the public interest here?” he asked. “These people are bounty hunters.”

Reiser dismissed such reasoning as “double talk.”

“He’s saying this is a punishment for all the city’s residents, but they were punished . . . the assessees, for five years,” he said.