Cities May Sue County Over Taxes It Withheld : Budget: The auditor diverted $697,000 for unpaid jail booking fees and $4.28 million for the cost of collecting property levies.

Ventura County is withholding $697,000 in property taxes from its 10 cities to cover unpaid fees that have been assessed for the cost of booking prisoners into the county jail, a move which led Friday to the threat of a joint lawsuit against the county.

County Auditor Norman R. Hawkes said he diverted the property taxes from the cities without notice because they had failed to pay the controversial new booking fee imposed by the county last year.

He said he also withheld a total of $4.28 million from all the cities and school districts for another new fee, the cost of collecting their property taxes. But the cities and schools did not protest that because Hawkes had informed them first.

Both the booking fee and the county’s charge for collecting property taxes were adopted by the Board of Supervisors in September to make up for about $6 million in state funding cuts. However, each city and school district has refused to pay both of the new fees.

“I’ve been more than generous in allowing them time,” Hawkes said.

City managers from each city met on Thursday to discuss the fees and the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the county for failing to warn them before taking the money.

“Procedurally, the county hasn’t played by the rules,” said Port Hueneme City Manager Richard Velthoen. “They are supposed to give us certain notice.”

The auditor subtracted from Port Hueneme’s property taxes $19,643 for the property tax collection fee and $14,040 for the prisoner booking fee.

Velthoen said most of the city managers who met Thursday agreed that a lawsuit would be appropriate. Other city managers said they would discuss the matter with their city councils, he said.

Hawkes defended his action, saying he is not required by state law to notify the cities about collecting the prisoner booking fee. He said state law does, however, require him to notify the cities before collecting for the property tax collection fees, which he said he did.

Hawkes said he believes that he and the city managers simply have a different interpretation of the law.

“What I’ve done is legally justified,” Hawkes said.

The action did not generate as much protest from the Ventura County superintendent of schools.

Ken Prosser, director of school business for the superintendent, said Hawkes sent the superintendent a letter last week notifying him that the fees for collecting the property taxes were going to be subtracted.

A letter was then sent to each school district, he said.

“It’s not like something that came out of the blue,” he said.

He said the county’s school districts would probably not be interested in a lawsuit against the county because most have already joined districts statewide in a class-action suit against the state.

The suit filed in January challenges the state’s right to give the counties the authority to impose the property tax collection fees.

The dispute is the latest development in a long-running feud over the new fees.

Since the fees were adopted, the county has sent monthly bills to collect the charges. At the same time, city officials have been writing letters to the county to protest the fees.

For the past two weeks, the Board of Supervisors has been discussing in private meetings the county’s legal options to collect the fees, county officials said.

Hawkes said the cities’ officials should have expected him to collect the fees one way or another.

“You are dealing with experienced adults that have been in the governmental process for a while and they know how it works,” he said.

Hawkes said that the county has collected $1.5 million in property tax collection fees from special assessment districts governed by the Board of Supervisors.

He said special assessment districts governed by the cities have also refused to pay the fees.

Camarillo City Manager Bill Little said he was not surprised by Hawkes’ actions, but said the auditor was required by state law to at least send a certified letter to each city before he subtracted the money.

“I think it was totally in conflict with statutory law,” he said.

The auditor subtracted $51,480 from Camarillo for booking fees due over the last nine months, Little said. The city also was charged $44,220 for the property tax collection fee, he said.

Oxnard Police Chief Robert Owens said the reduction in Oxnard’s property taxes will be hard to absorb because the city already faces a $2.4-million deficit next year.

The county subtracted $249,702 from Oxnard’s property taxes for the property tax collection fee and $173,040 for the prisoner booking fee.

“Oxnard is in a deep hole and all this will do is make the hole deeper,” he said.

Owens said he would support a lawsuit against the county. “The county’s ambition to put their hands in our pockets knows no boundaries,” he said.