$23 Million in Late Taxes Owed County : Government: Officials have no way to collect until the property owners fall five years in arrears.

By PAUL ELIAS

Jan. 21, 1995 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Ventura County’s cash-starved treasury is denied about $4 million annually by recalcitrant property taxpayers, records show.

That money could be used to hire 63 sheriff’s deputies, restore darkened libraries to full schedules or pay down the county’s projected $43-million budget deficit.

“It would mean a whole lot to us,” said Bert Bigler, county budget director. “The trick is to get it in.”

But getting it in was no easy trick for owners of more than 15,000 parcels who ignored their semiannual tax bill Dec. 12. Those property owners owe about $23 million of the $500 million collected annually by Tax Collector Harold S. Pittman.

Of that, 18% pours directly into county coffers.

But Pittman said the county has no way to collect from the delinquent property owners until they fall five years in arrears. Only then can county officials seize the property and sell it to the highest bidder.

“There’s nothing we can do about it until then,” Pittman said.

As a result, Pittman has not made an effort--other than mailing the semiannual tax bill--to collect from Ventura County’s largest tax deadbeat, an investment group that owns two large and luxurious apartment complexes in Oak Park.

Real Estate Investment Program owes the county $3.2 million and has not made a payment since 1992, records show. The company owes $381,632 from the Dec. 12 billing alone.

Norcan, an Orange County developer that owns freeway-corridor property in Camarillo, had the second-largest delinquent payment in December, and owes a total of $900,317, the county reports.

The amounts owed by Oxnard farmer Dave Walsh and Oxnard real estate speculator Don Kojima were third and fourth, respectively, among December’s delinquencies. Walsh missed a $96,514 payment Dec. 12 while Kojima missed a $70,555 payment. They owe about $600,000 combined, with Walsh’s total debt about $468,000, records show.

Neither owner returned telephone calls.

Last year, Kojima sold 41 acres of farmland to the city of Oxnard for about $5 million, but his taxes are still past due on an adjacent 41 acres.

Seventeen taxpayers--including Simi Valley Hospital--missed payments of $25,000 or more Dec. 12, Pittman said.

“We are very embarrassed and it’s going to be paid immediately,” said Peter Stevens, the general manager of Hirose Electric. The Simi Valley fiber-optic plant had never been late with a payment before missing its Dec. 12 payment of $28,107, officials said. Stevens blamed an accounting oversight for the missed payment. The error will cost the company $2,811 in penalties.

Simi Valley Hospital officials said they were late in filing their tax exempt status with the assessor’s office while wrangling with county officials over the value of their taxable property. The hospital expects to pay less than $300 once its bill tally is completed.

But the biggest tax debtor by far are owners of 444 apartments in Oak Park--an investment firm whose identity was something of a mystery.

“I have no idea who they are,” Pittman said.

A spokeswoman for the investment group said the two complexes have been financially troubled since they were built in late 1989 and early 1990. The original investors filed bankruptcy three years ago and the current owners are having financial problems too.

Property managers said Oak Park Apartments North and South have a high occupancy rate, and tenants pay between $885 and $1,150 for one- and two-bedroom poolside apartments. But occupancy is not high enough to make a profit, said Jennifer Hegg, controller with a company that manages the apartments for the Long Beach investment group.

Hegg said the properties cost about $60 million to build, but are now worth about half that figure. She said the group has asked the assessor to reduce the apartments’ taxable value, which would lower the annual tax.

“That’s part of the reason why they haven’t paid,” Hegg said, adding that the apartments are up for sale.

Other large property owners that owe back taxes include Waste Management of California, which operates the Simi Valley Landfill and has a total debt of $905,779, and Long Beach Equities, which recently gained Simi Valley City Council approval for a housing project on Marr Ranch and owes $449,086.

Meanwhile, an auction might be held in late spring to sell some of the properties that are behind by five years, Assistant Tax Collector John McKinney said.

McKinney said the owners of only about 100 of the county’s 217,000 taxable properties have failed to pay taxes for five years and would be eligible for the auction. But he said most of those properties are worthless slivers of vacant land in creek bottoms, on craggy hillsides or wedged between larger parcels.

“We’d be lucky to get seven or eight properties (worth auctioning),” he said. An auction last year sold only six properties, he said.

Most delinquent owners either pay up or go into bankruptcy before an auction is necessary, McKinney said.

Some use the five-year cushion as an investment technique or cash-flow instrument, Pittman said. The county charges a 10% annual penalty for late taxes. Some property owners feel they can get a better return on their money if they withhold their tax payment for a few years, Pittman said.

The delinquent taxpayers account for a little less than 5% of all levies due from real estate, Pittman said. While that figure is higher than the 3.5% average that Ventura County enjoyed before the recession, it is the lowest figure in the past three years, McKinney said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ventura County Property Tax Debtors

Largest payments missed Dec. 12 in semiannual collection

OWNER

REIP-OP: $381,632

Norcan: $152,694

Dave Walsh Co.: $96,514

Don, Susan Kojima: $70,555

Westlake Village Assoc.: $67,624

Strathearn Ventura Partners: $57,529

S-S Investments: $56,406

LDDS Communications: $50,384