Cityscape

Those beach parking passes will be a little more useful than expected.

Beachgoers -- or anyone else with the permit -- will now be able to

use their pass to park in the Main Promenade Parking Structure after the

City Council approved the measure at its meeting Monday night.

Passholders can park in the structure from its opening at 8 a.m. until

5 p.m. seven days a week. The deal will last until improvement work at

the south beach parking lots is complete, which is set for May 2002, said

Steve Benson, the city’s parking and camping supervisor.

Right now, beach passes cost $100 -- $25 for people 62 and older.

After Labor Day the price drops to $35, although the senior’s price will

stay the same.

In 2002, the passes will decrease in price to $75, but will increase

to $50 for seniors.

Director of Community Services Ron Hagan said the 2002 price changes

will attempt to alleviate any cheating, while still giving seniors a

discount.

“People come down and buy passes for their kids [and/or] grandkids and

abuse the senior-pass privilege,” Hagan said.

The passes are good at all city beach lots, Pier Plaza lots and all

recreational metered lots, but are not good at state beach lots.

The city will begin to post signs in the parking structures and pass

out flyers to people that have passes to inform them of the change.

Passholders will get a sticker to affix in their window.

The city began construction of the first of two phases of the south

beach improvement on June 1. The parking lot between Beach Boulevard

north to Huntington Street, which contains 650 parking spaces, is closed

until April 2002 during the work’s first phase.

During the second phase, about 350 spaces will be unavailable from

October 2002 to January 2004. It won’t begin until the first one is

finished.

The Main Promenade Parking Structure is located at 200 Main St.

Director of Communications Rich Barnard said the structure gets most

of its use after 5 p.m.

City to begin requiring restaurant grease traps

The City Council has agreed to follow several of the findings

presented in an Orange County Grand Jury investigation that targeted

grease and oil discharged from restaurants and high-density residential

areas as the leading causes of sewage spills and clogged water pipes.

Director of Communications Rich Barnard emphasized that the issue

needs to concern the whole county and not just a particular city.

“It’s a good thing for the Orange County Health Department and the

Orange County Sanitation District to look and give a proper inspection to

the matter,” Barnard said.

In accord with the grand jury’s findings, the city will begin

requiring restaurants to install grease traps or interceptors. Right now,

the city has no regularly scheduled inspection, maintenance or

enforcement program to monitor kitchen grease traps.

The city received the Grand Jury report, titled “Sewage Spills, Beach

Closures-Trouble in Paradise?” on April 25. The report focused on 35

wastewater-collection and treatment agencies within Orange County.

City sets property tax rate

In what turned out to be among the most controversial of all the

debates at Monday’s City Council meeting, the council voted 4 to 3 in

favor of fixing the 2001-02 fiscal property tax rate at .0493% per $100.

It also decided to hold onto the tax revenues pending the outcome of an

appeal to a February court decision.

The property rate would be about $100 for a $200,000 home.

Mayor Pam Julien Houchen and Council member Shirley Dettloff both

opposed the item, which will now affect other city services such as

police and parks according to Director of Communications for the city of

Huntington Beach Rich Barnard.

The city must still provide retirement payments to city employees in

connection with the Public Employees Retirement System, the Supplemental

Retirement Plan and or the Medical Insurance Retirement Plan.

“The city still has the responsibility to pay the revenues whether the

tax is in place or not,” Barnard said.

The tax was voted for by the public, but a Santa Ana judge ruled in

February that it violated the state’s Proposition 13 governing property

taxes.

The council has appealed the decision in the case of Howard Jarvis

Taxpayers Association vs. the City of Huntington Beach. The court ruled

that “the property tax override is unconstitutional” under Proposition

13. The court ruled then that the override “exceeded the employer

contribution for PERS retirement benefits that were in existence prior to

July 1, 1978.

According to Barnard, “the City Council will continue to collect the

tax and escrow until a court of appeals rules on the Council’s appeal,

which could take two to three years.”

“We felt [the tax] was legal to take care of an obligation to city

employees working under the contract of PERS,” Dettloff said.

The city’s estimated retirement costs for the fiscal year 2001-2002

are $9.4 million. The city’s retirement costs consist of contracts with

the California Public Retirement System and a self-funded supplemental

retirement plan administered by the city.