IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
On Monday, the City of San Bernardino approved a plan to contract out city fire services to the County of San Bernardino Fire Department along with a parcel tax of $143 on every property in the city.
According to the city’s consultant, Andrew Belknap of Management Partners, the proposal would save San Bernardino $11 million and raise an additional $8 million in revenue per year.
The controversial measure passed narrowly on a 4-3 vote and will be incorporated into the city’s bankruptcy proposal.
The annexation process of the city into the County Fire District was presented by Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) Executive Officer Kathleen Rollings-McDonald. She informed the public that the annexation could take place without a formal public vote and that current law only allows for a formal protest process. The protest process would require written protest of 25-50 percent of voters or 25 percent of property owners (by valuation) in the city to require an actual election.
No discussion of a public vote on the parcel tax occurred.
This is the rub. Approval of any special tax requires an election and 2/3rd’s vote of support from the public under the California Constitution. It’s the law.
Now there is a caveat when property is annexed into a special district, such as the San Bernardino County Fire District. Under a recent court decision (Citizens Assn. of Sunset Beach v. Orange Co. LAFCO (2012) 209 Cal.App.4th 1182.) a parcel tax that is already assessed in a special district can be automatically assessed in any area that annexes into that district. The protest process is assumed to take the place of a valid election in some contorted, extraneous reading of the state constitution.
In other words, if the County Fire District already collects the tax, then the only vote city residents will get is a simple majority vote on the question of annexation if enough of them protest to place the matter on the ballot.
But, the San Bernardino County Fire District does NOT have a uniform $143 parcel tax in place in the rest of the fire district. In Fontana and Muscoy no such tax exists. Some residents in Fontana do pay into an assessment district for fire services, but this is NOT a uniform parcel tax.
Clearly the before mentioned legal precedent cannot apply to the proposed $143 parcel tax as it does not exist in the rest of the fire district. But, of course, the city, the county and LAFCO didn’t bother to even discuss the issue. San Bernardino residents, the media and even the elected Council Members were left with the impression, by the City Manager, the County Chief Executive Officer, and the LAFCO Executive Officer that the tax would just go along with annexation.
Perhaps there is some devious idea that since the proposal will now be included in the city’s bankruptcy proposal, that the approval of the bankruptcy judge will somehow magically make a tax legal?
LAFCO tried something like this a few years ago when they attempted to force the City of San Bernardino to annex all the county pockets in and around the city as a condition of annexing the Arrowhead Springs Hotel. LAFCO reversed itself when a resident hired legal counsel at her own expense and sued the agency. When the City Attorney refused to defend LAFCO per the indemnification agreement because he thought the process violated the law, LAFCO reversed its decision.
It will be interesting to see who challenges this latest fiasco as some city and county leaders try to hornswoggle taxpayers.
