Oxnard committee opens policy workshop on landscape maintenance districts amid complaints of underfunding and high administrative costs

The Public Works and Transportation Committee of Oxnard City held a workshop Feb. 25 to discuss a potential maintenance and funding policy for the city’s 36 landscape maintenance districts, focusing on options for underfunded districts, reserve guidelines and the process to request new rates under Proposition 218.

Anthony Miller, the city’s special districts manager, told the committee the item is intended to outline policy-level questions the city council might direct staff to adopt and to avoid repeating past management problems. “This does not address any other district other than landscape maintenance districts,” Miller said, noting the presentation was framed as seven policy questions staff commonly confront in managing 1972 Act LMDs.

The seven questions presented to the committee asked how the city should respond if district expenses exceed available revenue; how to address negative fund balances; whether LMDs should be required to meet a reserve target; who may request a Prop 218 ballot; how the city should process and pay for rate changes; whether subsidies are allowable; and what happens if a district chooses not to ballot.

Miller and other staff members outlined typical policy options: use reserves where legally allowed, reduce routine services, apply a maximum levy where permitted, conduct outreach to gauge interest in a Prop 218 ballot, remove improvements that are general rather than special benefit, or follow other council direction. Staff said those are examples, not required outcomes, and that the city’s legal consultant is available for statutory…