Council: Community input session on proposed tax at 5 p.m. Monday

The City Council will hold a special session before Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting to garner public input on the need for and spending plan of a potential sales tax to benefit public safety. The workshop will start at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 970 E. Ventura St. When the meeting moves into its regular session at 6:30 p.m. one of the items to be considered by the council is placing a sales tax on the November ballot to benefit public safety.

In recent months Mayor Martin Hernandez and Councilman John Procter have been addressing groups about a tax to replace the failed November 2014 Measure F. The half-cent sales was expected to raise $1.6 million annually with 50 percent benefitting police and fire and road repair splitting the balance. Monday’s special community meeting will precede the later discussion by the council about placing a new sales tax on the November ballot. The council will have to discuss the tax mechanism, special tax vs. general tax, which requires different levels of approval as well as spending guidelines as well as the use of such revenue. By law a special sales tax must be used for the state use; it requires 67 percent of the vote for passage. A general tax can be passed by a simple majority but does not have mandated oversight; the city can appoint a spending oversight committee. Santa Paula’s present sales tax is 7.5 percent. Some residents reported receiving a pre-recorded phone poll Thursday consisting of four questions. The poll referred to a 1 percent or $.01 cent sales Santa Paula public safety tax and asked if a measure being considered by the Ventura County Transportation Commission — a half-percent sales tax — would make voters less likely to support a tax measure benefiting Santa Paula. There have been council discussions of splitting any such tax between police, fire and youth recreation programs. A special meeting held Friday at 2 p.m. regarding the future of the Santa Paula Fire Department was filmed and is being shown on Time Warner Cable Channel 10 according to schedule. The meeting is also available to view on the city’s website. For a copy of the agenda and reports visit http://www.ci.santa-paula.ca.us/agenda/index.htm and click on May 2, 2016 for the download.