Ventura County to look into costs of fire protection for Thousand Oaks

A county supervisor has responded to a demand from the Thousand Oaks City Council for equity between taxes paid to the county and services rendered by the fire district.

Supervisor Linda Parks requested clarification from the fire district on why the district disagrees with the $6million overpayment in taxes reported by a city consultant.

The consultant's report used data provided by the fire district, City Manager Scott Mitnick said.

The city's claims of fire tax overpayment were made at the March 10 council meeting during a discussion of the fire district's reluctance to add or move a fire station to better serve Thousand Oaks residents living in the Westlake Village area. The area is now served by a fire station at Lake Sherwood built in the 1950s.

Councilmember Dennis Gillette praised the firefighters as "absolute professionals" who "provide a tremendous service to us," but questioned why the $5.8 million to $6.2 million per year that leaves the city in county taxes isn't being returned in service.

Ventura County Fire Department Chief Michael LaPlant said he thought the consultant's estimate of $6 million a year in overpayment of taxes was high. He estimated it at $1 million to $1.4 million.

The council indicated that the Ventura County supervisors are, for political reasons, ignoring the city's requests for equity.

On March 17, Parks requested "the fire district to report to the fire district board of directors on the disparity between the city's commissioned study regarding revenue and service levels in Thousand Oaks as well as the benefits of regional service delivery by the fire district."

"Taxpayers deserve to know. It's a legitimate question," Parks said. She asked that the report be made by August.

"With the Lake Sherwood station, we need to make sure increasing service levels in one area doesn't result in a reduction in safety somewhere else," Parks said. "We don't want to reduce Lake Sherwood and Hidden Valley below what's adequate."