The Hermosa Beach City Council on a split vote tabled any discussion of potential tax increases to pay $17.5 million the city will owe to an oil company if voters reject a proposed oil-drilling project.
Council member Nanette Barragan on Monday urged her colleagues to indefinitely postpone the tax-increase discussion, saying that any such discussion also should include “the $23 million cost” if the oil drilling is approved.
The meeting agenda had called for the council to discuss whether to ask voters for increases in parcel taxes or property taxes on the March 2015 ballot. That ballot also will include an up or down vote on the lengthy oil drilling project by E & B Natural Resources.
The $17.5 million price tag for a no-on-oil vote arises from the 2012 settlement of a complex, multibillion-dollar breach-of-contract lawsuit against the city.
After the meeting, Barragan said the city could face $16 million to $23 million in costs if voters approve the oil project. She pointed to an analysis by a city consultant identifying costs such as $12 million to relocate the city maintenance yard, where the drilling would occur.
Council members Peter Tucker and Hany Fangary voted with Barragan to table the discussion indefinitely, while Mayor Michael DiVirgilio and council member Carolyn Petty dissented.
“I don’t understand this,” Petty said. “The city manager determines the agenda [for council meetings], and that is actually part of our governance…We discussed this in the strategic plan.”
Petty had said she wanted the council to discuss all its options for paying the potential $17.5 million bill, including possible tax increases.
“It was a disappointing night,” Petty said after the meeting. “When people don’t know how something is going to be funded, they have to just speculate about that. We need to be forthright about how to fund a financial obligation.”
Following the decision to table the tax discussion, two Hermosans addressed the council to criticize the decision, and two others supported it.ER
