CORRESPONDENCE_25E - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Stephen M. Wontrobski 27132 Sombras Mission Viejo, CA 92692 November 7, 2013 Mission Viejo City Council Members 200 Civic Center Mission Viejo, CA 92691 Ref: OCFA Equitable Relief Villa Park Rejection of OCFA Equitable Relief Proposal Dear City Council Members. In my prior November 4, 2013 letter, I identified four OCFA structural member high property value cities: 1. Irvine 2. Villa Park 3, Mission Viejo 4, Laguna Niguel Irvine petitioned for and was granted equitable relief from the OCFA on the basis that it paid more to the OCFA as compared to the actual costs the OCFA incurred in providing services to it. At the OCFA Budget & Finance Committee meeting on November 6, 2013, the OCFA announced that the City of Villa Park had voted to not accept the OCFA's equitable adjustment proposal, which would have denied it equitable relief under the OCFA's simplistic formula model. That leaves us with two high property vaiue cities, Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel, with a decision whether to accept a no equitable relief determination for them. The only way to conclusively determine if millions of dollars in equitable relief are owed to Mission Viejo is to do an actual cost study. We can then compare that actual cost amount to the known payment amount we are currently assessed for services by the OCFA. This is the method any reputable accountant or economist would use. It is just baffling to me why we do not proceed in that direction, rather than employing a theoretical simplistic formula method. The simplistic formula method is inherently flawed. 1. It is not based on an actual known cost amount, which is easily derived 2. Equitable relief is not only based on the tax rate percentage. It is also based on the other part of the formula — property value The OCFA simplistic formula completely avoids the use of high property values in the determination of whether to grant equitable relief. It denies relief based solely on the fact that Mission Viejo's tax rate is lower than the average for all of the OCFA members. This reasoning for denying equitable relief appears to me to be both illogical and fallacious. However, this reasoning is what the OCFA wants us to approve in order to deny Mission Viejo potential equitable relief and the return of potential millions of dollars to our city coffers over the future years. The Mission Viejo City Council has a duty of responsibility first and foremost to its residents, not to the OCFA. It would be considered a dereliction of duty to blindly accept the OCFA denial of equitable relief based on a theoretical formula methodology. Why can't we do an actual cost study? Why can't the actual cost facts speak for themselves?