Residents of Sunset Beach are moving forward with their legal battle to stop the small island annexation of their community by the City of Huntington Beach.
Last week, a small percentage of Citizens Association of Sunset Beach members filled the court room to capacity.
Orange County Superior Court, Judge Frederick Horn, issued a ruling in the case of Citizen’s Association of Sunset Beach vs. Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission and the City of Huntington Beach.
The judge’s ruling grants the motion made by the attorney representing the CASB for a preliminary injunction, enjoining Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission and the City of Huntington Beach from taking any further action on Huntington Beach’s annexation application.
This includes recording of a Notice of Completion of the annexation. This will maintain the status quo pending the outcome of the lawsuit filed by the CASB.
In making the ruling, the judge considered first, the likelihood that the plaintiff will prevail on the merits at trial, and second, the relative balance of harm that is likely to result from the granting, or denial of interim injunctive relief.
Huntington Beach has applied to annex Sunset Beach under the “Island Annexation” rules, which provides that a community, which is less than 150 acres in land size can be annexed without a vote of the residents if there are no new taxes assessed.
However, California State law, under Proposition 218, requires approval by the registered voters in a community before any new taxes can be imposed.
On Nov. 9, a letter was written by the Huntington Beach City Attorney’s Office declaring that the city would now be assessing, immediately post-annexation, the Utility Users Tax and other specific taxes, which was an abrupt reversal of statements in the City’s previous Annexation Report, which had stated no new taxes would be imposed on Sunset Beach residents.
If disclosed originally, this information would have prevented (Huntington Beach) from applying for the annexation under the “island annexation rules.”.
Since a year ago last July, the Huntington Beach City Council members held numerous meetings with Sunset Beach and repeatedly stated that the annexation did not require Sunset Beach voter approval, because they would not be assessing any new taxes on Sunset Beach residents as part of the annexation.
Representatives of LAFCO also told Sunset Beach residents they were not going to have a vote unless they would be taxed by Huntington Beach.
If taxed, the law required that they be given a vote, to approve the annexation.
LAFCO representatives now say they have no authority under the “island annexation rules” to condition the annexation on either a voter approval by Sunset Beach residents; or to require the application for annexation to be re-filed as a normal annexation, requiring voter approval.
Huntington Beach maintains that they are not imposing any new taxes, they are just imposing them on a new territory being annexed into their city.
City attorney Jennifer McGrath said, “We are simply expanding our borders. We’re not imposing any new taxes.”
The Citizen’s Association of Sunset Beach membership is currently raising money to continue to fund the ongoing lawsuit.
Lawrence Crandall is the treasurer of the Citizen’s Association of Sunset Beach.
