An $18 increase in the tax Manhattan Beach residents pay to help maintain community property has come under scrutiny by county officials and some community residents who wonder whether the money can be used to create a $10,000 legal fund.
Residents at a community meeting in October voted unanimously to use the one-year increase to set up the fund, but the section of the county code that created Manhattan Beach's special benefit tax district does not specifically list litigation as one of the purposes for which the money can be used.
"I got out the [county] code and I read it, and I don't know that the language was that specific," said budget analyst Carol Kirby, who works with the Manhattan Beach association.
Residents of communities with special benefit tax districts pay higher taxes than other county residents, but the additional money is funneled back to the community to pay for extra services.
In Manhattan Beach, the money is to be used for "operational expenses, insurance, and other expenditures that would assist in improving and maintaining the community property," according to the county code.
Cliff Roop, civic association president, wrote in the community's newsletter that the additional money would be used to cover the legal fees for a suit filed in September against the owner of the Magothy Marina, and "if legal opposition is necessary to oppose the expansion of the marina."
Robins Jefferson, a county legislative auditor, said paying for the suit may fall under "improving and maintaining community property." The suit would try to force the marina owner to abide by a 1986 settlement that requires the owner to give the community association the deed to the easment of a boat ramp, which community members said the marina's owner still has. But opposing the expansion of the marina is "kind of a long shot," he said.
Establishing the legal fund raises the annual tax from $25 to $43 a household.
Although residents approved it as a one-time fee that would be returned to residents if it wasn't used in a year, Kathy Larsen, a resident, said she's afraid that litigation will cost Manhattan Beach residents more and more.
Other community members are angry because, they say, they weren't warned that the tax increase was on the October meeting agenda. They said information was handed to residents as they walked into the meeting at which 51 of the community's 550 families were present.
"It just wasn't handled properly," complained Lillian McGraw, who did not attend the meeting. "I think if more people in the community knew about the legal fund, more people wouldn't have voted for it."
Mrs. Larsen's husband, Kurt Larsen, echoed Ms. McGraw's concerns in a letter to the editor of The Sun for Anne Arundel.
"I am deeply concerned that our community's taxing process will allow a small group of residents with special interests to vote in a large tax to fund their legal battle," he wrote.