GARDEN GROVE : City Asks to Control 2 Sanitary Districts

The City Council has acted to take over two sanitary districts that serve the city.

Council members voted last week to apply to the Local Agency Formation Commission of Orange County to take control of the Garden Grove Sanitary District and a portion of the Midway City Sanitary District that serves residents of west Garden Grove.

City officials said they hope the change will keep nearly $1 million in property tax revenue from being shifted to the state and away from the community.

“This action is long overdue,” Councilman Bruce A. Broadwater said. “If this was done 10 years ago, we could have saved millions of dollars.”

Broadwater and his colleagues say that state officials are less likely to take property tax money from cities than from special districts because cities need the revenue to help pay the cost of police, fire and other essential local services.

However, LAFCO Executive Officer James J. Colangelo said the city’s application apparently will come too late to protect the money in the city’s general fund next year.

Colangelo said that if directors of the two sanitary districts fail to unanimously approve the city’s plan, the reorganization must go to a citywide vote. The election probably couldn’t be held before November, he said.

Catherine Standiford, an assistant to City Manager George Tindall, said if reorganization is approved, residents served by the Garden Grove Sanitary District will see the same level of service with no fee increases.

The approximately 5,100 homes in the city served by the Midway City Sanitary District will have services upgraded to include curbside recycling.

The Garden Grove Sanitary District serves 27,000 customers and has been in operation since 1924. A spokeswoman said Thursday that the five district directors won’t comment while studying the effects of a city takeover.