BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
December 30, 2019 Claim by Great Oaks Water Company Against the Santa Clara Valley Water District for Refund of Groundwater Production Charges.
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Deny Great Oaks Water Company's claim.
Body
SUMMARY:
Great Oaks Water Company presented a written claim on December 30, 2019, demanding from the District a refund of groundwater production charges paid in Water Year 2019-2020, plus interest.i Unlike its previous claims challenging the District's groundwater production charges, Great Oaks' most recent claim does not specifically identify the amount to be refunded.ii
We recommend that the District reject Great Oaks' claim in its entirety.
This claim is the most recent in a line of similar claims seeking a refund of groundwater production charges that Great Oaks has submitted each year since 2005. The District has denied all of Great Oaks' previous claims, and Great Oaks has filed a lawsuit following each denial. There are currently fourteen such lawsuits involving Great Oaks and a fifteenth case involving three other parties.
Great Oaks' most recent claim asserts:
a. That the District's groundwater production charges are assessments on real property and were not adopted in compliance with the procedural and substantive requirements of the California Constitution governing assessments.iii
b. That the groundwater production charges are taxes and were not adopted in compliance with the procedural and substantive requirements of the California Constitution governing taxes.
c. That the groundwater production charges are governed by Proposition 26 (Article XIII C of the California Constitution) and that the District failed to comply with the procedural and substantive requirements of Proposition 26 in regard to the charges.iv
d. That the District has violated the Santa Clara Valley Water District Act by collecting groundwater production charges to fund activities that the...
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