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C.I. Beach District broke no laws over fighting boat center proposal
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Channel Islands Beach Community Service District's Use of Government ResourcesView document >>
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More from Other NewsThe Channel Islands Beach Community Services District broke no laws when it spent public money to fight a proposal for a boating center at Channel Islands Harbor, Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten concluded in a report released today.
In 2004 and 2005, the Community Services District, a government agency that provides water, sewer and trash services in and around the harbor, gave $17,450 to an environmental group to help pay for a lawsuit against the county of Ventura over the location of the proposed boating center.
County Counsel Noel Klebaum told the Board of Supervisors last year that the allocations may have been an illegal gift of public funds, as well as an illegal conflict of interest, because some Community Services District Board members were also on the board of the Beacon Foundation, the nonprofit that received the money.
But the district attorney's report, issued after a six-month inquiry, says investigators found no evidence of illegal activity.
There was no gift of public funds, the report states, because the boating center controversy is a matter of legitimate public interest with the Community Service District's jurisdiction. The district attorney's report also found no violation of California's conflict of interest laws, because the Community Service District board members did not get any personal financial benefit from the Beacon Foundation's activities.
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