LA County officials plan on transferring $1.17 million in unclaimed refunds to the City of Malibu, money that will help fund a controversial $41-million Civic Center wastewater treatment facility.
The nearly $1.2 million in unclaimed funds accrued after a county effort to locate 1990s property owners who were forced to pay into an assessment district for a citywide sewer project that eventually ground to a halt when activists won Malibu cityhood in the early ‘90s.
In its efforts to refund those who paid into the assessment, the county treasurer’s office issued more than 3,700 refunds totaling $4.1 million. After those refunds, they were left with $1.17 million.
“Returning the unclaimed balance of funds to the City for the current wastewater treatment project is the right thing to do, and ensures that the money will be used for its original purpose of addressing the water-quality needs of the people of Malibu,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
Under a development prohibition placed on the City of Malibu in 2011 by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the city is required to build a centralized wastewater treatment system in the Civic Center by November 2015. The city is nine months behind on that timeline.
The agreement also stipulates homeowners living within the Civic Center prohibition area must connect to the system by 2019 and phase out their septic systems.