Port District to Submit Debt Plan

More than six years after the Ventura Port District was ordered to pay a $15.7-million judgment to a development firm, pressure from courts and creditors has finally forced the financially strapped agency to figure out how to pay it.

By the end of the month, the district must file a debt adjustment plan with U.S. Bankruptcy Court explaining how it intends to pay its creditors.

Ventura Port District General Manager Edward Wohlenberg said the court-ordered deadline was set months ago, after a U.S. District judge ruled on the case.

Earlier this week, Judge Harry L. Hupp reaffirmed that decision and denied the company’s request for a new trial.

The company, Ventura Group Ventures, successfully sued the district in 1990 and wanted Hupp to determine how the district should pay its debt, which could include selling off port property. But Hupp said that was not his role.

“In short, the request is that this court determine what the coercive relief shall be,” Hupp wrote in a tentative ruling Monday.

“That is not the function of a declaratory judgment,” he said.

The judge stated that the district property may have to be sold to pay the judgment--a possibility port officials want to avoid.

“If we sold off assets, that just puts the district that much more upside-down,” Wohlenberg said Wednesday. “If you start selling off your seed corn, there is no way you can grow anything new.”

Among its assets, the district owns an undeveloped spit of oceanfront land, and officials see development of that parcel as their best chance at financial recovery.

“The objective here is to do whatever we can to stimulate growth,” Wohlenberg said.

Ventura port commissioners and members of the Ventura City Council plan to hold a joint meeting next week to discuss the issue.