OAK PARK'S TAX CHARGE CHECKED; VENTURA COUNTY INVESTIGATING UTILITY TAX.Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer Ventura County officials are investigating complaints from Oak Park residents who claim they were wrongly charged with an Agoura Hills utility tax listed on telephone bills for more than one year. Oak Park residents have gained the support of Supervisor Frank Schillo, who has asked the county District Attorney's CERTIFICATE, ATTORNEY'S, Practice, English law. By statute 37 Geo. III., c. 90, s. 26, 28, attorneys are required to deliver to the commissioners of stamp duties, a paper or note in writing, containing the name and usual place of residence of such person, and thereupon, on paying certain Office to investigate AT&T's billing after the Agoura Hills City Council approved the local levy in August 1994. Schillo's staff has provided county prosecutors with documents and information showing that Oak Park residents were charged with the utility tax. ``At this point, we are trying to determine what factually occurred in the Oak Park area,'' said Deputy District Attorney Greg Brose n. 1. Pottage made by pouring some boiling liquid on meal (esp. oatmeal), and stirring it. It is called beef brose, water brose, etc., according to the name of the liquid (beef broth, hot water, etc.) used. , supervising attorney for the consumer and environmental protection division. Kent Behringer, former chairman of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council, said he suspects that residents of the community in the unincorporated area In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality. To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, i.e., a city or town with its own government. of Ventura County were wrongly billed because they share a common ZIP code zip code System of postal-zone codes (zip stands for “zone improvement plan”) introduced in the U.S. in 1963 to improve mail delivery and exploit electronic reading and sorting capabilities. with Agoura Hills, which lies in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County. For more than 10 years, Oak Park residents have been fighting for their own ZIP code to distinguish themselves from their Los Angeles County neighbors. The charge that Oak Park residents may have been assessed for a utility tax levied by Agoura Hills was brought to the attention of the Municipal Advisory Council by Barbara Murphy, co-chairwoman of Citizens Against New Local Taxes, which led an effort to repeal The Annulment or abrogation of a previously existing statute by the enactment of a later law that revokes the former law. The revocation of the law can either be done through an express repeal the utility tax in Agoura Hills last year. AT&T apparently stopped billing and collecting the utility tax on most telephone bills shortly after Agoura Hills voters repealed the tax - 4 percent on residents and 3.5 percent on businesses - in the June 1996 election, Behringer said. Yet, while Agoura Hills residents could apply for a refund TO REFUND. To pay back by the party who has received it, to the party who has paid it, money which ought not to have been paid. 2. On a deficiency of assets, executors and administrators cum testamento annexo, are entitled to have refunded to them legacies during a six-month period that ended in July, Behringer said Oak Park residents could not. ``Now we are asking Ventura County to go in and find out who exactly AT&T was charging,'' he said. ``It seemed like the best way to get an investigation into what amounts to fraud.'' County prosecutors are investigating the circumstances CIRCUMSTANCES, evidence. The particulars which accompany a fact. 2. The facts proved are either possible or impossible, ordinary and probable, or extraordinary and improbable, recent or ancient; they may have happened near us, or afar off; they are public or of any utility tax collected from Oak Park residents and what happened to the money, Brose said. ``We will then determine if there is evidence to support any legal actions by our office,'' he said. Brose said the statute of limitations A type of federal or state law that restricts the time within which legal proceedings may be brought. Statutes of limitations, which date back to early Roman Law, are a fundamental part of European and U.S. law. for pursuing legal action in such a case is more than three years from the date of discovery. ``So we feel we have enough time to go in and really determine what occurred,'' he said. Alice Nagle, an AT&T spokeswoman, said the company has not discovered billing errors with Oak Park customers. But she said the company often establishes billing codes, which are applied to customers based on their ZIP codes. Although she said AT&T does not believe there was a systematic billing error to Oak Park residents, she said the company is in the process of going through the area's accounts to catch any possible errors to singular SINGULAR, construction. In grammar the singular is used to express only one, not plural. Johnson. 2. In law, the singular frequently includes the plural. accounts. Nagle confirmed that the company incorrectly billed about 4,000 residential accounts in Agoura Hills from August through October 1996 due to a problem in its billing system. She said the system error cost customers an average of about $2 per account for the three-month period, but added that any errors in Oak Park accounts probably would total less money. |
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