Joint Meeting Set on Salvaging Port District

With a final court appearance before the U. S. Bankruptcy Court looming at the end of January, the Ventura Port District and the City Council will hold a meeting tonight to discuss a plan to salvage the agency.

The port district staff will present a 57-page business plan--complete with fold-out graphs--at the joint meeting.

The plan suggests a series of possible steps to generate more revenue for the district, including restructuring an FDIC loan, increasing investment in thriving Harbor Village and developing several parcels so they can be rented for profit. Potentially more controversial, the report also recommends using $2 million from a $3-million dredging maintenance relief fund for short-term purposes.

“I strongly believe that the city and the district should be working closely together,” said Edward Wohlenburg, general manager of the Ventura Port District. “This is an important time to get people informed. We have difficult decisions . . . due to ongoing financial problems.”

The district staggers under about $22 million in debt--which includes about $4 million owed to the California Department of Boating and Waterways and about $18 million owed to creditors, much of that as result of a $15.7-million court judgment entered against the district.

The district filed for bankruptcy Aug. 20, 1993, and has not paid any of its state loans since. It has until the end of the month to submit a debt readjustment plan to the Bankruptcy Court detailing how it will pay creditors.

Six years ago, the district was ordered to pay $15.7 million to a development firm. Last week, U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp reaffirmed that decision and denied the company’s request for a new trial.

Hupp said that if all else fails, the district’s property may have to be sold to pay the judgment--a possibility port officials want to avoid.

The business plan contends that if the district adopts its recommendations, “a satisfactory level of financial viability could be achieved, the debt repayment schedules for existing debt owed to the state could be met, and the District could pay approximately $6.1 million . . . to its unsecured creditors.”

The meeting, scheduled to start at 6 p.m., will be held in the Windjammer Room at the Harbortown Hotel, 1050 Schooner Drive, Ventura.