County Delays Decision on Big Rock Mesa Drainage System Tax : Assessments: The plan proposes tripling property taxes to help prevent landslides. One in 1983 destroyed or damaged 250 homes.

A Los Angeles County plan to tax Big Rock Mesa homeowners more than $100,000 each for a drainage system to stabilize their landslide-plagued community was delayed again last week, after too few members of the Board of Supervisors were present to act on the matter.

The supervisors are scheduled to consider the matter on Tuesday.

Thursday’s delay was the second time the proposal has been stalled since county officials in June announced plans to more than triple the Malibu homeowners’ tax assessment to pay for an elaborate system to prevent another devastating landslide.

County officials in September presented a $13.8-million improvement package to the supervisors, but the board delayed approval after protests from Big Rock residents.

Residents say the plan is too expensive for them to bear alone and does not guarantee against another disaster on the order of a 1983 slide that damaged or destroyed 250 homes.

After 4 1/2 years of litigation, the county, the California Department of Transportation, dozens of insurance companies and attorneys for about 240 Big Rock homeowners reached a settlement in January that will pay the homeowners $97 million--or about $200,000 apiece after legal fees--for the damage they suffered as a result of the 1983 slide.

But many of those same residents, as well as some who were not part of the lawsuit and others who bought homes at Big Rock Mesa after the litigation began, were stunned by the county’s plans to triple their property taxes to help pay for stabilizing the slide-prone promontory.

Residents and county officials have met several times since the September delay to try to reach a compromise, but both sides acknowledge that there has been little progress.

“We’re essentially where we were a month ago,” Thomas Tidemanson, county public works director, told the supervisors last week.

The supervisors have the authority to impose a settlement. However, by law, since a majority of the property owners have protested the assessment, imposing a settlement requires the approval of at least four of the five supervisors.

On Thursday, with Supervisors Pete Schabarum and Kenneth Hahn absent, the board listened to several residents argue for trimming the cost of the project and more county help in paying for it, before continuing the matter until Tuesday.

John B. Murdock, an attorney for the homeowners, called the question of whether the county is willing to help pay for the drainage system “the big nut” standing in the way of a plan that residents could support.

He and others argued that the county should help pay for the system since any improvements to stabilize Big Rock will reduce the county’s risk of liability from future slides.

However, Supervisor Deane Dana, whose district includes Malibu, expressed little enthusiasm for the idea.

“We just finished closing down a group of family planning clinics for lack of funds,” he said. “If we give you, say, a couple of million dollars, we’re going to have to sit here and determine what other program has to be cut.”

Dana also took a dim view of Supervisor Ed Edelman’s request that county officials investigate, before Tuesday, whether county road funds might be used to cover part of the cost, since a major slide on the mesa could pose a threat to Pacific Coast Highway.

“Are you really suggesting that people in your district, and the other districts, should contribute to this?” Dana asked.

However, the homeowners saw a ray of light, even though Edelman said he “only wanted to explore the possibility” and was “not saying that we would do it.”

“I think it was an encouraging sign,” homeowner Mike Caggiano said. “I’m trying to be optimistic.”