Brea Municipal Code Ch. 1.00 The Code

There is hereby adopted and enacted the Brea City Code, consisting of Part I, Titles 1 through 13, and Part II, Titles 14 through 20.

This code shall be known and may be cited as the “Brea City Code.” Part I of the Brea City Code shall consist of those codified ordinances of general municipal regulations and laws, and may be referred to and cited as the “Brea Municipal Code.” Part II of the Brea City Code shall consist of those codified ordinances pertaining to the development of the city and its environs and may be referred to and cited as the “Brea Development Code.”

The provisions of this code, insofar as they are substantially the same provisions of existing ordinances relating to the same subject matter, shall be continued as restatements and continuations thereof and not as new enactments.

Neither the adoption of this code nor the repeal of any ordinance of the city shall in any manner affect the prosecution for violation of any ordinance, which violation was committed prior to the effective date hereof, nor shall the same be construed as a waiver of any permit, license, fee, charge or penalty at such effective date required or due and unpaid under such ordinance, nor shall the same be construed as affecting any of the provisions of such ordinance relating to the collection of any such fee, charge or penalty, or the penal provisions applicable to any violation thereof, required to be posted, filed or deposited pursuant to any ordinance, and all rights and obligations thereunder appertaining shall continue in full force and effect.

In the construction of this code and of all ordinances of the city, the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the City Council or the context clearly requires otherwise:

"City."

Shall be construed as if followed by the words “of Brea.”

"Code."

The Code of the City of Brea.

"Computation of time."

The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day and including the last, unless the last day is a holiday and then it is also excluded.

"Council."

The City Council of the City of Brea.

"County."

The County of Orange.

"Day."

A day is the period of time between any midnight and the midnight following.

"Daytime, nighttime."

“Daytime” is the period of time between sunrise and sunset. “Nighttime” is the period of time between sunset and sunrise.

"Gender."

The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter.

"In the city."

All territory over which the city now has, or shall hereafter acquire jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other regulatory powers.

"Joint authority."

All words giving a joint authority to three or more persons or officers shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such persons or officers.

"Month."

A calendar month.

"Number."

The singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular.

"Oath."

Includes an affirmation.

"Officers, departments, etc."

Officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees of the city, unless the context indicates otherwise.

"Official time."

Whenever certain hours are named in this code, they shall mean Pacific Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time, as may be in current use in the city.

"Or, and."

“Or” may be read “and,” and “and” may be “or,” if the sense requires it.

"Owner."

Applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety of the whole or of a part of such building or land.

"Person."

Any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation or company.

"Personal property."

Includes every species of property, except real property, as defined in this section.

"Preceding, following."

The words “preceding” and “following” mean next before and next after, respectively.

"Process."

Includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature.

"Property."

This term shall include real and personal property.

"Real property."

This term shall include lands, tenements and hereditaments.

"Shall, may."

“Shall” is mandatory and “may” is permissive.

"Signature or subscription by mark."

A mark when the signer or subscriber cannot write, such signer's or subscriber's name being written near the mark by a witness who writes his or her own name near the signer's or subscriber's name; but, a signature or subscription by mark can be acknowledged or can serve as a signature or subscription to a sworn statement only when two witnesses so sign their own names thereto.

"State."

The State of California.

"Tenant or occupant."

Applied to a building or land, shall include any person holding a written or an oral lease of, or who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, either alone or with others.

"Tenses."

The present tense includes the past and future tenses, and the future includes the present.

"Week."

A week consists of seven consecutive days.

"Writing."

Any form of recorded message capable of comprehension by ordinary visual means. Whenever any notice, report, statement or record is required or authorized by this code, it shall be made in writing in the English language, unless it is expressly provided otherwise.

"Year."

A calendar year, except where otherwise provided.

(1961 Code, § 1.2)

A. The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.

B. The repeal of an ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred before the repeal took effect, nor any suit, prosecution or proceeding pending at the time of the repeal, for any offense committed under the ordinance repealed.

(1961 Code, § 1.4)

The catchlines of the several sections of this code printed in bold face type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, nor as any part of the section, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines are amended or reenacted.

(1961 Code, § 1.6)

A. Location designated. The city jail shall be located in the civic and cultural center or such other location as the Council may designate.

B. Certain prisoners to perform labor on public works. All persons confined in the city jail under a final judgment of imprisonment rendered in a criminal action or proceeding, or as a condition of probation after suspension of imposition of a sentence or suspension of execution of sentence, hereby are ordered to perform labor on the public works and ways of the city as assigned by the Police Chief of the city.

C. Definition. As used in paragraph B. above, "labor on the public works" includes, but is not limited to, clerical and menial labor in the city.

D. Persons who may be imprisoned. Any person sentenced to imprisonment for violation of any provision of this code or other ordinance of the city may be imprisoned in the city jail and such imprisonment may be made in lieu of imprisonment in the county jail.

(1961 Code, §§ 1.8, 1.8-1, 1.8-2 and 1.9; Ord. 116; Ord. 508)

A. Adoption. The seal described in this section is hereby adopted as the common seal of the city.

B. Description. The common seal of the city shall be so constructed as to make the following impression:

An inside circle of one and one-fourth (1¼") inch in diameter, with dotted border, to have a design showing orange trees in the foreground and four oil derricks in the central portion, with a faint outline of mountains in the background, surrounded by a second circle one-quarter (¼") inch larger in radius, having a rope design inscribed on the outer margin thereof within which and surrounding the inner circle shall be printed in larger letters the words; City of Brea, Orange County, California, incorporated February 23, 1917 A.D.

C. Custodian. The City Clerk shall have charge of the seal of the city, and shall be held responsible for its care and proper use.

(1961 Code, §§ 1.10, 1.11 and 1.12; Ord. 14)

A. Except as otherwise expressly provided by state or federal law, or when done in the course of official city business, it shall be unlawful for any person or entity to use the city seal, or any emblem or logo approved for city use by the City Council, or which is otherwise created by or for the city in connection with or to identify any official city program or activity, by affixing or otherwise depicting the city seal, or any such official emblem, or logo, or replica thereof, on any document, thing, item, or material, or in or upon any internet website, without first having obtained written permission from the city to do so as provided in this section. Each day of any unauthorized use of the city seal, or official emblem or logo, shall constitute a separate offense.

B. The City Manager or his or her designee (City Manager) shall authorize in writing the limited use of the city seal, or any official city emblem or logo, for a specific purpose by any person or entity (applicant) when all of the following criteria are met:

1. The use of the city seal, emblem, or logo, or any copy, facsimile or reproduction thereof, is for a city, local civic, local cultural, local charitable or other local non-profit, non-political purpose.

2. The applicant agrees not to use the city seal, emblem, or logo for commercial or other purposes not otherwise allowed by this section.

3. The applicant submits a complete application and pays a fee set by resolution of the city council for processing the application and administering this code section.

4. A sample or image thereof satisfactory to the City Manager of any document, item, material, or website page upon which the city seal, emblem or logo is to be used is submitted, and objective evidence of good quality and workmanship, or high production standards, as applicable, is presented establishing that use of the city seal, emblem, or logo, as requested, will not:

a. Discredit or impair the integrity of the seal, emblem, or logo;

b. Cause discredit or ridicule to the city in any manner;

c. Put the city in a false light; or

d. Falsely imply that the applicant is an employee, officer, or agent of the city; or be used for any political purpose.

C. The city shall retain the right, at all reasonable times, to inspect any document, item, material, or website upon which the city seal, emblem, or logo is used in order to verify that the city seal, emblem, or logo is being used truly and correctly as represented by the applicant and in an unaltered form.

D. Permission to use the city seal, emblem, or logo shall not be assignable.

E. The use of the seal, emblem, or logo may be subject to any reasonable conditions imposed by the City Manager to carry out the purposes of this section.

F. If, after receiving written permission, use of the seal, emblem or logo by the applicant fails to satisfy any of the criteria set forth above, the City Manager shall serve written notice of such violation upon the applicant with a request to cure or take appropriate affirmative action to cure the violation within thirty (30) days of the date of the notice. In the event the applicant fails to cure the violation to the satisfaction of the City Manager, the City Manager shall serve written notice personally, or by certified mail, to the applicant at the address on the application, that permission to use the city seal, emblem, or logo is terminated, and any further use shall be a violation of this section and a nuisance.

G. A violation of this section is punishable as a misdemeanor and the same may be enjoined through use of any and all available legal remedies.

(Ord. 1125, 8-4-2009)

The sea level of the Pacific Ocean is hereby declared to be the datum plane or base line of the city for the purpose of designating the official grades of the streets, alleys, places, avenues, sidewalks, sewers and any other public work for the city and for measuring all elevations and surface points thereto.

(1961 Code, § 1.13; Ord. 23)

The official bench mark or datum monument within the city shall be a brass screw set in cement in the curb return at the southwest corner of South Brea Boulevard and West Ash Street. This datum monument is elevated 374.921 feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean, which is the city datum plane.

(1961 Code, § 1.14; Ord. 23)

Code enforcement officers of the city, as designated by the City Manager, upon completion of special training as required by the City Manager and in accordance with training provisions of the California Penal Code, shall have the power to arrest those individuals which are reasonably believed to have violated or to be in violation of any provision of the Brea City Code, the Brea Zoning Ordinance and any uncodified ordinance of the city now or hereafter in effect, in accordance with the terms and conditions of Cal. Penal Code § 836.5, or its successor provisions.

(1961 Code, § 1.15; Ord. 784)