Cypress Municipal Code Ch. 1 General Provisions

The ordinances embraced in the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated "The Code of the City of Cypress, California," and may be so cited. Such code may also be cited as the "Cypress City Code."

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.

The words "the city" or "this city" shall be construed as if followed by the words "of Cypress."

Code.

The words "the Code" or "this Code" shall mean "The Code of the City of Cypress, California."

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, city council.

Whenever the words "council" or "city council" are used, they shall be construed to mean the city council of the City of Cypress, California.

County.

The words "the county" or "this county" shall mean the County of Orange of the State of California.

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.

The words "in the city" shall mean and include all territory over which the city now has, or shall hereafter acquire, the 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.

The word "month" shall mean a calendar month.

Number.

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

Oath.

"Oath" includes affirmation.

Officer, office, employee, board, commission or department.

Whenever any officer, office, employee, board, commission or department is referred to it shall mean an officer, office, employee, board, commission or department of the city unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

Official time.

Whenever certain hours are named herein, they shall mean Pacific Standard Time or Day-light Saving Time whichever may be in current use in the city.

Or, and.

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

Owner.

The word "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 entirety of the whole or of a part of such building or land.

Person.

"Person" includes 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.

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

Property.

The word "property" shall include real and personal property.

"Real property"

shall include lands, tenements and hereditaments.

Shall, may.

"Shall" is mandatory and "may" is permissive.

Signature or subscription.

"Signature" or "subscription" includes 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 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 words "the state" or "this state" shall be construed to mean the State of California.

Tenant or occupant.

The word "tenant" or "occupant," applied to a building or land, shall include any person holding a written or 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, the present.

Week.

A "week" consists of seven consecutive days.

Writing.

"Writing" includes 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.

The word "year" shall mean a calendar year, except where otherwise provided.

The provisions appearing in this Code, so far as they are in substance the same as those of ordinances existing at the time of the effective date of this Code, shall be considered as continuations thereof and not as new enactments.

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

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.

The catchlines of the several sections of this Code printed in boldface 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 re-enacted.

It is hereby declared to be the intention of the city council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Code shall be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Code.

(a) Whenever in this Code or in any other ordinance of the city or in any order, rule, or regulation issued or promulgated by any duly authorized officer or agent of the city, any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or the doing of any act is required and the failure to do that act is declared to be unlawful, and no specific penalty is provided therefor, violation of said provision shall be a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

For the purposes of this section 1-7, any violation of the Cypress Municipal Code ("Municipal Code Violation") may be processed through the administrative citation provisions established within this section 1-7 and section 1-12 providing, however, when processed as administrative citations, all such municipal code violations shall be subject to the maximum amounts established in subsection 1-7(c).

Nothing in this chapter shall prevent the city from exercising its discretion to select between criminal enforcement for a municipal code violation and enforcement through the administrative citation process established herein.

(b) Each and every day during any portion of which any violation of this Code or any other ordinance, order, rule, or regulation of the city continues shall constitute a separate offense, and may be punished accordingly.

(c) When specifically designated as such, violations of any provision of this Code or any other city ordinance, rule, order, or regulation shall be an infraction, which shall be punished as follows:

First violation: $100.00 fine

Second violation: $200.00 fine

Third violation, and each subsequent violation of the same ordinance or permit within one year from the date of the first violation, may at the city's discretion be treated as an infraction and fined in the amount of five hundred ($500.00) per occurrence, or may be deemed a misdemeanor and as such, shall be punishable as set forth in subsection (a).

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary designating an offense a misdemeanor, when the city attorney, or the district attorney files in a court having jurisdiction over misdemeanor offenses a complaint specifying that an offense otherwise a misdemeanor is an infraction, the violation shall be deemed an infraction for all purposes.

(d) Citation power shall be delegated by resolution of the city council.

(e) Unless otherwise specifically provided herein, the Orange County Courts' Countywide Uniform Bail Schedule is hereby adopted by this reference, as if set forth in full, for violations of the Code of the City of Cypress.

(Ord. No. 15; Ord. No. 833, § 1, 12-11-89; Ord. No. 998, §§ 1, 2, 2-14-00)

If any person is arrested for the violation of this Code or any other ordinance of the city, and such person is not immediately taken before a magistrate, as is more fully set forth in the Penal Code of the state, the arresting officer shall prepare, in duplicate, a written notice to appear in court, containing the name and address of such person, the offense charged and the time and place where and when such person shall appear in court.

The time specified in such notice to appear shall not be less than five days after such arrest.

The place specified in such notice to appear shall be one of the following:

(a) Before a judge of a justice court or a municipal court judge within the county who has jurisdiction of the offense and who is nearest and most accessible with reference to the place where the arrest is made.

(b) Upon demand of the person arrested, before a judge of the municipal court of the county judicial district, or before a judge of a justice court or municipal court in the judicial district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed.

(c) Before an officer authorized to receive a deposit of bail.

(Ord. No. 116, §§ 1 to 3)

The officer arresting a person pursuant to section 1-8 shall deliver one copy of the notice to appear to the arrested person and the arrested person, in order to secure a release, shall give his written promise so to appear in court by signing the duplicate notice, which shall be retained by the officer. Thereupon the arresting officer shall forthwith release the person arrested from custody.

(Ord. No. 116, § 4)

Every person wilfully violating his written promise to appear in court is guilty of a violation of this Code regardless of the disposition of the charge upon which he was originally arrested.

(Ord. No. 116, § 7)

The officer arresting a person pursuant to section 1-8 shall, as soon as practicable, file a duplicate notice to appear with the magistrate specified in such notice. The defendant may, prior to the date upon which he promised to appear in court, deposit with the magistrate the amount of bail set by such magistrate. Thereafter, at the time when the case is called for arraignment before the magistrate, if the defendant does not appear, either in person or by counsel, the magistrate may declare the bail forfeited and may at his discretion order that no further proceedings shall be had in such case. Upon the making of such order that no further proceedings be had, all sums deposited as bail shall forthwith be paid into the county treasury.

(Ord. No. 116, § 5)