Del Rey Oaks Municipal Code Art. 3 Compliance Orders

A. The provisions herein regarding administrative orders provide for administrative remedies that are in addition to all other legal remedies, criminal or civil, which may be pursued by the City to address any violation of this Code.

B. These sections shall not supersede any other sections of this code that address other legal or administrative remedies for City code violations; use of this Chapter shall be at the sole discretion of the City.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. Whenever the Enforcement Officer determines that a violation of any provision of this Code is occurring or exists, a written compliance order may be issued to any person responsible for the violation and/or the property owner.

B. A compliance order issued pursuant to this Chapter shall contain the following information:

1. The date and location of the violation;

2. The section of this code violated and a description of the violation;

3. The actions required to correct the violation;

4. The time period after which administrative penalties will begin to accrue if compliance with the order has not been achieved;

5. A description of the hearing procedure and of the consequences of noncompliance with this Article, as well as an explanation of the appeal process.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. If the City Manager determines that all violations have been corrected within the time specified in the compliance order, no further action shall be taken.

B. If full compliance is not achieved within the time specified in the compliance order, a hearing on the matter shall be set.

C. The City Manager shall cause a written notice of hearing to be served on the applicable Hearing Officer, the violator and, where real property is involved, a notice of hearing shall be served on the property owner at the address as it appears on the last equalized county assessment roll available on the date the notice is prepared.

D. All hearings shall be shall be open and public and held pursuant to the Ralph M. Brown Act.

E. The failure of any recipient of an administrative compliance order to appear at the hearing shall constitute a waiver of the right to a hearing forfeiture of the fine and a failure to exhaust their administrative remedies.

F. Upon a showing of good cause by the person responsible for the violation, as determined by the Hearing Officer, the Hearing Officer may excuse the recipient of the violation for failure to appear at the hearing and reschedule the hearing. Under no circumstances shall the hearing be rescheduled more than twice. Nothing in this subsection shall be interpreted to mean that the person responsible for the violation is excused from the requirement of paying the administrative fine.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. Every notice of hearing on a compliance order shall contain the date, time, and place at which the hearing shall be conducted by the Hearing Officer.

B. Each hearing shall be set for a date not less than 15 days or more than 60 days from the date of the notice of hearing unless the Enforcement Officer determines that the matter is urgent or that good cause exists for an extension of time.

C. The hearing serves to provide the full opportunity of a person subject to a compliance order to object to the determination that a violation has occurred and/or that the violation has continued to exist. The failure of any person subject to a compliance order to appear at the hearing shall constitute a waiver of the right to a hearing and a failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. At the place and time set forth in the notice of hearing, the Hearing Officer shall conduct a hearing on the compliance order issued.

B. The Hearing Officer shall consider any written or oral evidence regarding the violation and compliance by the City, violator, and/or by the real property owner, including, but not limited to:

1. The report of the Enforcement Officer, or designee;

2. Objections or protests of property owners or other responsible or interested persons who may be held liable for the amounts owed or whose property may be assessed or liened for the amounts owed;

3. Evidence on whether the person before the Hearing Officer is responsible for the amounts owed to the City;

4. Whether the violator or owner has taken the required corrective action within the required time period; and

5. Such other and further evidence as justice may require.

C. Within 30 days following the conclusion of the hearing, the Hearing Officer shall make findings and issue its determination regarding:

1. The existence of the violation; and

2. The failure of the violator or owner to take required corrective action within the required time period.

D. Within 30 days of the hearing, the Hearing Officer shall issue written findings on each violation. The findings shall be supported by evidence received at the hearing.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. If the Hearing Officer determines that a violation occurred that was not corrected within the time period specified in the compliance order, the Hearing Officer shall issue an Administrative Order that imposes all of the following:

1. An order to correct, including a schedule for correction where appropriate;

2. Administrative penalties as provided in section 1.19.250;

3. Administrative costs as provided in section 1.19.260;

4. Interest as provided in section 1.19.270; and

5. The Administrative Order shall state that failure to comply with its provisions may result in the City abating the nuisance and charging the cost of said abatement plus all administrative costs to the property owner, and may further result in the City collecting the monies due as a personal obligation of the responsible party or by recordation of a lien or filing of a special assessment against the subject real property.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. If correction of the violation has not occurred within the time period specified in the Administrative Order, the continuing violation shall be deemed a public nuisance and the City or a contracting agent hired by the City may enter upon the private property on which the violation exists for the purpose of abating the violation. It shall be unlawful for any person, owner, agent, or person in possession of any premises to refuse to allow the City or its contracting agents to enter upon the premises for the purpose of abating the violation.

B. The cost of any such abatement authorized herein by City shall be borne by the property owner, which cost shall include administrative costs as well as the actual cost of abatement.

C. The cost of abatement, including administrative costs, may be enforced as a personal obligation against the violator, or if the violation is in connection with real property the property owner, and as a lien or special assessment against the property.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. The Hearing Officer may impose administrative penalties from the violation of any provision of this code in an amount not to exceed $2,500.00 per day for each ongoing violation, except that the total administrative penalty shall not exceed $100,000.00 exclusive of interest, administrative costs, and restitution for compliance re-inspections, for any related series of violations.

B. In determining the amount of the administrative penalty, the Hearing Officer may take any or all of the following factors into consideration:

1. The duration of the violation;

2. The frequency, recurrence and number of violations, related or unrelated, by the same violator;

3. The seriousness of the violation;

4. The good faith efforts of the violator to come into compliance;

5. The economic impact of the penalty on the violator;

6. The impact of the violation on the community; and

7. Such other factors as justice may require.

C. Administrative penalties imposed by the Hearing Officer shall accrue for the date as specified in the compliance order and shall cease to accrue on the date the violation is corrected as determined by the City. Administrative penalties may be suspended for any period of time during which the violator has filed for necessary permits and such permit applications are actively pending before the City, state or other appropriate agency.

D. Administrative penalties assessed by the Hearing Officer shall be due by the date specified in the Administrative Order.

E. If the violation is not corrected as specified in the Hearing Officer's order, administrative penalties shall continue to accrue on a daily basis until the violation is corrected, subject to the maximum amount set forth in subsection (A) above.

F. If the violator gives written notice to the Hearing Officer that the violation has been corrected and if the Hearing Officer finds that compliance has been achieved, the Hearing Officer shall deem the date the written notice was postmarked or personally delivered to the Hearing Officer or the date of the final inspection, whichever first occurred, to be the date the violation was corrected. If no written notice is provided to the Hearing Officer, the violation will be deemed corrected on the date of the final inspection.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. The Hearing Officer shall assess administrative costs against the violator when it finds that a violation has occurred and that compliance has not been achieved within the time specified in the compliance order.

B. The administrative costs shall include any and all costs incurred by the City in connection with the matter before the Hearing Officer including, but not limited to, costs of investigation, staffing costs incurred in preparation for the hearing and for the hearing itself, and costs for all re-inspections necessary to enforce the compliance order.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

The Hearing Officer shall also assess interest on the amount of administrative penalties, abatement costs and administrative costs imposed at the legal rate from the date of the Administrative Order.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. The Administrative Order of the Hearing Officer shall be the final decision of the City.

B. The Administrative Order of the Hearing Officer, once recorded, shall have the same force and effect and priority as a judgment lien governed by the provisions of Section 697.340 of the California Code of Civil Procedure and may be extended as provided in Sections 683.110 to 683.220, inclusive, of the Code of Civil Procedure.

C. The Administrative Order shall have the same force and effect as a resolution of the City Council for the purpose of filing a lien, special assessment, or special collection with the County of Monterey or tax collector's office pursuant to this Code and for the purpose of pursuing any other collection or enforcement action to obtain payment of the amounts owed to the City.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

If unpaid as of the date specified in the Administrative Order, the administrative penalties, administrative costs and interest assessed by the Hearing Officer shall be collected by the City by use of all available legal means, and may be enforced as:

1. A personal obligation of the violator; and/or

2. If the violation is in connection with real property, a lien or special assessment upon the real property. The lien or special assessment shall remain in effect until all of the administrative penalties, administrative costs, and interest are paid in full.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

If the City Manager determines that compliance has been achieved after a compliance order has been sustained by the Hearing Officer, the City Manager shall prepare a report indicating that compliance has been achieved. A copy of the compliance report shall be served on the violator.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

A. If the City Manager does not prepare and serve the compliance report specified above, a violator who believes that compliance has been achieved may request a compliance hearing before a Hearing Officer by filing a request for a hearing with the City.

B. The hearing shall be noticed and conducted in the same manner as a hearing on a compliance order.

C. The Hearing Officer shall determine if compliance has been achieved and, if so, when it was achieved. The decision of the Hearing Officer shall be final.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

Any decision of the Hearing Officer shall be final. Any person aggrieved by an Administrative Order of the Hearing Officer may obtain review of the Administrative Order in the superior court by filing with the court a petition for writ of mandate pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.6.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

Whenever the amount of any administrative penalty and/or administrative cost imposed by the Hearing Officer pursuant to this Article in connection with real property has not been satisfied in full within 90 days and/or has not been successfully challenged by a timely writ of mandate, this obligation may constitute a lien or, in the alternative, a special assessment against the real property on which the violation occurred.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

Any lien recorded against real property under this Article shall be imposed following the procedure set forth in Article 5.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

Any special assessment filed against real property under this Article shall be imposed following the procedure set forth in Article 5.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)

Once payment in full is received by the City for outstanding penalties and costs, City shall follow the procedures set forth in Article 5 of the Del Rey Oaks City Code regarding satisfaction of lien/special assessment.

(Ord. No. 291, § 3, 11-28-2017)