Hemet Municipal Code Div. 2 Model Mobile Source Reduction Program

The city hereby finds and declares that:

(1) The city is committed to improving the public health, safety and welfare, including air quality.

(2) Mobile sources are a major contributor to air pollution in the South Coast Air Basin.

(3) Air quality goals for the region established by state law cannot be met without reducing air pollution from mobile sources.

(4) The South Coast Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) has called upon cities to reduce emissions from motor vehicles consistent with the requirements of the California Clean Air Act of 1988 by developing and implementing mobile source air pollution programs.

(5) Because such programs place demands upon the city's funds, those programs should be financed by shifting the responsibility for financing to the motor vehicles creating the demand, to the greatest extent possible.

(6) Health and Safety Code § 44223, added by action of the state legislature on September 30, 1990 (chapter 90-1705), authorizes the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to impose an additional motor vehicle registration fee of $2.00 commencing on April 1, 1991, increasing to $4.00 commencing April 1, 1992, to finance the implementation of transportation measures embodied in the AQMP and provisions of the California Clean Air Act.

(7) Forty cents of every dollar collected under Health and Safety Code § 44223 shall be distributed to cities and counties in the South Coast Air Quality Management District that comply with Health and Safety Code § 44243, based on the prorated share of population of the jurisdiction as defined by the state.

(8) The city is located within the South Coast Air Quality Management District and is eligible to receive a portion of the revenues from the additional motor vehicle registration fees contingent upon adoption of this article.

(9) The prorated share of the fee revenues for cities that fail to adopt an ordinance pursuant to Health and Safety Code § 44243(b)(3) shall be proportionately distributed to the remaining jurisdictions within the district that have adopted an ordinance.

(10) After careful consideration, the city hereby finds and declares that the imposition of the additional motor vehicle registration fee by the South Coast Air Quality Management District to finance mobile source air pollution reduction programs is in the best interest of the city and promotes the general welfare of its residents.

(Ord. No. 1420; Code 1984, § 9625)

This division is intended to support the South Coast Air Quality Management District's imposition of the vehicle registration fee and to bring the city into compliance with the requirements set forth in Health and Safety Code § 44243 in order to receive fee revenues for the purpose of implementing programs to reduce air pollution from motor vehicles.

(Ord. No. 1420; Code 1984, § 9626)

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this division, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Fee administrator means the administrative services director of the city or his designee.

Mobile source air pollution reduction programs means any program or project implemented by the city to reduce air pollution from motor vehicles which it determines will be consistent with the California Clean Air Act of 1988 or the plan proposed pursuant to Health and Safety Code § 40460 et seq.

(Ord. No. 1420; Code 1984, § 9627; Ord. No. 2027, § 2, 2-27-24)

Cross reference— Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.

(a) Receipt of fee. The additional vehicle registration fees disbursed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and remitted to the city pursuant to this division shall be accepted by the fee administrator.

(b) Establishment of air quality improvement trust fund. The fee administrator shall establish a separate interest-bearing trust fund within the accounting system of the city so as to track fund balances.

(c) Transfer of funds. Upon receipt of vehicle registration fees, the fee administrator shall deposit such funds into the separate fund established pursuant to subsection (b) of this section. All interest earned by the trust fund shall be credited only to that account.

(d) Expenditure of trust fund revenues. All revenues received from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and deposited in the trust fund shall be exclusively expended on mobile source emission reduction programs. Such revenues and any interest earned on the revenues shall be expended within one year of the completion of the programs.

(e) Audits. The city consents to an audit of all programs and projects funded by vehicle registration fee revenues received from the South Coast Air Quality Management District pursuant to Health and Safety Code § 44243.

(Ord. No. 1420; Code 1984, § 9628)