Orange County Municipal Code Art. 1 Commercial Weighing and Measuring Instruments

This article is adopted pursuant to Division 5 of the Business and Professions Code, for the purpose of establishing a system for registering commercial weighing and measuring instruments and point of sale systems, and to recover the costs of inspection and testing pursuant to Sections 12210, 12210.3, 12210.5, 12211, 12240 and 13350.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 07-007, § 1, 5-22-07; Ord. No. 15-008, § 1, 5-12-15; Ord. No. 20-005, § 1, 7-28-20; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

For the purpose of this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) Commercial purposes shall have the meaning assigned to it by Section 12500 of the California Business and Professions Code.

(b) A single business location is defined as:

(1) Each business location that uses one or more categories or types of commercial devices as set forth in Section 12240 of the California Business and Professions Code, that require the use of specialized testing equipment and that necessitates not more than one inspection trip by a weights and measures official.

(2) Each vehicle, except for those vehicles that are employed in vehicle rental transactions, in which one or more commercial devices is installed and used.

(3) (A)

For vehicles that are employed in vehicle rental transactions and that are not subject to Section 1936 of the Civil Code, each business location at which vehicles are stored or maintained by a vehicle rental company for the purposes of renting vehicles to customers.

(B) A facility that meets all of the following criteria shall not be considered a business location for the purposes of this paragraph:

(i) The facility is not wholly, or in any part, owned, leased, or operated by the vehicle rental company.

(ii) The facility is not operated or staffed by an employee of the vehicle rental company.

(iii) The facility stores or maintains, on a temporary basis, vehicles at the location for customer convenience.

(C) If a person files a complaint with the county sealer regarding the accuracy of an odometer in a vehicle found or located at a facility described in subparagraph (B), the county sealer may charge a fee to the operator of the vehicle rental company sufficient to recover, but not to exceed, the reasonable cost of testing the device in investigation of the complaint.

(c) Person shall have the meaning as defined by section 12011 of the California Business and Professions Code.

(d) Sealer shall have the meaning as defined by section 12008 of the California Business and Professions Code.

(e) Weighing and measuring instruments shall mean those weighing instruments and measuring instruments defined by Section 12500 of the Business and Professions Code, excepting, however, farm milk tanks.

(f) Apartment complex shall mean apartment buildings that use the same street address and use the same master meter for utilities.

(g) Marina shall mean marinas that use the same street address and the same master meter utilities.

(h) Mobile Home Park shall mean mobile home park units or recreational vehicle park units that use the same street address and the same master meter utilities.

(i) Retail Motor Fuel Device shall mean each different product or grade of fuel that is offered for sale to the consumer from a fuel dispenser. Each different product or grade of fuel shall be treated as a separate retail motor fuel device, even if many different products or grades of fuel are dispensed from a single common fuel dispenser.

(j) Point-of-Sale System shall mean any computer or electronic system, used by a retail establishment such as, but not limited to, Universal Product Code (UPC) scanners, price-look-up codes, or an electronic price look-up system, as means for determining the price of an item being purchased by a consumer as defined in Business and Professions Code Section 13352.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 3461, § 1, 5-22-84; Ord. No. 3759, § 1, 7-11-89; Ord. No. 3878, § 1, 3-16-93; Ord. No. 07-007, § 1, 5-22-07; Ord. No.15-008, § 1, 5-12-15; Ord. No. 20-005, § 1, 7-28-20)

No person shall use any weighing or measuring instrument or point-of-sale system, for commercial purposes without having a current registration certificate for such instrument or system. The certificate shall be in addition to any other certificate, license or permit which may be required by the County or any other public entity.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

An application for a registration certificate must be submitted to the Sealer in the form prescribed by the Sealer. The Sealer shall issue the registration certificate upon receipt of a completed application and payment of the applicable fee prescribed by section 5-5-6.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83)

A registration certificate shall be valid to June 30 of each year from the date of issuance and may be renewed from year to year for successive one-year periods upon payment of the applicable fee prescribed by section 5-5-6. The business owner/operator is responsible for renewing the registration on an annual basis.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 3878, § 2, 3-16-93; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

The annual fee for devices and Point of Sale Systems to be used at a location throughout the term of the certificate shall be as prescribed in section 12240, 13350, 12210.5, 12210(b), and 12210.3 of the Business and Professions Code.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 3878, § 3, 3-16-93; Ord. No. 98-15, § 61, 12-8-98; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

A registration certificate may be issued to a corporation duly authorized to transact business in this state, or to a person operating under a fictitious name who has complied with all the provisions of chapter 5 (commencing with section 17900) of part 3 of division 7 of the Business and Professions Code. Otherwise all such certificates shall be issued in the true name of the applicant. Except as above provided, no business, occupation or activity for which a certificate is required by this article may be conducted under any false or fictitious name. A certificate issued to a corporation shall designate such corporation by the exact name which appears in the articles of incorporation of such corporation.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83)

Editor's note— Ord. No. 24-001, § 2, adopted May 21, 2024, repealed § 5-5-8, which pertained to lost certificates, and derived from Ord. No. 3393, § 1, adopted July 12, 1983; and Ord. No. 3878, § 4, adopted March 16, 1993.

A registration certificate is not transferable from one (1) person to another, and is valid only for type devices or point-of-sale location for the specific location for which it is issued.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

Every person using any weighing or measuring instrument for which a registration certificate is required under the provisions of this article shall keep such certificate conspicuously posted at all times at the location where such instrument is being used or at a central location.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

The registration period shall commence on July 1 of each calendar year and terminate on June 30 of the following calendar year.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

Permittees who fail to pay new or renewed registration fees, in full, on or before the forty-five (45) days following invoice date will be subject to a penalty of one-quarter [of] the total registration fee. The business owner/operator is responsible for registration or renewal on an annual basis.

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 07-007, § 1, 5-22-07; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)

(a) The annual registration fees shall be assessed at the maximum amount authorized by Section 12240 of the California Business and Professions Code, as amended or superseded. The annual registration fees shall be the lower of either the State authorized maximum or the County's full recovery cost, based on OC Public Works determination of actual costs.

(b) Pursuant to Business and Professions Code Section 12240, the annual registration fee shall consist of:

(1) The applicable location fee, and

(2) All applicable device fees such as gas/electric/water meter fees, livestock scale fees, weighing devices, stationary and truck mounted LPG meter fees, compressed natural gas meter, wholesale and vehicle meter fees and general device fee.

(c) Fees for testing of water submeters, including out of county water submeters, in accordance with Section 12210.3 of the California Business and Professions Code shall be:

(d) Fees for inspecting and testing of commercial device at request of the owner or user authorized by Section 12210.5 of the California Business and Professions Code when inspection or testing of the device could legally be performed by a registered service agency shall be the State authorized schedule of uniform fees.

(e) Fees for inspecting and testing of noncommercial device upon the request of any person, firm or corporation, calibrate, test, weigh, and measure, and certify to the accuracy of weights and measures and weighing and measuring devices, and instruments, tools, and accessories connected therewith authorized by Section 12210(b) of the California Business and Professions Code shall be:

(f) Fees for annual registration of Point-of-Sale Systems authorized by Section 13350(d) of the California Business and Professions Code shall be:

(Ord. No. 3393, § 1, 7-12-83; Ord. No. 3461, § 2, 5-22-84; Ord. No. 3759, § 2, 7-11-89; Ord. No. 3878, § 5, 3-16-93; Ord. No. 3914, § 1, 4-21-94; Ord. No. 3926, § 1, 1-10-95; Ord. No. 07-007, § 1, 5-22-07; Ord. No. 15-008, § 1, 5-12-15; Ord. No. 20-005, § 1, 7-28-20; Ord. No. 24-001, § 1, 5-21-24)