Santa Barbara County Municipal Code Art. VII Charges for Services of County Service Areas

The purpose of this article is to provide a procedure for collection of charges for services provided in county service areas.

(Ord. No. 3444, § 1; Ord. No. 3710, § 1)

The ordinance codified in this article is provided for in section 25210.77a of the Government Code, as amended.

(Ord. No. 3444, § 1; Ord. No. 3710, § 1)

(a) The board of supervisors shall establish the amount of the annual charge to be collected each year by estimating the cost of providing authorized services in each county service area together with such costs as are allowable in furnishing such services. The total annual costs of the services shall be apportioned among all of the parcels or real property within the county service area which are benefited by such services. The board of supervisors shall establish a benefit factor be assigned to each parcel of real property by reference to its general category of use.

(b) Once a year the board of supervisors shall cause written reports to be prepared which shall contain a description (by assessor's parcel number) of each parcel of real property within county services areas which provide services, together with the amount of the charge for each parcel for the ensuing fiscal year, computed on the basis of estimated benefit to each such parcel of real property from each such service. Such reports shall be filed with the clerk of the board of supervisors.

(c) Upon the filing of such reports, the clerk of the board of supervisors shall fix a time, date and place for a hearing on the reports and for filing objections or protests thereof. The clerk of the board of supervisors shall publish a notice of such hearing, as provided in Government Code section 6066, prior to the date set for hearing, in a newspaper of general circulation, printed and published in the county.

(d) At the time, date and place stated in the notice, the board of supervisors shall hear and consider all objections or protests, if any, to the reports and may continue the hearing from time to time. Upon conclusion of the hearing, the board of supervisors may adopt, revise, change, reduce, modify or condition any change and shall make its determination upon each charge as described in the reports and thereafter may, by resolution, confirm the reports. The board of supervisors shall not, however, impose a charge upon a federal or state governmental agency or another local agency.

(e) A copy of the confirmed reports shall be delivered to the county auditor for inclusion into the appropriate tax bills.

(f) The charges set forth in the reports, as confirmed, shall appear as a separate item on each tax bill. The charge shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as ordinary county ad valorem property taxes are collected and shall be subject to the same penalties and the same procedures and sale in case of delinquency as provided for such taxes. All laws applicable to the levy, collection and enforcement of county ad valorem property taxes shall be applicable to such charge and it shall become a lien against the real property; except that, if for the first year such charge is levied the real property to which such charge relates has been transferred or conveyed to a bona fide purchaser for value, or if a lien of a bona fide encumbrancer for value has been created and attached thereon, prior to the date on which the first installation of such taxes would become delinquent, the charge confirmed pursuant to this section shall not result in a lien against such real property, but instead shall be transferred to the unsecured roll for collection.

(Ord. No. 3444, § 1; Ord. No. 3710, § 1)