Suisun City Municipal Code Art. IV Appeals; Judicial Review; Severability

The party responsible for a public nuisance may file an appeal to the city's declaration of public nuisance and order to comply with the city clerk subject to the following procedures:

A. Appeal in Writing. The appeal shall be in writing. The appeal shall state the basis for the appeal with sufficient specificity so that the hearing officer can understand the basis for the appeal and shall include the name, address, and telephone number of the person filing the appeal.

B. Time to Appeal. The appeal shall be received by the city clerk within 15 days from the date upon the notice. The time requirement for filing an appeal shall be deemed jurisdictional and may not be waived. Appeals not timely filed or not setting forth the basis for the appeal are defective and shall be dismissed.

C. Hearing Officer. Appeals shall be heard by a hearing officer appointed by the city manager.

D. Timing of Appeal and Abatement. The hearing on an appeal from an abatement notice shall be held prior to the abatement, except in those circumstances where the enforcement official has determined that the nuisance conditions present an immediate danger to the public health and safety, including, but not limited to, hazardous materials, or where the time of year increases the potential for a fire. In those circumstances the appeal hearing may be held after the abatement.

(Ord. No. 806, § 2, 10-17-2023)

A. Scheduling of Hearing. The city clerk shall schedule a hearing before an independent hearing officer no sooner than ten days and not more than 60 days from the date the appeal is filed with the city clerk.

B. Notice of Hearing. Written notice of the date, time and place of the hearing shall be given at least ten days prior to the date of the hearing to the appellant either by causing a copy of such notice to be delivered to the appellant personally or by mailing a copy thereof, postage prepaid, addressed to the appellant at the appellant's address shown on the appeal, or, if no address is provided on the appeal, at the address to which the official's decision was previously sent or posted. Where known, a copy may also be provided by e-mail. The failure of any person to receive such notice shall not affect the validity of any proceedings taken under this chapter. Service by normal delivery mail in the manner described above shall become effective on the date of mailing.

C. Scope of Hearing and Burden of Proof. At the date, time and place stated in the notice, the hearing officer shall hear and consider all relevant evidence, objections or protests, and shall receive testimony from the appellant, the enforcement official and his/her designees, and interested persons relative to the issues of the hearing. Except where otherwise provided by the governing code or statute, the burden of proof and production of evidence shall be with the city and the burden of proof shall be preponderance of the evidence. Preponderance of the evidence means the burden of proof is met if there is a greater than 50 percent chance that, based on all the reasonable evidence shown, the city's claims are true and appellant did in fact commit the violation. The city meets its burden of proof by presenting physical and testimonial evidence to prove their case and the proposition that it is more likely to be true than not true that appellant committed the violation.

D. Hearing Procedures. The hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the following procedures:

1. All hearings shall be recorded. Any party may, at their sole expense, have the hearing transcribed by a certified shorthand reporter.

2. Hearings need not be conducted according to the technical rules of evidence.

3. Any relevant evidence shall be admitted if it is of the type of evidence in which reasonable persons are accustomed to rely on the conduct of serious affairs, regardless of the existence of any common law or statutory rule which might make improper the admission of such evidence over objection in civil actions in courts of competent jurisdiction in this state.

4. Oral evidence shall be taken only on oath or affirmation. The hearing officer or the city manager shall have the power to administer oaths.

5. Irrelevant and unduly repetitious evidence shall be excluded.

6. Each party shall have the right to:

a. Call and examine witnesses on any matter relevant to the issues of the hearing;

b. Introduce documentary and physical evidence;

c. Cross-examine opposing witnesses on any matter relevant to the issues of the hearing, subject to the control of the hearing officer, including the imposition of reasonable alternatives to cross-examination;

d. Impeach any witness regardless of which party first called the witness to testify;

e. Rebut the evidence; and

f. Be represented by anyone who is lawfully permitted to do so.

7. The hearing officer may take official notice, either during the hearing or after submission of the matter for decision, of any fact which may be judicially noticed by the courts of this state or of official records, regulations, rules, and decisions of state and local agencies, boards and departments and of city ordinances. In addition, the hearing officer may take official notice of matters in its own files and of prior proceedings under this chapter involving the same issues. If applicable, the hearing officer or the may also take official notice of any generally accepted technical or scientific matter within their expertise. The parties present at the hearing shall be informed of the matters to be noticed, and those matters should be noted in the record, referred to therein, or appended thereto. Any such party shall be given a reasonable opportunity on request to refute the officially noticed matters by evidence or by written or oral presentation of authority.

8. Failure to appear at the hearing by either party shall not invalidate the proceedings.

E. Continuance of Hearing. The hearing officer may provide for reasonable continuances of the hearing, on its own initiative or at the request of a party, as necessary to properly conduct the appeal.

F. Decision. At the conclusion of the hearing, the hearing officer shall deliberate and reach a decision within 15 days. The decision and the reason(s) for the decision shall be reduced to writing. The hearing officer may affirm, reverse, modify, or set aside the abatement order, suspension or revocation of a permit or license, citation, decision or order issued pursuant to this Code as the facts and law warrant.

G. Service and Filing of Decision. A copy of the hearing officer's decision shall be sent by mail or otherwise to the appellant. Where known, a copy may also be provided by e-mail.

H. Finality of Decision. The decision of the hearing officer shall be final with no further administrative appeals.

(Ord. No. 806, § 2, 10-17-2023)

Judicial review of any final decision made under this chapter may be had by filing a petition for a writ of mandate with the Superior Court, County of Solano, in accordance with the provisions of the California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1094.5. Any such petition shall be filed within 90 days after the day the decision becomes final as provided in California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1094.6, which shall be applicable for such actions.

(Ord. No. 806, § 2, 10-17-2023)

If any article, section, sentence, clause or phrase of this chapter is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion of this chapter. The council hereby declares that it would have adopted this chapter and adopted each article, section, sentence, clause or phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more articles, sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared invalid or unconstitutional.

(Ord. No. 806, § 2, 10-17-2023)