A. Definitions: For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall mean:
CHIEF OF POLICE: Includes any authorized law enforcement officer of the city.
FIRE HAZARD: Where owing to the existence of solid waste or waste, dried grass, weeds or shrubbery, the condition of the property is likely to cause a fire.
OBJECT: Any material, substance or composition not yet classified as waste, solid waste or a fire hazard but which may subsequently be determined to be waste, solid waste or a fire hazard. Object, though used in the singular term, can also mean the plural when circumstances require.
OWNER: Owner of the title to real property or the contract purchaser of real property as shown in the last available complete assessment roll in the office of the county assessor.
PERSON: Every natural person, firm, partnership, association or corporation.
SOLID WASTE: All putrescible and nonputrescible waste including, but not limited to, garbage, rubbish, refuse, ashes, wastepaper and cardboard, sewage, sludge, septic tank and cesspool pumpage or other sludge, commercial, industrial, demolition and construction waste, discarded home and industrial appliances, manure, vegetable or animal solid and semisolid wastes, dead animals, abandoned vehicles and other waste.
WASTE: Useless or discarded materials. (Ord. 474, 10-3-1988; amd. 1995 Code; Ord. 548-04, 12-13-2004)
B. Declaration Of Public Nuisance: The deposit, accumulation, storage, collection, maintenance or display of waste, solid waste or dried grass, weeds or shrubbery is hereby found to create a condition tending to reduce the value of private property, to promote blight, deterioration and unsightliness, to create fire hazards, to create a harborage for rodents and insects and to be injurious to the health, safety and general welfare of the people. Therefore, the presence of waste, solid waste or dried grass, dried weeds or dried shrubbery on private or public property is hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance which may be abated in accordance with the provisions of this section.
C. Entry Upon Private Property:
1. The chief of police is authorized at all times to enter upon private property and examine any object for the purpose of determining if it is a waste, solid waste or a fire hazard. However, before entering upon private property, the chief shall obtain consent of the occupant thereof or have a warrant of the municipal court authorizing his entry for the purpose of inspection.
2. No search warrant shall be issued under the terms of this section until an affidavit has been filed with the municipal court showing probable cause for such inspection by stating the purpose and the extent of the proposed inspection or other specific or general information concerning the object in question and identifying the property on which it is situated.
3. It is unlawful for any person to interfere with or attempt to prevent the chief of police from entering upon private premises and inspecting such object when the chief of police exhibits a warrant authorizing the entry of and has obtained consent of the occupant of the property. (Ord. 474, 10-3-1988; amd. 1995 Code)
D. Notice Of Nuisance Condition:
1. Upon the investigation of a police agency and determination by the city manager or his or her designee that a nuisance exists as defined in the ordinances of this city, a notice shall be posted on the premises liable for the nuisance directing removal or abatement.
2. At the time of posting, the city shall mail notice by regular and by certified mail with return receipt to the owner or agent, and occupant if occupied, in charge of the property at the last known address of the owner or agent.
3. The notice to abate shall contain:
a. A description of the real property, by street address or otherwise, on which or adjacent to which the nuisance exists;
b. A direction to remove the nuisance within fifteen (15) days from the date of the notice or a date certain;
c. A description of the nuisance;
d. A statement that unless the nuisance is removed or abated, the city will do so and the cost thereof shall be a lien against the property;
e. A statement that the owner or agent in charge of the property may protest the action by actual delivery of notice to the city manager within fifteen (15) days from the date of the notice.
4. The person posting and mailing the notice as provided herein shall, upon completion of the posting and mailing, execute and file in the office of the city recorder a certificate stating the date and place of mailing and posting.
5. An error in the name or address of the owner or agent in charge of the property or the use of a name other than that of the owner or agent shall not make the notice void and in any case the posted notice shall be deemed sufficient.
E. Protection Hearing:
1. If a person wished to protest the action and delivers notice to the city manager as set forth in subsection D3e of this section, the matter shall be set for hearing at the next regularly scheduled council meeting.
2. The city shall have the burden to prove the nuisance exists. If the city council finds no nuisance exists, the matter will be closed. If the city finds that a nuisance exists, said nuisance shall be abated as set forth in this section.
F. Abatement By Owner:
1. Within the time allowed by the notice as provided in subsection D3 of this section, the owner or agent in charge of the property shall remove and abate the nuisance or show that no nuisance exists.
2. Upon the city's determination that a nuisance does in fact exist, the owner or agent in charge shall within a reasonable time, but not more than seven (7) days, remove or abate the nuisance.
G. Abatement By City:
1. If within the time fixed, as provided in this section, the nuisance has not been abated by the owner or agent in charge of the property, the city shall cause the nuisance to be abated.
2. The city shall maintain an accurate record of the expense incurred by the city in abating the nuisance and shall include therein an overhead charge of ten percent (10%) of the total cost for administration.
3. The total cost, including the administrative overhead, shall thereupon be assessed to the property as hereinafter provided.
H. Assessment Of Cost:
1. A notice of the assessment shall be forwarded by certified mail with return receipt to the owner or agent in charge of the property by the city recorder. The notice shall contain:
a. The total cost, including the administrative overhead, of the abatement;
b. A statement that the cost as indicated will become a lien against the property unless paid within sixty (60) days;
c. A statement that if the owner or agent in charge of the property objects to the cost of the abatement as indicated, he may file a notice of objection with the city recorder within thirty (30) days from the date of the notice;
d. Notice that a fee for recording in county deed records may be added.
2. Objections to the proposed assessment shall be heard and determined by the city manager or his designee.
3. An assessment for the cost of the abatement as determined by the city manager or his designee and adopted as a matter of record by resolution of the council shall thereupon be entered in the docket of city liens, and upon the entry being made, it shall constitute a lien against the property from which the nuisance was removed or abated. Also, it may be recorded in the county deed records.
4. The lien shall be collected in the same manner as liens are collected in Oregon Revised Statutes 223.505 et seq., or as those statutes are subsequently amended. The lien shall bear interest at a rate as established by resolution of the city council. The interest shall commence to run thirty (30) days after the entry in the lien docket.
5. An error in the name of the owner or agent in charge of the property shall not void the assessment nor will a failure to receive the notice of the assessment render the assessment void, but it shall remain a valid lien against the property.
I. Supplemental Nature Of Provisions:
1. The procedure provided by this section is not exclusive but in addition to procedure provided by other ordinances, and furthermore, the city may proceed summarily to abate a sanitary or other nuisance which exists and from which there is imminent danger to human life or property.
J. Error In Procedure:
1. Failure to conform to the requirements or this section that does not substantially and adversely affect the legal right of a person does not invalidate a proceeding under this section.
K. Penalty:
1. A person who owns a nuisance property and who allows the condition to remain past the time established in the notice described in subsection D3 of this section may be assessed a class B infraction pursuant to section 1-4-1 of this code. (Ord. 560-07, 2-12-2007)