(a) Violation of any provision of this Article that occurs on or after January 1, 2024 shall constitute grounds for issuance of a notice of violation and assessment of a fine by the Enforcement Official in accordance with 14 CCR Section 18995.4. Enforcement actions under this Article are issuance of an administrative citation and assessment of a fine. The City's procedures on imposition of administrative fines set forth in Chapter 1.08 (Penalties, Administrative and Civil Remedies, and General Provisions) of Title 1 (General Provisions) of this Code are hereby incorporated in their entirety, as modified from time to time, and shall govern the imposition, enforcement, collection and review of administrative citations issued to enforce this Article and any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to this Article, except as otherwise indicated in this Article. Other remedies allowed by law may be used, including civil action or prosecution as a misdemeanor or infraction. The City may pursue civil actions in the State courts to seek recovery of unpaid administrative citations. The City may choose to delay court action until such time as a sufficiently large number of violations, or cumulative size of violations exist such that court action is a reasonable use of City staff and resources.
The provisions of this subsection (a) do not apply to violations related to a generator placing prohibited container contaminants in containers, which the Enforcement Official and/or the City's Designee shall enforce through the notice provisions of 14 CCR Section 18984.5(b) and the contamination processing fees pursuant to the provisions of the applicable collection agreement between the City and a franchised hauler.
(b) Enforcement pursuant to this Article may be undertaken by the Enforcement Official.
(c) Penalty amounts for types of violations. For the purposes of this Article, the penalty levels for violations of the provisions of this Article are as follows:
(1) For a first violation (excluding any violation that has been timely corrected in accordance with the warning set forth in a notice of violation), the penalty shall be $50 per violation.
(2) For a second violation (excluding any violation that has been timely corrected in accordance with the warning set forth in a notice of violation), the penalty shall be $100 per violation.
(3) For a third or subsequent violation (excluding any violation that has been timely corrected in accordance with the warning set forth in a notice of violation), the penalty shall be $250 per violation.
(d) Compliance deadline extension considerations. The City may extend the compliance deadlines set forth in a notice of violation if it finds that there are extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the respondent that make compliance within the deadlines impracticable, including the following:
(1) Acts of God, such as earthquakes, wildfires, flooding and other emergencies or natural disasters;
(2) Delays in obtaining discretionary permits or other government agency approvals; or
(3) Deficiencies in organic waste recycling infrastructure or edible food recovery capacity and the City is under a corrective action plan with CalRecycle pursuant to 14 CCR Section 18996.2 due to those deficiencies.
(Ord. 720, § 1, 2021)