(a) Unless the newsrack and its contents are being held as evidence in a criminal prosecution, the person maintaining the newsrack, or if there is no such known person, a claimant who provides sufficient proof of ownership of an impounded newsrack may, at any time up to and including the thirtieth day after the impounding, and if a hearing pursuant to this chapter is held concerning the newsrack, may, at any time up to and including the thirtieth day after the decision at such hearing becomes final, obtain a return of the newsrack and its contents, upon paying an impound fee of twenty-five dollars plus the city’s reasonable additional cost, if any, of impounding the newsrack in excess of twenty-five dollars.
(b) The director may, after a hearing in accordance with this chapter, order the newsrack returned without payment of any impound fee; or if an impound fee has previously been paid, may order return of any such impound fee.
(c) A court before whom criminal charges concerning an impounded newsrack are pending, may, upon dismissal of the charges or a finding of acquittal, in its discretion order an impounded newsrack returned without payment of an impound fee or the return of the impound fee paid.
(Ord. 789 § 4 (part), 1999)