(A) Calculation of expense; notice.
(1) Determination of expenses. At any time after a contract is let or the work ordered, the expense incurred or to be incurred in its making shall be calculated under the direction of the Council. The Council shall then determine by resolution the amount of the total expense the city will pay, other than the amount, if any, which it will pay as a property owner, and the amount to be assessed. Thereupon, the City Administrator, with the assistance of the engineer or other qualified person selected by the Council, shall calculate the proper amount to be specially assessed for the improvement against every assessable lot, piece or parcel of land, without regard to cash valuation, in accordance with the provisions of § 37.060 of this chapter.
(2) Assessment roll. The proposed assessment roll shall be filed with the City Administrator and be open to public inspection.
(3) Notices. The City Administrator shall thereupon, under the Council’s direction, publish notice that the Council will meet to consider the proposed assessments.
(a) The notice shall be published in the newspaper at least once and shall be mailed to the owner of each parcel described in the assessment roll.
(b) The notice shall state the date, time and place of the meeting, the general nature of the improvement, the area proposed to be assessed, the amount to be specially assessed against that particular lot, piece or parcel of land, that the proposed assessment roll is on file with the City Administrator and that written or oral objections thereto by any property owner will be considered.
(c) The notice shall state that no appeal may be taken as to the amount of any assessment adopted pursuant to division (B) below unless a written objection signed by the affected property owner is filed with the City Administrator prior to the assessment hearing or presented to the presiding officer at the hearing.
(d) The notice shall also state that an owner may appeal an assessment to District Court pursuant to § 37.062 of this chapter by serving notice of the appeal upon the Mayor or City Administrator of the municipality within 30 days after the adoption of the assessment and filing the notice with the District Court within ten days after service upon the Mayor or City Administrator. The notice shall also inform property owners of the provisions of § 37.064 of this chapter and the existence of any deferment procedure established pursuant thereto in the city.
(e) For the purpose of giving mailed notice, owners shall be those shown to be such on the records of the County Auditor or the records of the County Treasurer, but other appropriate records may be used for this purpose. The publication and mailing shall be no less than two weeks prior to the meeting of the Council. Except as to the owners of tax-exempt property or property taxes on a gross earnings basis, every property owner whose name does not appear on the records of the County Auditor or County Treasurer shall be deemed to have waived the mailed notice unless the property owner has requested, in writing, that the County Auditor or County Treasurer, as the case may be, include the property owner’s name on the records for such purpose.
(B) Adoption of assessment; lien; interest.
(1) At the meeting or at any adjournment thereof, the Council shall hear and pass upon all objections to the proposed assessment, whether presented orally or in writing. The Council may amend the proposed assessment as to any parcel and by resolution adopt the same as the special assessment against the lands named in the assessment roll. Notice of any adjournment of the hearing shall be adequate if the minutes of the meeting so adjourned show the time and place, when and where the hearing is to be continued.
(2) The assessment, with accruing interest, shall be a lien upon all private and public property included therein, from the date of the resolution adopting the assessment, concurrent with the general taxes, but the lien shall not be enforceable against public property as long as it is publicly owned, and during such period, the assessment shall be recoverable from the owner of the property only in the manner and to the extent provided in § 37.066 of this chapter.
(Prior Code, § 202.10) (Ord. 844, passed 05-20-2010; Ord. 944, passed 06-25-2018)