A. Violation of any provision of this chapter 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 chapter are issuance of an administrative citation and assessment of a fine. The city’s procedures on imposition of administrative fines set forth in 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 chapter and any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to this chapter, except as otherwise indicated in this chapter. 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. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in addition to any notice of violation, for incidences of prohibited container contaminants found in containers, city or its authorized collector will issue an informational notice of contamination to any generator or responsible party found to have prohibited container contaminants in a container. Such notice will be provided via a cart tag, electronic notice, or other communication immediately upon identification of the prohibited container contaminants or within sixty (60) days after determining that a violation has occurred. Prohibited container contaminants in a responsible party’s containers on more than three (3) consecutive occasions may subject the generator to a contamination processing fee or enforcement action.
B. Enforcement pursuant to this chapter may be undertaken by the enforcement official.
C. Fines for violations. The fines for violations of the provisions of this chapter are as follows, subject to modifications by resolution of the city council:
1. For a first violation, the penalty shall be one hundred dollars ($100) per violation.
2. For a second violation, the penalty shall be two hundred dollars ($200) per violation.
3. For a third or subsequent violation, the penalty shall be five hundred dollars ($500) 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, pandemics, epidemics, 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. 575 § 2, 2022)