(a) No owner of private property within the City shall cause or allow to exist on his property any pipe, line, conduit or other facility for the carriage of sanitary sewage unless such facility is maintained in such fashion as to avoid the emission of noxious odors, offensive smells, injurious gases, the attraction of flies or insects, the escape from such facility of any particle of sewage (including the transporting medium), or any other interference with the safe and comfortable use of surrounding property.
(b) Any police officer, fireman, building inspector or service employee of the City who finds a condition prohibited by subsection (a) hereof existing within the City shall immediately report such condition to the Mayor, who shall designate and direct any proper officer or employee to make a complete investigation of such condition and certify the results of such investigation in writing to Council within forty-eight hours.
(c) Council shall consider all facts reported and shall direct such further investigation as it might deem necessary, after which Council shall determine whether any of the conditions prohibited by subsection (a) hereof does, in fact, exist. If such finding is in the affirmative, Council shall declare the same to be a nuisance and shall issue an order to the offending property owner to correct such condition and abate such nuisance within twenty-four hours from the date of service of such order.
Council may determine that a condition prohibited by subsection (a) hereof exists if a prior declared nuisance at the same site recurs within a two-year period and is recertified by a proper officer or employee of the City. Council shall redeclare the same to be a nuisance and shall issue an order to the offending property owner to correct such condition and abate such nuisance within twenty-four hours from the time of service of such order.
(d) For the purposes of subsection (c) hereof the term, “offending property owner” means the property owner on whose property the prohibited condition exists and, if there is reason to believe that such condition has been caused or contributed to by sewage flowing from other properties served by the same line or facility, all other properties reasonably charged with causing or contributing to the nuisance. Service of such order shall be made in writing and shall be made by leaving a copy of the order with any person resident upon the premises or, if none is found, by mailing a copy by certified or registered mail to the owner of record indicated in the records of the County Recorder at the taxing address listed for such owner, in which case the date of service shall be determined by the date of delivery to such address.
(e) Upon failure of the offending property owner to cause such condition to be corrected and abated within the aforesaid twenty-four hour period, Council may direct and cause the necessary action to be accomplished which will immediately correct and abate such condition. Whether such action is performed by an independent contractor or by City employees and equipment, the actual cost of such contract to the City shall be apportioned by Council in any reasonable fashion among the offending property owners. Upon failure of the offending property owners to reimburse the City for such costs within thirty days after notification in writing of the amount requested, the Clerk of Council shall certify the amount to the Law Director who shall take such steps as are necessary to collect such amount, including, but not limited to, filing a lien against the property in question.
(f) Upon filing with the City a waiver and consent to pay, in form satisfactory to the Law Director, by all offending property owners, the City may proceed to correct and abate such nuisance without further notice to the property owners.
(Ord. 3-72. Passed 2-28-72.)
(g) The equitable remedy provided for in this section shall be in addition to the penalty provided for in Section 1042.99.