A. The failure of any person to timely pay a fine assessed by administrative citation constitutes a debt owed to the city. To enforce that debt, the city manager may cause to be filed a claim with the small claims court or other appropriate court.
B. The city manager may also impose an assessment lien as set forth below, add the fine to other city bills owed by the responsible party as set forth below, or pursue any other legal remedy to collect such money.
C. The city manager may impose a special assessment against the property that is the subject of a citation, if the citation has been issued to the property owner, for the amount of the fine, plus late fees, plus an administrative charge established by resolution of the city council to cover the costs of imposing the assessment, plus any recording fees charged by the county recorder to record a notice of lien or record a release of lien. The assessment shall be imposed in accordance with the following procedures:
1. The city council shall confirm the amount of the assessment at a regularly scheduled meeting or at a special meeting.
2. The property owner and any holder of a mortgage or deed of trust of record, shall be notified of the meeting to confirm the assessment in accordance with subsection 1-12-6C of this chapter.
3. After confirmation by the city council, the city manager shall record a notice of lien in the office of the county recorder. When so made and confirmed, the costs shall constitute a lien on that property for the amount of the assessment.
4. After confirmation and recordation, a copy may be turned over to the tax collector for the city (which is through the county of Fresno). At that point, it will be the duty of the tax collector to add the amounts of the respective assessments to the next regular tax bills levied against the lots and parcels of land for municipal purposes. Those amounts shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as ordinary municipal taxes are collected, and shall be subject to the same penalties and procedures under foreclosure and sale in the cases of delinquency as provided for with ordinary municipal taxes. Or, after recording, the lien may be foreclosed by judicial or other sale in the manner and means provided by law. The notice of lien for recordation shall be in the form substantially as follows:
NOTICE OF LIEN
(Claim of the City of Reedley)
Under authority vested by provision of Chapter 12 of Title 1 of the Reedley Municipal Code, the City Manager of the City of Reedley did on or about the day of , 20 , assess the cost of administrative fines and penalties on the real property hereinafter described; and the same has not been paid nor any part thereof and the City of Reedley does hereby claim a lien for such fines and penalties, to wit: the sum of dollars. The same shall be a lien upon the real property until it has been paid in full and discharged of record.
The real property hereinafter mentioned, upon which a lien is claimed, is that certain parcel of land in the City of Reedley, County of Fresno, State of California, more particularly described as follows:
DATED: this day of , 20
(Name)
City of Reedley
(Job Title)
D. The city manager may add the fine to other city bills owed by the responsible party, including utility accounts to the extent permitted by law, and collect the fine in the same manner as those other city bills.
E. If the failure by any person to pay a fine assessed by administrative citation results in the filing of an action with the small claims court or any other court to collect the fine, the city shall be entitled to collect all costs, including reasonable attorney fees, associated with the filing of such action. (Ord. 2013-003, 6-25-2013)