(a) The purpose of this section is to provide additional and alternative methods and processes to enforce the City Code provisions regarding sanitation and common nuisances related to property located within the City in a fair, speedy and inexpensive manner, and to improve compliance with such provisions. This section shall be in addition to those methods and processes otherwise contained in the Code of the City of South Charleston, West Virginia, and shall be applied at the discretion of the enforcement official enforcing the provisions of this section.
(b) This section shall apply to any and all of the sanitation and/or common nuisance violations contained in the following articles of the Code of the City of South Charleston:
(2) Article 313, including but not limited to altering, defacing, or removing any official traffic control device;
(3) Article 349, including but not limited to any driving upon a closed street, obstruction of traffic, or littering from a motor vehicle;
(6) Article 533, including but not limited to any littering, improperly protected or abandoned excavation, or defacement of property;
(8) Article 901, including but not limited to any passing or breaking down or removal of a barrier, spilling of an oily substance on pavement, or failure to engage in snow or ice removal;
(10) Article 931, including but not limited to any improper discharge into the sanitary sewer system or failure to maintain the sanitary sewer pipe and connection;
(11) Article 933, including but not limited to any improper discharge of objectionable wastewater or industrial wastes, storm sewer obstruction, or water pollution;
(12) Article 934, including but not limited to specific limitations regarding the disposal of grease or oil into sewers;
(13) Article 951, including but not limited to any failure to keep grass and other vegetation in a reasonably tidy and trimmed manner;
(14) Article 955, including but not limited to the improper accumulation, dumping, discharge or burning of refuse, or littering;
(15) Article 1119, including but not limited to any disorderly house, clandestine drug lab site or chemical dump site, graffiti, or nuisance, which includes any violation of a code or ordinance relating to or concerning the fitness for habitation, construction, maintenance, operation, use, or appearance of any premises or building;
(16) Article 1343, including but not limited to violations concerning parking and loading spaces; and
(c) Any law enforcement officer, as well as the Building Code Official and Building Inspector, shall have authority to enforce the provisions of this section and is referred to herein as an "enforcement official."
(d) Upon receipt of information or observation of circumstances indicating the likelihood of a violation of any provision of the City Code regarding sanitation or common nuisance, an enforcement official may investigate the facts and, to the extent permitted by law, make an inspection of the premises.
(e) If an enforcement official determines that a code violation exists and decides to utilize this enforcement section, the enforcement official shall provide written notice of such violation to the person having either ownership or control of any land, building, structure, sign, property, licensed or permitted business or operation which is in violation, and shall order that the violation be corrected; Provided, That if an enforcement official determines that the violation is a repeat violation, the enforcement official may dispense with this requirement for written notice and immediately issue a citation for the repeat violation. For purposes of this section, a repeat violation is a violation of the same section of the City Code that occurred not fewer than ten business days after the prior violation and not more than one year after the prior violation, whether or not the prior violation was timely corrected or a citation issued.
(f) Notice of the violation shall be given by personal or substituted service in accordance with the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure, by either delivering the notice to the person in violation personally or by delivering the notice to a member of that person's family who is above the age of eighteen years and by advising that person of the purpose of the notice. Proof of personal service shall be made at the time of service by a written declaration executed by the enforcement official effecting service and shall declare the time, date and manner by which service was made. If personal service cannot be effectuated, the enforcement official may send the notice to the person via certified mail, return receipt requested, to the person's last known address. If the return receipt is not returned, a notice shall be conclusively presumed to have been served if it is also sent by regular mail, postage prepaid, which is not returned as undeliverable by the postal service.
(g) Any notice of violation(s) under this section shall be in writing and shall contain the following:
(1) The date the notice of violation is given;
(2) The name and address of the person(s) charged with the violation;
(3) The section of the ordinance being violated;
(4) The nature of the violation;
(5) A statement of the action required to be taken in order to correct the violation;
(6) The time period allowed for the violation to be corrected. The time period allowed shall take into consideration the threat posed by the violation to the health, safety and welfare of the public and the nature of the work required to correct the violation: Provided, That no such time period for correction shall be less than five business days;
(7) The maximum fines that may be assessed if the violation is not corrected; and
(8) The name, address and telephone number of the enforcement official issuing the notice of violation.
(h) If the violation has not been corrected within the period established in the notice of violation, or if the violation is a repeat violation for which the notice requirement does not apply, the enforcement official may issue a citation to the violator. The citation shall be in writing and shall contain the following:
(1) The date the citation is issued;
(2) The name and address of the person(s) charged with the violation;
(3) The section of the ordinance that has been violated;
(4) If it is a repeat violation, the date the citation was issued within the previous one-year period for a violation of the same section;
(5) The nature of the violation;
(6) The place and time the violation occurred;
(7) If it is not a repeat violation, the date the notice of violation was given;
(8) The amount of the fine imposed for the violation;
(9) The name, address, and telephone number of the enforcement official issuing the citation;
(10) The name, address and telephone number of the office where the fine must be paid;
(11) A notice that the fine must be paid within ten business days of the service of the citation, together with a warning that the failure to pay when due any fine results in the increase of such a fine by $100; and
(12) The name, address and telephone number of the municipal court where citations may be appealed.
(i) A citation shall be served in the same manner as a notice of the violation may be served pursuant to this section.
(j) Any person issued a citation pursuant to this section shall be punished by a fine as follows: within any one-year period, $100.00 for the first citation, $300.00 for the second citation, and $500.00 for the third citation and each citation thereafter: Provided, That the enforcement official may, in his or her discretion and depending upon the seriousness of the violation, reduce any fine for a second or subsequent citation to a fine of $100. If such a reduction is made, the enforcement official shall list the reduced $100 fine on the citation as the amount of the fine imposed for the violation.
(k) All fines imposed by citations under this section shall be due to the municipal court and paid in full within ten business days of the service of the citation. The failure to pay when due any fine imposed under this section shall constitute a failure to appear or otherwise respond under West Virginia Code 8-10-2b and may result in the issuance of a warrant and notification to the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles. The failure to pay when due any fine imposed under this section shall increase such a fine by $100.
(l) Any person alleging he or she was improperly issued such citation may, within ten business days of service of such citation, file a petition for appeal of the citation, along with the required bond, with the municipal court clerk or municipal court clerk deputy in accordance with the following:
(1) In order to properly and timely appeal his or her citation, within ten business days of service of the citation, the recipient of the citation shall pay the required amount of the applicable fine in full to the municipal court clerk or municipal court clerk deputy, which amount will be held by the municipal court as bond pending hearing and resolution of the case by such court and a municipal court clerk shall issue a receipt to the recipient of the citation showing the amount of the bond paid. In addition to the bond, the recipient of the citation shall file with a municipal court clerk a petition for appeal of the citation. If any petition for appeal filed in accordance with this section is not timely filed or is not accompanied with the required bond, the recipient of the citation shall be deemed to have waived his or her right to appeal the citation, and such petition shall be summarily denied as untimely filed; Provided, however, that nothing set forth hereinabove shall prevent the municipal court judge from finding, upon a proper application and showing, that the recipient of the citation suffers from financial hardship, and, as a result, waiving the requirement that the bond be posted.
(2) Any petition for appeal filed with the municipal court clerk must be in writing, on the form to be provided by a municipal court clerk, and must be signed by the recipient of the citation affirming that the contents of the petition are true and accurate to the best of the recipient of the citation's knowledge at that time. Such petition for appeal shall state the facts and reasons in support of the petition. Upon filing any such petition for appeal with a municipal court clerk, the recipient of the citation shall serve a copy of the petition and receipt showing proof of bond, or application for waiver thereof, upon the City Attorney.
(3) Upon filing of a petition for appeal with a municipal court clerk, the clerk or his or her deputy shall place the case on the municipal court docket, set the case for hearing within 30 days from the date of the filing of the petition for appeal, provide a notice of hearing to the recipient of the citation, and forward a copy of the petition and notice of hearing to the enforcement official who issued the citation and the City Attorney. Upon receipt of the petition, the enforcement official shall cause a copy of the citation at issue to be forwarded to the City Attorney and the municipal court clerk who shall file it as the original complaint alleging the violation indicated therein.
(4) The municipal court shall treat the citation itself as the original complaint before the court and shall treat it as prima facie evidence of the violation alleged therein. At the close of all of the evidence presented at the hearing on the petition for appeal, should the municipal judge find against the recipient of the citation, the bond posted by the recipient of the citation shall be applied as payment for the fine imposed for the violation. Should the court find in favor of the recipient of the citation, the bond, if applicable, shall be refunded to the recipient of the citation by the municipal court clerk, and the citation shall be dismissed. Should the court find against the recipient of the citation as to the violation but in favor of the recipient of the citation as to an incorrect fine amount above $100, the bond, if applicable, shall be refunded in relevant part to the recipient of the citation by the municipal court clerk.
(m) This section is authorized pursuant to W. Va. Code § 8-1-5a. If the Municipal Home Rule Pilot Program terminates, this section shall continue in full force and effect until repealed, but may be null and void if it is amended and such amendment is not approved by the Municipal Home Rule Board.
(Ord. 2212. Passed 3-19-15.)