South Weber City shall be entitled to recover expenses it may incur in the cleanup of any hazardous material emergency from any person, corporation, partnership or other individual or entity who owned and/or had control over and/or caused the release of the hazardous material involved in the hazardous materials emergency pursuant to the following procedure:
A. The City shall determine responsibility for the emergency and notify the responsible party by mail of the City's determination of responsibility and the cost to be recovered.
B. The notice shall specify that the party determined responsible may appeal the City's decision before a Hearing Officer designated by the Mayor and establish a date by which the notice of appeal shall be filed. The appeal date shall be no less than fifteen (15) days from the date of notice.
C. In the event the party determined responsible appeals the determination, the Hearing Officer shall hold a public hearing to consider any issues raised by the appeal, at which hearing the appealing party and the City shall be entitled to present evidence in support of their respective position.
D. The Hearing Officer shall, after the hearing, make a recommendation to the Mayor, who shall issue a decision assessing responsibility and costs.
In the event parties determined to be responsible for the repayment of hazardous material emergency costs fail to make payment to the City within thirty (30) days after a determination of any appeal by the Mayor or thirty (30) days from the deadline for appeal in the event no appeal is filed, the City may initiate legal action to recover from the parties determined responsible the costs determined to be owing, including the City's reasonable attorney fees. (Ord. 02-11, 8-13-2002)