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Upon compliance with all applicable procedures, city officials are authorized to enter onto private property at all reasonable times to examine items and materials reasonably suspected to constitute wastes in violation of this chapter and following the procedures set forth to take steps necessary to abate violations hereof.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) Any person entitled to service of a notice under this chapter may within 15 calendar days of the date of the notice file a request for hearing before the City Council. The request need not be in any particular form but shall include the following:
(1) The name of the person requesting a hearing and all other persons joining in the request;
(2) A brief statement setting forth the legal interest of each of the persons requesting the hearing;
(3) A brief statement in ordinary and concise language of the specific order or action protested;
(4) A brief statement in ordinary and concise language of the relief sought and the reasons why it is claimed that the protested order or action should be reversed, modified, or otherwise set aside;
(5) The signatures of all the parties requesting a hearing and their official mailing addresses; and
(6) A statement by declaration under penalty of perjury that all of the matters stated within the request for hearing are true.
(B) Normally a late request for a hearing before the City Council will not be considered. However, in unusual circumstances the City Council may excuse an untimely request if the requesting party provides information excusing a lack of timely response by certifying the date of actual notice to the requesting party and accounting for all delay between the day of actual notice and the day of delivering the request for hearing to the City Council. General press of personal business shall not excuse an untimely request.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) Following a request for a hearing, the City Council shall itself or through a hearing examiner provide a hearing for the requesting party to show cause why a violation does not exist, or why the violation should not be abated within the time provided, and to receive evidence and the testimony of the city official and other interested persons, or other witnesses, concerning the existence, location, and condition of the alleged violation.
(1) After the hearing, the City Council may order the property a nuisance in violation of this chapter and direct that the violation be abated by the person responsible, and/or by other person or persons in charge of the property, and/or by the city in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(2) If the hearing was referred to a hearing examiner by the City Council, the hearings examiner and the City Council shall proceed in the fashion provided for in § 97.09(H), relating to dangerous building.
(B) Persons entitled to the notice specified in § 99.03(A) shall be sent copies of the order in the manner provided for in that section.
(C) The City Council may impose conditions and take other actions considered appropriate under the circumstances to carry out the purposes of this chapter. The City Council may delay the time for abatement of the nuisance when, in the council's opinion, circumstances justify such action. The City Council shall refuse to order abatement of the violation when the property, in the opinion of the City Council, is not subject to the provisions of this chapter. The City Council shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence in conducting the hearing.
(D) Nothing stated in this chapter shall prevent the City Council from entering into a consent agreement with the person or persons responsible, or person or persons in charge of property, that provides for the manner and means of abatement other than as provided for herein, provided that the consent agreement is in the form of a final contract enforceable in a court of law or equity and the contract specifically waives any right of the person contracting with the City Council to contest whether a violation of this chapter exists or existed or whether the condition of the subject property constitutes a nuisance.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) The city may abate the violation, or cause the violation to be abated, when:
(1) The terms of any consent agreement between the city and the person responsible or person in charge of property so provide, or when the terms of a consent agreement have been violated by the person or persons signing the consent agreement;
(2) The person responsible has been mailed the notice required by § 99.03, and the violation stated within the notice has not been abated within the time provided in the notice and no hearing has been requested;
(3) Following hearing the corrective action required by the City Council has not been completed by the date specified; or
(4) There have been court proceedings which have become final, resulting in an order by the court directing abatement, and abatement has not been completed within the time required by the court's order.
(B) The decision to proceed to abatement by the city shall be made by the City Council.
(C) Summary abatement. Whenever a violation causes a condition the continued existence of which constitutes an immediate or emergent threat to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment, the city may summarily and without prior notice, abate the condition. Notice of such abatement, including the reason for it, shall be given to the person or persons responsible for the violation as soon as reasonably possible. The costs of summary abatement shall be charged to the person responsible and become a lien upon the property in accordance with the provisions of this chapter applicable to costs of non-summary abatements.
(D) When the city proceeds to abate as provided for herein it may do so using any lawful means, the city or its agents may enter upon the subject property and may remove or correct a violation which has become the proper subject of abatement. The city may also seek such judicial process as it deems necessary to effect the abatement.
(E) Interference prohibited. No person shall obstruct, impede, or interfere with the city or its agents, or with any person retained or hired by the city to effect the abatement, or with any person who is a person in charge of the property, in performing any acts necessary to correct a violation.
(F) The city shall maintain a record of all expenses incurred in abating a waste violation. The record shall include, but is not necessarily limited to, the costs of mailing notices, the expense of title reports, title searches, and lien searches, charges for labor and personal services, equipment rentals, the costs of contractors, materials expense, fuel costs, survey expenses, reasonable charge for use of city-owned equipment, land fill fees, the costs of transportation, etc., and an additional charge of 15% for administrative overhead.
(G) A notice of assessment for the costs of abatement shall be sent by certified mail with return receipt to the responsible party or parties and those entitled to receive the notice provided for in § 99.03 hereof. The notice shall contain:
(1) The total costs of abatement, including the administrative overhead;
(2) A statement that the costs of abatement are the personal obligation of the person in charge of the subject property and will become a lien against the property unless paid within 60 days;
(3) A statement that if person in charge of the property objects to the cost of the abatement, he or she may file a notice of objection with the city within 15 days of the date of the notice; and
(4) A statement that a fee for recording the costs of abatement as a lien against the property may be added to the cost of abatement.
(H) Objections to the proposed assessment shall be heard and determined by the City Council before the proposed assessment becomes a lien against the property.
(I) If the costs of the abatement are not paid within 60 days from the date of the notice of costs, or if an objection was timely filed, from the date of the city's determination of costs, the costs of abatement shall be filed and recorded as a lien upon the property and shall be entered into the docket of city liens. When the entry is made, it shall constitute a lien on the property from which the violation was abated.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) Immediately upon its being placed on the assessment roll, the assessment shall be deemed to be complete, the several amounts assessed shall be payable, and the assessment shall be liens against the lots or parcels of land assessed, respectively. The lien shall continue until the assessment and all interest due and payable thereon are paid.
(B) All such personal obligations and assessments remaining unpaid after thirty days from the date of recording on the assessment roll shall become delinquent and shall bear interest at the rate of 9% per annum from and after said date.
(C) The lien may be enforced, collected upon and foreclosed in accordance with the provisions of O.R.S.§§ 223.505 through 223.650 and by suit in equity or at law in circuit court.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
(A) Judicial review.
(1) Any person aggrieved by a final decision of the City Council may appeal to the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for Union County for judicial review of the City Council's decision. The appeal shall be filed within 30 days from the effective date of the decision. The failure of any person to file a request for judicial review in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, and within the thirty days required, shall constitute a waiver of the right to judicial review, and the decision of the City Council shall then be final. There shall be no right to judicial review if the person appealing did not timely seek a hearing before the City Council, or receive from the City Council an order excusing the late request, and then thereafter pursue to conclusion the hearing and then timely seek an appeal.
(2) On judicial review to Circuit Court, all rules governing the form of pleadings, procedures, the taking of evidence, and such other matters as may affect the proceeding shall be governed by the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure, the Oregon Evidence Code, and such other rules and laws applicable to proceedings in circuit court and/or as directed by the judge presiding over the proceedings.
(3) Unless the violation is one subject to summary abatement, all abatement activities shall be stayed during the course of the appeal.
(B) Judicial enforcement.
(1) At the election of the City Council, the city may dispense with the notice and hearing procedures set forth above, and in lieu thereof enforce this chapter by a civil action initiated by the City Attorney or special counsel in any court of competent jurisdiction, including the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for Union County. Prior to the initiation of such suit the person or persons in charge of the property shall be sent a notice which contains:
(a) A description of the real property by street address or otherwise, on which the violation exists;
(b) A direction to abate the violation within no less than 15 days from the date of the notice;
(c) A description of the violation;
(d) A statement that unless the violation is abated within the stated time or within the time of any extension granted by the city, the city will initiate legal action to enforce the terms of the city's solid waste ordinance; and
(e) A statement that failure to abate the violation within the time provided may warrant imposition of a fine.
(2) Upon completion of mailing, the persons doing so shall execute and maintain in the city's records certificates stating the date and place of the mailing and posting.
(3) If an enforcement proceeding is initiated using the notice provisions of § 99.03, the City Council may at any time terminate such proceedings and direct the City Attorney or special counsel to file legal action, in which case the notice provided for in division (B)(1) of this section shall not be required. Instead the persons in charge of the subject property shall be advised by first class letter that the pending proceedings before the City Council are terminated and that the City Attorney or special counsel as the case may be has been directed to file suit to enforce this chapter.
(4) In any legal action, the court shall have the authority to award to the city all remedies that are provided for in this chapter including, but not limited to, directing the defendants to abate the nuisance, imposing fines as set by generally set by the City Council against the defendants payable to the city, and granting the city the right to proceed with abatement and to charge the defendants with the cost thereof and to have such costs be a lien against the subject property. The court shall also have the authority to allow for any other remedy available at law or in equity, including, but not limited to, injunctive relief.
(5) In any legal action, all rules governing the form of pleadings, procedures, the taking of evidence, and such other matters as may affect the proceeding shall be governed by the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure, the Oregon Evidence Code, and such other rules and laws applicable to proceedings in Circuit Court and/or as directed by the judge presiding over the proceedings.
(Ord. 555, passed 11-9-2014)
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