546.99 RECOVERY OF COSTS.

   (a)   As used in this Chapter, "total cost" means any cost incurred by the City of Youngstown due to labor, materials, equipment and compliance with local, state or federal laws, including, but not limited to laborers wages, costs of labor, cost of materials and equipment, costs of notice and publication, and abatement costs.

   (b)   The City of Youngstown may collect the total cost of removing, repairing, or securing insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, abandoned, deserted, or open and vacant buildings or other structures, of making emergency corrections of hazardous conditions, or of abating any nuisance. At any time after such costs are incurred, subject to limitations as provided by law, the City of Youngstown shall send an invoice to the property owner at his or her last known address, via regular U.S. mail. If the property owner fails to pay the invoice within 30 days of the date of the invoice, then the City of Youngstown or a duly retained agent or attorney at law may collect the total cost by any of the following methods:

      (1)   The City of Youngstown may certify the total costs, together with a proper description of the lands, to the County Auditor, who shall place the costs upon the tax list and duplicate. The costs are a lien upon such lands from and after the date the costs were incurred. The costs shall be collected as other taxes and returned to the City of Youngstown. The placement of the costs on the tax list and duplicate relates back to, and is effective in priority, as of the date the costs were incurred, provided that the City of Youngstown or its duly retained agent or attorney at law certifies the total costs within one year from the date the costs were incurred. Such certification shall not, however, preclude other methods of recovery of such costs as may be authorized generally by law; and/or

       (2)   The City of Youngstown or a duly retained agent or attorney at law may commence a civil action to recover the total costs from the owner.

   (c)    This section applies to any action taken by the City of Youngstown pursuant to sections 715.26 and 715.261 of the Ohio Revised Code, Section 3, Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution, or Chapter 546 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Youngstown.

(Ord. 16-119. Passed 4-6-16.)