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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 2a: Adopt Ordinance No. 2304 amending Arcadia Muni Code regarding administrative citations.IFOR"V q� VIA Development Services Department FROM: Jason Kruckeberg, Assistant City Manager/Development Services Director- At the November 20, 2012, meeting, the City Council introduced the attached Ordinance No. 2304, which was developed as a "clean up" Ordinance to allow the City to utilize the administrative citation process for building, zoning, and other development-related violations. The City currently allows for the use of administrative citations as a means to address most violations of the Municipal Code. Administrative citations may be used in addition to all other legal remedies; criminal, civil, or administrative, which can be pursued to address violations. However, the use of the administrative citation process does NOT currently apply to violations of the Code that pertain to building, plumbing, electrical, or other similar structural or zoning issues. Similarly, there is not a general clause in the Code that would allow the City to recover attorney's fees in actions that stem from these types of administrative citation cases. Ordinance No. 2304 removes the exemption for building and zoning issues from the administrative citation process and allows the prevailing party in such cases to recover attorney's fees. Under the current procedures, zoning and/or building violations take a long time to rectify and must go through a number of steps. The abty to utze the administrative citation process has the benefit of bringing the matter to resolution more quickly. In Administrative Citations Ordinance Nn. 2304 December 4.2O12—Page 2of2 addition, the ability to recover attorney's fees if such cases go to court is an important tool to have within the Municipal Code. This is another measure which will increase flexibility in dealing with violations and will eliminate some of the risk of frivolous lawsuits and court wrangling in zoning and building cases. Ordinance No. 2304 is viewed as a "clean up" ordinance in that it removes exemption that is not consistent with the way all other violations can be enforced, Th *rdinance will provide the same process and options for all types of violations of t Municipal Code. Do�minic �Lazz �60�� City Manager Attachments: Ordinance No. 2304 November 20, 2012 Staff Repol WHEREAS, California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1033.5 authorizes the City of Arcadia (the "City") to recover costs enumerated therein when said costs are authorized by statute, contract, or law; and WHEREAS, California Government Code Section 53069.4 authorizes the City to issue administrative citations and collect fines for violations of its Municipal Code, and to determine the process for issuance and collection of said fines-, and WHEREAS, California Government Code Sections 38773 and 38773.1 authorize the City to provide for abatement of nuisances at the expense of persons creating, causing, committing, or maintaining them, and provide for recovery via, placement of liens on property by following certain procedures; and WHEREAS, zoning and building violations are impactful to the community arl can be costly, time-consuming and difficult to abate; and WHEREAS, the City has an important interest in establishing regulations to prevent safety, property, and health hazards, as well as to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of the community. NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ARCADlif 1•$c 1, 1— 6 F—M V, X41 M U SECTION 1. Section 1200 of Chapter 2, Article I of the Arcadia Municipal Code is hereby amended by adding a Subsection (d) to read in its entirety as follows: "(d) Recovery of Attorney's Fees. Any violation of the Arcadia Municipal Code is hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance. In any judicial action, or administrative or special proceeding brought by the City to abate a public nuisance pursuant to this Chapter or to otherwise enforce this Chapter, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its reasonable attorneys' fees. In no action or proceeding shall an award of attorneys' fees to a prevailing party exceed the amount of reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by the City in the action or proceeding. A judicial action includes, but is not limited to, any civil or criminal action, inspection or abatement warrant, administrative proceeding, or appeal from an administrative proceeding. The City may recover any award of attorney's fees in any manner authorized by law, including without limitation by lien or special assessment." SECTION 2. Section 1420 of Chapter 4A, Article 1 of the Arcadia Municipal Code is hereby amended by deleting the current Subsection B and re-lettering the remaining Subsections as appropriate to read in their entirety as follows: "(A) This Chapter provides for administrative citations, which are in addition to all other legal remedies, criminal, civil or administrative, which may be pursued by the City to address any violation of this Code. (B) Use of this Chapter shall be at the sole discretion of the City." SECTION 3. Section 1422 of Chapter 4A, Article 1 of the Arcadia Municipal Code is hereby amended by amending Subsection (A) to read in its entirety as follows: 9 "(A) Whenever an enforcement officer charged with the enforcement of any provision of this Code determines that a violation of that provision has occurred, the that do not create an immediate danger to health or safety, the enforcement officer shall enforcement officer based on the circumstances, to correct the violations. If said violations are not completely corrected within that correction period, the enforcement officer may issue administrative citations for these violations. Nothing herein shall ill ill! RIFIR 1 1211:11 T 1115110111 iiii! I I MMEEMMI= ghall cause a copy of same to be published r:: least once in the official newspaper of �s ll1llllwlllllll1lllllllllll 11 . . a . • F I Ullm P. MOOTO "I Stephen P. Deitsch City Attorney I SWIM TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM: Jason Kruckeberg, Assistant City Manager/Development Services Director-31 K Jim Kasama, Community Development Administrator it The City currently allows for the use of administrative citations as a means to address most violations of the Municipal Code. Administrative citations may be used in addition to all other legal remedies; criminal, civil, or administrative, which can be pursued to address violations. However, the use of the administrative citation process does NOT currently apply to violations of the Code that pertain to building, plumbing, electrical, or other similar structural or zoning issues. Similarly, there is not a general.clause in the Code that would allow the City to recover attorney's fees in actions that stem from these types of administrative citation cases. Ordinance No. 2304 removes the exemption for building and zoning issues from the administrative citation process and allows the prevailing party in such cases to recover attorney's fees. In July 2011, the City Council approved Ordinance No. 2281, which amended the Municipal Code regarding cost recovery for the abatement • nuisances. Most nuisance abatement cases stem from an administrative citation issued • the staff. Ordinance No. 2281 provided the ability for the prevailing party in such nuisance abatement 'cases to recover attorney's fees. However, this Ordinance did not remove the exemption for building and zoning cases and the administrative citation process cannot be used for Q,uch violations. It is unclear why this exemption clause was placed within the Municipal Page 2 of 3 Code, but it is likely that the intent was to rely upon remedies for violations within the California Building Code • zoning-related processes. While all existing remedies within the California Building Code and the City's zoning ordinances will still remain intact, this ordinance will provide another tool for the City to use to achieve compliance. Therefore, Ordinance No. 2304 is viewed as a "clean up" ordinance, in that it simply removes this exemption and allows the administrative citation process to be used for any violation of the Municipal Code. 1013KNIMIU-01", The administrative citation process is an effective and efficient means of addressing violations to the Municipal Code. This process is simple and direct. The citations typically include fines and a date for compliance. This process is used for nuisance situations on private property, and also for business license violations, property maintenance issues, health and safety violations, and similar matters. The City currently allows for the use of administrative citations as a means to address most violations of the Municipal Code. However, the use of the administrative citation process does NOT currently apply to violations of the Code that pertain to building, plumbing, electrical, or other similar structural or zoning issues. Currently, for violations of building or zoning issues, the staff must issue a simple notice of violation with a compliance date. This is often followed by meetings and letters requesting compliance, and eventually follow up inspections are necessary to ensure the violation is resolved. While this process will still be in place, and will still be used in the majority of cases and situations, the ability to issue a citation is a more effective tool in moving toward compliance for those cases where initial efforts fail. Under the current procedures, zoning and/or building violations take a long time to rectify and must go through a number of steps. The ability to utilize the administrative citation process has the benefit of bringing the matter to resolution more quickly. In addition, the ability to recover attorney's fees if such cases go to court is an important tool to have within the Municipal Code. This is another measure which will increase flexibility in dealing with violations and will eliminate some of the risk of frivolous lawsuits and court wrangling in zoning and building cases. Ordinance No. 2304 is viewed as a "clean up" ordinance in that it removes an exemption that is not consistent with the way all other violations can be enforced. This ordinance will provide the same process and options for all types of violations of the Municipal Code. I There is no clear method of estimating fiscal impact. The fine for a first violation is set at $100 maximum, a second violation • the same provision is $200, and for a third • subsequent violation, the fee is $500. Although there may be additional fines received as a result of allowing administrative citations for building and zoning cases, the benefit Ordinance No. 2304 November 20, 2012 Page 3 of 3 is a quicker resolution • such violations, and a better use of staff time. Similarly, there is the potential benefit of the ability to recover attorney's fees, but this fiscal benefit cannot reasonably be estimated. Introduce Ordinance No. 2304, an Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Arcadia, California, amending various sections of Chapters 2 and 4A of Article 1 of the Arcadia Municipal Code, regarding administrative citations for building, zoning, plumbing, electrical or other similar violations. J UTTJIPITO- s� Dominic Lazz4e� City Manager Attachment