BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2613|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2613
Author: Beall (D)
Amended: 6/30/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE : 3-1, 6/16/10
AYES: Kehoe, DeSaulnier, Price
NOES: Aanestad
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cox
SENATE FLOOR : 20-13, 8/11/10
AYES: Alquist, Cedillo, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Ducheny,
Florez, Hancock, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Padilla,
Pavley, Price, Romero, Simitian, Steinberg, Wolk, Wright,
Yee
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Cogdill, Correa, Denham, Dutton,
Emmerson, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff, Runner,
Strickland, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza,
Walters, Wiggins, Vacancy, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 44-30, 5/13/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Local government: fines and penalties:
assessments
SOURCE : County of Santa Clara
DIGEST : This bill authorizes a city, county, or city and
county, after notice and public hearing, to order unpaid
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fines or penalties related to ordinance violations on real
property to be specially assessed against the parcel. This
bill allows the assessment to be collected at the same time
and in the same manner as ordinary county taxes and subject
to the same penalties and the same procedure and sale in
case of delinquency. This bill declares that all laws
applicable to the levy, collection, and enforcement of
county taxes apply to the special assessment. This bill
specifies that the assessment does not constitute a lien on
the real property until a notice of lien is recorded.
Senate Floor Amendment of 6/30/10 is technical to make the
bill's terminology consistent.
ANALYSIS : The United States and California Constitutions
prohibit governments from impairing property rights without
due process of law. The California Constitution also
allows counties and cities to adopt and enforce ordinances
that regulate local health, safety, peace, and welfare.
State law defines a nuisance as anything that is injurious
to health, indecent or offensive to the senses, obstructs
the free use of property, or unlawfully obstructs free
passage. In addition to civil and criminal enforcement
mechanisms, counties and cities can adopt ordinances that
establish local procedures for abating nuisances (AB 2593,
Veysey, 1965). Counties and cities can recover abatement
costs, including administrative costs, by using a special
assessment, abatement lien, or both.
This bill authorizes a city, county, or city and county,
after notice and public hearing, to order unpaid fines or
penalties related to ordinance violations on real property
to be specially assessed against the parcel. This bill
allows the assessment to be collected at the same time and
in the same manner as ordinary county taxes and subject to
the same penalties and the same procedure and sale in case
of delinquency. This bill declares that all laws
applicable to the levy, collection, and enforcement of
county taxes apply to the special assessment. This bill
specifies that the assessment does not constitute a lien on
the real property until a notice of lien is recorded.
If a city, county, or city and county specially assesses
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the cost of the administrative fines or penalties against
the parcel, this bill authorizes it to record a notice of
abatement lien to perfect the lien. The abatement lien
notice must:
1.Identify the assessor's parcel number
2.Identify the record owner
3.Set forth the last known address of the record owner
4.Set forth the date upon which assessment was ordered by
the city, county, or city and county, and
5.State the amount of the lien.
This bill declares that recordation of a notice of
abatement lien has the same effect as recordation of an
abstract of a money judgment. The lien against the parcel
has the same force, effect, and priority as a judgment lien
on real property. The bill allows the city, county, or
city and county, or any authorized officer to release or
subordinate an abatement lien in the same manner as
releasing or subordinating a judgment lien on real
property.
This bill authorizes a city, county, or city and county to
combine the administrative procedures that govern the
imposition, enforcement, collection, and administrative
review of administrative fines and penalties with specified
nuisance abatement procedures.
This bill allows a local agency, in administrative
procedures to authorize the appointment of hearing officers
to hear and decide issues regarding ordinance violations
and the imposition of administrative fines or penalties.
Background
Counties' nuisance abatement procedures . A county
ordinance establishing administrative procedures for
nuisance abatement must require that the owner of the
parcel, and anyone known to be in possession of the parcel,
receive notice of the abatement proceeding and have a
hearing before the board of supervisors before the county
can abate the nuisance. The county supervisors can
delegate the hearing to a hearing board or hearing officer.
A county may summarily abate a nuisance that a board of
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supervisors or county officer determine constitute an
immediate threat to public health or safety.
If the owner fails to pay the county's abatement costs, the
board of supervisors can order the abatement cost to be
specially assessed against the parcel. The assessment can
be collected on the property tax bill, subject to the same
penalties, procedure, and sale in case of delinquency as
are provided for ordinary county taxes. All laws regarding
the levy, collection, and enforcement of county taxes apply
to the special assessment.
If a county specially assesses abatement costs against a
parcel, it can also record a notice of abatement lien,
which has the same effect as recordation of an abstract of
a money judgment and has the same priority as a judgment
lien. If no abatement lien is recorded and the real
property on which an assessment is imposed is sold, or
becomes foreclosed, before the first installment of the
taxes becomes delinquent, then the assessment transfers to
the unsecured tax roll for collection.
Cities' nuisance abatement procedures . A city ordinance
establishing a procedure for nuisance abatement and making
the cost of abatement of a nuisance upon a parcel of land a
special assessment against that parcel must include notice,
by certified mail, to the property owner. The notice must
be given at the time of imposing the assessment and must
specify that the property may be sold after three years by
the tax collector for unpaid delinquent assessments. The
tax collector's power of sale is not affected by the
failure of the property owner to receive notice. The
assessment can be collected on the property tax bill,
subject to the same penalties, procedure, and sale in case
of delinquency as provided for ordinary municipal taxes.
All laws regarding the levy, collection and enforcement of
municipal taxes apply to the special assessment. However,
if the real property is sold, or becomes foreclosed, before
the first installment of the taxes becomes delinquent, then
the cost of abatement transfers to the unsecured tax roll
for collection.
Alternatively, a city can, by ordinance, establish a
procedure to collect abatement costs, including
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administrative costs, by a nuisance abatement lien. The
ordinance must require that the owner of the parcel on
which the nuisance is maintained receive notice prior to
recordation of the abatement lien. If the owner cannot be
served with the notice, it can be posted on the property
and published in a newspaper. A nuisance abatement lien
must be recorded with the county recorder and has the
force, effect, and priority of a judgment lien. The lien
may be foreclosed by an action brought by the city for a
money judgment.
Local administrative fines and penalties . As an
alternative to civil and criminal enforcement mechanisms, a
local agency's legislative body can make any violation of
any of its ordinances subject to an administrative fine or
penalty (SB 814, Alquist, Chapter 898, Statutes of 1995).
The local agency must adopt an ordinance specifying the
administrative procedures that govern the imposition,
enforcement, collection, and administrative review of the
fines or penalties. The administrative procedures must
grant a reasonable time to remedy a continuing violation
before the imposition of administrative fines or penalties,
when the violation pertains to building, plumbing,
electrical, or other similar structural and zoning issues
that do not create an immediate danger to health or safety.
Within 20 days after service of a final administrative
order or decision regarding administrative fines or
penalties, a person contesting that final administrative
order or decision may appeal in Superior Court. Local
agencies must go through a civil court proceeding to
collect unpaid fines and penalties.
To strengthen local code enforcement authority and avoid
the expense of civil litigation, local officials want to
collect unpaid administrative fines that are levied for
local ordinance violations on real property using the same
powers that they already use to collect unpaid nuisance
abatement costs.
Related Legislation
AB 2317 (Saldana), lets cities and counties to use special
assessments and nuisance abatement liens to collect fines
related to nuisance abatement.
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SB 1427 (Price), requires local governments to provide
notice and an opportunity to correct violations before
levying a fine or penalty on a property owner for failure
to maintain a vacant foreclosed property.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/22/10)
County of Santa Clara (source)
California State Association of Counties
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/22/10)
California Taxpayers' Association
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Ammiano, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro,
Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer,
Fong, Furutani, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huffman,
Jones, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning,
Nava, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas,
Saldana, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico,
Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Adams, Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill,
Blakeslee, Conway, Cook, DeVore, Emmerson, Fletcher,
Fuentes, Fuller, Gaines, Garrick, Gilmore, Harkey, Huber,
Jeffries, Knight, Logue, Miller, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, Norby, Silva, Smyth, Audra Strickland, Tran,
Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Buchanan, Caballero, Galgiani, Hagman,
Skinner
AGB:nlk 8/17/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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