Sec. 14-8. Enforcement.
1.Violation of any provision of this Article shall constitute grounds for issuance of a notice of violation and issuance of an administrative citation and assessment of a fine. The City’s procedures for administrative citations in Chapter 1, Article 2, Division 1 of this code are hereby incorporated in their entirety, as modified from time to time, and shall govern the imposition, enforcement, collection, and review of administrative citations issued to enforce this Article and any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to this Article, except as otherwise indicated in this Article.
2.Other remedies allowed by law may be used, including civil actions or injunctions. City may pursue civil actions in the California courts to seek recovery of unpaid administrative citations. City may choose to delay court action until such time as a sufficiently large number of violations, or cumulative size of violations exist such that court action is a reasonable use of City staff and resources.
3.Enforcement pursuant to this Article may be undertaken by the City Enforcement Official, which may be the City Manager or their designated entity, legal counsel, or combination thereof. Enforcement may also be undertaken by a regional or county agency enforcement official, designated by the City, in consultation with the City Enforcement Official.
4. Process for Enforcement.
a.City enforcement officials and/or their designee will monitor compliance with this Article randomly and through compliance reviews, route reviews, investigation of complaints, and an inspection program (that may include remote monitoring). Section 14-7 establishes City’s right to conduct inspections and investigations.
b.For incidences of prohibited container contaminants found in containers, City will issue a notice of contamination to any generator or responsible party found to have prohibited container contaminants in a container. Such notice will be provided via a cart tag or other communication immediately upon identification of the prohibited container contaminants or within 3 days after determining that a violation has occurred. If the City observes prohibited container contaminants in a responsible party’s containers on more than 2 consecutive occasions, the City may assess contamination processing fees or contamination penalties on the generator.
c.With the exception of violations of contamination of container contents addressed under subsection (4)(b) of this section, City shall issue a notice of violation requiring compliance within a maximum of 60 days of issuance of the notice. The notice of violation shall include (i) the name(s) or account name(s), if different, of each person or entity to whom it is directed; (ii) a factual description of the violations of this Article and the specific sections being violated; (iii) a compliance date by which specific actions must be taken; and (iv) the penalty for not complying within the specified compliance date.
d.Absent compliance by the respondent within the deadline set forth in the notice of violation, City shall commence an action to impose penalties, via an administrative citation and fine, pursuant to the City’s administrative remedies ordinance contained in Chapter 1, Article 2, Division 1 of this code.
e.Notices shall be sent to owner at the address of the owner as it appears on the last equalized assessment roll of the County Assessor or if no such address is available, to the owner at the address of the multifamily premises or commercial premises or to the responsible party for the collection services, depending upon available information.
5. Penalty Amounts for Types of Violations.The amount of penalty for initial or any subsequent violations shall be set by resolution pursuant to Section 1-9.3.
6. Compliance Deadline Extension Considerations.City may extend the compliance deadlines set forth in a notice of violation issued in accordance with this section if it finds that there are extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the respondent that make compliance within the deadlines impracticable, including the following:
a.Acts of God such as earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, and other emergencies or natural disasters;
b.Delays in obtaining discretionary permits or other government agency approvals; or
c.Deficiencies in organic waste recycling infrastructure or edible food recovery capacity and the City/County/District is under a corrective action plan with CalRecycle pursuant to 14 CCR Section 18996.2 due to those deficiencies.
7. Appeals Process.Persons receiving an administrative citation containing a penalty for an uncorrected violation may request a hearing to appeal the citation pursuant to Section 1-9.5.
8. Education Period for Noncompliance.Beginning January 1, 2022, and through December 31, 2023, City will conduct inspections, remote monitoring, route reviews or waste evaluations, and compliance reviews, depending upon the type of regulated entity, to determine compliance, and if City determines that generator, responsible party, self-hauler, hauler, tier one commercial edible food generator, food recovery organization, food recovery service, or other entity is not in compliance, it shall provide educational materials to the entity describing its obligations under this Article and a notice that compliance is required by January 1, 2022, and that violations may be subject to administrative civil penalties starting on January 1, 2024.
9. Civil Penalties for Noncompliance.Beginning January 1, 2024, if the City determines that a generator, responsible party, self-hauler, hauler, tier one or tier two commercial edible food generator, food recovery organization, food recovery service, or other entity is not in compliance with this Article, it shall document the noncompliance or violation, issue a notice of violation, and take enforcement action pursuant to this section, as needed. (Ord. 3667 § 2, 2023; Ord. 3642 § 2, 2021)