2009 California Health and Safety Code - Section 2855-2868 :: Article 3.5. District Powers

2855.  The district board may do all of the following:
   (a) Purchase supplies and other personal property.
   (b) Employ necessary labor.
   (c) Acquire by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, in the name
of the district, any lands, rights-of-way, easements, or other real
property necessary for the district.
   (d) Sell or lease any lands, rights-of-way, easements, material,
or other property, real or personal, acquired by the district.
   (e) Make contracts to indemnify or compensate any owner of land or
other property for any injury or damage caused by the exercise of
the powers conferred by this chapter or of powers incident to those
powers.
   (f) Sue and be sued.
   (g) Enter upon, without hindrance or notice, any property, either
within the district or so reasonably adjacent that pests may disperse
into the district, for any of the following purposes:
   (1) To inspect to ascertain the presence of pests or their
breeding places.
   (2) To abate public nuisances in accordance with this article
through direct control or through notice to the property owner to
abate the public nuisance.
   (3) To ascertain if a notice to abate a public nuisance has been
complied with.
   (4) To treat the property with any physical, chemical, or
biological control measures deemed appropriate by the district board.
   (h) Assess civil penalties, as determined in the discretion of the
district board, but not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500) per
day for each day that a notice or hearing order to abate a nuisance
has not been complied with.
   (i) Exercise the powers authorized by Section 2270 if the pests
the district is empowered to control fall within the meaning of
"vector," as defined in subdivision (f) of Section 2200.
   (j) Do everything necessary to carry out the powers conferred by
this chapter and carry out the objects of the formation of the
district.

2855.3.  Every sale of real property made pursuant to subdivision
(d) of Section 2855 shall be made at such place within the district
as the district board shall specify, and such real property shall be
sold to the highest bidder at public auction, after notice of sale is
published once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of
general circulation published in the district or county. If a
newspaper of general circulation is not printed and published within
such district or county, public notice of the sale shall be given for
at least two weeks by notices posted in three public places in the
district.

2855.7.  The district board may borrow money in any fiscal year,
which shall not exceed the anticipated revenue of that fiscal year
and which shall be repaid in the same fiscal year. Such money shall
be borrowed upon such other terms as the board shall fix; provided,
that interest shall not exceed 6 percent, computed annually or
semiannually.
   The district board may also issue warrants payable upon a future
date in the same fiscal year as issued, which shall be evidentiary of
the obligation to repay the money so borrowed and interest thereon,
and for that purpose such warrant may bear such interest as is fixed
by the terms of the agreement to repay.

2856.  Any nuisance may be abated in any action or proceeding by any
remedy provided by this article or any other law.

2857.  Whenever a nuisance exists upon any property, either in the
district or in territory not in the district but so situated with
respect to the district that pests from the territory migrate into,
or otherwise encroach upon, the district, the district board may
notify in writing the owner or party in possession, or the agent of
either, of the existence of the nuisance. The contents of the written
notice shall conform to the requirements of Section 2858.

2858.  The notice required by Section 2857 shall include all of the
following:
   (a) State the finding of the district that a public nuisance
exists on the property and the location of the nuisance on the
property.
   (b) Direct the owner or party in possession to abate the nuisance
within a specified time by destroying the pests which are present.
   (c) Direct the owner or party in possession to perform, within a
specified time, any work necessary to prevent the recurrence of the
pests in the places specified in the notice.
   (d) Inform the owner or party in possession that failure to comply
with the requirements of subdivision (b) shall subject the owner or
party in possession to civil penalties of not more than five hundred
dollars ($500) per day for each day the nuisance continues after the
time specified for the abatement of the nuisance in the notice.
   (e) Inform the owner or party in possession that before complying
with the requirements of the notice, the owner or party in possession
may appear at a hearing before the district board at a time and
place stated in the notice.
   The notice shall be served upon the owner of record and the person
having charge or possession, if other than the owner of record, of
the property upon which the nuisance exists, and may be served by any
person authorized by the district board in the same manner as a
summons in a civil action.

2860.  If the property is owned by a person who is not a resident of
the district, and is not in charge or possession of any person, and
there is no tenant or agent of the owner upon whom service can be
made, who can after diligent search be found; or if the owner of
record of the property cannot after diligent search be found, the
notice may be served by posting a copy in a conspicuous place upon
the property for a period of 10 days, and by mailing a copy to the
owner of record addressed to his address as given on the last
completed assessment roll of the county in which the property is
situated, or, in the absence of an address on the roll, to his last
known address.

2861.  Before complying with the requirements of the notice, the
owner or party in possession may appear at a hearing before the board
at a time and place fixed by the board and stated in the notice. At
the hearing the district board shall determine whether the initial
finding as set forth in the notice is correct and shall permit the
owner or party in possession to present testimony in his behalf. If,
after hearing all the facts, the board makes a determination that a
nuisance exists on the property, the board shall order compliance
with the requirements of the notice or with alternate instructions
issued by the board.
   Any failure to comply with any such order of the board issued
pursuant to this section shall subject the owner or party in
possession, if other than the owner of record, to civil penalties of
not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500) per day for each day such
order is not complied with.

2861.5.  Any judicial review of administrative procedure provided
for in this chapter shall be pursuant to Section 1094.5 of the Code
of Civil Procedure.

2861.7.  Any recurrence of the nuisance may be deemed to be a
continuation of the original nuisance.

2862.  If the nuisance is not abated within the time specified in
the notice or an order following the hearing, the district board may
abate the nuisance.

2862.5.  The cost of abating a nuisance shall be repaid to the
district by the owner of the property. However, the owner shall not
be required to pay for the costs unless, either prior to or
subsequent to the abatement by the district, a hearing is held by the
district board, at which the property owner is afforded an
opportunity to be heard, and the district board determines that a
nuisance actually exists or that a nuisance existed prior to the
abatement by the district.

2863.  When any nuisance is found to exist on any property subject
to the control of any state or local agency, the district shall
notify the state or local agency of the existence of the nuisance.
Sections 2858, 2860, 2861, 2861.5, and 2862 shall govern the contents
of the notice and the manner of serving it, the right of the state
or local agency to a hearing before the board, the hearing before the
board, and the power of the district to abate the nuisance if it is
not abated by the state or local agency. If the state or local agency
determines that the order to prevent recurrence of the breeding
specified in the notice to abate the nuisance is excessive or
inappropriate for the intended use of the land, or if the state or
local agency determines that a nuisance, as specified in Section
2800.5, does not exist, the agency may appeal the decision of the
board to the State Director of Health Services within 10 days
subsequent to the hearing. The director shall decide the matters on
appeal and convey his or her decision to the agency and district
within 30 days of the receipt of the appeal. The decision of the
director shall be final and conclusive. If the control of the
nuisance is performed by the district, the cost for that control is a
charge against, and shall be paid from, the maintenance fund or from
other funds for the support of the state or local agency.
   Any state or local agency and a district may enter into
contractual agreements to provide control of nuisances. The authority
which is granted by this paragraph is in addition to any other
authority which a state or local agency and a district may have to
enter into contractual agreements for the control of public
nuisances, as defined in Section 2800.5.
   As used in this section, "state agency" means an agency defined in
Section 11000 of the Government Code, and "local agency" means a
city, county, city and county, district, or other public corporation.

2864.  Upon the failure of the property owner or the person in
possession of the property to pay the district for all sums expended
by the district in abating a nuisance or preventing its recurrence,
or upon the failure to pay all civil penalties, the costs or
penalties, or both, shall become a lien upon the property on which
the nuisance was abated or its recurrence prevented when notice of
the lien is filed and recorded. However, if the property has been
conveyed prior to the recordation of the lien, the lien shall not
attach to the real property, but shall remain the debt of the person
who owned the land at the time the costs were incurred, and the debt
may be recovered by the district board against the debtor, as
provided in Section 2866.

2864.7.  A copy of the filed and recorded lien may be given to the
county assessor and tax collector, who, upon receipt of the lien,
shall add the amount of the lien to the next regular tax bill levied
against the parcel for district purposes.

2865.  If the county assessor and the tax collector assess property
and collect taxes for the district, a certified copy of the lien
shall be filed with the county auditor on or before August 10th. The
descriptions of the parcels reported shall be those used for the same
parcels on the county assessor's map books for the current year.

2865.5.  The county auditor shall enter each lien on the county tax
roll opposite the parcel of land.

2866.  The amount of the lien shall be collected at the same time
and in the same manner as ordinary county taxes are collected, and
shall be subject to the same penalties and the same procedure and
sale in case of delinquency, as provided for ordinary county taxes.
All laws applicable to the levy, collection, and enforcement of
county taxes shall be applicable to the lien, except that if any real
property to which the cost of abatement relates has been transferred
or conveyed to a bona fide purchaser for value, or if a lien of a
bona fide encumbrancer for value has been created and attaches
thereon, prior to the date on which the first installment of taxes
would become delinquent, then the cost of abatement shall not result
in a lien against the real property, but instead shall be transferred
to the unsecured roll for collection.

2867.  The lien provisions of this article do not apply to the
property of any county, city, district, or other public corporation.
However, the governing body of the county, city, district, or other
public corporation shall repay to a district the amount expended by
the district upon any of its property under this article upon
presentation by the district board of a verified claim or bill.

2868.  Any amounts collected by a county on account of a lien
authorized by this article, other than the amounts requested to be
paid into the county general fund pursuant to Section 29304 of the
Government Code, shall be paid to the district.