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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNS-2408 - To Extend the Fee Charged to Finance the City's Proactive Rental Enforcement Program...255 ORDINANCE NO. NS -2 4 o 8 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA AMENDING SECTION 21-120r. l(a) TO THE SANTA ANA MUNICIPAL CODE TO EXTEND THE FEE CHARGED TO FINANCE THE CITY'S PROACTIVE RENTAL ENFORCEMNT PROGRAM AND ADDING SECTION 8-47 TO THE SANTA ANA MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING THE PROACTIVE RENTAL ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM FEE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA HEREBY ORDAINS AS FOLLOW S: SECTION 1: The City Council hereby finds, determines and declares as follows: 1. In June of 1990 the Mayor's Task Force on Neighborhood Standards and Preservation recommended the implementation of a mandatory inspection program for all residential rental properties in the city of Santa Ana. 2. On July 19, 1992, representatives from the Planning and Building Agency and various apartment associations met and reached agreement on the-proposed Proactive Residential Enforcement Program. 3. The purpose of the proposed program was to promote public health, safety and welfare through a proactive program of periodic and systematic inspections of all residential rental properties in the City of Santa Ana. 4. The spirit of the proposed program was to promote environments in which unsanitary conditions and life safety hazards are reduced for occupants of residential rental properties and inspection would ensure that building systems providing water, sewage disposal, heating and electricity are safe and operational and encourage the residential rental industry to affect repairs and conduct preventative building maintenance before deteriorated conditions upon rental property reach gross proportions. 5. The adoption of the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program necessitated increased staffing to focus enforcement efforts exclusively on the identified proactive rental inspection areas. Ordinance No. NS - jl,~t;~ Page 1 of 6 256 6. The additional staffpositions and operational costs were proposed to be borne through the adoption of an annual inspection fee assessed to members of the residential rental industry who voluntarily chose to engage in the business of residential rentals. 7. All fees assessed under proposed program bear a direct correlation between the amount of the fee and the actual cost of the services provided. Therefore, all fees charged under the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program are used only to pay for the administration, enforcement, implementation and other services specifically related to PREP. 8. The $17.50 per unit annual fee was proposed to cover only the cost of the additional staff and operational costs associated with the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program and would be used to fund only the cost of the program and not on-going complaint-driven code enforcement activities. 9. In light of the fact that the Planning and Building Agency did not have the necessary resources for the collection of the proposed inspection fee and for the ease and convenience to the residential rental business industry, the $17.50 surcharge fee was proposed to be collected with the business license tax already paid by persons operating such a business on an annual basis. 10. The proposed program provided for initial inspections of all residential rental properties, unless exempted, within designated proactive rental housing code enforcement areas; as well as, reinspection of each property after completion of the initial inspection period. 11. On August 3, 1992, in response to the recommendation of the Mayoral Task Force committee and to address the growing concerns of the community regarding the deterioration of residential rental units in the City as it related to issues of life, health and safety, the City Council of the City of Santa Aha adopted an ordinance creating a $17.50 sumharge fee to fund the cost of a residential rental inspection program. 12. The ordinance established a sunset date of December 31, 1999 for the $17.50 fee to allow for a "seven year period to undertake the program and evaluate its impact", thus "providing a time frame sufficient to fully monitor [its] results". Ordinance No. NS -~'~ Page 2 of 6 257 13. The ordinance also provided that any extension of the surcharge fee beyond the sunset date would require further action by the City Council. 14. Continuation of Proactive Rental Enforcement Program is essential to the neighborhoods in Santa Ana to provide assurances that the rental housing will not be allowed to revert to the condition which led to the initial concerns for the implementation of an inspectionprogram in 1992. 15. Recurrent poor management by rental owners has become a challenge for the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program inspectors in maintaining improvements gained in the previous areas while conducting inspections in the next neighborhood. 16. The 1999 fee study reports that funding the cost of the required staff and operational costs associated with the continuation of the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program would amount to an estimated $608,410. 17. The extension of the $17.50 inspection surcharge fee would only amount to $498,750, thereby generating less than the amount necessary to continue funding the cost of the program. 18. In an effort to continue monitoring the results of the program, PREP will continue for another four-year period, commencing on January 1, 2000 and will sunset on December 31, 2003, to allow for review of the program. : SECTION 2: The City Council has reviewed and considered the information contained in the initial study and the negative declaration prepared with respect to this Ordinance. The City Council has, as a result of its consideration, and the evidence presented at the hearings on this matter, determined that, as required pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") and the State CEQA Guidelines, a Negative Declaration adequately addresses the expected environmental impacts of this Ordinance. On the basis of this review, the City Council finds that there is no evidence from which it can be fairly argued that the project will have a significant adverse effect on the environment. The City Council hereby certifies and approves the negative declaration and directs that the Notice of Determination be prepared and filed with the County Clerk of the County of Orange in the manner required by law. SECTION3: Section 21-120r. l(a) of the Santa Ana Municipal Code is hereby amended, which amendment only extends the sunset clause currently in said section from 1999 to 2003, to read in full as follows: Ordinance No. NS - ~ Page 3 of 6 258 "Sec. 21-120r. 1. Residential rental surcharge. (a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this section, the business license tax for residential property rental and residential apartment rental shall consist of the amount set forth in subsections (2) and (3) of section 21-120r plus an annual surcharge of seventeen dollars and fifty cents ($17.50) per each property rental unit or each apartment rental unit. The surcharge hereby established shall be due and payable and shall be paid at the same time and in the same manner that the amount due under section 21-120r is due and payable. No business license shall be issued unless the surcharge is' paid. Penalties and interest shall be assessed upon the total amount due and unpaid at the rate specified in this chapter until such time as both the amount due under section 21-120r and the surcharge due under this section are paid in full. All provisions for the enforcement, collection and recovery of unpaid business license taxes shall likewise apply to the enforcement, collection and recovery of any unpaid surcharge. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, the amount of the surcharge shall not change except by amendment of this section. This section shall expire on, and be of no further force or effect after December 31, 2003." SECTION 4: Section 8-47 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code is h~reby added to read as follows: "Sec. 8-47. Proactive Rental Enforcement Program Fee. All funds received pursuant to the provisions of Section 21.120r. l(a) of Chapter 21 of this Code shall be deposited in a separate account and identified with a separate unique expenditure activity number. All such funds shall be expended solely for the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program and shall not be used for any other purpose. All interest income earned by the moneys in the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program account shall also be expended only for the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program. Should such moneys be invested in combination with other funds and accounts, then the pro rata share of the interest earned by all such monies that is attributable Ordinance No. NS - ~AZ~ Page 4 of 6 -~ 259 to the Program account shall be expended for the Proactive Rental Enforcement Program." SECTION 5: If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or portion of this ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City Council of the City of Santa Ana hereby declares that it would have adopted this ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or portion thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses, phrases, or portions be declared invalid or unconstitutional. SECTION 6: Neither the adoption of this ordinance nor the repeal hereby of any ordinance shall in any manner affect the prosecution for violation of ordinances, which violations were committed prior to the effective date hereof, nor be construed as affecting any of the provisions of such ordinance relating to the collection of any such license or penalty or the penal provision applicable to any violation thereof, nor to affect the validity of any bond or cash deposit in lieu thereof, required to be posted, filed or deposited pursuant to any ordinance and all rights and obligations thereunder appertaining shall continue in full force and effect. ADOPTED this 15t day of ATTEST: ffn~c'C. Ouy ~Clerk of the Council l,-o,~,-mhe r , 1999. lX~i~el A. Pulido Ivlayor COUNCILMEMBERS: Pulido Aye Lutz Aye Bist hb~cme Christy Aye Franklin Aye McGuigan Aye Moreno Aye APPROVED AS TO FORM: Joseph W. Fletcher, City Attorney BY:Ae~L / !w'~ f°r[re~p~u~ ~ity~rney Ordinance No. NS Page 5 bf 6 260 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY & PUBLICATION I, JANICE C. GUY, Clerk of the Council, do hereby certify the attached Ordinance No. ~to be the original ordinance adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Aha /a,, ; and that said ordinance was published in accordance with the Charte(of'th~ I~ity of Santa Ana. Date: of the Council ' City of Santa Ana ~ Ordinance No. NS - J~(~ Pa~e 6 of 6 ~