Article 3. Miscellaneous of California Government Code >> Division 2. >> Title 3. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 8. >> Article 3.

The board of supervisors may prohibit and prevent the unnecessary firing and discharge of firearms on or into the highways and other public places and may pass all necessary ordinances regulating or forbidding such acts.

The board of supervisors may provide for the control or destruction of gophers, squirrels, other wild animals, noxious weeds, plant diseases, and insects injurious to fruit or fruit trees, vines, or vegetable or plant life.

(a) The board of supervisors may provide the same services and exercise the powers of mosquito abatement districts or vector control districts formed pursuant to the Mosquito Abatement and Vector Control District Law, Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 2000) of Division 3 of the Health and Safety Code within both the unincorporated and incorporated territory of the county.
  (b) Before exercising that authority within incorporated territory, the consent of the city council shall first be obtained. Before exercising the authority granted pursuant to this section, the board of supervisors shall hold a public hearing on the proposal. Notice of the hearing shall be given pursuant to Section 6061 in a newspaper of general circulation in the county.

The board of supervisors may establish safety incentive programs designed to encourage county officers and employees to follow recognized safety practices and focus upon policies and activities established to reduce the incidence of occupational injury and its associated costs, and may expend funds for incentives and awards when manager or employee efforts have produced quantitatively measurable results in reduction of the incidence rate of occupational injury, or the costs directly associated with occupational injury, or both.

The board of supervisors of any county may appropriate and expend money from the general fund of the county, either within or without the county, for the purpose of providing weather data and may co-operate with the United States, the State, other counties, municipal corporations or any other public agency for such purpose, when such data are for the benefit of the county.

(a) The board of supervisors, by ordinance, may establish a procedure for the abatement of a nuisance. The ordinance shall, at a minimum, provide that the owner of the parcel, and anyone known to the board of supervisors to be in possession of the parcel, be given notice of the abatement proceeding and an opportunity to appear before the board of supervisors and be heard prior to the abatement of the nuisance by the county. However, nothing in this section prohibits the summary abatement of a nuisance upon order of the board of supervisors, or upon order of any other county officer authorized by law to summarily abate nuisances, if the board or officer determines that the nuisance constitutes an immediate threat to public health or safety.
  (b) In any action to abate a nuisance, whether by administrative proceedings, judicial proceedings, or summary abatement, the owner of the parcel upon which the nuisance is found to exist shall be liable for all costs of abatement incurred by the county, including, but not limited to, administrative costs, and any and all costs incurred in the physical abatement of the nuisance. Recovery of costs pursuant to this section shall be in addition to and shall not limit any prevailing party's right to recover costs pursuant to Sections 1032 and 1033.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure or any other provision of law.
  (c) A county may, by ordinance, provide for the recovery of attorneys' fees in any action, administrative proceeding, or special proceeding to abate a nuisance. If the ordinance provides for the recovery of attorneys' fees, it shall provide for recovery of attorneys' fees by the prevailing party, rather than limiting recovery of attorneys' fees to the county if it prevails. The ordinance may limit recovery of attorneys' fees by the prevailing party to those individual actions or proceedings in which the county elects, at the initiation of that individual action or proceeding, to seek recovery of its own attorneys' fees. In no action, administrative proceeding, or special proceeding shall an award of attorneys' fees to a prevailing party exceed the amount of reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by the county in the action or proceeding.
  (d) If the owner fails to pay the costs of the abatement upon demand by the county, the board of supervisors may order the cost of the abatement to be specially assessed against the parcel. The assessment may 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 are provided for ordinary county taxes. All laws applicable to the levy, collection, and enforcement of county taxes are applicable to the special assessment.
  (e) If the board of supervisors specially assesses the cost of the abatement against the parcel, the board also may cause a notice of abatement lien to be recorded. The notice shall, at a minimum, identify the record owner or possessor of property, set forth the last known address of the record owner or possessor, set forth the date upon which abatement of the nuisance was ordered by the board of supervisors and the date the abatement was complete, and include a description of the real property subject to the lien and the amount of the abatement cost.
  (f) However, if the board of supervisors does not cause the recordation of a notice of abatement lien pursuant to subdivision (e), and any real property to which the costs of abatement relates has been transferred or conveyed to a bona fide purchaser for value, or a lien on a bona fide encumbrancer for value has been created and attaches to that property, prior to the date on which the first installment of county taxes would become delinquent, then the cost of abatement shall not result in a lien against that real property but shall be transferred to the unsecured roll for collection.
  (g) Recordation of a notice of abatement lien pursuant to subdivision (e) has the same effect as recordation of an abstract of a money judgment recorded pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 697.310) of Chapter 2 of Division 2 of Title 9 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The lien created has the same priority as a judgment lien on real property and continues in effect until released. Upon order of the board of supervisors, or any county officer authorized by the board of supervisors to act on its behalf, an abatement lien created under this section may be released or subordinated in the same manner as a judgment lien on real property may be released or subordinated.
  (h) The board of supervisors may delegate the hearing required by subdivision (a), prior to abatement of a public nuisance, to a hearing board designated by the board of supervisors. The hearing board shall make a written recommendation to the board of supervisors. The board of supervisors may adopt the recommendation without further notice of hearing, or may set the matter for a de novo hearing before the board of supervisors.
  (i) The board of supervisors may, by ordinance, delegate to a hearing officer appointed pursuant to Section 27720 the powers and duties specified by this section.

The board of supervisors, by ordinance, may provide that upon entry of a second or subsequent civil or criminal judgment within a two-year period finding that an owner of property is responsible for a condition that may be abated in accordance with an ordinance enacted pursuant to Section 25845, except for conditions abated pursuant to Section 17980 of the Health and Safety Code, the court may order the owner to pay treble the costs of the abatement.

Subject to the provisions contained in Article 6.5 (commencing with Section 38780) of Chapter 10 of Part 2 of Division 3 of Title 4, a county may provide that prior to the sale or exchange of any residential building situated outside the boundaries of any incorporated city, the owner or his authorized agent shall obtain from the county a report of the residential building record showing the regularly authorized use, occupancy, and zoning classifications of such property.