Article 3. Administrative Provisions of California Government Code >> Division 1. >> Title 5. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 2.5. >> Article 3.

The legislative body shall have complete charge, supervision and control of all open areas maintained pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. The legislative body may appoint an advisory board composed of five property owners within a district, which advisory board may make recommendations to the legislative body with respect to the maintenance and operation of the open areas. Members of the board shall serve without compensation and shall hold office for a term of three years from the date of their appointment.

The legislative body may enter into such annual contracts as may be required for performance of the maintenance or may cause any part or parts thereof to be performed or furnished by the local agency and may employ the necessary labor and provide, by purchase order when necessary, the required materials and equipment and shall cause the maintenance to be performed or furnished. The costs and expenses of all maintenance to be done or furnished by the local agency shall be paid for from the funds of the district or out of any fund which may be provided or advanced by the legislative body for expenditure for such purposes. The payments so advanced may be reimbursed from the district funds when moneys are available therein.

The legislative body may levy an annual ad valorem special assessment not to exceed fifty cents ($0.50) per one hundred dollars ($100) assessed valuation of taxable land and improvements within the maintenance district to pay the costs of maintenance and operation of the open areas or such portion of said costs as the legislative body determines shall be borne by the maintenance district. The legislative body may determine that all or a portion of the costs may be borne by the local agency. The annual assessments shall be levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner and with the same interest and penalties as general taxes for the local agency are collected.

The proceeds of the annual special assessments shall be paid to the treasurer of the local agency, who shall place the proceeds in a special fund to the credit of the district and payment shall be made out of the special fund only for the purposes provided for in this chapter for the district. To expedite any maintenance work, the legislative body may at any time transfer into the special fund, out of any money in the general fund, such sums as it may deem necessary, and the sums so transferred shall be deemed as a loan to the special fund, and shall be repaid out of the proceeds of the assessments provided for in this chapter. If a district is organized in any year too late for the levy of a special assessment in that year or in the next ensuing year, the legislative body is hereby authorized to transfer funds out of the general fund of the local agency to the special fund of the district to be used for the payment of the expenses of the district until such time as special assessment receipts are available therefor. The legislative body shall include in the levy of the special assessment for the district for the first fiscal year in which the assessment may be levied or in ensuing years, a sum sufficient to repay the local agency the amount so transferred to the district for the portion or portions of the preceding fiscal year or years for which no levy of assessment was made for that purpose. The amount so transferred shall be repaid into the general fund of the local agency from the district fund out of the first available receipts from the assessment levied or as determined by the legislative body.

If for any reason there shall be a deficiency in the funds derived from the annual assessments levied for the district, the legislative body may meet the deficiency by an appropriation out of the general fund or may advance such sums, to be repaid out of the proceeds of the annual assessment for the next or ensuing years, as deemed appropriate by the legislative body.

Any unexpended balance remaining in the special fund for the district after the payment of the costs and expenses of the maintenance for which the assessment was levied shall be credited to the fund to be raised for the next ensuing period of maintenance for the district. Whenever the legislative body does not order or reorder maintenance as authorized in this chapter, any such unexpended balance may be retained in the fund to be used, until exhausted, to defray the costs and expenses of maintaining and caring for the open spaces benefiting the district for which the annual assessment had been levied.