Article 2. Assessors And Assessment of California Water Code >> Division 5. >> Part 4. >> Chapter 5. >> Article 2.

When an assessment is to be levied, the board shall appoint three assessors.

The assessors shall be disinterested persons, and shall have no interest in any real estate within the drainage district.

Each assessor before entering upon his duties, shall make and subscribe an oath that he is not in any manner interested in any real estate within the drainage district, and that he will perform the duties of an assessor to the best of his ability.

The compensation of assessors shall be fixed and allowed by the board.

After the assessors have examined the plan or plans of the works contemplated and the estimates of the cost, they shall make a preliminary report to the board indicating the exterior boundaries of the land that in their opinion will be benefited by the expenditures.

The assessors, after performing their duties pursuant to Section 8779, shall appoint a time and place in each county in which any of the land proposed to be assessed is situated, when and where they will hear objections to the report and evidence concerning the manner in which the assessment shall be apportioned.

The assessors shall give notice of the hearing in each of the counties by publication in a newspaper published in the county once a week for three weeks, the first publication to be not later than the twenty-first day before the day of hearing.

The notice shall contain a general designation of the land which will in the assessors' opinion be benefited, and shall refer to the preliminary report on file in the office of the board for the exterior boundaries.

The assessors, may amend, modify or change the exterior boundaries of the land that, in their opinion, will be benefited by such expenditures.

The board shall levy an assessment pursuant to this chapter if, within six months after the completion of the hearings there is filed with the board, written consent to the contemplated project, signed and acknowledged by the following:
  (a) Owners of land representing 66 per cent or more of the value of the land excluding improvements within the district, as described in the preliminary report of the appraisers, or as modified thereafter, as such value is shown by the last preceding county tax assessment roll of the county in which the land is situated.
  (b) Sixty-six per cent or more of the owners of land within the district as described in the preliminary report, or as modified thereafter.

If consent in writing is not filed in the manner and at the time provided, no further expenditures for the project shall be made, nor shall any obligations be incurred therefor.

If consent is not filed the board may cause an assessment to be levied in the manner provided in this chapter for the purpose of paying the necessary engineering and other expenses in preparing the plans for the project, in making the preliminary report of the assessors and in holding the hearings thereon.

The assessors shall assess upon the lands within the drainage district proposed to be assessed for the plans adopted by the board the sums included in the estimates of the board, and shall apportion the sums according to the benefits that will accrue to each tract of land in the drainage district affected by any particular project or unit by reason of the expenditure.

The assessors in apportioning the assessment on each tract of land shall, as information for the board set out, opposite each sum assessed for each particular tract of land, in separate columns respectively, the amount that they determine that each tract is so assessed by reason of benefit from the flood control features of the works involved in the plans, and also the amount that they deem each tract of land is so assessed by reason of all other benefit from the works.

The assessors shall, in the case of all assessments of the drainage district which may hereafter be levied by the board and all assessments which have heretofore been commenced but on which the assessment lists have not been made to conform with the decision of the board after equalization hearings held pursuant to the provisions of this part, state, as information for the board, in addition to the amount assessed by reason of the flood control features, opposite each sum assessed for each particular tract of land, in a separate column, the amount that they determine each tract is so assessed by reason of the severance of any lands not included in the assessed area which would have been included but for the location of a by-pass channel or channels provided for by another separate portion or project of the drainage district, adopted by the board.

The amounts stated and placed opposite each assessment shall be no part of the assessment and shall in no way affect the assessment charged against each tract of land as the same may be fixed, but shall be subject to review and readjustment in the same manner as the assessment itself.