City of Oxnard presents ordinance to add disposal rules for impounded and unclaimed property

Andrew Gonzales, deputy city attorney for the City of Oxnard, presented an ordinance to amend Article 3 of Chapter 7 of the Oxnard Municipal Code to add procedures for the removal and disposal of confiscated, impounded and unclaimed property, Gonzales said.

Gonzales said the proposed ordinance responds to limits placed on local enforcement by state law and to safety hazards the Oxnard Fire Department has encountered when dealing with unpermitted food vendors. He told the council that state laws Senate Bill 946 (effective February 2019) and Senate Bill 972 (effective 2023) allow sidewalk vending on public sidewalks and within parks, restrict cities from broadly prohibiting sidewalk vending, and limit local penalties for vendor-related violations.

Under those bills, Gonzales said, Oxnard may adopt time, place and manner restrictions tied to objective health, safety or welfare concerns but cannot treat vendor-related violations as misdemeanors or infractions in many cases. He said that after the state bills took effect, the city adopted Ordinance 2952 to create section 8-47 of the Oxnard Municipal Code to regulate sidewalk and street vendors, but the state changes mean code compliance can issue only administrative citations for some unpermitted food vendors and that there are limited consequences if an individual ignores such a citation.

Gonzales said the Oxnard Fire Department has responded to burn incidents caused by improper placement, storage and handling of propane tanks and open-flame cooking equipment used by unpermitted food vendors. He said the fire department established a fire-code–centered enforcement program and, under that program, impounds certain items as hazards: on a second fire-code violation the department impounds five-gallon propane tanks used for gas grills, and on third and fourth fire-code violations it impounds grills, gas-powered generators and other items.

Under current practice, Gonzales said, items impounded as hazards under the City of Oxnard fire code are held for safekeeping for 60 days or until reclaimed by the owner pursuant to California Vehicle Code section 2080.1. He said state law permits a city to dispose of impounded items that remain unclaimed after 60 days, but the Oxnard Municipal Code does not include a procedure for disposing of impounded, confiscated or unclaimed property. The ordinance Gonzales presented would add sections 7-65 and 7-66 to provide a procedure for removal and disposal of such property.

Gonzales presented the ordinance by title only and asked the council to waive further reading. The transcript does not record a council vote on waiving further reading or adoption of the ordinance, and no final action is recorded in the provided excerpt. Gonzales closed by saying staff was available for questions.