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REQUEST FOR <br />COUNCIL ACTION <br />CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: <br />JUNE 6, 2017 <br />TITLE: APPROVED <br />❑ As Recommended <br />APPROVE AGREEMENT FOR SPECIAL El El <br />n <br />LEGAL COUNSEL SERVICES WITH JONES ElOOrrdinance on 1 Reading <br />❑ Ordinance on 2nd Reading <br />& MAYER, ATTORNEYS AT LAW ❑ Implementing Resolution <br />{STRATEGIC PLAN NO. 3,3; 5, . El Set Public Hearing For <br />/,?/I / CONTINUED TO <br />FILE NUMBER <br />RECOMMENDED ACTION <br />Authorize the City Manager and Clerk of the Council to execute a three year agreement with <br />Jones & Mayer, Attorneys at Law, for legal services in the area of code enforcement receivership <br />and nuisance abatement matters, in the amount not to exceed $200,000, subject to non - <br />substantive changes approved by the City Manager and City Attorney. <br />DISCUSSION <br />The City has utilized receivership actions under the California Health and Safety Code to <br />successfully resolve difficult code enforcement matters in both commercial and residential <br />properties. Receivership is a legal process through which control of a real property is temporarily <br />taken from the owners and placed with a court-appointed officer; the Receiver. These <br />receiverships are used for abandoned and substandard properties where the owner has a history <br />of noncompliance with the City's code enforcement efforts or, in emergency situations, where the <br />real property presents an immediate threat to health and safety. <br />The receivership option is a comprehensive process which eliminates substandard conditions or <br />uninhabitable slum -like properties and allows the referring agency, when it is the prevailing party, <br />to recuperate its enforcement costs. This process also communicates to the public that the City <br />is actively protecting residents and tenants from dangerous conditions created by absentee or <br />non-responsive property owners. <br />Beginning in 2013, the City of Santa Ana has initiated more than fifteen receivership actions <br />against dangerous and substandard properties within the City. As a result of successful <br />prosecution of these actions, the dangerous and substandard conditions on these properties have <br />been corrected. <br />On August 2, 2016, the City Council approved an Appropriation Adjustment of $100,000 to the <br />Planning and Building Agency budget for receivership activities. This item also indicated that the <br />City would soon thereafter conduct a Request for Proposals to retain outside legal counsel for the <br />receivership program. <br />25H-1 <br />