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(1) No person shall affix or display, or cause to be affixed or displayed, a notice, placard, bill, handbill, card, advertisement or sign on a sidewalk, crosswalk, curb or curb – stone, or a portion or part of a public way or public place, or a public lamp post, electric light, telegraph, telephone pole or railway structure, hydrant, shade tree or tree-box or on the piers, columns, trusses, girders, railings, gates or other parts of a public bridge or viaduct, or other public structure or building, or on a pole, box or fixture of the fire alarm or police telegraph system, except as may be authorized or required by the laws of the United States, State of Oregon, this code or other ordinances.

(2) In addition to any other penalty provided by law, any such notice, placard, bill, handbill, card, advertisement or sign may be impounded by the city and disposed of in accordance with the procedures outlined in sections 2.825 to 2.855 of this code.

(3) In addition to the penalty specified in section 4.990 or 4.996 of this code, any person responsible for any posting made unlawful by subsection (1) of this section shall also be liable to the city for the costs incurred by the city in removal thereof and, in event of a failure to pay, for billing and collection charges. If the costs of removal are not paid within 30 days after the city mails the bill for the costs incurred by the city for removal, the city manager, or his or her designee, is authorized to effect the collection of the removal costs, together with interest and the costs of collection, including reasonable attorney’s fees. The cost shall be determined in accordance with a rate schedule approved by the city manager. Costs include, but are not limited to, direct labor, material and equipment costs, as well as department and general city overhead costs attributable to the removal of the unlawfully posted material and to identifying the responsible person or persons and collecting from them the costs of removal.

(4) For purposes of recovering the costs of removal, there is a rebuttable presumption that:

(a) A real estate agent, broker, brokerage firm, auctioneer or other person whose name or telephone number appears on the posted material is the person responsible for its posting;

(b) A candidate seeking office is the person responsible for posting any material promoting his or her candidacy for public office;

(c) A person conducting a yard, garage, estate or moving sale is the person responsible for posting any material advertising the sale; and, unless the sale is advertised as that of a merchant or liquidator engaged in the business of selling personal property, that the owner, or lessee if the property is leased, of the premises where the sale occurs is responsible for conducting the sale;

(d) An owner, or lessee if the property is leased, of property used for a commercial activity or event is the person responsible for posting any material advertising the commercial activity or event;

(e) A person whose name, telephone number or address appears as the sponsor of a sporting event, concert, theatrical performance or similar activity is the person responsible for posting any material advertising the activity or event;

(f) A person whose name, telephone number or address appears as the person to contact on any posted material is the person responsible for posting the material.

The presumptions in this subsection for recovering the costs of removal of the posted material do not apply to prosecutions in municipal court for violation of subsection (1) of this section.

(5) An individual presumed responsible for removal costs under subsection (4) of this section may request an administrative hearing before the city manager or the manager’s designee by submitting to the city manager or his or her designee a written declaration made under penalty of perjury or a sworn affidavit that the person did not cause, authorize, or permit the posting of the material in violation of subsection (1) of this section. Such declaration or affidavit must be submitted to the city manager or his or her designee within 10 days of the date the city’s billing statement for removal costs was mailed. If such a declaration is filed, an administrative hearing will be scheduled. At that hearing, the city will have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the person billed for the removal costs caused, authorized, or permitted the posting of material in violation of subsection (1) of this section, and that the costs were properly computed.

(6) The city manager is authorized to promulgate rules in the manner prescribed in section 2.019 of this code for the implementation of the program to recover the costs of removal, including providing for an administrative hearing before the city manager or his or her designee.

(Section 4.050 amended by Ordinance No. 18963, enacted May 12, 1982, Ordinance No. 19387, enacted June 11, 1986; and Ordinance No. 20221, enacted January 22, 2001, effective February 21, 2001.)