§ 94.35. Clandestine drug labs.

A.

Definitions.

1.

"Chemical dumpsite" means any place or area where chemicals or other waste materials used, intended to be used, or produced in a clandestine drug lab have been located.

2.

"Clandestine drug lab" means a location used for the unlawful manufacture or attempt to manufacture controlled substances.

3.

"Clandestine drug lab site" means any place or area where law enforcement has determined that conditions associated with the operation of a clandestine drug lab exist. A clandestine drug lab site may include residential, commercial, industrial or institutional structures, accessory buildings, accessory structures, motor vehicles, a chemical dumpsite or any land.

4.

"Controlled substance" means a drug, compound, mixture, preparation, or substance included in schedules I through V of Ohio Revised Code § 3719.41 or as amended from time to time. The term does not include distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, intoxicating liquors or tobacco.

5.

"Expense" means any expense incurred due to the use of employees, materials, and/or equipment of the City or its agent to investigate, mitigate, minimize, remove or abate any hazardous condition.

6.

"Household hazardous wastes" means waste generated from a clandestine drug lab. Such wastes shall be treated, stored, transported or disposed of in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local regulations.

7.

"Manufacture" means the production, cultivation, quality control, and standardization, by mechanical, physical, chemical or pharmaceutical means, packing, repacking, tableting, encapsulating, labeling, relabeling, filling, or by other process, of controlled substances. This does not include manufacturing which occurs in a pharmacy or a licensed pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.

8.

"Owner" means any person, firm or corporation who alone or jointly or severally with others has legal title to any land, buildings, or structures associated with a clandestine drug lab site or chemical dumpsite, with or without accompanying actual possession thereof. Owner also includes vendor or vendee under a land contract, whether recorded or not, or the executor, executrix, administrator, administratrix, trustee, or guardian of the estate of either the person with legal title or the land contract vendor or vendee.

B.

Where an Akron Police Officer determines that an emergency condition caused by hazardous conditions associated with a clandestine drug lab site or chemical dumpsite exists, the City may dismantle and dispose of drug processing apparatus and/or chemicals. Upon identification of such emergency condition, an Akron Police Officer shall serve written notice to the owner, agent, lessee, occupant, tenant or other person in charge of the premises that an emergency condition exists and ordering that the cost of abating the emergency condition be paid to the City. The notice and order shall be served by personal service to both an occupant of the property and the owner of the property, or if personal service is not accomplished, then by posting in a conspicuous location at the property affected and mailing, by regular mail, to the address of the affected property if there is a dwelling thereon and to the property owner at the location to which the auditor mails the tax bill for the property affected.

C.

Any person affected by any notice and order to pay the cost of abating an emergency condition may request and shall be granted a hearing on the matter before the Chief of Police or his designee. The person shall file, in the office of the Chief of Police, a written request for hearing and shall set forth the name, address and phone number of the appellant and a brief statement of the grounds for the hearing and appeal from the notice and order to pay the cost of abating the emergency condition. Requests must be filed within seven days after the notice and order is personally served, mailed or posted, whichever occurs first and shall be accompanied by a nonrefundable deposit of fifteen dollars.

1.

On receipt of the request for hearing, the Chief of Police or his designee shall set a time and place for a hearing. Written notice of the hearing shall be sent by regular mail to the address provided by appellant in the request for hearing. The hearing shall be held within a reasonable time after a request has been filed.

2.

At the hearing, the appellant shall be given an opportunity to be heard and to show cause why the notice and order should be modified or dismissed. The failure of the appellant or his representative to appear and present his position at the hearing shall be grounds for dismissal of the request.

3.

Upon consideration of the evidence presented at the hearing, the Chief of Police or his designee may affirm, disaffirm, modify or dismiss the notice and order. The appellant shall be notified forthwith in writing of the decision.

4.

Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Chief of Police or his designee may seek relief pursuant to R.C. Chapter 2506.

D.

All expenses incurred to remedy the emergency condition by the City of Akron together with an administrative charge and/or fine, as described below, shall be reported to the Director of Finance, who shall mail a statement thereof to the owner of the property, if his address is known. Expenses associated with a first occurrence only shall not exceed $1,200.00 which includes the administrative charges set forth below. If after thirty days, the amount remains unpaid, the Director of Finance shall certify the total amount of the expense, the name of the owner of the land, and a sufficient description of the premises, to the Auditor of Summit County, to be entered upon the tax duplicate, to be a lien on the land from the date of entry, to be collected as other taxes and assessments and returned to the City, pursuant to R.C. § 731.54.

E.

In addition to the actual expenses described above, the owner of the premises must pay an administrative charge. For the first and second times in a calendar year that the City abates emergency conditions under this section, the administrative charge each time will be two hundred dollars. Should the City be required to abate an emergency condition or any other condition listed in section 94.32(C), a third or subsequent time within that calendar year, in addition to the expenses incurred and the administrative penalty described above, a fine of two hundred fifty dollars will be charged to the owner. The remedy provided for herein shall be in addition to the penalties provided in § 94.99 of this chapter.

F.

Fifty dollars of the amount collected for each emergency condition abated under this section shall be used for drug awareness education within the City.

(Ord. 117-2012)