Water Code, 1943

The commissioners must set an assessment value per acre for each parcel of district land, based on the benefits from continued operation of the district reclamation works.

The commissioners must prepare an operation and maintenance assessment roll in duplicate with specified parcel and valuation columns.

The commissioners may set a base value per acre for parcels when preparing the operation and maintenance assessment roll, may adjust that value, and must file a report if land use categories are used.

Errors in the owner’s name or other details do not make the assessment invalid.

Assessment valuations must be used as the basis for levying assessments on the parcels in the operation and maintenance assessment roll.

The operation and maintenance assessment roll must be filed in the clerk of the board of supervisors’ office in the same manner as a report under an original, supplemental, or additional plan of reclamation.

A district may use operation and maintenance assessment rolls adopted before September 19, 1939, for the purposes covered by this article.

The board of supervisors must set a time to meet and hear objections to the operation and maintenance assessment roll.

Objections to assessment valuations are barred unless they are made in writing to the board of supervisors before the hearing date.

The hearing notice must be given in the same manner and for the same time period as the notice for objections to an original assessment.

At the hearing, the board of supervisors must hear evidence supporting written objections and may change the assessment valuations.

The board of supervisors must approve the assessment valuation or any change to it, endorse the order on the assessment roll, and have the endorsement signed by the chairman and attested by the clerk.

A board of supervisors’ approval of an assessment roll is final, and the endorsed roll is conclusive evidence that the assessment valuations were set according to law, except in an action under Section 51333.

A person aggrieved may, within 30 days after approval of an operation and maintenance assessment roll, start a superior court action to have the assessment valuations corrected, modified, or annulled.

An action attacking the assessment’s legality must be started within 30 days after approval of the operation and maintenance assessment roll.

If the board decides it needs money for a Section 51326 purpose, it must enter an order in its minutes stating the amount and setting the assessment rate.

If a separately assessed parcel’s assessment is under $25, the board may set a minimum assessment, but only up to $25 per parcel.

The section defines certain incidental expenses for refunding bonds and says related assessment amounts must be spread across district land in the same proportion as the original assessment, or later reapportionments that secure the bonds.

After each assessment levy, the board may prepare and file a supplement with the county treasurer showing the rate and total assessment, and that supplement becomes part of the original assessment roll.

The board may order assessment payments to be made in one installment or in multiple annual or semiannual installments, for up to five years.

If the board orders an assessment to be paid in installments over several years, it must have each installment’s due date and amount endorsed on the assessment roll or supplement.

Once the assessment roll or supplement is completed and a payment order is entered, it must be filed immediately with the county treasurer.

An assessment levy becomes a lien on the affected parcels when the completed assessment roll or supplement is filed with the county treasurer, and it earns interest starting 60 days later until paid.

Unpaid operation and maintenance assessments accrue interest at 1.5% per month from delinquency, unless the board sets a lower rate by resolution and files it with the county treasurer.

The board may make additional operation and maintenance assessment levies when needed, while the operation and maintenance assessment roll remains in effect.

The board must return and keep the operation and maintenance assessment roll, except when it is filed with the county treasurer during assessment or installment collections, or while certain district warrants remain outstanding and unpaid.

The section says the operation and maintenance assessment roll must be the original roll or a copy certified by the board secretary, and it must include reapportioned assessment valuations for subdivisions of the original parcel.

The operation and maintenance assessment roll must be used for the purposes in Section 51326 until a board or qualifying landowners petition the board of supervisors for a new roll.

If land-use categories were used for valuation, the board may adjust assessment values for parcels in the district, but not more than once a year, and must document the change with a supplement to the assessment roll.

Commissioners appointed to prepare a new operation and maintenance assessment roll must have the same qualifications and take the same oath as the original assessment commissioners.

When the new operation and maintenance assessment roll is prepared, the valuation assessment commissioners must file it with the clerk of the board of supervisors.

The district must not issue bonds or raise funds for bonded debt repayment based on operation and maintenance assessments.

If a reclamation assessment is invalid, a new assessment or a separate reassessment may be made to recover the needed reclamation costs.

Each parcel must be charged a share of the former assessment based on the benefits it received from the reclamation.

A new assessment or reassessment must be made by assessment commissioners appointed by the board of supervisors, and handled like an original assessment.

If a reclamation assessment is later ruled invalid and a landowner already paid part of it, the county treasurer must credit that payment plus legal interest against a later assessment on the same parcel.

This section defines “public entity.”

If the board has authorized refunding bond sales below par and needs funds for bond interest, it must declare whether a supplemental assessment should be levied.

If the board decides a supplemental assessment is in the district’s best interest, it must prepare and certify an assessment list in the form required by Section 51239.

The supplemental assessment cannot exceed a stated cap tied to the refunding bonds and related interest.

A supplemental assessment may be levied only on parcels with an outstanding assessment for the bonds being refunded, and it must be allocated in proportion to the amounts already assessed on those parcels.

This section makes Article 1’s assessment-list rules apply to supplemental assessment lists, with two filing/storage exceptions and a five-day deadline for correction, modification, or annulment actions after filing with the county treasurer.

A supplemental assessment must be called for immediate payment once it has been levied, approved, and filed, and it becomes delinquent on a declared date set at least five days before the refunding bond sale date.

At least 30 days must pass between the date of call and the date of delinquency.

A supplemental assessment does not bear interest and may be paid only in lawful money of the United States.

The supplemental assessment notice and call must be served on each landowner in the district using the method set out in Section 51519.

If an assessment is delinquent, a 10 percent penalty is added.

The county treasurer must, at least 90 days before the bond interest date, estimate the amount needed to pay maturing interest and principal.

The county treasurer must publish a notice about the assessment installment, and assessed landowners must pay it within 30 days.

If there is no newspaper published in a county where the district is located, the publication must be made in a newspaper published in an adjoining county.

The county treasurer must credit certain assessment-related money to the district’s bond fund.

A court challenge to the validity of a call for an installment assessment under this article must be started within 6 months after the call’s due date.