“City official” shall mean that person responsible for the interpretation, enforcement or both interpretation and enforcement of the provisions referenced in VMC 22.01.030. "City official" shall include, but is not limited to, the city manager, department manager or any designated agent thereof who the city manager or department manager gives authority to enforce the provisions referenced in VMC 22.01.030.

“Code” shall mean any VMC section referenced in VMC 22.01.030.

“Certificate of occupancy” shall mean, for the purposes of this code, a permit.

"Frivolous" An appeal is frivolous if it raises no debatable legal or factual issues upon which reasonable minds might differ and if it is so totally devoid of merit that there is no reasonable possibility of success on the merits. When deciding whether an appeal is frivolous, the hearings examiner may consider the city’s attempts to alert the appellant to the defects in his case, appellant’s failure to state in the notice of appeal the alleged error of fact or law in the notice of civil violation and order or order to revoke permit, and/or the appellant’s involvement in prior code enforcement actions for the same category of violation, regardless of the location of the violation.

“Gross misdemeanor” shall mean a criminal offense punishable by up to three hundred and sixty-five days (365) in jail or up to a $5000.00 fine or both.

“Misdemeanor” shall mean a criminal offense punishable by up to ninety (90) days in jail or up to a $1000.00 fine or both.

“Necessary and reasonable costs” shall mean the expenses incurred by the city to abate a violation. The expenses shall include, but shall not be limited to, personnel costs, both direct and indirect; costs of paying prevailing wages to public works contractors; attorney’s fees; hauling, storage, and disposal expenses; and the costs of printing or mailing orders, notices and correspondence.

“Nuisance vehicle” shall mean any inoperable vehicle or junk vehicle as defined in VMC chapter 17.14.

“Owner” shall mean any person, agent, operator, firm or corporation having a legal or equitable interest in the property; or recorded in the official records of the state, county or municipality as holding title to the property; or otherwise having control of the property, including tenants, the guardian of the estate of any such person, and the executor or administrator of the estate of such person if ordered to take possession of real property by a court, as well as a bankruptcy trustee.

“Person” shall mean an individual, male or female, a firm, partnership, association, institution or corporation or any other group acting as a unit.

“Repeat violation” shall mean a violation of the same regulation in any location by the same person, for which a notice of civil violation or other order has been issued and was not timely appealed or was denied on appeal. A repeat violation may involve the same condition, action, or omission as a previous violation. A repeat violation may also involve non-compliance with the corrective action noted in a notice of civil violation and order or order to revoke permit which results in the issuance of an additional notice of civil violation and order or order to revoke permit.

“Violation” shall mean any condition, act, failure to act or omission that is inconsistent with any code section referenced in VMC 22.01.030. (Ord. M-3857 §2, 2007; Ord. M-3638 §32, 2003)