said parcel of land is transferred to another person, the owners of said parcel may make application to the board of supervisors to have each portion of said parcel of land assessed separately. The board of supervisors shall thereupon order the engineer of construction to file with the clerk of the board of supervisors an amended assessment of the original parcel of land affected. Each year, prior to the first day of July, the engineer of construction shall file with the clerk of the board of supervisors a report and an amended assessment of such parcels of land as have been ordered by said board, together with a plat showing how such parcels of land have been divided and the area in square feet of each of the portions of said parcels of land. Said report shall conform in all respects to the original, and the total amount of the assessments of the several portions of any one original parcel shall be equal to the unpaid assessment of that original parcel of land. Each portion of the parcel of land of which an amended assessment is made shall retain the original number designating said parcel of land and shall be further identified by a secondary number, or suffix, and thereafter reference to said portion by said original number and suffix shall be sufficient description for all purposes. At the time the engineer of construction files the amended assessments as ordered by the board of supervisors, he may also file amended assessments on any parcels of land which have been subdivided or otherwise affected prior to the first Monday in March of that year by the recording in the office of the recorder of the county in which said parcels of land are located, of a map, in accordance with the map laws pertaining to the subdivision of land. Upon the filing of said report and amended assessment, the board of supervisors shall proceed as in the case of an original assessment to give notice and to hold a hearing; provided, that the final action of the board of supervisors on said report and amended assessment shall be taken before the first Monday of September of that year. When the said board has adopted the amended assessments as herein provided the clerk of said board shall cause to be filed with the recorder and with the tax collector of the county or counties in which the district is situated, certified copies of the plats and report as adopted and confirmed by said board and thereupon and thereafter such amended assessments shall be considered as having superseded and replaced the assessment of any original parcel affected. [New section added May 31, 1921; Stats. 1921, p. 905.] § 25. Construction. This act shall be liberally construed with a view to promoting the objects and purposes thereof. § 26. Title. This act shall be known as the drainage district improvement act of 1919, and by such designation shall be sufficiently identified in any proceeding thereunder, and whenever in the resolution of intention it shall be set forth or recited that the proceeding is under the "drainage district improvement act of 1919," this act shall be construed as the paramount statute for such proceeding. § 27. Act, Stats. 1903, p. 354, repealed. Alternative act. This act shall supersede and repeal an act of the legislature of the state of California approved March 21, 1903, and amendments thereto entitled "An act to promote the drainage of wet, swamp and overflowed lands, and to promote the public health in the communities in which they lie"; provided, however, that nothing contained herein shall operate to invalidate any proceedings heretofore taken under the provisions of said act approved March 21, 1903, as amended; provided, further, that any district formed under the provisions of the said act of 1903, but not completed at the time this act takes effect, shall be completed, accepted by the board of supervisors and bonds shall be issued in accordance with the provisions of the said act of 1903, but may be issued for all the purposes specified in this act including expenditures made to procure rights of way whether inside of such drainage district or outside thereof, where the board finds it necessary for such district, but such district shall thereafter be maintained under the provisions of section twenty-four of this act. Otherwise this act is not intended to supersede or repeal any other act for the construction of work for drainage purposes, but is intended as an independent and alternative act of the legislature of the state of California. NOTE. This act repealed the act of March 21, 1903, to promote the drainage of wet, swamp and overflowed lands (Act 986), although there was no mention of the repeal in the title. ACT 2204. An act providing for the organization and government of drainage districts and providing for the acquisition, construction, maintenance and operation of drainage works to drain or protect lands and other property within the district from the effects of water and providing for the levying of assessments and the collecting of funds for paying the costs thereof and for the issuing and sale of bonds and providing for the control and disposition of drainage water, [Approved May 4, 1923. Stats. 1923, p. 196.] See Acts of 1885, p. 204; 1903, p. 291, and 1919, p. 731, ante, Acts 2200, 2203, 2204. § 1. Title holders and acreage necessary to petition for drainage district. Who deemed owners and entitled to sign petition. § 2. Contents of petition. Bond for costs. Withdrawal of signatures. § 3. 4. Appointment of engineer to investigate and report. Order for hearing. Notice. Investigation by state engineer. § 5. § 6. § 7. Hearing. Changes in boundaries. Action on petition. Order. (3) Mailing. § 8. § 9. § 10. Director's oath and bond. § 11. Directors, appointment and tenure of office. May be elected. Organization of board. Duties of president. Duties of secretary. Duties of treasurer. Compensation. § 12. Meetings. Annual financial statement. § 13. Advisory elections. Meetings with owners. § 14. Qualifications of voters. $ 15. Powers and duties of board of directors. § 17. Engineer. Appointment, duties and reports. Plan for "drain age." § 18. "Organization tax." Tax list. Notice. Record of payments. Added land subject to tax. $19. Delinquent taxes. § 20. Directors to assess lands. Railroads. Canals. Report of findings. Construction fund. 21. § 22. § 23. § 24. § 25. Filing of report with supervisors. Notice. Hearing by supervisors. Action of supervisors. Assessment a Irrigation district bond commission to investigate and report. Bond election. Roster of voters. General election laws applica- § 26. Condemnation proceedings. § 27. Powers of directors regarding works and improvements. Contracts. Contractor's bond. Engineer in charge. Changes in plans. § 28. Annual meeting of owners. § 29. Annual budget. Tax levy. Districts in two or more counties. Disposition of taxes. § 30. District warrants. Payment of outstanding warrants. § 31. Construction of improvements over or under highway, etc. Cost of construction. § 33. § 34. 35. § 36. "Drainage water," acquirement and disposition. Proceeds. "Bond fund." New or amended plans, formulation and execution. $37. Reapportionment of assessed benefits. § 38. Existing drains to be taken over or connected with. § 39. Consolidation of adjacent districts, procedure for. Hearing by and order of supervisors. New board of directors. § 40. § 41. Reorganization of existing districts, procedure for. Hearing by and order of supervisors. Requirements unnecessary, what. Reapportionment of assessments. § 47. § 48. Dissolution of district, petition to superior court for. Findings of court. Appeal. § 49. Code of Civil Procedure to govern. § 51. Constitutionality. § 50. Court decree. Foreclosure of sales. Redemption. § 52. Distribution of surplus funds. § 53. § 54. Effect on existing laws. § 1. Title holders and acreage necessary to petition for drainage district. Who deemed owners and entitled to sign petition. Whenever fifty, or a majority, of the holders of title or evidence of title who shall hold a majority in acreage or two-thirds of the holders of title or evidence of title holding one-third in acreage of the land in any body of wet, swamp or overflowed lands or lands otherwise needing drainage or irrigated lands, which through the use of water on said lands contribute to the need for drainage on other lands within the proposed district, situated in one or more counties in this state, the whole or any part of which may be within or without the exterior boundaries of any municipal corporation or corporations, shall desire to form a drainage district for the purpose of having such lands or other property reclaimed or protected from the effects of water, for agricultural or sanitary purposes when such drainage district will be conducive to the public health, convenience or welfare or be of general public benefit, they may proceed under the provisions of this act. The equalized county assessment-roll next preceding the presentation of the petition shall be sufficient evidence of title for the purposes of this act, except that where property is assessed to unknown owners or the assessment-roll does not purport to give the true name, or gives the names of a portion only of the owners of any parcel, the actual owners of said property shall be considered the owners for all the purposes of this act and owners of undivided interests may sign for such interests and each such owner shall be considered as one owner; and provided, further, that guardians, executors, administrators or other persons holding property in a trust capacity under appointment of court may sign any petition provided for in this act, when authorized by an order of court. Any person owning land within the proposed district whose ownership does not appear on the assessment-roll may by making affidavit of such ownership be accorded the privileges of this act. Any transfer of title made for the purpose of establishing or defeating the prayer of said petition, and not made in good faith and for a valuable consideration, shall be taken and held to be a fraud, and for the purposes of this act the grantee therein shall not be considered as the owner of the land described therein. Such illegal signing, however, shall not invalidate such petition when there shall be found a sufficient number of legal petitioners. § 2. Contents of petition. Bond for costs. Withdrawal of signatures. In order to propose the organization of a drainage district, a petition shall be presented to the board of supervisors of the county in which the lands within the proposed district, or the greater portion in acreage thereof, are situated, signed by the required number of holders of title or evidence of title, which petition shall recite that the public health, convenience, welfare or benefit will be promoted and shall set forth the name and the boundary lines of the proposed district and if any of the owners of land in said district are nonresidents of the county or counties in which the proposed district lies, the petition shall be accompanied by an affidavit giving the names and postoffice addresses of such nonresidents, if such are known, and if unknown shall state that upon diligent inquiry their names or postoffice addresses, whichever may be the fact, cannot be ascertained. The petitioners must accompany the petition with a good and sufficient bond, to be approved by the board of supervisors, in the sum of double the amount of the probable cost of organizing such district, conditioned that the obligors will pay all the costs in case such organization is not effected. Any petition provided for by this act may consist of any number of separate instruments which, either before or at the time of presenting to the board of supervisors, shall be incorporated into one instrument and thereafter be considered as one petition. Signatures to the petition may be withdrawn at any time before the publication is commenced as in section four required, by filing a declaration, signed by the petitioner with the board of supervisors before which the petition was presented, stating that it is the intention of the petitioner to withdraw therefrom, which declaration shall be acknowledged in the same manner as conveyances of real estate are required to be acknowledged. § 3. Appointment of engineer to investigate and report. Said petition shall be presented at a regular meeting of said board of supervisors who shall forthwith appoint a competent drainage engineer to be selected by the petitioners and subject to the approval of the said board. The board of supervisors shall determine the rate of compensation to be paid the engineer for preliminary surveys and report. The engineer so appointed shall ascertain and report to the board of supervisors (1) the limits of the region which will be benefited by the work necessary to accomplish the purposes of the petition; (2) whether such work will be conducive to the public health, safety, convenience or welfare, or be of general public benefit; (3) describe in a general way the plans necessary therefor, together with (4) a map showing the territory that should be included in said district and in general, the location and nature of the tentative plans proposed; and (5) give an approximate estimate of the cost of the construction thereof; provided, however, that said surveys, report and estimate of cost shall be considered as preliminary only and shall not restrict or hinder the board of directors of said drainage district if found to be inconsistent or incomplete by such surveys and plans as are hereinafter provided for. § 4. Order for hearing. Notice. Investigation by state engineer. Effect of an adverse report. Failure to report. At the next regular meeting of the board of supervisors after the filing of the report of the engineer as provided for in section three, said board shall by order fix a date for hearing the petition which shall not be less than one month or more than two months after such order. Said board of supervisors shall give notice, to all persons interested, of said petition and of said order setting the date of hearing thereof in the manner provided for in section six of this act. Said notice shall contain a copy of the petition and all the names signed thereto and also a copy of the order setting the date for the hearing thereof, and shall further notify all persons interested to file objections, if any they have, to the granting of said petition, on or before the date set for said hearing. The date of the last publication of said notice shall not be less than one week or more than five weeks from the date of said hearing. Within five days after setting the date for hearing said petition by the board of supervisors, the clerk of said board of supervisors shall send a copy of said notice and a copy of the engineer's preliminary report including all maps, estimates and plans accompanying said report to the state engineer, who, before the date set for hearing, shall make, or cause to be made, at the expense of the proposed district, such an investigation as may be practicable with a view to determining the feasibility of the project to be undertaken. He shall report his findings in the matter in writing to the board of supervisors from which said notice was received on or before the date set for hearing. If the state engineer reports against the proposed project or any portion thereof, the board of supervisors may adjourn the hearing for one month, which may then be dismissed or may be continued from time to time but not to exceed eight weeks |