Item 3: Ordinance Concerning Personal Property Sale Procedures

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ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Action: An Ordinance Concerning Personal Property Sale Procedures and Amending Section 2.835 of the Eugene Code, 1971 Meeting Date: October 25, 2010 Agenda Item Number: 3 Department: Eugene Police Staff Contact: Captain Chuck Tilby www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 541-682-5114 ISSUE STATEMENT This is an opportunity for the City Council to take action on an amendment to Eugene Code 2.835 Personal Property Sale Procedures – Preceding Sale. The amendment is necessary to update the Eugene Code to reflect Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) regarding the posting and publishing of found property prior to its sale. BACKGROUND The State of Oregon in ORS 98.245(2)(b) establishes procedures for the sale of unclaimed property by law enforcement agencies. Oregon statutes define “unclaimed property” as “personal property that was seized by a removing authority as evidence, abandoned property, found property or stolen property, and that has remained in the physical possession of that removing authority for a period of more than 60 days following conclusion of all criminal actions related to the seizure of the evidence, abandoned property, found property or stolen property, or conclusion of the investigation if no criminal action is filed.” Chapter 2 of the Eugene Code provides procedures, based on State statutes, which govern the Police Department’s responsibilities to attempt to return property to its rightful owner. The State statutes have been amended, lengthening the period of time from 30 to 60 days that a police department should attempt to find the legal owner or other interested person before publishing a notice in the newspaper describing the finding. This change to ORS also reduced a costly procedure of publishing a notice describing the property findings in a newspaper once each week for four consecutive weeks to one publication. Approval by the City Council of this amendment to the Eugene Code will align Eugene’s property sale procedures to Oregon state law. As stated in Chapter 2 of the Eugene Code, the Police Department must make diligent inquiry to identify the owners of found property and to notify the legal owners of property when personal property is held by the Police Department. In 2009, the Property Control Unit of the Eugene Police Department (EPD) sold approximately 600 lots of unclaimed property at public auction, recovering $20,364 from the six public auctions, eBay and recycling. The timely removal of these items of found property from the secure storage facility operated by EPD is important for several reasons. First, the Police Department wishes to return items of property to their rightful owners and secondly, the property takes up Z:\CMO\2010 Council Agendas\M101025\S1010253.doc