The Holiday-Eve Appeal Clock

Case 23-009185 | Card 18 | 4880 T Street, Sacramento CA 95819

The City's POST NOTICE log records two front-door penalty-order postings on holiday eves in the same case. On 11/22/2023 at 9:39 a.m., the day before Thanksgiving, William Ely posted an Order Imposing Administrative Penalty and Building Monitoring Fee on the front door M003; the General Case Information log carries the same narrative entry M026. On 12/24/2024, Christmas Eve, Carl Tafoya posted an Administrative Penalty/HDB Monitoring Fee on the front door M007; the General Case Information log carries that matching entry M031.

Under SCC.1.28.010, service of an administrative-penalty order begins a twenty-calendar-day period to file a written appeal with the City Clerk. The same POST NOTICE log also records postings on ordinary workdays: 06/30/2023 at 7:35 a.m. M002, 02/07/2024 at 8:10 a.m. M004, 11/15/2024 at 9:46 a.m. M007, and 03/11/2025 M007. The Case File contains no contemporaneous note explaining the choice of either holiday-eve posting date.

IN PLAIN TERMS

In consecutive years, the City's log records penalty orders posted at this property the day before Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas. The same log shows other postings on ordinary workdays. An appeal must be filed in writing with the City Clerk within twenty calendar days of service, so if the City treated each posting as service, the posting date set the deadline. The Case File does not say why either posting fell on those dates.

RECORD CHAIN

  1. A served administrative-penalty order starts a short appeal clock. An Order Imposing Administrative Penalty, once served, begins a twenty-calendar-day window to file a written appeal with the City Clerk under SCC.1.28.010; the cited code does not create an express postmark rule. The POST NOTICE log records front-door postings of such orders on Thanksgiving Eve 2023 and Christmas Eve 2024.
  2. The City posted on Thanksgiving Eve 2023. The POST NOTICE entry reads: "On 11-22-2023 at 9:39 am I posted Order Imposing Administrative Penalty and Building Monitoring fee on the front door" M003. Thanksgiving 2023 fell on November 23. The General Case Information log carries a matching narrative entry of the same posting M026.
  3. The City posted again on Christmas Eve 2024. The POST NOTICE entry reads: "on 12/24/24 I posted a Admin. Penalty/HDB Monitoring Fee on the front door" M007. Christmas 2024 fell on December 25. The General Case Information log carries a matching narrative entry of the same posting M031.
  4. The same log shows ordinary-workday postings elsewhere in the case. Other postings fall on non-holiday dates — 06/30/2023 at 7:35 a.m. M002, 02/07/2024 at 8:10 a.m. M004, 11/15/2024 at 9:46 a.m. M007, and 03/11/2025 M007 — and the Case File contains no contemporaneous note explaining why either holiday-eve posting date was required.

FULL CIRCLE

A single holiday-eve posting can be coincidence, and workload or route timing could account for both dates. Two records bear on that explanation: the same log's ordinary-workday postings M002 M004 M007, which show the City posting on non-holiday dates in this case, and the Case File, which contains no contemporaneous account of either date. Each posted order carried the twenty-calendar-day written appeal clock under SCC.1.28.010.

The finding is limited to what the log records: two holiday-eve postings of appeal-triggering orders in consecutive years, unexplained in the produced file. It does not establish motive, and it does not by itself make either posting void.

APPLICABLE LAW

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