Local Government and Your Grange


Each Grange in California is located with one of the 58 Counties, and it may be located with the limits of a City or Town. As such, your Grange may have to have some interaction with these governmental agencies. If your Grange does not have its own Grange Hall, that interaction may be reduced. Listed below are areas where you may have contacts.


 

County - Property Taxes:


If your Grange has its own hall, they each year you'll receive a property tax bill from the County. Typically the tax bills are sent out in early October. You will have two installments. The first installment is due on November 1st and is delinquent if the payment is not received by 5:00 p.m. or postmarked by December 10th. The second installment is due on February 1st and delinquent after April 10th. If the delinquent date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the delinquent date is moved to the next business day. The penalty for being delinquent is 10% of the amount due. A small fee may also apply. An additional penalty of 1.5% per month is charged if the taxes remain delinquent after June 30th of the current property tax year. If taxes are not paid within five years, the property is sold to pay the back taxes.


Planning/Development Srvs/Building Department:


Depending on your particular jurisdiction, the name of the agency that controls the building permit process will be listed as:
  • Planning Department;
  • Development Services;
  • Building Department;

Irregardless of the name, the general responsibilities will be the same, and that is State law requires every city, county, or city and county, to enforce state law mandating specific requirements for buildings, and to enforce the California Building Standards Code in Title 24, California Code of Regulations.

If you own your own Grange hall, it is important that you understand that the California Building Code applies and is codified in Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations.

Title 24, Part 2, Section 105 et seq. has the general requirement regarding permits. It reads:

SECTION 105 PERMITS

105.1 Required. Any owner or authorized agent who intends to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy of a building or structure, or to erect, install, enlarge, alter, repair, remove, convert or replace any electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system, the installation of which is regulated by this code, or to cause any such work to be done, shall first make application to the building official and obtain the required permit.

When are permits not required. That will depend on your local jurisdiction and what they have exempted from the California Building Code. Contact your local department and understand what work on your hall will be exempt from having a building permit. Return to top of page.

 



Public Health Department:


Local public health departments regularly inspect businesses serving food to ensure restaurants and other food retail outlets are following safe food handling procedures. Local laws regulate how frequently these inspections take place, and what specific items the inspectors look for, but, in general, environmental health inspectors check that safeguards are in place to protect food from contamination by food handlers, cross-contamination, and contamination from other sources in the restaurant.
Food facility inspections are designed to minimize the occurrence of the five most critical risk factors for food-borne illness:
  • Food from unsafe sources
  • Inadequate cooking temperatures
  • Improper holding temperatures
  • Contaminated equipment
  • Poor employee hygiene

As a Grange, it is your responsibility to comply with safe food handling rules for the jurisdiction in which you are located. Regular inspections may or may not be required, but there can be no exceptions to the safe handling of food when it is served to the public.

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Fire Department:


In many cases, the California Health and Safety Code, through legislation, requires annual fire and life safety inspections to be completed by the local fire official. Fire and life safety annual inspections also ensure other locations are in conformance with the California Code of Regulations Title 19, the California Fire Code, any Municipal Codes that may apply, and other fire and life safety regulations and standards.

These inspections are to ensure lives and properties are not put at undue risk from fire. These inspections provide taxpayers with a cost-effective way to ensure buildings are in compliance with adopted codes and standards, lowering community-wide risk. Annual fire and life safety inspections are substantially different in scope from inspections completed for newly constructed buildings.

The Annual Fire and Life Safety Inspection Process

During an annual fire and life safety inspection, a fire prevention inspector will determine if a location has violations. Typically these violations come in two varieties: violations of general fire safe practices or the lack of maintenance of (or absence of) required prescriptive building features. In the event that violations are identified and can be immediately corrected or if the violations are minor in nature, the fire prevention inspector will issue a written order to address the violations. The fire prevention inspector may alternately send a letter with the violations noted with an order to comply. In each of these cases there will be no reinspection.

Reinspections are performed for only the most serious fire and life safety hazards. These “distinct hazards” will be reinspected, typically after 30 days.

If the noted violations have not been corrected during the first reinspection, additional inspections will need to be performed until all corrections have been made, up to and including administrative citations and/or costs for additional litigation.

Inspection Fees

Depending on your jurisdiction, there may or may not be an inspection fee. There also may be a reinspection fee. You will need to verify this with the agency responsible for your inspections.

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Other Departments:

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