§ 1-2. Definitions and rules of construction.

In the construction of this code and of all ordinances of the county, the following rules shall be observed unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the board of supervisors or the context clearly requires otherwise:

Board of Supervisors. Whenever the words "board of supervisors" are used, they shall be construed to mean the board of supervisors of Sonoma County, California.

Code. The words "the code" or "this code" shall mean "The Code of the county of Sonoma, state of California."

Computation of Time. The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day and including the last day unless the last is a holiday and then it is also excluded.

County. The words "the county" or "this county" shall mean the county of Sonoma, in the state of California.

Day. A "day" is a period of time between any midnight and the midnight following.

Daytime, Nighttime. "Daytime" is the period of time between sunrise and sunset. "Nighttime" is the period of time between sunset and sunrise.

Gender. The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter.

"Highways" or "roads" shall include the whole of all public ways, roads, alleys, courts and streets and sidewalks between the property lines forming the exterior lateral boundaries thereof, and those parts of public squares and places which form traveled parts of highways or roads.

In the County. The words "in the county" shall mean and include all territory over which the county now has or shall hereafter acquire jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other regulatory powers.

Joint Authority. All words giving a joint authority to three or more persons or officers shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such persons or officers.

Month. The word "month" shall mean a calendar month.

Number. The singular number includes the plural, and the plural, the singular.

Oath. "Oath" includes affirmation.

Officers, Departments, etc. Officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees referred to shall mean officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees of the county of Sonoma, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Official Time. Whenever certain hours are named herein they shall mean Pacific Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time as may be current use in the county.

Owner. The word "owner," applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety of the whole or a part of such building or land.

Person. "Person" includes any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, joint venture, business trust, corporation or company.

"Personal Property" includes every species of property, except real property, as herein defined.

Preceding, Following. The words "preceding" and "following" mean next before and next after, respectively.

"Process" includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature.

Property. The word "property" shall include real and personal property.

"Real Property" shall include lands, tenements and hereditaments.

Shall, May. "Shall" is mandatory and "may" is permissive, however, use of the word "shall" in this code is not intended to, nor shall it be deemed to, create a mandatory duty imposed by an enactment within the meaning of the Government Code Section 815.6.

Signature or Subscription by Mark. "Signature" or "subscription" includes a mark when the signer or subscriber cannot write, such signer's or subscriber's name being written near the mark by a witness who writes his own name near the signer's or subscriber's name; but a signature or subscription by mark can be acknowledged or can serve as a signature or subscription took a sworn statement only when two witnesses so sign their own names thereto.

State. The words "the state" or "this state" shall be construed to mean the state of California.

Tenant or Occupant. The words "tenant" or "occupant," applied to a building or land, shall include any person holding a written or an oral lease of or who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, either alone or with others.

Tenses. The present tense includes the past and future tenses, and the future includes the present.

Week. A week consists of seven (7) consecutive days.

Writing. Writing includes any form of recorded message capable of comprehension by ordinary visual means. Whenever any notice, report, statement or record is required or authorized by this code, it shall be made in writing in the English language unless it is expressly provided otherwise.

Year. The word "year" shall mean a calendar year, except where otherwise provided.

(Ord. No. 3432, § 1.)