(A) Substantial breach. The county reserves its right, as provided herein, to revoke any right-of-way permit without a fee refund, if there is a substantial breach of the terms and conditions of any statute, ordinance, rule, or regulation, or any material condition of the permit, including a threat to the safety of workers, or the right-of-way user, or utility users. A substantial breach by permittee shall include, but shall not be limited to, the following:
(1) The violation of any material provision of the right-of-way permit;
(2) An evasion or attempt to evade any material provision of the right-of-way permit, or the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate any fraud or deceit upon the county or its citizens;
(3) Any material misrepresentation of fact in the application for a right-of-way permit;
(4) The failure to complete the work in a timely manner, unless a permit extension is obtained, or unless the failure to complete work is due to reasons beyond the permittee's control, or failure to relocate existing facilities as specified in § 93.25;
(5) The failure to correct, in a timely manner, work that does not conform to a condition indicated on an order issued pursuant to § 93.20;
(6) Failure of the utility to pay the required costs, fees, or charges billed by the county; or
(7) Failure to provide traffic control that conforms to the provisions of the Minnesota Manual on Traffic Control Devices, including the Temporary Traffic Control Zones Field Manual.
(B) Written notice of breach. If the county determines that the permittee has committed a substantial breach of a term or condition of any statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, or any condition of the permit, the county shall make a written demand upon the permittee to remedy such violation. The demand shall state that continued violations may be cause for revocation of the permit. A substantial breach, as stated above, will allow the county, at its discretion, to place additional or revised conditions on the permit to mitigate and remedy the breach.
(C) Response to notice of breach. Within 24 hours of receiving notification of the breach, permittee shall provide the county with a plan, acceptable to the county, that will cure the breach. Permittee's failure to so contact the county, or permittee's failure to timely submit an acceptable plan, or permittee's failure to reasonably implement the approved plan, shall be cause for immediate revocation of the permit. Further, permittee's failure to so contact the county, or permittee's failure to submit an acceptable plan, or permittee's failure to reasonably implement the approved plan, shall automatically place the permittee on probation for one full year. No plan will be unreasonably rejected.
(D) Cause for probation. From time to time, the county may establish a list of conditions of the permit, which if breached will automatically place the permittee on probation for one full year, such as, but not limited to, working out of the allotted time period or working on right-of-way grossly outside of the permit authorization.
(E) Automatic revocation. If a permittee, while on probation, commits a breach as outlined above, permittee's permit will automatically be revoked and permittee will not be allowed further permits for one full year, except for emergency repairs.
(F) Reimbursement of county costs. If a permit is revoked, the permittee shall also reimburse the county for the county's reasonable costs, including restoration costs and the costs of collection and reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in connection with such revocation.
(G) Revoked permit. If the county revokes a utility's permit for breach of this chapter, the utility will not be allowed to install any utility or to obstruct or excavate within the county right-of-way until the breach situation is corrected to the satisfaction of the county and the permit is reissued.
(Ord. 91-2019, passed 2-5-19)