(A) Rates. The wastewater service charges for the use of and for service supplied by the wastewater facilities of the city shall be established by ordinance and audited annually.
(B) Bills.
(1) The rates or charges for service shall be payable quarterly. The owner of the premises, the occupant thereof and the user of the service shall be jointly liable to pay for the service to such premises and the service is furnished to the premises by the city only upon the condition that the owner of the premises, occupant, and user of the services are jointly liable therefore to the city.
(2) Bills for sewer service shall be sent out by the city within 15 days of end of each quarter for which the service is billed.
(3) All sewer bills are due and payable 30 days after being sent out. A penalty of 10% shall be added to all bills not paid by the 30th day after they have been rendered.
(C) Delinquent bills. If the charges for services are not paid within 90 days after the rendition of the bill for such services, the services may be discontinued without further notice and shall not be reinstated until all claims are settled.
(D) Lien-notice of delinquency.
(1) Whenever a bill for sewer service remains unpaid for 90 days after it has been rendered, the city may file with the County Recorder a statement of lien claim. This statement shall contain the legal description of the premises served, the amount of the unpaid bill, and a notice that the city claims a lien for this amount as well as for all charges subsequent to the period covered by the bill.
(2) If the user whose bill is unpaid is not the owner of the premises and the city has notice of this, notice shall be mailed to the owner of the premises if his or her address be known to the city, whenever such bill remains unpaid for the period of 90 days after it has been rendered. The failure of the city to record such lien or to mail such notice or the failure of the owner to receive such notice shall not affect the right to foreclose the lien for unpaid bills as mentioned in the foregoing section.
(E) Foreclosure of lien. Property subject to a lien for unpaid charges may be sold for nonpayment of the same, and the proceeds of the sale shall be applied to pay the charges, after deducting costs, as is the case in the foreclosure of statutory liens. The foreclosures shall be by bill in equity in the name of the city. The city’s attorney is hereby authorized and directed to institute such proceedings in the name of the city in any court having jurisdiction over such matters against any property for which the bill has remained unpaid 90 days after it has been rendered.
(F) Revenues.
(1) All revenues and moneys derived from the operation of the sewerage system shall be deposited in the sewerage account of the sewerage fund. All revenues and moneys shall be held by the city separate and apart from their private funds and separate and apart from all other funds of the city.
(2) The city shall receive all revenues from the sewerage system and all other funds and moneys incident to the operation of the system as the same may be delivered to them and deposit the same in the amount of the fund designated as the "sewerage fund." The fund shall be administered in every respect in the manner provided by statute.
(G) Accounts. The city shall establish a proper system of accounts and shall keep proper books, records, and accounts in which complete and correct entries shall be made of all transactions relative to the sewerage system, and at regular annual intervals shall cause to be made an audit by an independent auditing concern of the books to show the receipts and disbursements of the sewerage system. In addition to the customary operating statements, an annual audit report shall also reflect the revenues and operating expenses of the wastewater facilities, including a replacement cost, to indicate that sewer service charges under the wastewater cost recovery system and capital amounts required to be recovered do in fact meet these regulations. In this regard, the financial information to be shown in the audit report shall include the following:
(1) Flow data showing total gallons sent to the wastewater plant for the current fiscal year.
(2) Billing data to show total number of gallons billed.
(3) Debt service for the next succeeding fiscal year.
(4) Number of users connected to the system.
(5) Number of metered users.
(6) A list of users discharging industrial wastes and volume of waste discharged.
(H) Notice of rates. A certified copy of this section properly certified by the City Clerk-Treasurer shall be filed in the office of the County Register of Deeds and shall be deemed notice to all owners of real estate of the charges of the sewerage system of the city on their properties.
(I) Access to records. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or its authorized representative shall have access to any books, documents, papers and records of the city which are applicable to the city system of service charges for the purpose of making audit, examination, excerpts and transactions thereof to insure compliance with the terms of the special and general conditions to any federal grant.
(J) Effective date of rates. The rates and service charges established for user charges in this section shall be effective as of the next fiscal year beginning January 1 and on bills to be rendered for the next succeeding quarter.
(Ord. 203, passed 9-1-1987; Am. Ord. 2011-06-07D, passed 6-7-2011) Penalty, see § 52.99