(a) Except for emergency disconnection pursuant to § 1046.20, disconnection of water service shall not occur after 12:30 p.m. on any day which precedes a holiday or weekend, or any other day on which all services necessary to reconnect service are not available. All disconnections of service shall be documented by a written service order recording the date, time and identity of the service employee effectuating disconnection; such documentation shall be retained in the business file kept by the city relating to any service address so affected.
(b) Service employees dispatched to disconnect service shall not disconnect service until he or she make reasonable efforts to personally contact the occupants, if any, of each service address affected by disconnection to: (1) advise of the disconnection; and (2) verify the propriety of the disconnection. Reasonable efforts shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, knocking at the entry to each individual service address, or otherwise attempting to gain the attention of any occupants. If the service employee makes personal contact with the occupants of any such service address, and then is able to verify the propriety of the disconnection (which includes but is not limited to verifying the receipt of notice, as required by § 1046.19, the service employee shall then deliver to the occupants a turnoff notice which shall clearly and conspicuously advise the occupant(s) of:
(1) The date and time of the termination;
(2) The reason for termination;
(3) If the termination is for non-payment, the amount which must be paid, including any reconnection fee, to have service re-established;
(4) The location and hours of the office at which payment can be made to obtain reconnection;
(5) The name, title, address, telephone number, and hours during which a service representative may be contacted to discuss reconnection;
(6) A consumer's ability to obtain utility service in their own account, if service was terminated due to non-payment of utility charges if the consumer does not owe a delinquent water bill or the bill is now paid in full; and
(7) A consumer or customer's right to a hearing to contest disconnection or a refusal to reconnect service, although that request will not now postpone disconnection unless it can be established that prior notice of proposed disconnection was not given.
(c) The notice attached to Ordinance No. 19-09 as Exhibit 3 satisfies these requirements.
(d) If a service employee's efforts to make personal contact with the occupants of any such service address immediately prior to disconnection are not successful, the service employee shall post the turnoff notice in a prominent place at the entry to each service address affected by disconnection. The service employee shall document on the service order the efforts made to personally contact the occupants prior to disconnection and the delivery of the turn-off notice, including the date and time such acts were performed and his/her identity.
(Ord. 19-09, passed 3-14-2019)