(A) Bills.
(1) Said rates or charges for service shall be payable monthly. The owner of the premises, the occupant thereof and the user of the service shall be jointly and severally 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 and severally liable therefor to the city.
(2) Bills for sewer service shall be sent out by the City Treasurer on or about the first day of the month succeeding the period for which the service is billed.
(3) All sewer bills are due and payable 15 days after mailing.
(B) Delinquency procedures. For city provisions concerning payment of utility bills and delinquencies, see § 50.35.
(C) Lien - notice of delinquency.
(1) Whenever a bill for sewer service remains unpaid for 30 days for monthly service after it has been rendered, the City Treasurer shall file with the County Recorder of Deeds 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 Treasurer has notice of this, notice shall be mailed to the owner of the premises if his or her address be known to the Treasurer, whenever such bill remains unpaid for the period of 45 days for a monthly bill after it has been rendered.
(3) The failure of the City Treasurer 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 unpaid bills as mentioned in the foregoing section.
(D) Foreclosure of lien. Property subject to a lien for unpaid charges shall be sold for non-payment 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. Such foreclosure shall be by bill-in equity in the name of the city. The City 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 for 45 days in the case of a monthly bill or 105 days in the case of a quarterly bill after it has been rendered.
(E) Revenues. All revenues and moneys derived from the operation of the sewerage system shall be deposited in the sewerage account of the sewerage fund. All such revenues and moneys shall be held by the City Treasurer separate and apart from his or her private funds and separate and apart from all other funds of the city and all of said sum, without any deductions whatever, shall be delivered to the City Treasurer not more than 10 days after receipt of the same, or at such more frequent intervals as may from time to time be directed by the Mayor and City Council. The City Treasurer shall receive all such revenues from the sewerage system and all other funds and moneys incident to the operation of such system as the same may be delivered to him or her and deposit the same in the account of the fund designated as the Sewerage Fund of the City of La Salle. Said Treasurer shall administer such fund in every respect in the manner provided by statute of the Revised Cities and Villages Act, effective January, 1942.
(F) Accounts.
(1) The City Treasurer 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 he or she 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.
(2) In addition to the customary operating statements, the annual audit report shall also reflect the revenues and operating expenses of the wastewater facilities, including a replacement cost, to indicate the sewer service charges under the waste cost recovery system and capital amounts required to be recovered under the industrial cost recovery system do in fact meet these regulations. In this regard, the financial information to be shown in the audit report shall include the following:
(a) Flow data showing total cubic feet received at the wastewater plant for the current fiscal year;
(b) Billing data to show total number of cubic feet billed per fiscal year;
(c) Debt service for the next succeeding fiscal year.
(G) Notice of rates. Each user will be notified by the city in conjunction with a regular bill, of the rate and that portion of the user charges or ad valorem taxes which are attributable to wastewater treatment services, including the financial information of division (F) above.
(H) Access to records. The IEPA 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 user charges or industrial cost recovery for the purpose of making audit, examination, excerpts and transcriptions thereof to insure compliance with the terms of the special and general conditions to any state grant or federal regulations and conditions of the federal grant.
(Ord. 923, passed 12-12-1977;Ord. 1200, passed 4-3-1989)