(A) A report specifying the reasons supporting any action recommended to the city by the city staff or any agent or employee employed by or on behalf of the city to assist it in rate regulation shall be provided to the city and the utility within 120 countable days of the date of the rate filing. Relevant information requests regarding the report may be made by the utility to the city and shall be responded to as soon as reasonably possible prior to the date for the ruling of the rebuttal.
(B) Within seven countable days after receipt of the report, the utility and the city identified in § 53.36 may mutually agree to discuss resolution of the rate filing issues, and may mutually agree to suspend the date of final action and time periods set forth in this chapter for a period not to exceed 30 days.
(C) Within 14 countable days after receipt of the report, the utility shall file its rebuttal. Relevant information requests regarding the rebuttal may be made by the city to the utility and shall be responded to as soon as reasonably possible prior to the area rate hearing provided for in this section.
(D) No sooner than seven days after the utility files its rebuttal, an area rate hearing shall be held in the city having the largest number of customers in the rate area. Such hearing shall be conducted by a Hearing Officer appointed by the city identified in § 53.36. Such Hearing Officer shall have experience in the conduct of hearings so as to ensure the fair, impartial, and expeditious conduct of the proceedings and the creation of a record of the proceedings. The utility shall be given written notice of such rate hearing and the name of the Hearing Officer by the end of the one hundred twenty-eighth countable day after the date of filing. The municipalities and the utility shall be granted the opportunity at such hearing to call witnesses, present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and argue the evidence. Prior to such hearing, the Hearing Officer shall establish procedures for the conduct of the hearing to comply with this provision. The utility shall present as evidence at the hearing all the information which it desires to have considered by the city in its consideration of the rates to be adopted. Following the hearing, the utility and the municipalities shall provide to the Hearing Officer their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. A Certified Court Reporter shall be present at the hearing and shall prepare a transcript of the proceedings.
(E) The official record of the hearing shall consist of the rate filing, all reports, all evidence presented by the utility and the municipalities, all documents and information presented at the hearing, the transcript of the proceedings, and the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law presented to the Hearing Officer by the municipalities and the utility. A copy of the official record shall be transmitted by the Hearing Officer to each municipality in the rate area.
(F) Following the hearing and within 180 countable days of the date of filing, each municipality within the rate area shall take final action on the rate filing by adopting findings of fact and conclusions of law and a rate ordinance based on such findings and conclusions. If the city does not take action within that 180 countable day period, the rates filed by the utility in its rate filing shall become final and no longer subject to refund. Notwithstanding any other provisions of state law or any local ordinance, the adoption of a rate ordinance shall require no more than a vote of a majority of the elected members of any governing body of a municipality made at one public meeting after compliance with public notice requirements and a public hearing on the proposed ordinance.
(G) Within 30 days of the date of final action by the municipalities within a rate area, a utility may initiate proceedings for judicial review of the decision of any municipality in the rate area to the district court. At the time the utility initiates action for judicial review, it shall join in such action as parties all municipalities in the rate area whose actions are being challenged.
(H) In no event shall the district court render a decision upon a judicial review of municipal action later than 180 days after the filing of the action.
(I) The utility shall, within 30 days of the date of final action, unless it takes timely action to initiate judicial review, implement the rates established by the action of the city and shall, within 60 days of such action, make refunds, if any, with interest as provided in § 53.27(D).
(Prior Code, § 3-1215)
Statutory reference:
Related provisions, see Neb. RS 19-4616