Subd. 1. Billing, Payment and Penalty. All municipal utilities shall be billed at established intervals, except that such billing period may be shortened or lengthened to adjust for a read-out or new connection period, as the case may be, and a utility statement shall be mailed to each consumer. All municipal utility charges shall be delinquent if they are unpaid at the close of business on the fifteenth day of each month; provided that, if the fifteenth day shall fall on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the time shall be extended to the close of business on the next succeeding day on which business is normally transacted. A penalty of 10% thereof shall be added to, and become part of, all delinquent utility bills. If service is suspended due to delinquency, it shall not be restored at that location until a disconnection and reconnection fee has been paid in addition to amounts due and owing for service, other fees and charges and penalties.
Subd. 2. Application, Connection and Sale of Service. Application for municipal utility services shall be made upon forms supplied by the city, and strictly in accordance therewith. No connection shall be made until consent has been received from the city to make the same. All municipal utilities shall be sold and delivered to consumers under the then applicable rate applied to the amount of the utilities taken as metered or ascertained in connection with the rates.
Subd. 3. Discontinuance of Service. It is the policy of the city to discontinue utility service to customers for the following reasons only after notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard on these disputes.
A. The owner or occupant of the premises served, or any person working on any connection with the municipal utility systems, has violated any requirement of the City Code relative thereto, or any connection therewith;
B. It is the policy of the city to discontinue utility service to customers for the following reasons only after notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard on these disputes.
1. The owner or occupant of the premises served, or any person working on any connection with the municipal utility systems, has violated any requirement of the City Code relative thereto, or any connection therewith;
2. Any charge for a municipal utility service, or any other financial obligation imposed on the present owner or occupant of the premises served, is unpaid after due notice thereof;
a. The city's form for application for utility service and all bills shall contain, in addition to the title, address, room number, and telephone number of the official in charge of billing, clearly visible and easily readable provisions to the effect:
(1) That all bills are due and payable on or before the date set forth on the bill; and
(2) That if any bill is not paid by or before that date, a second bill will be mailed containing a cutoff notice that if the bill is not paid within ten days of the mailing of the second bill, service will be discontinued for nonpayment; and
(3) That any customer disputing the correctness of his or her bill for disconnection shall have a right to a hearing at which time he or she may be represented in person and by counsel or any other person of his or her choosing and may present orally or in writing his or her complaint and contentions to the city official in charge of utility billing. This official shall be authorized to order that the customer's service not be discontinued and shall have the authority to make a final determination of the customer's complaint.
b. Requests for delays or waiver of payment will not be entertained; only questions of proper and correct billing will be considered. In the absence of payment of the bill rendered or resort to the hearing procedure provided herein, service will be discontinued at the time specified, but in no event until the charges have been due and unpaid for at least 30 days.
c. When it becomes necessary for the city to discontinue utility service to a customer for nonpayment of bills, service will be reinstated only after all bills for service then due have been paid, along with a turn-on charge in an amount set by City Council.
2. There is fraud or misrepresentation by the owner of occupant in connection with any application for service or delivery or charges therefor.
Subd. 4. Ownership of Municipal Utilities. Ownership of all municipal utilities, plants, lines, mains, extensions and appurtenances thereto, shall be and remain in the city and no person shall own any part or portion thereof. Provided, however, that, private facilities and appurtenances constructed on private property are not intended to be included in municipal ownership.
Subd. 5. Right of Entry. By applying for, or receiving, a municipal utility service, a customer irrevocably consents and agrees that any city employee acting within the course and scope of his or her employment may enter into and upon the private property of the customer, including dwellings and other buildings, at all reasonable times and with reasonable notice to the customer, in or upon which private property a municipal utility, or connection therewith, is installed, for the purpose of inspecting, repairing, reading meters, connecting or disconnection the municipal utility service. Any city employee, acting within the course and scope of his or her employment, may enter into and upon the private property of the customer without notice only in the event exigent circumstances exist regarding the municipal utility service which require immediate action or attention. Failure to allow or refusing entry to any city employee into and upon the private property of the customer for the purpose of inspecting, repairing, reading meters, connecting or disconnecting the municipal utility service, while in the course and scope of their employment, is considered prohibited and unlawful.
Subd. 6. Meter Test. Whenever a consumer shall request the city to test any utility meter in use by him or her, such a request shall be accompanied by a cash deposit for each meter to be tested. If any such meter is found to be inaccurate the same shall be replaced with an accurate meter and the deposit thereon refunded. If the meter shall be found to be accurate in its recordings or calculations it shall be reinstalled and the deposit shall be retained by the city to defray the cost of the test.
Subd. 7. Unlawful Acts.
A. It is unlawful for any person to willfully or carelessly break, injure, mar, deface, disturb or in any way interfere with any buildings, attachments, machinery, apparatus, equipment, fixture or appurtenance of any municipal utility or municipal utility system, or commit any act tending to obstruct or impair the use of any municipal utility.
B. It is unlawful for any person to make any connection with, opening into, use or alter in any way any municipal utility system without first having applied for and received written permission to do so from the city.
C. It is unlawful for any person to turn on or connect a utility when the same has been turned off or disconnected by the city for non-payment of a bill, or for any other reason, without first having obtained a permit to do so from the city.
D. It is unlawful for any person to "jumper" or by any means or device fully or partially circumvent a municipal utility meter, or to knowingly use or consume unmetered utilities or use the services of any utility system, the use of which the proper billing authorities have no knowledge.
Subd. 8. Municipal Utility Services and Charges a Lien.
A. Public Utility Charges. The owner of any tract or parcel of real property connected to the city's waterworks system, storm or sanitary sewer system, electrical system or any or all of those, will be liable to the city for the payment of any rates or charges for water, sewage or electrical service, to such piece or parcel of real property. Consumption of the services by any person or entity other than the fee owner shall not relieve the fee owner of the premises served of the responsibility for payment of the rates or charges.
B. Application, Connection and Sale of Services. Application for municipal utility services shall be made by the fee owner of the premises served and shall be billed to the owner unless otherwise contracted for and authorized in writing by the fee owner and any other person (such as a tenant, contract purchaser, manager and the like), as agent for the fee owner, and consented to by the city.
C. Charges a Lien. Each and every tract or parcel of real property or premises connected to, is found and declared to be benefitted by the furnishing or availability of the city's waterworks system, storm and sanitary sewer systems, and electrical system, whether in whole or in part, and all charges related thereto is hereby made a lien upon the premises served or benefitted.
D. Public Utility Delinquent Accounts, Special Assessments.
1. All utility accounts or charges that are more than 30 days past due may be, when authorized by resolution of the Council, certified, extended and assessed as a tax or special assessment against the respective lands, tracts or parcels served for collection with and as a part of other taxes in the following year. The City Clerk will prepare and file in his or her office an assessment roll not later than October 1 of each year providing for the special assessment of all such delinquent accounts against the respective lands, tracts or parcels served. A copy of the assessment roll will be delivered to the City Council for adoption on or before November 10 of any such year. Notice that the Council will hear such special assessments will be given not later than 14 days before the date of the first Council meeting in November. Notice will be made by mailing a copy of an appropriate notice stating, among other information, the amount of the assessment, which may include an estimate of those amounts which may become delinquent as of the hearing date, the description of the property sought to be assessed and the date and place of the Council's special assessment hearing, to the person at his or her last known address who appears as owner of the premises in the files of the County Recorder or by service of the notice as provided in the case of civil actions.
2. Each assessment will be payable on or before the first Monday of the following January. Interest on the assessment will be charged at the rate established by the assessment resolution. Interest will accrue from the due date of each account or accounts. The owner of any property so assessed may, at any time prior to certification of the assessment to the County Auditor, pay to the City Treasurer the whole of the assessment covering the property with interest at the same rate as established above accrued to the date of payment.
3. Upon adoption by the City Council, the City Clerk will transmit a certified duplicate of such special assessments to the County Auditor to be extended on the property tax list of the county of such assessment. It will be collected and paid over in the same manner as other municipal taxes. The charges, if not paid, shall become delinquent.
Subd. 9. Damage to Municipal Utility Equipment. It is unlawful for any person to intentionally cause any damage to any municipal utility equipment or appurtenance, including, but not limited to, meters, street lights, water hydrants and curb cocks. Anyone causing such damage shall pay the reasonable value thereof to the city, including labor for renewal and installation of any equipment and shall be, in effect, an insuror of any equipment in his or her possession or with which he or she comes in contact.
Subd. 10. Municipal Utility Service Outside the City. Premises located outside the city shall not be connected to or served by any municipal utility, except the premises as are publicly owned or presently served. Persons needing municipal utility service whose property is located outside the corporate limits must initiate and complete annexation proceedings prior to being provided with such service or services.
(Ord. 82, Third Series, passed 5-6-2003; Ord. 105, Third Series, passed 9-6-2005; Ord. 113, Third Series, passed 11-20-2007; Ord. 6, Fourth Series, passed 1-28-2010)