Whenever any customer or property owner has failed to pay the full amount owed for fees on any monthly utility account bill for more than thirty (30) days, the account is subject to a declaration of delinquency by the City and to termination of service as provided herein.
A. Notice: Notice of the proceedings provided for herein shall be provided to the account holder of record as well as the property owner (where different) by United States mail postmarked at least fourteen (14) days prior to the deadline to request a public hearing in front of the City Council and shall be sent to:
1. The physical address where the service is provided,
2. The address of the account holder as listed on the application for utility service (if different), and
3. The mailing address listed with the Oklahoma County Assessor for the owner of the subject property (if different than the address for the account holder or the physical address).
The notice provided herein may also be served on the relevant party by personal service. Finally, notice may be made for the physical address by posting the notice on the premises (for multi-family dwellings, such notice shall be posted on the door of each affected dwelling).
B. Administrative Fee: There shall be an administrative fee of fifty dollars ($50.00) for the purpose of recovering the City's costs (wages and expenses) in preparing and sending all notices. This fee shall be waived for any account where the Council declares that no delinquency exists and may be waived by the Council in other cases at its discretion.
C. Termination Of Garbage And Refuse Service: The City may cease providing garbage and refuse service to any property subject to a delinquency proceeding as provided herein immediately upon providing notice (by U.S. mail or posting) to the physical address provided for herein subject to the stay procedures established in section 3.07.040 of this chapter.
E. Declaration Of A Finding Of Delinquency: The City Council shall be responsible for declaring a delinquency in any utility account. Upon such a declaration, the City may proceed with the termination of any remaining services to the address as provided for herein. The City Council shall hold a public hearing prior to making such a declaration as provided herein.
F. Public Hearing: The City Council, at any regular or special meeting, may make a finding declaring a delinquency after the opportunity for the account holder and/or property owner to appear before the Council at a public hearing. The procedures for such public hearing shall be as follows:
1. The notice sent shall indicate that any interested party (resident at the physical address, account holder and/or property owner) shall have a right to appear before the City Council. Any interested party must notify the City Clerk or his/her designee (in person or in writing; if in writing, must be received by the City prior to the date established herein) of their request for a public hearing before the City Council at least one business day prior to the date of the Council meeting as indicated in the notice (e.g., where the Council is to meet at 6:00 P.M. on a Tuesday, the request for a hearing must be submitted prior to 5:00 P.M. on the Monday immediately prior to the Council meeting unless such Monday is a legal holiday and then notice shall be provided by 5:00 P.M. on the first available business day prior to the Council meeting).
2. Council shall determine that the notice requirements have been met and shall make a record of the same.
3. The list of accounts for which a delinquency is to be declared shall be listed on the consent docket for the Council (by physical address). The Clerk shall notify the Council which addresses are requested to be removed from the consent docket for a public hearing. Where an interested party has timely notified the Clerk of their request for a public hearing, the physical address for that interested party shall be removed from the consent docket and shall be heard in a public hearing as provided for herein. Any Council member may, at his/her discretion, remove from the consent docket any physical address for which a timely notice has not been received so that a public hearing may be held. Once all physical addresses for which a public hearing is to be held have been removed (mandatory removals and discretionary removals), the Council may proceed to declare, by way of an affirmative vote on the remainder of the consent docket, that an uncontested delinquency is declared for all physical addresses which have not been removed from the consent docket.
4. The Council shall hold a public hearing on any addresses removed from the consent docket prior to declaring that a delinquency exists at the subject physical address. The Council may vote, address by address, to declare a delinquency exists, to declare that no delinquency exists, to table the hearing and/or vote on the declaration of a delinquency to a future meeting (no subsequent notice is required to be sent if the date and time of the future meeting is stated in the motion), or to remand the account to staff for further consideration.
5. The public hearing on any address subject to termination of utility services shall consist of a call to the interested party to be heard first, followed by a call to anyone from the public who wishes to be heard (note: notices of the hearing are not sent to adjacent property owners and sufficient notice is given in the posting of the subject properties physical addresses on the Council's agenda). The Council may hear from any interested party or any member of the public as to the topic of termination of service. This shall include hearing from the interested party or a member of the public on the issues of whether there is cause why the services should not be terminated, whether there is a dispute (and what evidence exists of the dispute) as to the amount claimed to be owed, or any other topics relevant to the issue at hand.
6. The Council shall open and close the public hearing on majority vote of the members present. Once the hearing is closed, the Council may take such action, by motion and majority vote, as is provided for herein.
7. If a delinquency is declared by the Council, any utility services provided to the physical address which have not already been terminated shall be terminated as provided herein. (Ord. 1171, 2016)