The City shall possess and hereby reserves to itself all the
powers granted to cities by statute and constitution to acquire, construct,
own, operate, improve, enlarge, extend, repair and maintain, either
within or without its corporate limits, including but not by the way
of limitation, public utilities for supplying water, light, heat,
power, gas, sewage treatment and garbage disposal facilities, or any
of them, to the municipality and the inhabitants thereof; and also
to sell and deliver water, light, heat, power, gas and other public
utility services without its corporate limits to an amount not to
exceed the limitations set by statute and constitution.
All municipally owned or operated utilities shall be administered
as a regular department of the City government under the management
and supervision of the City Manager.
The Council shall have the power to fix from time to time such
just and reasonable rates and other charges as may be deemed advisable
for supplying the inhabitants of the City and others with such public
utility services as the City may provide. There shall be no discrimination
in such rates within any classification of users thereof, nor shall
free service be permitted. Higher rates may be charged for service
outside the corporate limits of the City.
The Council shall provide by ordinance for the collection of
all public utility rates and charges of the City. Such ordinance shall
provide at least:
(a) The terms and conditions under which utility services may be discontinued
in case of delinquency in paying such rates or charges.
(b) That suit may be instituted by the City before a competent tribunal
for the collection of such rates or charges.
With respect to the collection of rates charged for water the
City shall have all the powers granted to cities by Act No. 178 of
the Public Acts of 1939.
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Unless approved by the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the
electors voting thereon at a regular or special election, the City
shall not sell, exchange, lease or in any way dispose of any property,
easements, equipment, privileges or assets belonging to and appertaining
to any municipally owned public utility which is needed to continue
operating such utility. All contracts, negotiations, licenses, grants,
leases or other forms of transfer in violation of this section shall
be void and no effect as against the City. The restrictions of this
section shall not apply to the sale or exchange of any articles of
machinery or equipment of any City owned public utility which are
worn out or useless or which have been, or could with advantage to
the service, be replaced by new and improved machinery or equipment,
to the leasing of property not necessary for the operation of the
utility, or to the exchange of property or easements for other needed
property or easements. It is provided, however, that the provisions
of this section shall not extend to vacation or abandonment of streets,
as provided by statute.
The rates and charges for any municipal public utility for the
furnishing of water, light, heat, power or gas shall be so fixed as
to at least meet all the costs of such utility. Transactions pertaining
to the ownership and operation by the City of each public utility
shall be recorded in a separate group of accounts under an appropriate
fund caption, which accounts shall be classified in accordance with
generally accepted utility accounting practice. Charges for all service
furnished to, or rendered by, other City departments or agencies shall
be recorded. An annual report shall be prepared to show fairly the
financial position of each utility and the result of its operation,
which report shall be available for inspection at the office of the
Clerk.
No person, partnership, association or corporation operating
a public utility shall have the right to the use of the highways,
streets, alleys or other public places of the City for wires, poles,
pipes, tracks or conduits without the consent of the Council; nor
may it transact a local business in the City without first obtaining
a franchise therefor from the City.
The City shall have the right (a) to regulate public utilities;
(b) to regulate the location of poles and other facilities used by
public utilities, and (c) to require that wires in streets and alleys
be placed underground.
The Council may grant a permit at any time in or upon any street,
alley, or public place; provided, that such permit shall be revocable
by the Council at its pleasure at any time, whether such right to
revoke be expressly reserved in said permit or not.
No public utility franchise which is not revocable at the will
of the City, shall be granted unless the same shall have received
the affirmative vote of 3/5 of the electors of the City voting thereon
at a regular or special municipal election. No franchise shall be
submitted under the provisions of this Charter, to the electors at
a special election, unless the cost of holding the election, as determined
by the Council, shall be paid to the Treasurer in advance of calling
said election by the grantee in such franchise.
No franchise shall be granted by the City for a longer period
than 30 years. No exclusive franchise shall ever be granted to any
person, firm or corporation.
The grant of every franchise shall be subject to the right of
the City whether in terms reserved or not, to make all regulations
which shall be necessary to secure in the most ample manner the safety,
welfare and accommodation of the public, and the right to make and
enforce all such regulations as shall be reasonably necessary to secure
adequate, sufficient and proper service, extensions and accommodations
for the people and insure their comfort and convenience. Such right
of the City shall include but shall not be limited to the following,
viz:
(a) To repeal the same for misuse, or nonuse, or for failure to comply
with the provisions thereof;
(b) To require continuous and uninterrupted service to the public in
accordance with the terms of the franchise throughout the entire period
thereof;
(c) To require the public utility to which any franchise is granted to
permit joint use of its property and appurtenances located in the
streets, alleys and public places of the City, by the City and other
utilities, insofar as such joint use may be reasonably practicable
and upon payment of reasonable rental therefor; provided that, in
event of the inability of the parties to agree, upon application by
either party, the Council shall provide for arbitration of the terms
and conditions of such joint use and the compensation to be paid therefor;
(d) To pay such part of the cost of improvement or maintenance of the
streets, alleys, bridges, and public places of the City, as shall
arise from its use thereof and to protect and save the City harmless
from all damages arising from said use.
All contracts, granting or giving any original franchise, or
extending or renewing or amending any existing franchise, shall be
made by ordinance and not otherwise. Every such ordinance granting
a franchise shall be accepted in writing by the grantee before said
ordinance takes effect, and if it is to be submitted to the electors,
it shall be so accepted before its submission. Such acceptance shall
be filed with the Clerk. Any noncompliance with this section shall
automatically annul such franchise.
The Council may by ordinance provide for efficient inspection
and regulation of all public utilities operated in the City. It is
the intention of this section to provide means for securing to the
City efficient service from all public utilities operated in the City
and the proper observance of the conditions imposed by franchise,
the Charter and ordinances of the City and law of the State.
All ordinances granting franchises, or extensions or renewals
thereof, shall reserve to the City the right to terminate the same
and to purchase all the property of the utility in the streets and
highways in the City and elsewhere, used in or useful for the operation
of the utility, at a price either fixed by the ordinance or to be
fixed in the manner provided by the ordinance granting the same. Nothing
in such ordinance shall prevent the City from acquiring the property
of any such utility by condemnation proceedings or in any other lawful
mode; but all such methods of acquisition shall be alternative to
the power to purchase reserved in the ordinance granting such franchise,
extension or renewal as hereinbefore provided. Upon the acquisition
by the City of the property of any utility by purchase, condemnation
or otherwise, all CT franchises, extensions and renewals shall at
once terminate.
No ordinance granting such franchise, or extension or renewal
thereof, shall be valid unless it shall expressly provide therein
that the price to be paid by the City for the property that may be
acquired by it from such utility by purchase, condemnation or otherwise,
shall exclude all value of such franchise, extension or renewal, except
that, unless otherwise provided in such ordinance, the utility shall
be entitled to the return of the proportionate amount for the unused
period of any compensation paid to the City for such franchise, extension
or renewal except that, unless otherwise provided in such ordinance,
the utility shall be entitled to the return of the proportionate amount
for the unused period of any compensation paid to the City for such
franchise, extension or renewal.