Whenever in this Chapter the words or phrases hereinafter in
this Section defined are used, they shall have the respective meanings
assigned to them in the following definitions (unless, in the given
instance, the context wherein they are used clearly imparts a different
meaning):
means the City of Indian Wells, a municipal corporation of
the State of California, in its present incorporated form or in any
later reorganized, consolidated or reincorporated form;
means the City Engineer, except that the Public Works Director,
or designee, who is duly licensed by the State of California as a
civil engineer, may act in the capacity of the City Engineer when
action by the City Engineer is prescribed anywhere under this Code;
means natural or manufactured gas, or a mixture of natural
and manufactured gas;
means the corporation to which the franchise contemplated
in this Chapter is granted and its lawful successors or assigns;
means to lay, construct, erect, install, operate, maintain,
use, repair, replace, or remove;
means pipe, pipeline, main, service, trap, vent, vault, manhole,
meter, gauge, regulator, valve, conduit, appliance, attachment, appurtenance
and any other property located or to be located in, upon, along, across,
under or over the streets of the City, and used or useful in transmitting
and distributing gas;
means the public streets, ways, alleys and places as the
same now or may hereafter exist within the City.
(Ord. 13 § 1, 1967; Ord. 635 § 1, 2010)
The right, privilege and franchise, subject to each and all
of the terms and conditions contained in this Chapter and pursuant
to the provisions of Division 3, Chapter 2 of the Public Utilities
Code of the State of California, known as the Franchise Act of 1937,
be and the same is granted to Southern California Gas Company, a corporation
organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State
of California, referred to in this Chapter as the "grantee,"
to lay and use pipes and appurtenances for transmitting and distributing
gas for any and all purposes, under, along, across or upon the streets
of the City, for an indeterminate term or period from and after the
effective date of the ordinance codified in this Chapter. This franchise
shall endure in full force and effect until the same, with the consent
of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California, is
voluntarily surrendered or abandoned by its possessor, or until the
State of California or some municipal or public corporation thereunto
duly authorized by law purchases by voluntary agreement or condemns
and takes under the power of eminent domain, all property actually
used and useful in the exercise of this franchise, and situated within
the territorial limits of the State, municipal or public corporation
purchasing or condemning such property, or until this franchise is
forfeited for noncompliance with its terms by the possessor thereof.
(Ord. 13 § 2, 1967)
The grantee shall pay to the City at the times hereinafter specified,
in lawful money of the United States, a sum annually which shall be
equivalent to 2% of the gross annual receipts of grantee arising from
the use, operation or possession of the franchise; provided, however,
that such payment shall in no event be less than 1% of the gross annual
receipts of the grantee derived from the sale of gas within the limits
of the City under this franchise.
The grantee of this franchise shall file with the Clerk of the
City within three months after the expiration of the calendar year,
or fractional calendar year, following the date of the grant of this
franchise, and within three months after the expiration of each and
every calendar year thereafter, a duly verified Statement showing
in detail the total gross receipts of the grantee, its successors
or assigns, during the preceding calendar year, or such fractional
calendar year, from the sale of the utility service within the City
for which this franchise is granted. It shall be the duty of the grantee
to pay to the City within 15 days after the time for filing such Statement,
in lawful money of the United States, the specified percentage of
its gross receipts for the calendar year, or such fractional calendar
year, covered by such Statement. Any neglect, omission or refusal
by the grantee to file such verified Statement or to pay the percentage,
at the times or in the manner provided in this Section, shall be grounds
for the declaration of a forfeiture of this franchise and of all rights
thereunder.
(Ord. 13 § 3, 1967)
This grant is made in lieu of all other franchises owned by
the grantee, or by any successor of the grantee to any rights under
this franchise, for transmitting and distributing gas within the limits
of the City, as the limits now or may hereafter exist, and the acceptance
of the franchise granted shall operate as an abandonment of all such
franchises within the limits of this City, as such limits now or may
hereafter exist, in lieu of which this franchise is granted.
(Ord. 13 § 4, 1967)
The franchise granted under this Chapter shall be effective
from July 14, 1967. Acceptance shall constitute a continuing agreement
of the grantee that if and when the City shall thereafter annex or
consolidate with, additional territory, any and all franchise rights
and privileges owned by the grantee therein shall likewise be deemed
to be abandoned within the limits of such territory.
(Ord. 13 § 5, 1967)
The franchise granted under this Chapter shall not in any way
or to any extent impair or affect the right of the City to acquire
the property of the grantee hereof either by purchase or through the
exercise of the right of eminent domain, and nothing contained in
this Chapter shall be construed to contract away or to modify or abridge,
either for a term or in perpetuity, the City's right of eminent
domain in respect to the grantee or any public utility. Nor shall
this franchise ever be given any value before any court or other public
authority in any proceeding of any character in excess of the cost
to the grantee of the necessary publication and any other sum paid
by it to the City therefor at the time of the acquisition thereof.
(Ord. 13 § 6, 1967)
The grantee of this franchise shall:
(a)
Construct,
install and maintain all pipes in conformity with all of the ordinances,
rules and regulations heretofore or hereafter adopted by the legislative
body of this City in the exercise of its police powers and not in
conflict with the paramount authority of the State of California,
and, as to State highways, subject to the provisions of general laws
relating to the location and maintenance of such facilities;
(b)
Pay
to the City, on demand, the cost of all repairs to public property
made necessary by any operations of the grantee under this franchise;
(c)
Indemnify
and hold harmless the City and its officers from any and all liability
for damages proximately resulting from any operations under this franchise;
and be liable to the City for all damages proximately resulting from
the failure of such grantee well and faithfully to observe and perform
each and every provision of this franchise and each and every provision
of Division 3, Chapter 2 of the Public Utilities Code of the State
of California;
(d)
Remove
or relocate, without expense to the City, any facilities installed,
used and maintained under this franchise if and when made necessary
by any lawful change of grade, alignment or width of any public street,
way, alley or place, including the construction of any subway or viaduct
by the City; and
(e)
File
with the legislative body of the City within 30 days after any sale,
transfer, assignment or lease of this franchise, or any part thereof,
or of any of the rights or privileges granted thereby, written evidence
of the same, certified thereto by the grantee or its duly authorized
officers.
(Ord. 13 § 7, 1967)
The engineer shall have power to give the grantee such direction
for the location of any pipes and appurtenances as may be reasonably
necessary to avoid sewers, water pipes, conduits or other structures
lawfully in or under the streets; and before the work of constructing
any pipes and appurtenances is commenced, the grantee shall file with
the engineer plans showing the location thereof, which shall be subject
to the approval of the engineer (such approval not to be unreasonably
withheld); and all such construction shall be subject to the inspection
of the engineer and done to his reasonable satisfaction. All street
coverings or openings of traps, vaults, and manholes shall at all
times be kept flush with the surface of the streets; provided, however,
that vents for underground traps, vaults and manholes may extend above
the surface of the streets when the vents are located in parkways,
between the curb and the property line.
Where it is necessary to lay any underground pipes through,
under or across any portion of a paved or macadamized street, the
same, where practicable and economically reasonable shall be done
by a tunnel or bore, so as not to disturb the foundation of such paved
or macadamized street; and in the event that the same cannot be so
done, such work shall be done under a permit to be granted by the
engineer upon application therefor.
(Ord. 13 § 8, 1967)
If any portion of any street shall be damaged by reason of defects
in any of the pipes and appurtenances maintained or constructed under
this grant, or by reason of any other cause arising from the operation
or existence of any pipes and appurtenances constructed or maintained
under this grant, the grantee shall, at its own cost and expense,
immediately repair any such damage and restore such street, or portion
of street, to as good a condition as existed before such defect or
other cause of damage occurred, such work to be done under the direction
of the engineer, and to his reasonable satisfaction.
(Ord. 13 § 9, 1967)
(a)
If
the grantee of this franchise shall fail, neglect or refuse to comply
with any of the provisions or conditions of this Chapter, and shall
not, within 10 days after written demand for compliance, begin the
work of compliance, or after such beginning shall not prosecute the
same with due diligence to completion, then the City, by its legislative
body, may declare this franchise forfeited.
(b)
The
City may sue in its own name for the forfeiture of this franchise,
in the event of noncompliance by the grantee, its successors or assigns,
with any of the conditions thereof.
(Ord. 13 § 10, 1967)
The grantee of this franchise shall pay to the City a sum of
money sufficient to reimburse it for all publication expenses incurred
by it in connection with the granting of this franchise; such payment
to be made within 30 days after the City shall furnish such grantee
with a written Statement of such expenses.
(Ord. 13 § 11, 1967)
