A. 
In order to ensure and improve the performance of the City's 911 communication system, the City must impose a fee. This chapter shall be known as the "Emergency Communication System Access Fee Ordinance" and the fee imposed herein shall be known as the "emergency communication system access fee."
B. 
The purpose of this chapter is to require subscribers to telephone service in the incorporated area of the City to pay a fee which is directly related to the benefit subscribers derive from the improvements to and operation of the 911 communication system that will be financed by fee revenues.
C. 
The emergency communication system access fee is the most practical and equitable revenue mechanism to finance the acquisition and construction of equipment, software, and facilities and other resources which are needed to provide an adequate and reliable 911 communication system. The fee is intended to recover costs related to the benefits the 911 system will provide to nonexempt telephone subscribers.
D. 
The fee imposed by the provisions of this chapter is intended solely to provide revenue for eligible project costs and eligible operating costs, as defined in this chapter. Fee revenues shall be deposited by the Director of Administrative Services in the emergency communication system fund established pursuant to Section 3.40.080 of this chapter. The provisions of this chapter are not enacted for regulatory purposes or for general revenue purposes.
(Prior code § 8-200)
Except where the context or particular provisions require otherwise, the following definitions shall govern the construction of this chapter.
"911 communication system"
means an enhanced emergency telephone service which automatically, or through a third-party intermediary, connects a person dialing the digits 9-1-1 to an answering point established by the City, and shall incorporate all aspects of the call delivery system, the call processing system and the call dispatch system, including, but not limited to, selective routing, automatic number identification (ANI), automatic location identification (ALI), and wireless 911. "911 communication system" includes the functions of the Stockton police and fire dispatch centers; however, it does not include the City Police Department or Fire Department staff who respond to requests for assistance by traveling to a site to which they are dispatched as a result of an emergency call.
"Access line"
means any connection from a customer location within the City to a provider of local telephone service offered to the public for compensation. Within the meaning of this chapter, and without limitation, access lines include connections providing residential basic exchange service, business basic exchange service, PBX service (private branch exchange), foreign exchange service, and Centrex service. "Access line" also includes a connection from a single mobile telephone to a commercial mobile radio service, as defined in Section 20.3 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations as this section existed on October 1, 2002, and which has as its place of primary use, as defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. Section 124(8), a location within the City. Notwithstanding the foregoing, "access line," does not include any connection from a customer location within the City to a provider of local telephone service when for any reason a customer cannot use, or as demonstrated by the customer to the City's satisfaction the customer does not use for purposes of two-way voice telephony, that connection to dial the digits 9-1-1 to reach the 911 communication system within the City at an answering point within the City.
"Eligible operating costs"
means the portion of operating costs attributable to the operation of the 911 communications system to telephone subscribers who are required to pay the fee imposed by the provisions of this chapter on access lines, trunk lines, and high capacity trunk lines subject to the fee. Eligible operating costs shall not include exempt operating costs.
"Eligible project costs"
means the portion of project costs attributable to a project to modify the 911 communication system to telephone subscribers who are required to pay the fee imposed by the provisions of this chapter on access lines and trunk lines subject to the fee. Eligible project costs shall not include exempt project costs.
"Exempt operating costs"
means the portion of operating costs attributable to the operation of the 911 communication system to telephone subscribers who are exempted from the fee by Section 3.40.050 of this chapter or are otherwise not required to pay any fee imposed by the provisions of this chapter.
"Exempt project costs"
means the portion of project costs attributable to a project to modify the 911 communications system to telephone subscribers who are exempted from the fee by Section 3.40.050 of this chapter or are otherwise not required to pay any fee imposed by the provisions of this chapter.
"Fee"
means the emergency communication system access fee imposed under the provisions of this chapter.
"High speed trunk line"
shall mean a trunk line with a capacity of at least 24 channels over a high capacity service, such as a 1.544 Mb, T-1, or integrated services digital network (ISDN) primary rate interface (PRI) line. Notwithstanding the foregoing, high speed trunk line, does not include any trunk line which does not come within the definition of Section 3.40.020.
"Lifeline service"
means discounted telephone service available to eligible lowincome residential customers.
"Local telephone service"
means access to a local telephone system, providing two-way telephonic quality communication with substantially all persons having telephone or radio telephone stations constituting a part of the local telephone system, whether or not the service uses transmission wires. Local telephone service shall include wireless telephone service. "Local telephone service" shall also include service provided through any technology currently existing, or that may exist in the future, allowing a person within the City of Stockton to access the 911 communication system using that technology. For the purposes of the emergency communication system access fee, a person shall be construed to subscribe to local telephone service within the City if he or she has a "place of primary use," as such term is defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. Section 124(8), within the geographic boundaries of the City. Local telephone service does not include any system that is expressly excluded from the definition of "access line," "trunk line," or "high capacity trunk line."
"Operating costs"
means any costs to operate, repair or maintain the 911 communication system or backup 911 communication system, including but not limited to costs for personnel, planning, training, software and hardware maintenance and upgrades, facility maintenance and repair, depreciation equipment replacement, technical infrastructure, and attorneys' fees.
"Project costs"
means any costs of acquiring, re-financing and installing computerized call delivery processing and dispatch equipment and software, and/or any other acquisition necessary to house 911 communication system equipment and staff in a seismically safe and fire retardant facility, including any debt service payments related thereto.
"Service location"
means the premises of a telephone subscriber at which a working service point or primary station set provides the subscriber with basic exchange service and to which extension services are charged. For wireless telephone service, service location is the "place of primary use," as such term is defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. Section 124(8).
"Service supplier"
means any person supplying local telephone service, pursuant to authority granted by the California Public Utilities Commission or the Federal Communications Commission, to any telephone subscriber at a location within the City. Service suppliers may include, without limitation, local exchange carriers, interexchange carriers, competitive access providers, cable television providers offering telecommunications services, providers of wireless telephone service, and any other entity offering direct connections between premises and the premises of telephone subscribers. Service suppliers also include any person supplying local telephone service who is exempt from California Public Utilities Commission or Federal Communications Commission regulation.
"Telephone corporation"
shall have the same meaning as defined in Section 234 of the Public Utilities Code of the State of California or the most comparable successor definition. It also includes any person or corporation providing wireless telephone service.
"Telephone subscriber"
means any person who receives local telephone service, or its functional equivalent regardless of the technology used to provide the service.
"Trunk line"
means a line between a service suppliers' switching device and a private branch exchange, automatic call distributing system, or other similar device, at a telephone subscriber location. Notwithstanding the foregoing, trunk line, does not include any line between a service suppliers' switching device and a private branch exchange, automatic call distributing system, or other similar device, at a telephone subscriber location when for any reason a customer cannot use, or is demonstrated by the customer to the City's satisfaction the customer does not use for purposes of two-way voice telephony, that line to dial the digits 9-1-1 to reach the 911 communication system within the City at an answering point within the City.
"Wireless telephone service"
means commercial mobile radio service, as defined in Section 20.3 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations as this section existed on October 1, 2002.
(Prior code § 8-201)
A. 
The 911 communication system provides immediate access to emergency services for telephone subscribers. The life saving importance of an up-to-date and modernized emergency response system was acknowledged by the Federal September 11 Commission in its investigation finding that deficiencies that existed resulted in impaired response. Subscribers to telephone service derive significant benefit from ongoing operation of the modernized integrated system installed at the Stockton Police Department and Stockton Fire Department. This improved 911 communication system has enhanced call delivery, call processing and call dispatch and has provided for more speedy and reliable emergency response. Telephone subscribers will benefit from maintaining and upgrading the improved 911 communication system so it continues to operate at a state–of-the-art level. A portion of the costs associated with operating, maintaining and upgrading the 911 communications system and facility should be allocated among all telephone subscribers because telephone subscribers will reap this significant benefit.
B. 
Every telephone access line can provide independent access to the 911 communication system. Therefore, allocating operating costs on a per line basis fairly distributes these costs according to the benefit telephone subscribers derive from availability of a modernized 911 communication system.
C. 
The concentration of a large number of access lines in a single location diminishes the marginal benefit of improved access provided by each additional access line; therefore, it is appropriate to place a cap on the number of access lines per account per service location on which the fee is charged.
D. 
Subscribers who maintain high capacity trunk lines derive more benefit, in terms of access to emergency communication service, from each telephone line than other subscribers and should pay a higher fee. Based on information from the California Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, the City Council finds that, on average, a high capacity trunk line provides up to 24 times the benefit provided by a single access line.
E. 
The portion of operating costs reflecting the benefits estimated to be provided by operation of the 911 communication system to telephone subscribers who are subject to the fee ("eligible operating costs") may be financed from emergency communication system access fee revenues. The portion of operating costs reflecting the benefits estimated to be provided by operation of the 911 communication system to telephone subscribers who are exempted from the fee may not be financed from emergency communication system access fee revenues.
(Prior code § 8-205)
A. 
There is hereby imposed an emergency communication system access fee on every person who maintains access to the 911 communication system by subscribing to local telephone service within the City of Stockton. For purposes of this chapter, with respect to wireless telephone services, a person shall be construed to subscribe to local telephone service within the City of Stockton if he or she has a place of primary use as such term is defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. Section 124(8), within the geographic boundaries of the City.
B. 
The amount of the fee imposed by this section shall be established by City Council resolution and shall be paid on a per-line basis, by the person paying for such local telephone service. Unless otherwise set by resolution the amount of the fee shall be adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, no subscriber shall be required to pay fees in excess of $10,000.00 per account per service location in any fiscal year. The amount of the cap established by this subsection shall be adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
C. 
Only one payment of the fee herein imposed shall be required for any access line, trunk line, or high capacity trunk line, notwithstanding that access lines of more than one service supplier are used in furnishing local telephone service to a telephone subscriber.
D. 
Revenues generated by the emergency communication system access fee shall be deposited in the emergency communication fund and shall be used exclusively to pay for eligible operating and capital costs.
(Prior code § 8-210)
Northing in this chapter shall be construed as imposing a fee upon the access lines of:
A. 
A lifeline customer of a service supplier; or
B. 
A telephone corporation; or
C. 
Coin-operated telephones; or
D. 
A nonprofit hospital which is exempt from Federal income tax under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or
E. 
A nonprofit educational organization which is exempt from Federal income tax under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or
F. 
Any person when imposition of such fee upon that person would violate the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State, or preemptive Federal or State law; or
G. 
City offices; or
H. 
County offices.
(Prior code § 8-215)
A. 
The Director of Administrative Services shall identify data required and make appropriate requests to each service supplier for information sufficient to identify the number of access lines maintained by that service supplier during the preceding 12 months, including separate identification of the number of trunk lines and high-capacity trunk lines that are access lines for purposes of this chapter as well as the number of exempt lines as specified in Section 3.40.050 of this chapter. Service suppliers shall respond to such request within 60 days. Upon a request by any service supplier, the Director of Administrative Services shall provide the requesting service supplier with a nondisclosure, confidentiality agreement on behalf of the City and shall remain under a continuing duty to protect all information provided by service suppliers subject to such agreement from any use other than that described in this section, and from disclosure to any third parties including, but not limited to, other service suppliers.
B. 
No later than March 1st of each year and using the data provided by the service suppliers pursuant to the immediately preceding subsection, the Director of Administrative Services shall estimate the percentage of access lines that are subject to payment of the emergency communication system access fee during the immediately prior fiscal year. The Director of Administrative Services' report shall also identify the adjusted amount of the fee cap established by subsection B of Section 3.40.040 of this chapter that will apply in the following fiscal year.
C. 
No later than March 1st in each odd numbered year, the Director of Administrative Services will evaluate information from industry sources, regulatory bodies, and City experience to determine whether the fee rates for trunk lines and high capacity trunk lines continue to reasonably reflect the increased estimated access to the 911 communication system provided to trunk line subscribers relative to access line subscribers.
(Prior code § 8-220)
A. 
The fee imposed by this chapter shall be billed to the telephone subscriber by the service supplier with its regular bill otherwise in accordance with the service supplier's normal billing procedures, and service suppliers shall be required to collect such fees as are remitted from telephone subscribers so billed, on behalf of the City. Fee revenues remitted to service suppliers by telephone subscribers shall be held for the City and service providers shall remit the fee revenues collected to the City Director of Administrative Services on a monthly basis on or before the last day of the month following the month in which they were collected.
B. 
The fee required to be collected by service suppliers under this chapter shall be added to the service supplier's billings to subscribers. The fee shall be stated separately as the City emergency communication system access fee on billings by service suppliers whose billing systems as presently configured are capable of such programming, and the Director of Administrative Services shall otherwise enter in such administrative agreements as may be required to accommodate appropriate billing of the fee as provided in Section 3.40.160 of this Part. Where authorized by Federal or State law, the Director of Administrative Services may require reasonable modifications to a service supplier billing system platform to accommodate requirements of this subsection provided an administrative agreement for recovery of all one-time costs incurred by the service supplier to comply is executed as allowed by Section 3.40.150.
C. 
In the event a telephone subscriber makes partial payment of the total charges billed for service and the emergency communication system access fee which have accrued for the billing period, absent express written direction by the telephone subscriber identifying those charges in dispute, such partial payment shall be applied to satisfy, in order: (1) charges due and owing to the service supplier for services and products; (2) applicable Federal and State sales and use taxes; (3) authorized pass-through expenses, costs and other charges for which the service supplier may be directly liable for payment to Federal and State governments including, but not limited to, universal service fee (USF) charges; and (4) charges for which service providers are acting as mere conduits for collection and remittance including the City emergency communication system access fee. Service suppliers shall pursue the normal course of collection efforts for deficiencies in payment of the fee from telephone subscribers. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a telephone subscriber shall not be relieved of the duty to pay the fee to the service supplier in any dispute of other items billed except in cases in which the dispute arises from claims of interruption or impairment of service on the access line on which the fee under this chapter is assessed.
D. 
The duty to collect the fee from a telephone subscriber shall commence with bills issued on or after the 100th day after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter; provided that, however, within five days of the effective date of said ordinance, City officials provide to service suppliers written notice of their responsibility to bill and remit fees collected. In the event that notice is not sent within five days of the said ordinance's effective date, service suppliers' duty to bill and remit fees collected shall commence no later than 90 days after receipt of notice from the City.
E. 
The service supplier, at its option, may assess a service charge of up to one-eighth of one percent of emergency communication system access fees actually collected by the service supplier and remitted to the City at the time of remission. The service charge may be deducted from the emergency communication system access fees remitted to the City at the time of remission.
(Prior code § 8-230)
A. 
Establishment of Fund. The emergency communication system fund is established to receive all moneys collected pursuant to this chapter, and any other moneys transferred into the fund.
B. 
Use of Fund. The fund shall be used solely for the following purposes:
1. 
For the payment of costs of acquiring and developing land on which to locate a 911 communications system facility or backup 911 communications system facilities, acquiring and installing computerized call delivery processing and dispatch equipment and software, and/or any other acquisition necessary to provide emergency communication within the City;
2. 
For the payment of operating, repair and maintenance expenses for the 911 communication system, including but not limited to costs for personnel, planning, training, software and hardware maintenance and upgrades, facility maintenance and repair, depreciation, equipment replacement, technical infrastructure, and attorney's fees;
C. 
Administration of Fund. Expenditures and encumbrances from this fund shall be subject to the budget and fiscal provisions of the City.
(Prior code § 8-235)
A. 
Any fee imposed on a telephone subscriber under the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a debt owed by the telephone subscriber to the City until it has been paid to the City, except that payment to a service supplier is sufficient to relieve the subscriber from further liability for the fee.
B. 
Any fee collected under the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a debt owed to the City by the person required to bill and remit such fee. The service supplier's service charge may be removed from the collection prior to remitting said fee.
C. 
With the exception of the requirement to bill telephone subscribers for the fee and to pursue the normal course of collection efforts for deficiencies in payment by telephone subscribers as provided by Section 3.40.070, nothing in this chapter shall impose any duty on a service supplier to enforce the collection of the fee hereinabove imposed. However, whenever a service supplier remits funds collected as an emergency communication system access fee to the City, the service supplier shall also provide the City with the name and address of any telephone subscriber who has not paid the fee for four or more billing periods and shall state the amount of such fee remaining unpaid. A service supplier in compliance with this subsection shall, following the provision of its report, be relieved of any further duty under this chapter for billing and attempts to collect uncollected fees from the telephone subscribers identified in the report identified in this subsection for the stated periods. The Director of Administrative Services may, at his or her discretion, then assume the responsibility to collect the fees due for the stated periods, in which case the Director of Administrative Services shall notify the telephone subscriber that the Director of Administrative Services has assumed the responsibility to collect the fees due for the stated periods and may demand payment from the telephone subscriber of such fees.
D. 
A service supplier shall be obligated to bill and remit fees collected consistent with the provisions of Section 3.40.070. In the event a service supplier willfully refuses to bill or to remit those fees collected in due course, the service supplier shall be liable to the City in the amount of fees that were to be collected, as determined by the Director of Administrative Services pursuant to Section 3.40.130.
E. 
Any person owing money to the City under the provisions of this chapter shall be liable in any action brought in the name of the City for the recovery of such amount.
(Prior code § 8-240)
A. 
Each service supplier providing local telephone services to subscribers within the City shall register with the Director of Administrative Services upon a form prescribed by the Director of Administrative Services and shall set forth the name under which the service supplier transacts or intends to transact business, together with identification of the service supplier's registered agent for process, or such other agent the service supplier designates, to whom notices pursuant to this chapter shall be directed. All notices and communications required by this chapter must be directed to the agent designated in the service supplier's registration in order to be effective notice.
B. 
Each service supplier shall, on or before the last day of each month, make a return to the Director of Administrative Services, on forms provided by the Director of Administrative Services, stating the amount of fees collected by the service supplier during the preceding month. At the time the return is filed, the full amount of the fee collected shall be remitted to the Director of Administrative Services, less any amount retained as a service charge consistent with Section 3.40.070(E). The Director of Administrative Services may require further readily attainable information in the return. Returns and remittances are due immediately upon cessation of business for any reason. Service suppliers must maintain records of fees collected and remitted to the City for a period of at least three years after the date the fee is remitted.
(Prior code § 8-245)
A. 
Service Suppliers.
1. 
Fees collected from a service user which are not remitted to the Director of Administrative Services by the service supplier by the due dates provided in this chapter or that a service supplier wilfully refuses to bill or remit pursuant to Section 3.40.070 are delinquent.
2. 
Penalties for delinquency in remittance of any fees collected pursuant to Section 3.40.070 shall attach and be paid by the service supplier required to remit at the rate of 15 percent of the total fees collected for which remittance is delinquent.
3. 
The Director of Administrative Services shall have power to impose additional penalties upon service suppliers required to collect and remit fee amounts under the provisions of this chapter for fraud or negligence in reporting or remitting up to 100 percent of the amount of the fees collected or as recomputed by the Director of Administrative Services.
4. 
Every penalty imposed under the provisions of this section shall become a part of the fees required to be remitted.
5. 
In addition to the penalties imposed in this subsection, any service supplier who wilfully refuses to remit any fee imposed by this chapter, except as provided in Section 3.40.090(C), shall pay interest on the amount of the fee, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the remittance first became delinquent until payment in full is received by the Director of Administrative Services. Interest shall be paid at the rate of 1% per month or fraction thereof.
6. 
Notwithstanding the foregoing, fees collected and not timely remitted by service suppliers to the Director of Administrative Services in cases of unintentional errors and omissions, or events outside the control of the service supplier, shall not be subject to the interest and penalties of this chapter if the service supplier provides written notice of such an event to the Director of Administrative Services and makes the required remittance as soon as reasonably practical.
B. 
Telephone Subscribers. In addition to provisions of Section 3.40.090(C), whenever the Director of Administrative Services determines that a telephone subscriber has wilfully withheld the amount of the fee owed by him or her from the amounts remitted to a service supplier or that a telephone subscriber has failed to pay the amount of the fee for a period of four or more billing periods, or whenever the Director of Administrative Services deems it is in the best interest of the City, he or she shall relieve the service supplier of the obligation to collect fees due under this chapter from certain named service users for specified billing periods and collect the fees directly from the telephone subscriber.
1. 
Telephone subscribers who willfully withhold the amount of the fee owed from the amounts remitted to a service supplier or who fail to pay any fees imposed by this chapter to the service supplier within four billing periods shall pay a penalty of 15 percent of the amount of fees owed.
2. 
In addition to the penalties imposed in this subsection, any telephone subscriber who fails to remit fees and penalties within 30 days of the date the City mails notification that the City has assumed responsibility for the collection of fees due for specified billing periods, shall pay interest on the amount of the fee, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the fee first became delinquent to the service supplier until payment in full is received by the Director of Administrative Services, plus an additional collection charge for each delinquent account in an amount to be determined by rules and regulations of the Director of Administrative. The Director of Administrative Services shall establish collection charges which reimburse the costs incurred by the City for collecting delinquent fees. Interest shall be paid at the rate of 1% per month or fraction thereof.
3. 
The penalties, interest and collection charges imposed in this subsection shall not be collected by the service supplier, but shall be determined and collected by the City.
4. 
Every penalty imposed and such interest as accrues under the provisions of this section shall become a part of the fee herein required to be paid.
(Prior code § 8-250)
The Director of Administrative Services shall have the authority to conduct audits of service providers including inspection, auditing, and copying relevant records and material during the service supplier's regular business hours, upon written request and not less than five business days' notice in order to review compliance with this chapter.
(Prior code § 8-254)
A. 
If any service supplier willfully refuses to make, within the time provided in this chapter, any report and remittance of fees collected from telephone subscribers or any portion thereof required by this chapter, the Director of Administrative Services may inspect, audit, and copy records relevant and material to the service supplier's willful failure during the service supplier's regular business hours, upon written request and not less than five business days' notice. As soon as the Director of Administrative Services is able to procure facts and information upon which to base the assessment of any fee imposed by this chapter collected by any service supplier who has willfully refused to make such report and remittance, the Director of Administrative Services shall proceed to determine and assess against such service supplier the fee, interest and penalties provided by this chapter. In case such determination is made, the Director of Administrative Services shall give a notice of the amount so assessed by serving it personally or by depositing it in the United States mail, postage prepaid, addressed to the service supplier to its registered agent for service of process in the State. The service supplier may within 10 days after the serving or mailing of such notice make application in writing to the Director of Administrative Services for a hearing on the amount assessed. If application by the service supplier for a hearing is not made within the time prescribed, the fee, interest and penalties, if any determined by the Director shall become final and conclusive and immediately due and payable. If such application is made, the Director shall give not less than five days' written notice in the manner prescribed herein to the service supplier to show cause at a time and place fixed in the notice why the amount specified therein should not be fixed for such fee, interest and penalties. At the hearing, the service supplier may appear and offer evidence and/or legal authority as to why the specified fee, interest and penalties should not be so fixed.
B. 
After such hearing, the Director of Administrative Services shall determine the proper fee to be remitted and shall thereafter give written notice to the service supplier in the manner prescribed herein of the determination and the amount of the fee, interest and penalties. The amount determined to be due shall be payable within 15 days.
(Prior code § 8-255)
A. 
The Director of Administrative Services shall refund any fees collected by the service supplier in excess of the above annual limit described in Section 3.40.040(B). The annual limit will be calculated using the payments made during the months of July through June. For the first year of operation of this chapter, payments made through June 2005, will use a prorated annual limit based on the number of months that payments were billed by the service providers. In order to be eligible for the refund the telephone subscriber must provide a written request for the refund along with of proof of payment by the subscriber. Such claims and proof of payment must be submitted to the Director of Administrative Services within 90 days of the end of the one year period as described above. Service suppliers are not authorized to provide refunds as provided by this section.
B. 
Whenever the amount of any fee payment not provided for under Section 3.40.040 has been overpaid or paid more than once or has been erroneously or illegally collected or received by the City under this Part, it may be refunded to the fee payer provided a claim in writing stating under penalty of perjury the specific grounds upon which the claim is founded, is filed by the fee payer with the Director of Administrative Services within one year of the date of payment along with proof of payment. No refund may be made except upon a written claim verified by the person who paid the fee or by his or her guardian or conservator or the executor or administrator of his or her will or estate.
C. 
No refund shall be paid under the provisions of this section unless the claimant established his or her right thereto by written records showing entitlement thereto.
D. 
All claims shall further be subject to the provisions of Section 3.56.020 of the Stockton Municipal Code relating to the prohibition of suits in the absence of the presentation of claims and action thereon by the City. No suit for money, damages, or a refund may be brought against the City until a written claim therefor has been presented to the City and has been acted upon or has been deemed to be rejected by the City, in accordance with this section. Only the person who filed the claim may bring such a suit and if another person should do so, judgment shall not be rendered for the plaintiff.
(Prior code § 8-260)
The Director of Administrative Services may make administrative agreements with service suppliers to vary the strict requirements of this chapter so that collection of any fee imposed herein may be made in conformance with the billing procedures of a particular service supplier so long as the overall result of said agreements results in billing of the fee in conformance with the general purpose and scope of this chapter. A copy of each agreement shall be on file and available for public examination in the Director of Administrative Services' office, except that portions of such agreements that may be designated as proprietary and confidential by the service supplier shall be excluded from the public records maintained by the Director of Administrative Services' office, and shall be subject to a duty of confidentiality and nondisclosure by those representatives of the City of Stockton who may have a need to review and obtain knowledge of those portions of said agreements designated proprietary and confidential.
(Prior code § 8-270)
A. 
Who May Appeal. Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Director of Administrative Services regarding the amount of fee or penalty owed or the duty or obligation to collect, report or pay a fee, pursuant to this chapter may appeal the decision of the Director of Administrative Services by filing a notice of appeal with the City Clerk within 15 days of the serving or mailing of such decision. The notice of appeal shall set forth in writing the grounds for the appeal and shall be accompanied by an appeal fee in an amount established by resolution of the City Council and shall state the grounds for the appeal. Once a notice of appeal is received, the Director of Administrative Services shall request the City Manager to appoint a Hearing Officer and to schedule a day, time and place for the hearing. The City Manager or a delegee of the City Manager shall provide written notice of the time and place of the hearing and shall mail such notice to appellant at least 10 calendar days prior to the date of the hearing. The form and substance of the notice shall be in accordance with the rules and policies promulgated by the City Manager. At the hearing, the appellant bears the burdens of production and persuasion to establish the factual and legal issues upon which the appeal is based.
B. 
Hearing. A hearing to consider the appeal shall follow the procedures set forth in Section 1.44.010 through Section 1.44.060, and Sections 1.44.090(A), (C) and (D). The Hearing Officer shall, at the conclusion of the hearing, make findings of fact based upon the evidence submitted and determine whether grounds exist for denial of the appeal or for adjustment of amounts owed. The person appealing shall be notified of the Hearing Officer's decision in writing. The Hearing Officer's decision shall be final. Any appellant who requests a hearing and who fails to appear at the hearing is deemed to waive the right to a hearing and the adjudication of the issues related to the hearing, provided that the hearing was properly noticed.
C. 
Due Date of Fee. The amount of any fee finally determined as provided in this section shall be due and payable as of the date the original fee, together with any penalties that may be due thereon; provided, however, that if the amount of such fee is fixed in accordance with the original statement of the appellant no penalty shall attach by reason of any delinquency.
(Prior code § 8-280)
Nothing contained in this chapter is intended to conflict with applicable rules, regulations and tariffs of any service supplier subject to the jurisdiction of the California Public Utilities Commission. In the event of any conflict, the provisions of those rules, regulations and tariffs shall control.
(Prior code § 8-280)
The Director of Administrative Services may promulgate regulations and issue rules, determinations and interpretations consistent with this chapter as may be necessary or appropriate for the purpose of carrying out and enforcing the payment, collection and remittance of the fee and to apply this chapter and any rules and regulations promulgated there under in a lawful manner. The Director of Administrative Services shall hold a public hearing and allow public comment on any proposed rule or regulation prior to adoption thereof. The Administrative Services Director shall provide not less than 10 day's notice of such public hearing. A copy of such rules and regulations shall be on file and available for public examination in the office of the City Clerk. Failure or refusal to comply with any rules and regulations promulgated by the Director of Administrative Services shall be deemed a violation of this chapter.
(Prior code § 8-281)