The Council shall have the power, and it shall
be its duty, to take over, arrange and provide for the management,
control and operation of the entire water system and plant of the
City of Auburn to furnish and supply, and to continue to furnish and
supply, a sufficient quantity of good and wholesome water to the City
of Auburn and the people thereof, except that it shall not enact or
enforce any local law or ordinance or resolution for any purpose pertaining
in any manner to the fluoridation of the water under the control of
the City or of the Water Department of the City government. For this
purpose the Council shall have power to adopt ordinances, rules and
regulations for the protection and preservation of such waterworks,
system, property, watershed, and the sources from which such water
is furnished and to acquire such additional lands and rights as it
may deem essential, to purchase, install and operate machinery, pumps,
mains and all other equipment and property necessary or essential
in its judgment to furnish and supply such water and to perform and
discharge the duties herein imposed and to exercise the powers herein
conferred. It may also furnish and supply water to owners and occupants
of property lying outside of, but adjacent to, the City of Auburn.
The City Manager shall be the administrative
head of the Water Department. He or she shall appoint such officers
and employees as the Council decides are needful or essential in the
conduct and management of such Department, at salaries to be fixed
by the Council, and may from time to time change or remove any such
appointees or employees. The Civil Service Law, rules and regulations
shall apply so far as practicable to all positions in this Department.
The Council shall adopt such rules, regulations
and ordinances as may be necessary or appropriate in the management
and operation of the Water Department.
All property and rights acquired by the Water
Board in the management and operation of such water system under Chapter
479 of the Laws of 1892, as revised and supplemented by Chapter 36
of the Laws of 1894, as amended, shall be, and continue to be, the
property of the City of Auburn in whatever name such property or rights
were or may be acquired, and the City of Auburn shall succeed to all
property and rights owned or possessed by the said Water Board and
be and become the owner thereof. The Council shall provide for the
payment of all obligations of the said Water Board owing on January
1, 1921, including water bonds, and for the maintenance of the sinking
fund for the retirement of water bonds, as required by said repealed
water acts.
[Added 10-30-1997 by L.L. No. 3-1997]
At the request of the property owner to construct,
build, reconstruct water service pipes in need of repair from the
main to the meter, to have such work or improvement done by the City
or by contract, to pay for the same from City funds and assess such
total costs against the property benefited and to further provide
that the cost of any such work or improvement be paid at once or in
annual installment as an assessment upon the real property of said
owner.