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.
[1]
Editor's Note: Original § 124, which
immediately preceded this section, was deleted since the provision
relating to a Water Board expired 1-1-1921.
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.
A.
On or before the first day of June in each year, the
City Manager shall prepare and submit to the Council of said City
an estimate or proposed budget for the Water Department of said City
for the fiscal year beginning the following year July 1, it being
the intention of this section to make the fiscal year of said Water
Department the same as the City's fiscal year as provided in this
Charter. Such estimate or proposed budget shall show, so far as ascertainable:
B.
The Council shall thereupon order public hearings
thereon and direct that notice thereof shall be published at least
twice in a daily newspaper published in said City not more than four
days before the date of such hearing. After hearing any taxpayer at
said hearing in reference thereto, the Council may adopt such estimates
as submitted or increase, diminish, reject or otherwise modify or
amend the same and adopt the estimates as so modified or amended.
When such estimates as presented or amended shall have been adopted,
the same shall be entered in full in the minutes of the Council and
published in its proceedings, and the several sums in such final estimates
so adopted shall be and become appropriated for the several purposes
named in such estimates. Such estimates shall be known as the "Water
Department budget."
The Council shall adopt such rules, regulations
and ordinances as may be necessary or appropriate in the management
and operation of the Water Department.
A.
Council to establish water rates. The Council shall
determine and fix the rates, rents and charges and change or amend
the same, from time to time, and shall have power to arrange and direct,
by ordinance, that all delinquent water rates, rentals and charges
may be added to the annual City tax on the property to or for which
such water was furnished or service rendered, after a hearing thereon
to the owner of such property. The Council shall have power to provide
for such hearing and to adopt rules and make provisions to govern
and control the same.
B.
Use of income. The income from water rates, rents
and charges and the proceeds from the sale of water bonds shall be
kept separate and apart from other City funds and revenues and shall
be used only for the upkeep, maintenance, extension and benefit of
the water system, including the sinking fund for the retirement of
water bonds, and the payment of bonds, and for the payment of earnings
to which the City of Auburn may be entitled under and by virtue of
§ 94 of the General Municipal Law of the State of New York,
from and of the operation of the Water Department of said City.
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.
