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HomeMy Public PortalAboutORD14921 BILL NO. 2011-140 SPONSORED BY COUNCILMAN Scrivner ORDINANCE NO. AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSON, MISSOURI, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE A TERMINATION OF WATER SERVICE AGREEMENT WITH MISSOURI AMERICAN WATER COMPANY. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSON, MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. The Mayor and City Clerk are hereby authorized to execute a termination of water service agreement with Missouri American Water Company. Section 2. The agreement shall be substantially the same in form and content as that agreement attached hereto as Exhibit A. Section 3. This Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after the date of its passage and approval. Passed Approved: y Presiding Officer Mayor ATTEST: APPROVED AS TO FORM: City Clckk Interim City Counselor TERMINATION OF WATER SERVICE AGREEMENT Made as of the day of February, 2012,between the CITY OF JEFFERSON, MISSOURI, (the"City"), and MISSOURI-AMERICAN WATER COMPANY, a corporation of the State of Missouri, (the "Water Company"). WITNESSETH: WHEREAS, the City is engaged in supplying sewer service to the citizens and residents of the City and the adjacent area; and WHEREAS, the City charges a fee for such sewer services and bills such fee on a periodic basis to its citizens and residents so served; and WHEREAS, the City is obligated to collect delinquent sewer bills from its citizens and residents so served; and WHEREAS, the Water Company is the owner and operator of a water distribution system serving customers in the City, subject to the laws of the State of Missouri and the Jurisdiction, Rules and Regulations of the Missouri Public Service Commission ("Commission"); and WHEREAS, the Water Company is authorized, at the request and direction of the City pursuant to the provision of Section 393.015 of the Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri, to tenninate water service and discontinue the supply of water from its system to any premises, at which the sewer bills for sewer service supplied by the City are unpaid; NOW THEREFORE, in consideration of the sum of ONE DOLLAR ($1.00) and other good and valuable consideration, and the covenants hereinafter expressed, the parties hereto do mutually agree as follows: 1. When in the course of its business, the City determines,pursuant to state statute, that City sewer charges remain unpaid and are in arrears for more than thirty(30) days after rendition of a written notice of such charges to its sewer customer, the City shall submit a written request to the Water Company to terminate water service to the City's sewer customer until such time as the sewer charges and all related costs are paid, and with such request,the City shall by written certification signed by its Director of Finance, certify to the Water Company: (A) the naive of the City's sewer customer that is in arrears on payment of sewer charges; (B) the address, including street, city and unit number, if appropriate, of the premises where such customer received sewer service; (C) the name and address of the property owner of such premises provided the name of the owner is different from the name of the City's sewer customer; (D) the amount of said arrearages; (E) that said sewer customer's sewer charges are in arrears for more than thirty (30) days after sending written notice; (F) that said sewer customer has been afforded written notice of: (1) the arrearage amount and, (2) the City's intent to tenninate sewer services by means of a written request to the Water Company to discontinue said City sewer customer's water service; (G) that the City's sewer customer has been afforded a right to be heard on the correctness of the City's record of arrearage; (H) that all Federal and State Constitutional as well as all Federal and State statutory pre-requisites applicable to the collection of debt have been properly satisfied by the City; (I) that the City has complied with its own ordinances and procedures. Such request and certification by the City shall be in the form of Exhibit A, which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference. 2. Upon receipt of the written request and certification as set out in Paragraph 1, within 30 days, an employee of the Water Company, along with an authorized representative of the City, shall go to the premises identified by the City. After the representative of the City advises any responding person present at such premises that water service will be terminated at the request of the City due to non-payment of sewer bills, the employee of the Water Company shall terminate the water service to such premises. Provided however, the Water Company shall not be required to terminate such water service in the event its customer at the premises as identified by the City is a person or entity other than the City's sewer customer. 3. At the written direction of the City, the Water Company shall restore water service to the premises of the City's sewer customers whose water service has been terminated as herein provided. However, notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein stated or implied, the Water Company may restore water service to any premises where the water service has been tenminated as herein provided upon the bonafide application for water service by any person or entity other than the City's sewer customers whose water service was terminated at such premises. Water restoration shall be attempted but not guaranteed during normal working hours on Monday through Friday(hereinafter "Standard Restoration"). Unless otherwise specified by the City, restoration will be attempted but not guaranteed on the same day for instructions received from the City prior to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on the next day for instructions received later in the day. Requests for restoration outside of normal working hours (or after 3:00 on Friday) may be accepted at the discretion of the Water Company. If the Water Company 3 agrees to restore service outside of normal working hours, an extra charge shall apply(hereinafter "After Hours Restoration"). 4. Inapplicable PSC Notice Requirements. All notice and complaint procedures specified in 4 CSR 240, and Chapter's 386 and 393 R.S.Mo., which apply to customer rights to utility service from a regulated utility, SHALL NOT APPLY to termination instructions issued by the City pursuant to this Agreement. All notice, complaint procedures and administrative consumer remedies, to the extent that they may exist or be alleged to exist, shall be the responsibility of the City. 5. The City and the Water Company shall establish a mutually beneficial schedule and procedure pertaining to the filing and processing of the City's requests for termination of water service as herein provided so as to not unduly restrict, interfere with or impede the Water Company from perfonming its duties and responsibilities in providing water service to its customers. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein stated, the Water Company reserves the exclusive right at its sole discretion to process the City's requests for termination of water service on such schedules and at such times as are convenient to the Water Company consistent with the Water Company's normal business practice and procedure. 6. The City shall pay the Water Company to cover the Water Company's cost of terminating or restoring the water supply for each premises identified by the City and each visit to such premises. The termination fees, Standard Restoration fees and After Hours Restoration fees are set forth in the fee schedule, attached as Exhibit B. The Water Company will bill the City periodically for these fees, and the City shall pay each such bill within thirty(30) days after the date of the bill. Such amount shall not be subject to refund for any reason. In the event that more than one hour is required for either the termination or restoration of water service to any 4 such premises, the City shall pay the actual cost thereof to the Water Company based on time, material, transportation and other fixed charges. Bills for actual costs are payable within thirty (30) days after the date of the bill. If the Water Company makes a reasonable attempt to tenninate or restore water service and is unsuccessful because of address inadequacies, inoperable or damaged facilities, danger to any employee or any other reason beyond the Water Company's reasonable control, the fees identified in Exhibit B will be charged for the attempt. Thereafter, the parties will attempt to determine an alternative course of action acceptable to both parties, which shall be reduced to a written instruction from the City to the Water Company and, until that time, the Water Company shall be absolved from its time requirements for action. 7. In addition to the fees set out in Paragraph G, at the option of the Water Company, the Water Company can require the City to pay for the estimated loss of water revenues resulting from each such termination made hereunder. Such estimated loss of water revenues shall be based upon the actual period of time during which the supply of water is discontinued in each instance and the average water revenue received by the Water Company for a like period of time during the year prior to such termination from the class of customer involved in each instance, as detennined from the books and records of the Water Company. The estimated loss of revenue shall be billed by the Water Company to the City periodically at the same times as the Water Company would have billed the customer if the water service had not been terminated, and the City shall pay each such bill within thirty(30)days of receipt thereof Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein stated, the City's obligation to pay to the Water Company the estimated loss of water revenues resulting from each termination made hereunder, shall not exceed the 5 average water revenue received by the Water Company during one billing period for each such termination. S. The Water Company shall not be liable for any loss, damage or other claim asserted by the City's sewer customers, the owner and/or tenant of the premises, the water customer, the City or any other person, corporation, or entity based upon or arising from the tenuination of water service at the request of the City. Moreover, the City will be responsible for any damages to the Water Company's property arising from the parties' actions fulfilling their obligations under this Agreement. To the extent pennitted by law, the City agrees to indemnify, defend and hold the Water Company harmless from and against any and all claims, complaints or causes of action arising out of actions taken by the Water Company, other than those resulting from the Water Company's negligence, pursuant to any of the City's "Instruction to Terminate Service." Because the Water Company is providing a service to the City at cost and has no incentive whatsoever to take the risk of claims, complaints or causes of action arising out of actions taken pursuant to this Agreement, if the City at any time asserts that it is not perinitted by law to indemnify the Water Company under the provisions of this Paragraph, or is limited in the extent of its indemnification, or for any other reasons takes the position that the Water Company must defend itself or be responsible for some or all costs arising from such claims, all the Water Company obligations under this Agreement shall terminate as of that date. 9. The City shall handle all customer communications regarding service terminations implemented pursuant to this Agreement, including any face-to-face communications at the premises at the time the Water Company is tenninating or restoring water service. Communications from customers to the Water Company shall be referred and directed to the City. 6 10. The Water Company's actions required under this Agreement shall be excused if due to hatters beyond its control, including but not limited to: employee work stoppages, strikes, inclement weather, emergencies, or where the Water Company's utilization of manpower or resources are required elsewhere. Termination will not be completed if a local board of health, municipality, fire district, court of competent jurisdiction or other governmental entity having jurisdiction issues an instruction to the Water Company so stating. At such time, the Water Company will relay such conflicting instructions to the City, and the Water Company will not knowingly take further actions toward termination until City notifies the Water Company in writing that it has resolved the conflicting instructions. Thereafter, the City shall indemnify defend and hold the Water Company harmless,to the extent permitted by law, for actions taken by the Water Company based on the City's notification. In no event shall the Water Company be required to disconnect a fire line service without authorization from the governmental authority responsible for fire protection to the affected property, even in cases of combined fire and domestic service lines. 11. To the extent that this Agreement becomes the subject of any regulatory proceeding before the Commission and the Commission produces a detennination that alters the terns or fees set forth in this Agreement, either party may terminate the Agreement with notice to the other party, or the parties may agree to amend the Agreement consistent with any Commission directive or order. 12. This Agreement may be terminated by either of the parties hereto by thirty(30) days written notice given to the other party at its principal place of business. 7 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Parties hereto have caused this Agreement to be duly executed as of the date first above written. CITY OF JEFFERSON, MISSOURI By: Mayor :ATI ST: City Berk APPROVED AS TO FORM: /I �1 Ineer m City Counselor MISSOURI -AMERICAN WATER COMPANY s f By Vice Pres' ent of Operations 8 EXHIBIT A WATER SERVICE TERMINATION REQUEST AND CERTIFICATION The City hereby pursuant to Section 393.015 R.S.Mo. 1986 as amended 1993, submits its request to terminate the water service of (name) and certifies the following: 1. (name) is a sewer customer of the City who is in arrears. 2. (address) is the address of the City's sewer customer named in Paragraph 1 above. 3. (name) is the owner of the property whose address appears in Paragraph 2 above. 4. (total amount $) is the total amount of arrearages claimed by the City against the customer whose name appears in Paragraph 1 above. 5. (arrearage $) is the amount of past due charges claimed in Paragraph 4 to be in arrears more than thirty(30) days since the sending of written notice. b. (name) has been afforded written notice mailed more than thirty(30) days ago of: (1) The arrearage amount. (2) The City's intent to terminate sewer services by means of a written request to the Water Company to discontinue said sewer customer's water service. 7. (name) has been afforded a right to be heard on the correctness of the City's record of arrearage on the day of , 20 8. All Federal and State constitutional as well as Federal and State statutory pre- requisites applicable to the collection of debt have been properly satisfied and provided to the customer identified in Paragraph I prior to the making of this certification. 9. Ail City ordinances and procedures have been properly satisfied prior to the making of this certificate. Certified this day of _ _, 20_. By: 9 EXHIBIT B FEE SCHEDULE'S Standard Tennination or Restoration per metered connection, including unsuccessful $28.50 attempts After Hours Restoration per metered connection, including unsuccessful attempts $131.00 *Any terminations or restorations requiring more than one hour for the services will be billed actual costs per the Agreement. 10