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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2369ORDINANCE NO. _- AN ORDINANCE of the City of Port Angeles establishing general conditions for electrical service, authorizing temporary purchase of non -firm energy, and amending Section 13.10.060 of Section 1, Ord. No. 2341 and Section 13.10.060 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code; amend- ing Section 1 of Ord. 2137 and Section 13.12.010 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code; and amending Section 2, Ordinance No. 2341 and Section 13.12.080 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code. THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORT ANGELES DOES ORDAIN as follows: Section 1. Section 13.10.060 of Section 1, Ord. No. 2341 and Section 13.10.060 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code are each amended to read as follows: 13.10.060 Meters. A. When any customer desires to use electricity for purposes classified under different rates as established by Chapter 13.12 PAMC, separate meters must be installed to measure the current supplied at each rate, and the electricity passing through each meter must be charged for at the price specified in the rate schedule for such separate uses. B. The City Light Department will make periodic tests and inspections of meters and will make additional tests or in- spections of meters at the request of any customer. No charge shall be made for any such additional test if there is a meter error of more than two percent. If the meter error is two per- cent or less, the fee for a meter test shall be charged to and collected from the customer. If any test shows a meter error of more than two percent, a pro rata adjustment shall be made in the customer's billing for a period of not more than ninety days prior to the date of the test; provided, that in no event shall any adjustment be made for any period prior to the date of any previous meter test. -1- C. The City Light Department may install sealable locking devices on certain enclosures containing unmetered con- ductors, including but not limited to meter sockets, meter en- closures, current transformer enclosures, test switch enclosures, wire troughs, bus gutters, and terminal boxes. D. New or enlarged services to a duplex or a multiple dwelling building shall have common areas and common equipment supplied through a separate house meter. E. The customer shall not install or use equipment or devices to sub -meter electricity for the purpose of reselling or otherwise apportioning the costs of electric energy usage; except that the City Light Department shall permit the apportionment of electricity for boat mooring establishments under the following circumstances: 1. New or ungraded service to boat mooring es- tablishments shall be master metered. The City Light Department will not provide meters for individual moorage spaces nor directly bill individual boat moorage tenants at a boat moorage establishment. 2. Apportionment of electricity by customer - operator shall be considered a service provided by a boat mooring establishment. The charge for such service shall be reasonable and non - discriminatory and shall not exceed the operator's average cost per KWH as billed by the City plus the operator's reasonable cost of providing such service, and shall not exceed the proportion of the costs for which the boat moorage tenant is responsible. F. Depending on the particular installation, the City Light Department may provide a portion of the customer's service entrance equipment. The type of metering equipment (which may include meter, current transformer and enclosures, meter bases and junction boxes) shall be determined by the City Light Depart- ment. Meter sockets shall be placed only at those locations -2-- authorized by the City Light Department and shall afford proper protection to meters. In order that the meter can be easily read, the center of the meter socket shall be located not less than five feet or more than seven feet above finish grade. If, as determined by the City Light Department, the meter is inacces- sible or improperly located for reading, the customer shall be required to relocate his service entrance to a suitable location or the City Light Department may install a remote metering device and all costs incurred shall be borne by the customer. G. Should the customer request additional metering equipment, the City Light Department may install such equipment as agreed upon. The cost of such additional equipment, including necessary spares if any, shall be borne by the customer, including labor, equipment rental, material and overhead charges. The cost of maintenance of such additional equip- ment shall be borne by the customer. The charge for maintenance of such equipment shall be sufficient to cover the City Light De- partment's costs as determined by the City Light Director. The City Light Department may provide metering pulses from existing metering equipment at the customer's cost. Section 2. Section 1 of Ordinance No. 2137 and Section 13.12.010 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code are each amended to read as follows: 13.12.010 General provisions applicable to all services. A. Any single motor of over three horsepower, single phase; any single motor of over five horsepower, polyphase; and welders and x -ray equipment shall not be placed in service without prior approval from the City Light Department. B. When a request for service requires an extension of distribution facilities to serve new loads or customers, the City Light Department will determine the amount of construction costs, if any, to be paid by the customer prior to actual -3- construction. It shall be the customer's responsibility to pro- vide and clear at least a twenty -foot access to within one hun- dred fifty feet of the metering point. All required rights -of- way and /or easements, properly executed, must be in the City Light Department's possession before construction is started. The City Light Department may require the customer to install and maintain poles, wires and /or other equipment on his property necessary to serve at a greater distance than one hundred fifty feet from the City Light Department's supply facilities to the customer's metering point. C. Customer Convenience Charges. 1. The City Light Department may perform such work as transformer relocation, conversions of overhead lines to under- ground, relocating poles and down guys for services, etc., which is requested by the customer and which is performed for the cus- tomer's convenience, at the discretion of the City Light Director, Cost for such work shall be borne by the customer requesting such work. 2. Any changes or rearrangements of the City Light Department's facilities at the request of the customer will be done only if the customer pays all costs associated with the change or rearrangements, including administrative overhead charges, and the City Light Department determines that such changes satisfactorily maintain the quality, reliability, and flexibility of the existing facilities. D. Metering shall be provided as specified by the City Light Department, which shall have the right to install such equipment as it finds necessary to determine any and all operat- ing conditions. E. When the customer's average power factor falls below ninety -five percent as measured by a reactive meter, the billing demand shall be increased one percent for each percentage point -4- below ninety -five percent. Minimum billing and demand charges, if applicable, will be applied after the correction for low power factor. The City Light Department shall have the right to refuse or discontinue service to any customer not maintaining a power factor of at least eighty percent. F. The City Light Department shall give no billing credits for failure of customer's load management systems as a result of outages; failure of customer's equipment; failures of utilities, metering, or equipment; or any other reasons. Section 3. Section 2 of Ordinance No. 2341, and Section 13.12.080 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code are each amended to read as follows: 13.12.080 Contract Sales and Purchases. A. The Director of the City Light Department shall have the authority to enter into special contracts covering elec- tric power service, purchases, and sales, at rates other than specified in this Chapter, to meet specific operating conditions, provided that such rates recover the cost of providing the service, and provided that the City Manager, Mayor and Council members of the Utility Advisory Committee are notified, and provided that such contracts have a term of no more than ninety (90) days before formal adoption by the City Council. B. The Director of the City Light Department shall have the authority to enter into the following contracts, pro- vided that such contracts do not exceed a term of five (5) years: 1. Guaranteed annual revenue contracts designed to repay capital outlay and service costs. 2. Facilities construction contracts for contributions in aid of construction and for revenues from jobbing and contract work as follows: a. As a condition of construction of City Light Department electrical facilities, including, but not limited to, substations, meter extensions, distribution systems, -5- and services to provide permanent service to any new construc- tion, development, mobile home park, or facility, the owner or developer requesting such service may be assessed a facilities charge. b. The facilities charge shall be equal to 50 percent (50 %) of the estimated cost of the system, if the estimated cost is over $5,000 as estimated by the Engineering & Operations Division of the City Light Department. c. This facilities charge shall not apply to local improvement districts, or to Federal, State, County, or local government entities; provided that the government provides a purchase order for billing. d. The actual cost of the system may in- clude the cost of using or providing substation capacity, if any, for the system. e. Prior to construction of any such elec- trical facilities, the amount of such facilities charges shall be estimated by the Engineering & Operations Division of the City Light Department, and such estimated amount shall be billed to and paid by the developer or owner prior to commencement of any such construction. Any balance remaining shall be refunded to or collected from the developer or owner, as the case may be, upon completion of construction and determination of the actual cost thereof. Any balance remaining shall be collected before any reimbursements are given. 3. Frontage and lot reimbursement contracts for customers where facilities are installed in the dedicated public street and customers have donated public right -of -way and paid for construction of the facilities. C. The Director or Power Manager of the City Light Department shall have the authority to enter into contracts for the purchase of nonfirm energy, provided that the City Manager, Mayor, and Councilmembers of the Utility Advisory Committee are -6- notified, and provided that such contracts have a term of no more than one year and the energy purchased does not exceed 40,000 megawatt hours. Section 4 Severability. If any provision of this Ordinance or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the Ordinance or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected. Section 5 Effective Date. This Ordinance shall take effect as provided by law. PASSED by the City Council of the City of Port Angeles at a regular meeting of said Council held on the 17, .day of o ,WYYi b-P ATTEST: , 1985. \ J1JAx t /ILyll •v •• Mer'i A. Lannoye, C. Clerk APPRO5 O AS TO FORM: Craig D rKnutson, City Attorney PUBLISHED: M A Y O R /4_0,4q4a MEMORANDUM December 13, 1985 TO: City Council FROM: City Attorney RE: Limiting Council Terms to Two ISSUE: What are the legal factors affecting the available options for limiting Council terms? BACKGROUND: In the November 5, 1985, election, the electorate of the City of Port Angeles approved a proposition to the effect that a two - term limit should be placed on the number of consecutive terms that a City Councilman of the City of Port Angeles may serve. Options for accomplishing such a limitation include enacting an ordinance or adopting a charter. ANALYSIS: Neither the Constitution, the statutes, nor the case law of the State of Washington has specifically addressed the issue of whether or not a non - charter code city, which the City of Port Angeles is, may by ordinance limit the number of consecutive terms that a city council- man may serve. The constitutional validity of such an ordinance re- mains an open question, which the courts could decide either way. The argument supporting the validity of such an ordinance is based on the broad powers granted to non - charter code cities in the Optional Municipal Code (Title 35 RCW). The courts may also take into account the fact that the voters of Port Angeles approved a proposition in favor of limiting council terms. The argument opposing the validity of such an ordinance is based on the doctrine of pre - emption, which would preclude the City from deviating from the constitutional and statutory scheme that has established the qualifications for councilmembers. The only way that the validity of such an ordinance could be tested would be in a lawsuit, which could be brought by a councilmember de- siring to seek re- election to a third term. The City cannot simply on its own ask a court whether or not such an ordinance would be legal, because courts are prohibited from rendering advisory opinions when there is no case or controversy with clearly identifiable parties who have legal interests at stake. Providing for a limitation on Council terms is more readily defensible against a constitutional challenge by adopting a charter containing a provision with such a limitation. The Pierce County Superior Court has upheld such a provision in the Tacoma City Charter. The argument supporting the constitutionality of such a charter provision is based on the fact that the Washington State Constitution and statutes have authorized cities to adopt charters for the purpose of allowing the electorate to have local flexibility in determining the structure and form of city government. A third option available to the City is to seek State legislation amending the Optional Municipal Code to specifically provide that non - charter code cities have the authority to limit the number of consecu- tive council terms by ordinance. Such legislation would negate the pre - emption argument referred to above. CONCLUSION: Of course, under any of the options discussed above for accomplishing a limitation on Council terms, litigation may or may not 411 occur. The legally "safer ", although more cumbersome, methods are the adoption of a charter by the voters or the amendment of the Optional Municipal Code by the State Legislature. The constitutional validity of an ordinance limiting Council terms is an open question under current State law. Craig D. nut on City Attorney CDK:LF