A.
A Board of Public Utilities is hereby established.
It shall consist of seven appointive members, two of whom shall be
Council persons, together with the Mayor and the Director of Public
Works by virtue of their respective offices. The Mayor and the Director
of Public Works shall be entitled to vote on all questions. The majority
of the members of the Board of Public Utilities shall constitute a
quorum for the transaction of business. The Board may make, from time
to time, alter or amend bylaws, rules and regulations not in conflict
with law for the transaction of its business.
B.
The terms of office of the seven appointive members
of the Board of Public Utilities hereafter shall be as follows: of
the two members who have been appointed in 1930, one shall hold office
until the expiration of his/her term January 1, 1932, and his/her
successors shall be appointed for terms of two years each from that
date; one shall hold office until the expiration of his/her term,
and his/her successors shall be appointed for full terms of four years
each from that date; of the three remaining members to be appointed,
one shall hold office until January 1, 1932, and his/her successors
shall be appointed for full terms of four years each from that date,
and two shall hold office until January 1, 1934, and their successors
shall be appointed for full terms of four years each from that date.
The Council persons appointed to such office shall be appointed for
their terms of office only. The Mayor, in his/her appointment, shall
designate the term for which each is appointed.
C.
The members of the Board of Public Utilities shall
receive no salaries. The members of such Board shall be reimbursed
their actual expenses incurred in the discharge of their duties. This
section shall not prevent such Board from employing one of its number
as Secretary or other executive officer and paying him/her proper
compensation.
D.
The Board of Public Utilities may fix the salaries
and compensation of its several superintendents, employees, counsel
and the like, except that in the event of such Board requiring the
City Council to insert in a given budget a sum to be levied upon the
taxpayers to meet the deficit in the operation of its utility system,
then the budget of such Board containing the proposed salaries for
that and succeeding years, until such Board ceases to require the
insertion of its deficit in the tax levy, shall be submitted to the
City Council for approval.
E.
The officers appointed to or elected by the Board
of Public Utilities under § C-8B of this Charter may likewise
be removed by the Board upon its own motion, following a hearing,
by a 2/3 vote of all of the members of the Board taken by roll call
and recorded in the minutes of the meeting. Such removal shall become
effective as and from the hour that a certified copy of the resolution
is served upon the officer named therein.
A.
All the properties, records, rights, privileges and
prerogatives constituting the water and lighting system of the City
of Jamestown and the district heating system of the City of Jamestown
are hereby transferred to the Board of Public Utilities, and such
systems shall be under the control and supervision of the Board of
Public Utilities. Neither the City Council of said City nor the Board
of Public Utilities shall have the power or authority to sell or lease
any public utility system to any person or persons, corporation or
corporations except when authorized by a vote of the resident taxpayers
of the City at a special election. The Board shall keep such systems
in repair and may from time to time improve the same and may extend
the plant and facilities thereof within said City and within the Village
of Falconer or the Village of Celoron or elsewhere in the Town of
Ellicott. All the earnings, revenues and monies belonging to each
system shall be kept separate and apart from the other systems and
shall be carried in separate accounts, and no funds or revenues belonging
to one system shall be applied or used in the conduct and operation
of the others except with the approval of the City Council. The surplus
earnings of any of said systems, after the costs of operation, management,
maintenance and ordinary improvements have been paid and the payment
of accrued interest upon outstanding bonds issued by said City on
account of any and after the requirements of the sinking fund have
been fully met, may, in the discretion of said Board, be applied toward
improving and extending said systems respectively.
B.
The Board of Public Utilities shall have the control
of the construction of all improvements and additions to the public
utility systems and the extensions thereof and shall have the power
to make all contracts necessary or incidental to the execution thereof.
All contracts for the performance of any work and all purchase contracts
involving expenditures in excess of the amounts provided for in General
Municipal Law § 103 shall be awarded by competitive bids
by advertisement by said Board for bids, with the power to reject
any and all bids received.
C.
Such Board shall appoint a General Manager, who shall
have the power to appoint and remove a deputy who shall act in his/her
stead and such advisors and other employees necessary to efficiently
operate the electric, water and district heating systems, and who
shall have the further power to fix the duties and compensation for
his/her Deputy and other employees within the guidelines established
by the Board. The Board, in its discretion, shall also have the power
to employ attorneys at law of the State of New York to act as legal
advisors for the Board and to appear for and represent it in any or
all actions, matters and proceedings relating to the Board or the
conduct of its business. Such employment may be terminated by the
Board at any time. The compensation of such counsel shall be determined
and paid by the Board of Public Utilities.
D.
All agents and employees handling monies belonging
to the City shall give a bond in the form usual for City officers
in the penal sum prescribed by said Board.
E.
Said Board shall have full control of the public utility
systems and everything pertaining thereto and shall exercise the powers
and fulfill the duties connected with the management and regulation
thereof and of the use and sale of the products thereof and may enforce
the observance thereof by cutting off the supply or services of the
public utilities systems or by the imposition of penalties. It shall
establish a scale of rents, rates or charges to be not less than the
cost thereof to said Board at the place of delivery for the use and
consumption of water, electricity, hot water and other public utility
services, to be paid at such times as the Board may prescribe by the
consumers thereof and may from time to time either modify, increase
or diminish such rents, rates or charges, not, however, below cost,
and employees shall be authorized at all times to enter into any building
or building where water, electricity, hot water or other public utilities
service is used from said systems to examine, as to the pipes, water,
electricity, hot water or other public utility service, the fittings,
fixtures and appliances and the quantity of water, electricity, hot
water or other public utility service used and the manner of using
it.
F.
The water, electric light, district heating and other
public utility revenues, when collected, shall be kept in separate
funds, to be known respectively as the "Water Rent Fund," the "Electric
Light Fund" and the "District Heating Fund," and shall be paid out
by the City Clerk/Treasurer to the respective parties entitled thereto
upon the warrant of said Board of Public Utilities.
[Amended 2-10-2006 by L.L. No. 2-2006; 8-28-2017 by L.L. No. 1-2017; 11-25-2019 by L.L. No. 1-2020]
The City is hereby vested with the power to
acquire by purchase any and all of the public utilities required for
its City purposes and for the convenience, service and welfare of
its inhabitants. All public utility systems acquired or hereafter
created shall be under the jurisdiction of the Board of Public Utilities.
The Board is hereby authorized to expend monies derived from the commercial
operation of its public utility systems in the further promotion and
development of the commercial business of those systems. The Board
is authorized to employ technical experts to make necessary investigations
precedent to the exercise of the powers conferred by this section.
Following such necessary investigations by the Board and its technical
experts, the City is hereby authorized through this Board to:
A.
Create and operate gas, power, electric, steam or
hot-water heating plants and systems.
B.
Drill for natural gas and pipe the same into the City
for municipal purposes and for the use of its inhabitants.
C.
Enter into contracts for the purpose of the mains,
equipment and properties of any natural gas company now operating
within the City, and to utilize the same as part of a plant for providing
fuel for the City and its inhabitants.
D.
Enter into contracts for the purchase of natural gas
from private corporations to be used in connection with other public
utility plants hereby authorized.
E.
Install ornamental streetlighting. "Ornamental streetlighting"
is hereby defined as a means, method or system of electric illumination
provided by lights located on posts placed along or adjacent to the
curbline of a given public highway and which lights are fed or supplied
with current by underground cables as distinguished from overhead
feed wires. The Board of Public Utilities is hereby authorized to
install, maintain and operate services and systems of ornamental streetlighting
on a given public highway or portion of a street located within the
City, but under the limitation of this section.
(1)
A majority of the resident owners of land abutting on a given public highway or portion thereof shall have a right to petition this Board for the installation of ornamental streetlighting within the district specified in the petition. The Board of Education and the City Council shall have the right to join in such petition as to the land within their respective jurisdictions abutting on the particular highway. If the Board of Public Utilities approves of the petition, it shall signify its approval by due resolution and transmit a certified copy of the resolution, with the original petition, to the City Council. The latter shall request the Assessor to determine and certify whether the signatures attached to the petition are the names of those owning the abutting land in fee on the public highway or portion thereof specified in the petition and whether such persons are a majority of the resident owners of land abutting on the highways or portion thereof described in the petition. If the Assessor shall certify that the signatures on the petition are the names of a majority of the resident owners of the fee to the abutting land on the particular highway or portion thereof specified in the petition, then the City Council may approve of the petition. The City Clerk/Treasurer shall certify such approval to the Board of Public Utilities, which shall then be empowered to install the service or system of ornamental streetlighting on the public highway or portion thereof specified in the petition, but upon the condition that the Board of Public Utilities shall have the right to determine the type, design and number of posts and lights to be installed on the particular public highway or portion thereof and to fix the other conditions in relation thereto. When the installation specified in the particular petition shall have been completed, the Board of Public Utilities shall certify that fact, together with the total cost of the labor and materials, plus 10% of such total cost which is hereby fixed as the standard charge for engineering, supervision and the use of tools and machinery, and accompanied by any other pertinent information to the Assessor. The cost as thus defined for the installation of such ornamental streetlighting shall be paid by the lands abutting on the street or portion thereof thus improved as described in the petition and according to the benefits received by each abutting lot or parcel, each lot or parcel paying the proportionate amount of the entire benefit of that improvement which has been received by that lot or parcel. The Assessor shall proceed to make a special assessment of several amounts to be paid by such abutting lands, in the manner provided by § C-48 of this Charter, for the determination of individual paving assessments. Upon the completion of such assessments, the Assessor shall designate a review day and hold a review on such assessments as provided by § C-48 of this Charter. After this roll shall have been affirmed, revised or adopted by the Assessor, it shall be submitted to the City Council for its action and approval. The Assessor and the City Council shall proceed in relation thereto in the manner provided by § C-48 of this Charter for the approval of the paving roll. Within 60 days after the filing of this assessment roll with the City Clerk/Treasurer, any person who is assessed hereunder a certain amount for such improvement may pay the whole or any part thereof. The person or owner thus assessed shall be liable for the tax, and the special assessment shall be a lien on the abutting land as provided by § C-42 of this Charter. The property owner shall have a right to elect to pay such assessment one year from the date of the filing of the roll with the City Clerk/Treasurer, but in that event there shall be added to and collected by the City Clerk/Treasurer 6% of such assessment. The City Clerk/Treasurer shall credit the sums thus collected to the Special Improvement Fund of the Board of Public Utilities. If such special assessments, with the added per centum, shall not have been paid one year from the date of the filing of the assessment roll with the City Clerk/Treasurer, then the City Clerk/Treasurer shall proceed to sell the lands which are subject to the lien of the assessment as provided by § C-53 of this Charter. Article VI and Article VIII of this Charter are hereby made applicable except as otherwise provided herein. The Board of Public Utilities is authorized to use its surplus funds for the purposes of this section, pending the payment of the special assessment. The expense of maintaining and operating ornamental streetlighting shall be a City charge.
[Amended 2-10-2006 by L.L. No. 2-2006; 8-28-2017 by L.L. No. 1-2017; 11-25-2019 by L.L. No. 1-2020]
(2)
Whenever ornamental streetlighting has been installed on a portion of a public highway by petition of the resident abutting owners, the Board of Public Utilities is hereby empowered to recommend, in writing, to the City Council the installation of ornamental streetlighting on a part or all of the remaining portion of that public highway and without a petition therefor. The City Council is hereby authorized to proceed in relation to such recommendation in the same manner as is provided by § C-60 of this Charter for the consideration, hearing and approval of a recommendation by the Director of Public Works for the construction of pavements without the petition and consent of the abutting property owners. Following such consideration and hearing, as provided by § C-60 of this Charter, the City Council is hereby authorized to direct the Board of Public Utilities to proceed with the installation of ornamental streetlighting on a part or all of the remaining portion of such public highway without the petition and consent of the abutting owners. The construction cost, assessment, operation and maintenance of the ornamental streetlighting thus installed shall be governed by Subsection E(1) of this section.
F.
Acquire, own and operate transit facilities of any
nature within its boundaries and, subject to the consent of the municipalities
involved, between the City and neighboring communities. The operation
and maintenance of any such transit facilities may be carried on by
the City utilizing its municipal employees, or the City may contract
with private persons or corporations for the management, operation
and maintenance of such City transit facilities. A separate board
or commission may be established by appropriate local law, which shall
supervise the operation and maintenance of such transit facilities
whether the same are performed by municipal employees or by a private
person or corporation under contract. The City Council, subject to
the Mayor's veto power, shall have the authority to sell or lease
any and all transit facilities acquired, operated or owned by virtue
of the provisions of this subsection.
G.
In addition to the powers of the Board of Public Utilities, otherwise enumerated in Article VII of the City Charter, the City Council may, by ordinance, determine that sanitary sewer collection, treatment and disposal, as well as solid waste collection, recycling and disposal, may be designated as additional utility functions to be transferred to the Board of Public Utilities and, thereafter, owned and operated by the City, under the control and supervision of the Board of Public Utilities pursuant to the other provisions of Article VII of this Charter. In the event the City Council adopts such an ordinance or ordinances, any references to the Director of Public Works in the Charter and the City Code as such relate to sanitary sewer or solid waste functions shall be deemed to refer to the General Manager of the Board of Public Utilities.
[Amended 2-10-2006 by L.L. No. 2-2006; 8-28-2017 by L.L. No. 1-2017; 11-25-2019 by L.L. No. 1-2020]
The water, electricity, hot-water and other
rents and charges for supplies and services furnished by any public
utility owned by the City may be based on actual consumption as determined
by meter or apportioned to the different classes of buildings and
different conditions of delivery and consumption in the City or elsewhere
with reference to their ordinary use for dwellings, stores, shops,
factories, stables or places, for the number of families or occupants,
for the sprinkling of lawns, for fire protection or for the consumption
of water or electricity or other service of supply as nearly as practicable.
Such rents and charges, as well as the amount due and unpaid for the
introduction and measurement of the supply of water, electricity,
hot water or other public utility, supply or service to such premises
and buildings, shall be, like other taxes of the City, a lien and
charge upon such premises and buildings as herein provided. The Board
shall estimate annually the sum which shall be paid by the City of
Jamestown for the use of water, electricity and hot water or for other
public utility supplies and service for its public purposes, which
estimate shall be based upon the actual cost thereof. The City Council
shall annually levy and raise the amount of money thereby established
by the Board, and the amount so to be raised shall be levied and collected
at the same time and in the same manner as other general taxes of
the City are levied and raised, and in addition thereto, the sum thus
raised shall be paid by the City Clerk/Treasurer into the water, electric,
district heating funds and other public utility funds, respectively.
A.
If water mains are or shall be laid into or through
a town or village, the Board of Public Utilities may contract through
an intermunicipal agreement with the Town Board on behalf of the town
or with the Trustees of the village on behalf of the village to furnish
water for the extinguishment of fires and for sanitary and other public
purposes within the town or village as the case may be. Any such intermunicipal
agreement shall not become effective until approved or ratified by
a majority vote of the entire City Council. Any intermunicipal agreement
or contract by and between the Board of Public Utilities and a town
or village for the furnishing of water in effect as of January 1,
1995, shall not thereafter be modified, amended, renewed or extended
without prior approval or ratification by a majority vote of the entire
City Council.
B.
If sanitary sewer lines, district heating lines or
electric lines are or shall be laid or placed through a town or village,
the Board of Public Utilities may contract through an intermunicipal
agreement with the Town Board on behalf of the town or with the Trustees
of the village on behalf of the village to furnish any or all of such
utilities for public purposes, use or consumption within the town
or village as the case may be. Any such intermunicipal agreement for
the delivery of any or all of such utility services shall not become
effective until approved or ratified by a majority vote of the entire
City Council. Any intermunicipal agreement or contract by and between
the Board of Public Utilities and town or village for the furnishing
of sanitary sewer lines, sanitary sewer services, district heating
or electricity in effect as of January 1, 1995, shall not thereafter
be modified, amended, renewed or extended without prior approval or
ratification by a majority vote of the entire City Council.
Any sinking fund heretofore created for the
purpose of taking care of any water or electric light bonds now outstanding
shall be continued, and such other sinking funds shall be created
from time to time as may be necessary to liquidate at their maturity
any bonds now outstanding or hereafter issued in connection with the
existing utilities or any other utilities placed under the jurisdiction
of this Board. Such sinking funds shall be created and maintained
as follows:
A.
Out of the surplus earnings of the operation of the
water system, electric light system, district heating system or any
other public utility, after the payment of the cost of operation,
management, maintenance, improvements and extensions of said systems
and the payment of the interest upon the outstanding bonds issued
therefor by said City, the Board of Public Utilities shall, upon the
issuing of any bonds for any of the purposes authorized hereby, create
a sinking fund for the payment of such bonds, principal and interest
at the maturity thereof by setting apart annually an amount sufficient
to produce at the maturity of said bonds a sum equal to the principal
then to become due. If and whenever the revenues as aforesaid shall
be insufficient to enable said Board to provide for the sinking fund
requirements and the interest upon any of said bonds, said Board shall
report the fact and the amount of the deficiency to the City Council.
It shall thereupon become the duty of the City Council to provide
for such deficiency and pay the same in the same manner as it may
provide for the payment of the principal and interest upon other bonded
indebtedness of said City.
B.
Said City, in addition to the power which it now possesses
to raise money for all other purposes by taxation, shall have the
power to raise by a general tax annually, and it shall be the duty
of the City Council to levy and raise annually, upon the real and
personal property assessed for taxation in said City and as a part
of the general tax levy such sums as may be necessary to provide for
the payment of such bonds and interest as aforesaid. If the City Council
shall have raised and paid any sum of such deficiency arising from
the insufficiency or the revenue of any said systems, the Board of
Public Utilities, as soon as practicable, by exercising the powers
conferred upon it by law shall increase the revenues of said system
sufficiently to prevent a further deficiency and also to raise the
amount of the deficiency that shall have been paid by said City Council,
and said Board of Public Utilities shall pay the amount of said deficiency
when raised into the general fund of said City.
C.
The sinking funds herein provided for and the monies
belonging thereto shall be kept by the City Clerk/Treasurer and deposited
in such banks, trust companies or savings banks as shall be designated
by the Board of Public Utilities at such rate of interest thereon
as may be agreed upon between said banks or trust companies and the
City Clerk/Treasurer, subject to the approval of said Board. No such
deposit in any such bank or trust company, however, shall at any time
be authorized in excess of 50% of the capital stock of such bank or
trust company. Each and every bank or trust company receiving such
deposit shall, before receiving the same, execute and give to the
City a bond with sufficient sureties, conditioned to save the City
harmless in any event from loss by reason of such deposits, such bonds
to be approved by said Board. All such deposits shall be made in accounts
separate from other City funds and shall be properly distinguished
and designated. No money shall be withdrawn from any such fund except
upon the warrant of the City Clerk/Treasurer authorized by the resolution
of the City Council for the payment, redemption or purchase of the
bonds or some part thereof, for the payment of which said sinking
fund was created or for the transfer of such fund or some part thereof
to another depository designated or approved therefor by the Board.
Any bond paid, redeemed or purchased shall at once be canceled and
returned with the report thereof to the City Council. The funds remaining
in said sinking funds at any time or any part thereof may, however,
be invested by the City Clerk/Treasurer upon resolution of said Board
of Public Utilities and of the City Council, approved by the Mayor,
in interest-bearing obligations of the United States or the State
of New York or any municipality thereof, and the Board may at any
time, having the funds for that purpose, purchase at no more than
par any of the bonds issued for said systems and cancel and pay the
same.
[Amended 2-10-2006 by L.L. No. 2-2006; 8-28-2017 by L.L. No. 1-2017; 11-25-2019 by L.L. No. 1-2020]
D.
The surplus earnings of the operation of the water,
electric lighting or any other public utility systems on hand at any
time after the payment of the costs of operation, management, maintenance,
improvements and extensions and after the payment of the interest
upon the outstanding bonds issued by said City in connection with
said utilities and after the requirements of said sinking funds may
have been fully complied with and provided for may be applied by the
City Council, with the consent of the Board of Public Utilities, toward
the payment of any bonded or other indebtedness of the City of Jamestown
now or hereafter contracted.
A.
Any monies now or hereafter belonging to the Water,
Electrical Lighting or District Heating Fund or any other public utility
fund of the City of Jamestown shall be paid out only on checks or
warrants numbered consecutively as issued and signed by the City Clerk/Treasurer
and countersigned by the City Comptroller, except as hereinafter provided.
No order or warrant for the payment of monies from any of said funds
shall be issued except upon the resolution of said Board duly entered
upon its minutes, a certified copy whereof shall be filed in the office
of the City Clerk/Treasurer. The voucher or other paper document for
which said order was issued shall be filed with the Chairman of said
Board and shall bear the number corresponding with the number of the
warrant issued thereon.
[Amended 2-10-2006 by L.L. No. 2-2006; 8-28-2017 by L.L. No. 1-2017; 11-25-2019 by L.L. No. 1-2020]
B.
The Board may, however, by suitable standing resolutions,
authorize the payment of wages and salaries of municipal employees
under its jurisdiction.
C.
Nothing herein contained shall prevent the Board of
Public Utilities from creating and designating by appropriate name
special public utility funds by drawing a check or warrant in the
manner above provided for the refunding of overpayments and overcharges
to the consumers of the water, lighting, district heating or other
public utility systems owned and operated by the City of Jamestown,
which powers or fund creation and refund are hereby authorized. Checks
or warrants drawn on such special public utility funds may be signed
by the Mayor or the fiscal officer or officers of the municipality
designated by the Board in the resolution or resolutions creating
such special public utility funds. Certified copies of such resolutions
shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk/Treasurer.
[Amended 2-10-2006 by L.L. No. 2-2006; 8-28-2017 by L.L. No. 1-2017; 11-25-2019 by L.L. No. 1-2020]
D.
The Board may, likewise, at any time, by resolution
or order, direct the transfer by the proper City officers of any fund
from any bank or trust company to any other bank or trust company
the funds so transferred, and all interest accruing thereon shall
be held and paid out by such banks, trust company or trust companies
only in the manner above provided.
[Amended 11-28-2016 by L.L. No. 2-2016]
Said Board of Public Utilities shall keep books showing, in
detail, the cost of the maintenance of said water, electric, district
heating or other public utility systems and of extending the same
and all its collections, rents, expenditures and proceedings and shall
furnish whenever required by the City Council such information, in
writing, as to the business and affairs of the Board of Public Utilities
as may be required by the Mayor and City Council. All the books, records,
vouchers, contracts and all other papers kept by said Board or in
its possession or under its control shall be deemed to be public records.
The Board shall each year pay into the general fund of the City the
sum of $36,000 to reimburse the City for collecting the revenues accruing
to said systems. Said Board shall, at least 10 days before the first
day of April each year, make and file with the City Council a statement
of the following facts:
A.
The
amount of money on hand at the beginning of the preceding fiscal year
and the amount received during said year.
B.
The
amount paid out during said year and the balance on hand.
C.
The
outstanding indebtedness of said department, either bonded or otherwise,
separately stated.
D.
The
estimated deficiency, if any, in the amount necessary to be paid,
principal or interest, after applying thereto the probable amount
of rents and other income to be received and any amount from the sinking
fund.
E.
The
amount of extensions made during the last preceding year and the general
condition of the systems.
F.
Such
other facts as the Board deems important for the information of the
City, together with such recommendations concerning said departments
as may be deemed proper.
