Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-06-01 Ordinance 5497 6055264 Ordinance No. 5497 Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Amending Section 12.20.030 (Statute of Limitations for Challenges to Gas Rates) of Chapter 12.20 (Utility Rules and Regulations) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code to Set a 120-Day Statute of Limitations for Challenges to Water Service Rates, Wastewater Collection and Disposal Rates, Refuse Rates, Storm Water Management Fees, and Fiber Licensing Service Rates The Council of the City of Palo Alto ORDAINS as follows: SECTION 1. Findings and Declarations. The City Council finds and declares as follows: A. A statute of limitations for challenges to w ater s ervice r ates, w astewater c ollection and d isposal r ates, refuse rates, storm water management fees, and f iber l icensing service r ates aims to balance the interests of the City of Palo Alto (“City”) with the interests of City of Palo Alto Utilities Customers (“Customers”), by allowing Customers to bring challenges within a reasonable, but limited, period of time. B. Without a statute of limitations, Customers may argue that they are able to request a refund years after a charge has been collected, making it difficult for the City of Palo Alto Utilities and Public Works Departments to maintain the stable budget necessary to operate effectively, while keeping rates as low as possible. C. By establishing a reasonable period of time beyond which the City will not face exposure to challenges to the validity of w ater s ervice r ates, w astewater collection and d isposal r ates, refuse rates, storm water management fees, and f iber l icensing s ervice r ates, a statute of limitations minimizes the fiscal uncertainty that results when there is no clearly established closure on such challenges, and provides clear guidance to customers considering a challenge. D. The California State Legislature enacted a similar 120-day statute of limitations for challenges to electric rates or charges in 2000, which is codified in Public Utilities Code Section 10004.5. This rule applies to electric rate challenges in Palo Alto. E. Because the Legislature did not enact a similar statute of limitations for challenges to gas rates or charges, on May 20, 2019, Council adopted an ordinance enacting its own statute of limitations for challenges to gas rates or charges. F. It is incumbent upon the City of Palo Alto to similarly enact its own statute of limitations for challenges to w ater service r ates, w astewater collection and d isposal r ates, refuse rates, storm water management fees, and f iber l icensing s ervice r ates, which reflects the same public policy concerns underlying Public Utilities Code Section 10004.5. 6055264 SECTION 2. Section 12.20.030 (Statute of Limitations for Challenges to Gas Rates) of Chapter 12.20 (Utility Rules and Regulations) is hereby amended to read as follows (amendments underlined): 12.20.030 Statute of Limitations for Challenges to Gas Rates, Water Service Rates, Wastewater Collection and Disposal Rates, Refuse Rates, Storm Water Management Fees and Fiber Licensing Service Rates. Any judicial action or proceeding against the City, to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul an ordinance, resolution, or motion fixing or changing a rate or charge for: a) a gas commodity or a gas service furnished by city and adopted on or after June 1, 2019, or b) for water services, wastewater collection and disposal, refuse, storm water management, or fiber licensing services furnished by city and adopted on or after June 1, 2020 shall be commenced within 120 days of the effective date of that ordinance, resolution, or motion. SECTION 3. If any section, subsection, clause or phrase of this ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion or sections of the ordinance. The Council hereby declares that it should have adopted the ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared invalid. SECTION 4. The Council finds that the adoption of this ordinance setting a statute of limitations for challenges to water service rates, wastewater collection and disposal rates, refuse rates, storm water management fees, and fiber licensing service rates does not meet the definition of a project under Public Resources Code section 21065, therefore California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) review is not required. // // // // // // // // 6055264 // SECTION 5. This ordinance shall be effective on the thirty-first day after the date of its adoption. INTRODUCED: May 18, 2020 PASSED: June 1, 2020 AYES: CORMACK, DUBOIS, FILSETH, FINE, KNISS, KOU NOES: TANAKA ABSENT: ABSTENTIONS: ATTEST: City Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED: Assistant City Attorney City Manager Director of Utilities Certificate Of Completion Envelope Id: 52DD9A7971B04422A5457D633DD37062 Status: Completed Subject: Please DocuSign: ORD 5497 Rate SOL.pdf Source Envelope: Document Pages: 3 Signatures: 5 Envelope Originator: Certificate Pages: 5 Initials: 0 Kim Lunt AutoNav: Enabled EnvelopeId Stamping: Disabled Time Zone: (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) 250 Hamilton Ave Palo Alto , CA 94301 kimberly.lunt@cityofpaloalto.org IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Record Tracking Status: Original 6/3/2020 2:39:56 PM Holder: Kim Lunt kimberly.lunt@cityofpaloalto.org Location: DocuSign Security Appliance Status: Connected Pool: StateLocal Storage Appliance Status: Connected Pool: City of Palo Alto Location: DocuSign Signer Events Signature Timestamp Amy Bartell Amy.Bartell@CityofPaloAlto.org Assistant City Attorney City of Palo Alto Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Sent: 6/3/2020 2:47:07 PM Viewed: 6/4/2020 7:19:44 AM Signed: 6/4/2020 7:25:20 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Accepted: 7/16/2015 5:52:40 AM ID: d8ecb53d-ef81-4016-8886-1560c48de42a Dean Batchelor Dean.Batchelor@CityofPaloAlto.org Director of Utilities Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None)Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Sent: 6/4/2020 7:25:21 AM Viewed: 6/4/2020 8:39:54 AM Signed: 6/4/2020 8:40:02 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via DocuSign Ed Shikada ed.shikada@cityofpaloalto.org Ed Shikada, City Manager City of Palo Alto Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Sent: 6/4/2020 8:40:04 AM Viewed: 6/4/2020 8:53:58 AM Signed: 6/4/2020 8:54:04 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via DocuSign Adrian Fine adrian.fine@cityofpaloalto.org Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 108.228.10.70 Signed using mobile Sent: 6/4/2020 8:54:06 AM Viewed: 6/4/2020 8:59:22 AM Signed: 6/4/2020 8:59:50 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via DocuSign Signer Events Signature Timestamp Beth Minor Beth.Minor@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk City of Palo Alto Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Sent: 6/4/2020 8:59:51 AM Viewed: 6/4/2020 9:06:41 AM Signed: 6/4/2020 9:06:56 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via DocuSign In Person Signer Events Signature Timestamp Editor Delivery Events Status Timestamp Agent Delivery Events Status Timestamp Intermediary Delivery Events Status Timestamp Certified Delivery Events Status Timestamp Carbon Copy Events Status Timestamp Witness Events Signature Timestamp Notary Events Signature Timestamp Envelope Summary Events Status Timestamps Envelope Sent Hashed/Encrypted 6/4/2020 8:59:51 AM Certified Delivered Security Checked 6/4/2020 9:06:42 AM Signing Complete Security Checked 6/4/2020 9:06:56 AM Completed Security Checked 6/4/2020 9:06:56 AM Payment Events Status Timestamps Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure CONSUMER DISCLOSURE From time to time, City of Palo Alto (we, us or Company) may be required by law to provide to you certain written notices or disclosures. Described below are the terms and conditions for providing to you such notices and disclosures electronically through your DocuSign, Inc. (DocuSign) Express user account. Please read the information below carefully and thoroughly, and if you can access this information electronically to your satisfaction and agree to these terms and conditions, please confirm your agreement by clicking the 'I agree' button at the bottom of this document. Getting paper copies At any time, you may request from us a paper copy of any record provided or made available electronically to you by us. For such copies, as long as you are an authorized user of the DocuSign system you will have the ability to download and print any documents we send to you through your DocuSign user account for a limited period of time (usually 30 days) after such documents are first sent to you. After such time, if you wish for us to send you paper copies of any such documents from our office to you, you will be charged a $0.00 per-page fee. You may request delivery of such paper copies from us by following the procedure described below. Withdrawing your consent If you decide to receive notices and disclosures from us electronically, you may at any time change your mind and tell us that thereafter you want to receive required notices and disclosures only in paper format. How you must inform us of your decision to receive future notices and disclosure in paper format and withdraw your consent to receive notices and disclosures electronically is described below. Consequences of changing your mind If you elect to receive required notices and disclosures only in paper format, it will slow the speed at which we can complete certain steps in transactions with you and delivering services to you because we will need first to send the required notices or disclosures to you in paper format, and then wait until we receive back from you your acknowledgment of your receipt of such paper notices or disclosures. To indicate to us that you are changing your mind, you must withdraw your consent using the DocuSign 'Withdraw Consent' form on the signing page of your DocuSign account. This will indicate to us that you have withdrawn your consent to receive required notices and disclosures electronically from us and you will no longer be able to use your DocuSign Express user account to receive required notices and consents electronically from us or to sign electronically documents from us. All notices and disclosures will be sent to you electronically Unless you tell us otherwise in accordance with the procedures described herein, we will provide electronically to you through your DocuSign user account all required notices, disclosures, authorizations, acknowledgements, and other documents that are required to be provided or made available to you during the course of our relationship with you. To reduce the chance of you inadvertently not receiving any notice or disclosure, we prefer to provide all of the required notices and disclosures to you by the same method and to the same address that you have given us. Thus, you can receive all the disclosures and notices electronically or in paper format through the paper mail delivery system. If you do not agree with this process, please let us know as described below. Please also see the paragraph immediately above that describes the consequences of your electing not to receive delivery of the notices and disclosures electronically from us. Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure created on: 10/1/2013 8:33:53 AM Parties agreed to: Amy Bartell How to contact City of Palo Alto: You may contact us to let us know of your changes as to how we may contact you electronically, to request paper copies of certain information from us, and to withdraw your prior consent to receive notices and disclosures electronically as follows: To contact us by email send messages to: david.ramberg@cityofpaloalto.org To advise City of Palo Alto of your new e-mail address To let us know of a change in your e-mail address where we should send notices and disclosures electronically to you, you must send an email message to us at david.ramberg@cityofpaloalto.org and in the body of such request you must state: your previous e-mail address, your new e-mail address. We do not require any other information from you to change your email address.. In addition, you must notify DocuSign, Inc to arrange for your new email address to be reflected in your DocuSign account by following the process for changing e-mail in DocuSign. To request paper copies from City of Palo Alto To request delivery from us of paper copies of the notices and disclosures previously provided by us to you electronically, you must send us an e-mail to david.ramberg@cityofpaloalto.org and in the body of such request you must state your e-mail address, full name, US Postal address, and telephone number. We will bill you for any fees at that time, if any. To withdraw your consent with City of Palo Alto To inform us that you no longer want to receive future notices and disclosures in electronic format you may: i. decline to sign a document from within your DocuSign account, and on the subsequent page, select the check-box indicating you wish to withdraw your consent, or you may; ii. send us an e-mail to david.ramberg@cityofpaloalto.org and in the body of such request you must state your e-mail, full name, IS Postal Address, telephone number, and account number. We do not need any other information from you to withdraw consent.. The consequences of your withdrawing consent for online documents will be that transactions may take a longer time to process.. Required hardware and software Operating Systems: Windows2000? or WindowsXP? Browsers (for SENDERS): Internet Explorer 6.0? or above Browsers (for SIGNERS): Internet Explorer 6.0?, Mozilla FireFox 1.0, NetScape 7.2 (or above) Email: Access to a valid email account Screen Resolution: 800 x 600 minimum Enabled Security Settings: •Allow per session cookies •Users accessing the internet behind a Proxy Server must enable HTTP 1.1 settings via proxy connection ** These minimum requirements are subject to change. If these requirements change, we will provide you with an email message at the email address we have on file for you at that time providing you with the revised hardware and software requirements, at which time you will have the right to withdraw your consent. Acknowledging your access and consent to receive materials electronically To confirm to us that you can access this information electronically, which will be similar to other electronic notices and disclosures that we will provide to you, please verify that you were able to read this electronic disclosure and that you also were able to print on paper or electronically save this page for your future reference and access or that you were able to e-mail this disclosure and consent to an address where you will be able to print on paper or save it for your future reference and access. Further, if you consent to receiving notices and disclosures exclusively in electronic format on the terms and conditions described above, please let us know by clicking the 'I agree' button below. By checking the 'I Agree' box, I confirm that: • I can access and read this Electronic CONSENT TO ELECTRONIC RECEIPT OF ELECTRONIC CONSUMER DISCLOSURES document; and • I can print on paper the disclosure or save or send the disclosure to a place where I can print it, for future reference and access; and • Until or unless I notify City of Palo Alto as described above, I consent to receive from exclusively through electronic means all notices, disclosures, authorizations, acknowledgements, and other documents that are required to be provided or made available to me by City of Palo Alto during the course of my relationship with you.