2005-05
ORDINANCE NO. 2005-5
CITY OF RICHFIELD
COUNTY OF HENNEPIN
STATE OF MINNESOTA
AN ORDINANCE MODIFYING THE GAS FRANCHISE FEE ON
CENTERPOINT ENERGY FOR PROVIDING GAS SERVICE WITHIN
THE CITY OF RICHFIELD
THE CITY OF RICHFIELD ORDAINS:
SECTION 1. The City of Richfield Municipal Code Appendix E is hereby amended as follows:
Subdivision 1. Purpose. The Richfield City Council has determined that it is in the best
interest of the City to impose a franchise fee on those public utility companies that provide
natural gas and electric services within the City of Richfield.
(a) Pursuant to City Ordinance No. 2003-10, a Franchise Agreement between the City
and CenterPoint Energy ("CenterPoint"), the City has the right to impose a franchise
fee on CenterPoint in an agreed upon amount and fee design, as set forth in Section
6.1 of the CenterPoint Franchise.
(b) Pursuant to City Ordinance 2003-24, the City exercised its right to impose a franchise
fee on CenterPoint. This includes the right to modify the fee amount with the consent
of CenterPoint as to amount and notice period, to which CenterPoint has consented.
Subd. 2. Franchise Fee Statement. Pursuant to Ordinance 2003-24, the franchise fee
imposed on CenterPoint under its Gas Franchise is hereby amended. The amended fee schedule
is attached hereto as Exhibit A and made a part of this ordinance, commencing with the
CenterPoint's January 2005 billing month. The franchise fee is in lieu of all permit fees
otherwise paid by Minnegasco for its use of Public Ways and Public Ground in the City.
Subd. 3. Pavment. The said franchise fee shall be payable to the City in accordance
with the terms set forth as follows. The franchise fee shall be payable quarterly and shall be based
on the complete billing months during the period for which payment is to be made. The payment
shall be due the last business day of the month following the period for which the payment is
made. The fee may be changed by ordinance from time to time, however each change shall meet
the same notice requirements and may not occur more often than annually. Such fee shall not
exceed any amount, which the Company may legally charge to its customers prior to payment to
the City by imposing a surcharge equivalent to such fee in its rates for Gas service. The Company
may pay the City the fee based upon the surcharge billed subject to subsequent reductions to
account for uncollectibles or customer refunds. The time and manner of collecting the franchise
fee is subject to approval of the Public Utilities Commission, which the Company agrees to use
best efforts to obtain. The Company agrees to make its records available for inspection by the City
at reasonable times, provided that the City and its designated representative agree in writing not to
disclose any information that is not public data which would indicate the amount paid by any
identifiable customer or any other information regarding specific customers.
Subd. 4. Surcharge. The City recognizes that the Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission allows the utility company to add a surcharge to customer rates to reimburse such
utility company for the cost of the fee and th;;tt CenterPoint will surcharge its customers in the
City the amount of the fee.
Subd. 5. Record Support for Pavment. CenterPoint shall make each payment when
due and, if requested by the City, shall provide at the time of each payment a statement
summarizing how the franchise fee payment was determined, including information showing any
adjustments to the total surcharge billed in the period for which the payment is being made to
account for any uncollectibles, refunds or error corrections.
Subd. 6. Enforcement. Any dispute, including enforcement of a default regarding this
ordinance will be resolved in accordance with Section 2.5 the Franchise Agreement.
Subd. 7. Effective Date of Franchise Fee. Notwithstanding the effective date of this
ordinance and notwithstanding any contrary provisions in the Franchise, the effective date of the
fee collected under Subdivision 2 of this ordinance is the later of ten (10) days after the
publication or after the sending of written notice enclosing a copy of this adopted ordinance upon
CenterPoint by certified mail. It has been agreed to in advance by CenterPoint's representatives
that CenterPoint will abide by the provisions of this Subdivision 7, provided fee collection will
not commence before the later of the Company billing month set forth in subdivision 2 or the
first billing month commencing 20 days after the foregoing effective date of the franchise fee.
Subd. 8. Fee Review. The City Council shall begin a review of this Ordinance by June
30, 2008 to determine whether to continue, terminate or modify the fee. If the Council deems it
to be in the City's best interest to continue the fee in its current form, no Council action is
necessary. If the Council deems it to be in the City's best interest to terminate or modify the fee,
the Council shall give CenterPoint at least sixty (60) days written notice prior to the proposed
change. Subject to the City's rights under Minnesota law, the City shall obtain the consent of
CenterPoint to any proposed increase in the fee but may unilaterally decrease or terminate the
fee.
SECTION 2. This ordinance takes effect as provided herein.
Read by the City Council of the City of Richfield this 11th day of January, 2005.
^-
en L. Devich, Acting City Manager
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
EXHIBIT A
CENTERPOINT GAS FRANCHISE
FEE SCHEDULE
Class
Residential
Comm-A
Comm/lnd- B
Comm/lnd-C
SVDF-A
SVDF-B
LVDF
Fee Per Meter
$ 1. 60
$ 1.60
$ 4.95
$11.00
$11.00
$11.00
$11.00
Franchise fees are to be collected by the Utility in the amounts set forth in the above schedule,
and submitted to the City on a quarterly basis as follows:
January - March collections due by April 30.
April - June collections due by July 31.
July - September collections due by October 31.
October - December collections due by January 31.
CI
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newspapers
AFFIDAVIT OF PUBLICATION
STATE OF MINNESOTA)
ss.
COUNTY OF HENNEPIN)
Richard Hendrickson, being duly sworn on an oath states or affirms, that he is the Chief Fi-
nancial Officer of the newspaper known as Sun-Current , and
has full knowledge of the facts stated below:
(A) The newspaper has complied with all of the requirements constituting qualification as a
qualified newspaper, as provided by Minn. Stat. S331A.02, S331A.07, and other applic-
able laws, as amended.
(B) The printed public notice that is attached was published in the newspaper once each
week, for ~ successive week(s); it was first published on Thursday, the ---.:!.L day
of Februarv , 2005, and was thereafter printed and published on every Thursday
to and including Thursday, the _ day of
, 2005; and printed below is
a copy of the lower case alphabet from A to Z, both inclusive, which is hereby acknowl-
edged as being the size and kind of type used in the composition and publication of the
notice:
abcdefghijk!mnopqrstuvwxyz
BY'~
Subscribed and sworn to or affirmed before me
on this 17th day of February, 2005.
~ d~
! . vUrL/ ' ..
Not,(,y p ~"1
.
MARY ANN CARLSON
NOTARY PUBlIC - MINNESOTA
MY COMMISSION EXPIRES 1-31-()9
RATE INFORMATION
(1) Lowest classified rate paid by commercial users
for comparable space
$
2.85 oer line
(2) Maximum rate allowed by law
$
6.20 oer line
(3) Rate actually charged
$
1.30 per line
City of Richfield
(Official Publication)
SUMMARY PUBLICATION
BILL NO. 2005-5
AN ORDINANCE MODIFYING THE GAS
FRANCmSE FEE ONCENTERPOINT ENERGY
FOR PROVIDING GAS SERVICE WITmN THE
CITY OF RICHFIELD
The purpose of this ordina~ce ~mend~'mt is to modify the
franchIse fee on CenterPomt .Energy under its Gas Fran-
chIse Agreement commencing with the CenterPoint Ener-
~'s January 2q05 billing month. Thefranchis!, feeis in
heu of a!l permIt fees otherwise paid by CenterPoint En,
e~gy for Its use of Pub he Ways and Public Grounds in the
.Clty.
Class
Residential
Comm-A
Commllnd-B
CQmmllnd-C
SVDF'-A
SVDF-B
LVDF
Fee Schedule
Fee Per Meter
$ l.60
$ 1.60
$ 4.95
$ 11.00
$ 11.00
$ 11.00
$ 11.00
Franchise fees are to be collected by the utility~nd sub-
mitted to the City on ~ quarterly lJai]ig; Thl! utility fflilY
surch,:,rg~ 0e fe~s to ItS cu:,tomers as permitted by law.
The <,::'ty wdl.revlew the .ordmance by June 20, 2008 to de"
termme.wh~therto co~tlnue. termill3te ormodifythefee.
~Qpies oft~eordinance are available'forpublic inspection
m the Pubbc Works Department during.normatbusiness~.
\lours ~r upon r!)quest by calling Mike Eastling Director
ofPubhcWorksat612-861-9792....:.. ....... L .'. ", ....