HomeMy WebLinkAbout1659 - ORDINANCES - 7/28/2004 ORDINANCE NO. 1659
ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS '
ADDING SECTION 3.39 TO CHAPTER 3 OF THE
PALM SPRINGS MUNICIPAL CODE PERTAINING TO
THE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
RESPONSE FEE
The City Council of the City of Palm Springs, California does hereby find and
ordain as follows:
Section 1. Recitals
WHEREAS, in order to improve the performance and ensure the continued
enhanced performance of the City's Emergency Communications Center and its
emergency communication system (herein "Emergency Communication System"), the
City must impose a fee for such enhanced performance.
WHEREAS, the City's Emergency Communication System provides immediate
access to emergency services for telephone subscribers. Subscribers to telephone
service derive significant benefit from the operation of the integrated system installed at
the Emergency Communications Center in the City of Springs. Telephone subscribers
will benefit from upgrading and then maintaining the improved Emergency
Communication System so it operates at a state of the art level and will further benefit
from maintaining the backup Emergency Communication System or providing a new
backup Emergency Communication System and facility that can be immediately ,
available and operational in the event of a failure. The costs associated with upgrading
and thereafter operating and maintaining the Emergency Communication System and
facility and backup Emergency Communication System and facility should be allocated
among all telephone subscribers because telephone subscribers will reap these
significant benefits.
WHEREAS, the Emergency Communications Center is currently staffed by
fourteen (14) dispatchers and two (2) supervisors. The dispatchers are the front line to
public safety and receive the first call for emergency service. Due to increased
population and service many times dispatchers must place emergency calls on hold to
handle radio and telephone traffic. This in turn causes delays in emergency response
and service to the community. This Emergency Response Fee may also be used to
fund new dispatchers and supervisors.
WHEREAS, the purpose of this Ordinance is to require subscribers to telephone
service in the City of Palm Springs to pay a service or user fee (the "Emergency
Response Fee") that is directly related to the benefit subscribers derive from the
improvements to and operation of the upgraded and improved Emergency
Communication Systems that will be financed by those fee revenues. The Emergency
Response Fee is the most practical and equitable revenue mechanism to finance the
acquisition and construction of land, equipment, software, and facilities that are needed
to provide an adequate and reliable emergency communication system and to operate
that emergency communication system. The fee is intended to recover all costs related
to the benefits the Emergency Communication Systems will provide to non-exempt
telephone subscribers, including but not limited to the operation of the Emergency
Communication Center. The fees imposed by the provisions of this Ordinance shall not
exceed the reasonable cost of providing the services described.
Ordinance 1659
Page 2
WHEREAS, the provisions of this Ordinance are not enacted for general revenue
purposes. This fee is not designed nor intended to recover the expense of capture,
detention and prosecution of persons charged with crimes. The fee imposed by the
provisions of this Ordinance does not serve the same purpose as any Utility User Tax
currently in effect in the City of Palm Springs. The funds for the Utility User Tax are
deposited into the City's General Fund and are utilized for general governmental
purposes, whereas fees collected under this Ordinance are used only for the specific
purposes described herein.
WHEREAS, this is not a property-based fee, nor is it an increased tax, but
instead is a fee based on use of a specific service.
NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Palm Springs, California,
does ordain as follows:
Section 2. The City Council of the City of Palm Springs finds that the above recitals
are true and correct.
Section 3. Chapter 3 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code is hereby amended to add
a new Section 3.39 to read in its entirety as follows:
"EMERGENCY RESPONSE FEE"
Sections:
3.39,010 Title/Purpose.
' 3.39.020 Definitions.
3.39.030 Findings.
3.39.040 Imposition of Emergency Response Fee.
3.39.050 Exemptions.
3.39.060 Annual Report,
3.39.070 Collection of Fee.
3.39.080 Emergency Communications Emergency Response Fund.
3.39.090 Liability for Fee.
3.39.100 Registration, Reporting and Remitting.
3.39.110 Interest and Penalties.
3.39,120 Failure to Collect and Report Fee; Determination of Fee by
Finance Director.
3.39.130 Refunds.
3.39.140 Failure to Pay Fee; Administrative Remedy
3.39.150 Administrative Agreements.
3.39.160 California Public Utilities Commission Jurisdiction.
3.39.010 Title/Purpose
A. In order to ensure and improve the performance of the City's Emergency
Communication System, the City must impose a fee. This Chapter shall be known as
the "Emergency Response Fee Ordinance" and the fee imposed herein shall be known
as the "Emergency Response Fee."
' B. The purpose of this Chapter is to require subscribers to telephone service
in the City to pay a fee which is directly related to the benefit subscribers derive from the
improvements to and operation of the Emergency Communication System that will be
financed by fee revenues.
2
Ordinance 1659
Page 3
C. The Emergency Response Fee is the most practical and equitable
revenue mechanism to finance the acquisition and construction of land, equipment,
software, and facilities which are needed to provide an adequate and reliable
Emergency Communication System under a single uniform management structure and
to operate that Emergency Communication System. The fee is intended to recover all
costs related to the benefits the City's Emergency Communication System will provide to
nonexempt telephone subscribers.
D. The fee imposed by the provisions of this Chapter is intended solely to
provide revenue for eligible project costs and eligible operating costs, as defined in this
Chapter. Fee revenues shall be deposited by the Finance Director in the Emergency
Response Fund established pursuant to Section 3.39.080 of the Palm Springs Municipal
Code. The provisions of this Chapter are not enacted for general revenue purposes.
The moneys in the Emergency Response Fund shall be used solely for the purposes set
forth in this Chapter.
3.39.020 Definitions.
Except where the context or particular provisions require otherwise, the following
definitions shall govern the construction of this Chapter.
A. "Access Line" means any connection from a customer location within the
City to a provider of local telephone service offered to the public for compensation.
Within the meaning of this Chapter, and without limitation, access lanes include
connections providing residential basic exchange service, business basic exchange '
service, PBX service (private branch exchange), foreign exchange service and Centrex
service.
B. "Eligible operating costs" means the portion of operating costs reflecting
the benefit estimated to be provided by the operation of the City's Emergency
Communication System to telephone subscribers who are required to pay the fee
imposed by the provisions of this Chapter on access lines and trunk lines subject to the
fee. Eligible operating costs shall not include exempt operating costs.
C. "Emergency Communications Center" means a communications facility
that is assigned the responsibility to receive 911 calls and other emergency response
calls originating in a given area and, as appropriate, to dispatch public safety services or
to extend, transfer, or relay 911 calls or other emergency response calls to appropriate
public safety agencies. Within the meaning of this Chapter, and without limitation,
Emergency Communications Center shall mean the City of Palm Springs Emergency
Communications Center.
D. "Emergency Communication System" means an enhanced emergency
telephone service which automatically connects a person dialing the digits 9- 1 - 1 to an
answering point established within the City and shall incorporate all aspects of the call
delivery system, the call processing system and the call dispatch system, including, but
not limited to, selective routing, automatic number identification (ANI), automatic location
and identification (ALI), Computer aided Dispatching Systems (CAD), and Automatic ,
Vehicle Locater Systems (AVL). References herein to the Emergency Communication
System shall, for the purposes of this Chapter, include calls originating to emergency
lines within the Emergency Communications Center, including all aspects of the call
delivery system, call processing system and call dispatch system relating to such calls.
3
Ordinance 1659
Page 4
E. "Exempt operating costs' means the portion of operating costs reflecting
' the benefits estimated to be provided by operation of the City's emergency and
Emergency Communication System to telephone subscribers who are exempted from
the fee by Section 3.39.050 or are otherwise not required to pay any fee imposed by the
provisions of this Chapter.
F. "Eligible project costs" means the portion of project costs reflecting the
benefit estimated to be provided by the project to telephone subscribers who are
required to pay the fee imposed by the provisions of this Chapter on access lines and
trunk lines subject to the fee. Eligible project costs shall not include exempt project
costs.
G. "Exempt project costs" means the portion of project costs reflecting the
benefits estimated to be provided by the project to telephone subscribers who are
exempted from the fee by Section 3.39.050 of this Chapter or are otherwise not required
to pay any fee imposed by the provisions of this Chapter.
H. "Fee" means the Emergency Response Fee imposed under the
provisions of this Chapter.
I. "Lifeline service" means discounted telephone service available to eligible
low-income residential customers.
J. "Local telephone service" means access to a local telephone system,
providing two-way telephonic quality communication with substantially all persons having
telephone or radio telephone stations constituting a part of the local telephone system,
whether or not the service uses transmission wires. "Local telephone service" shall not
include land mobile services or maritime mobile services as defined in Section 2.1 of
Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as this Section existed on January 1, 1970.
Notwithstanding this exclusion, "local telephone service" shall include wireless telephone
services to the extent that the Emergency Communications Center implements and
maintains a primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) by which 9-1-1 calls from
wireless telephones are geographically routed to the Emergency Communications
Center for handing.
K. "Operating costs" means any costs to operate, repair or maintain the
Emergency Communication System or backup Emergency Communication System,
including but not limited to costs for personnel, planning, training, software and hardware
maintenance and upgrades, facility maintenance and repair, depreciation equipment
replacement, technical infrastructure, attorneys fees, and direct and indirect costs.
L. "Project costs" means any costs of acquiring, refinancing and developing
land on which to locate a Emergency Communication System facility or new backup
Emergency Communication System facility, acquiring and installing computerized call
delivery processing and dispatch equipment and software, and/or any other acquisition
or construction necessary to house Emergency Communication System equipment and
staff in a seismically safe and fireproof facility, including any debt service payments
related thereto.
' M. "Service location" means the premises of a telephone subscriber
at which a working service point or primary station set provides
the subscriber with basic exchange service and to which
extension services are charged.
4
Ordinance 1659
Page 5
N. "Service supplier" means any person supplying local telephone service, pursuant
to authority granted by the California Public Utilities Commission, to any telephone '
subscriber at a location within the City of Palm Springs. Service suppliers may include,
without limitation, local exchange carriers, interexchange carriers, competitive access
providers, cable television providers offering telecommunications services, and any other
entity offering direct connections between their premises and the premises of telephone
subscribers.
O. "Telephone corporation" shall have the same meaning as defined in
Section 234 of the Public Utilities Code of the State of California or the most comparable
successor definition.
P. "Telephone subscriber" means any person required to pay a fee imposed
under the provisions of this Chapter.
Q. "Trunk Line" means a Line between a service supplier's switching device
and a private branch exchange, automatic call distributing system, or other similar
device, at a telephone subscriber location.
3.39.030 Findings.
A. The Emergency Communication System provides immediate access to
emergency services for telephone subscribers. Subscribers to telephone service derive
significant benefit from ongoing operation of the modernized integrated system. This
improved Emergency Communication System has enhanced call delivery, call
processing and call dispatch and has provided for more speedy and reliable emergency
services. Telephone subscribers will benefit from maintaining and upgrading the
improved Emergency Communication System so it continues to operate at a state of the
art level and will further benefit from maintaining the backup Emergency Communication
System that can be immediately available and operational in the event of a failure at the
Palm Springs Emergency Communications Center. A portion of the costs associated
with operating, maintaining and upgrading the Emergency Communication System and
facility and backup Emergency Communication System should be allocated among all
telephone subscribers because telephone subscribers will reap this significant benefit.
B. Every telephone access line can provide independent access to the
Emergency Communication System. Therefore, allocating operating costs on a per line
basis fairly distributes these costs according to the benefit telephone subscribers derive
from availability of a modernized Emergency Communication System.
C. The concentration of a large number of access lines in a single location
diminishes the marginal benefit of improved access provided by each additional access
line; therefore, it is appropriate to place a cap on the number of access lines per account
per service location on which the fee is charged.
D. Subscribers who maintain trunk lines derive more benefit, in terms
of access to emergency communication service, from each
telephone line than other subscribers and should pay a higher fee.
Based on information from the California Public Utilities '
Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, the
City Council now finds that, on average, a trunk line provides 7.5
times more access to the Emergency Communication System
than does a single access line.
5
Ordinance 1659
Page 6
3,39.040 Imposition of Emergency Response Fee.
A. There is hereby imposed an Emergency Response Fee on every person
who maintains access to the Emergency Communication System by subscribing to local
telephone service within the City of Palm Springs. For purposes of this Chapter, with
respect to mobile telecommunications services, a person shall be construed to subscribe
to local telephone service within the City of Palm Springs if he or she has a "place of
primary use", as such term is defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4
U.S.C. § 124(8), within the geographic boundaries of the City.
B. The amount of the fee imposed by this Section shall be established
annually by resolution of the City Council, and shall be paid, on a per-line basis, by the
person paying for such local telephone service; provided, however, that no telephone
subscriber shall be required to pay fees in excess of $10,000 per account per service
location in any calendar year. The amount of the cap established by this subsection shall
be adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers for the Los
Angeles, Anaheim, and Riverside Area for All Items as reported by the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
C. Only one payment of the fee herein imposed shall be required for any
access or trunk line, notwithstanding that access lines of more than one person are used
in furnishing local telephone service to a telephone subscriber.
D. Revenues generated by the emergency response fee shall be deposited
in the Emergency Response Fund established pursuant to Section 3.39.080.
3.39.050 Exemptions
Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed as imposing a fee upon the access
lines of:
A. A lifeline customer of a service supplier; or
B. A telephone corporation; or
C. Coin-operated telephones; or
D. A nonprofit hospital which is exempt from federal income tax under
Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or
E. A nonprofit educational organization which is exempt from income tax
under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or
E. Any person when imposition of such fee upon that person would
violate the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of
the State of California, or preemptive federal or State law.
6
Ordinance 1659
Page 7
3.39.060 Annual Report.
A. No later than March 1" of each year, the Finance Director shall estimate
the percentage of access lines that were subject to payment of the emergency response
fee during the immediately prior fiscal year. This percentage shall be identified as the
percentage of project costs and operating costs that are eligible project costs and
eligible operating costs for the following fiscal year. The Finance Director's report shall
also identify the adjusted amount of the fee cap established by subsection B. of Section
3.39.040 that will apply in the following calendar year.
B. No later than March 1 in each odd numbered year, the Finance Director
will evaluate information from industry sources, regulatory bodies and City experience to
determine whether the fee rates for trunk lines continue to reasonably reflect the
increased estimated access to the Emergency Communication System provided to trunk
line subscribers relative to access line subscribers.
3.39.070 Collection of Fee.
A. The fee imposed by this Chapter shall be collected from the telephone
subscriber by the service supplier. Service suppliers shall hold fee revenues in trust for
the City and shall remit the fee revenues collected to the City Finance Department on a
monthly basis on or before the last day of the following month for which the fee is
charged, unless such other date is agreed to in writing between the Finance Director and
the service supplier.
B. The fee required to be collected by service suppliers under this Chapter '
shall be added to and stated separately as the City of Palm Springs Emergency
Response Fee in the service supplier's billings to telephone subscribers.
C. If the amount paid by a telephone subscriber is less than the full amount
of the charges for telephone service and the emergency response fee which have
accrued for the billing period, a proportionate share of both the charges for telephone
service and the fee shall be deemed to have been paid.
D. The fee shall be collected in the amount designated in the Resolution
setting the fee consistent with this Chapter and shall be collected from the first billing
cycle of the service supplier commencing on or after November 1, 2004.
E. The duty to collect the fee from a telephone subscriber shall commence
with the first billing cycle of the supplier commencing on or after November 1, 2004.
F. The service supplier, at its option, may assess a service charge of up to
one-eighth (1/8) of one percent (1%) of Emergency Response Fees actually collected by
the service supplier and remitted to the City. The service charge may be deducted from
the Emergency Response Fees remitted to the City at the time of remission.
3.39.080 Emergency Communications Emergency Response Fund.
A. Establishment of Fund. The Emergency Communications '
Emergency Response Fund is hereby established to receive all
monies collected pursuant to this Chapter, and any other monies
transferred into the fund.
7
Ordinance 1659
Page 8
B. Use of Fund. The fund shall be used solely for the following purposes:
1. For the payment of costs of acquiring, re-financing and developing land
on which to locate a Emergency Communication System facility or new backup
Emergency Communication System facility, acquiring and installing computerized call
delivery processing and dispatch equipment and software, and/or any other acquisition
or construction necessary to house Emergency Communication System equipment and
staff in a seismically safe and fireproof facility or new backup facility, including any debt
service payments related thereto;
2. For the payment of operating, repair and maintenance expenses for the
Emergency Communication System and backup Emergency Communication System,
including but not limited to costs for personnel, planning, training, software and hardware
maintenance and upgrades, facility maintenance and repair, depreciation, equipment
replacement, technical infrastructure, attorneys fees and direct and indirect overhead
costs;
C. Administration of Fund. Expenditures from the fund shall be made upon
the recommendation of the Police Chief and/or Fire Chief. Expenditures and
encumbrances from this fund shall be subject to the budget and fiscal provisions of the
City.
3.39.090 Liability for Fee.
A. Any fee required to be paid by a telephone subscriber under the
provisions of this Chapter shall be deemed a debt owed by the telephone subscriber to
the City until it has been paid to the City, except that payment to a service supplier is
sufficient to relieve the subscriber from further liability for the fee.
B. Any fee required to be collected under the provisions of this Chapter shall
be deemed a debt owed to the City of Palm Springs by the person required to collect
and remit such fee.
C. Nothing in this Section shall impose any duty on a service supplier to take
any legal action to enforce the collection of the fee hereinabove imposed. However,
whenever a service supplier remits funds collected as an emergency response fee to the
City, the service supplier shall also provide the City with the name and address of any
telephone subscriber refusing or failing to pay the fee for a period of four or more billing
periods and shall state the amount of such fee remaining unpaid. The Finance Director
shall notify the telephone subscriber that the Finance Director has assumed
responsibility to collect the fees due for the stated periods and demand payment of such
fees.
D. Any person owing money to the City under the provisions of this
Chapter shall be liable in an action brought in the name of the City
for the recovery of such amount.
8
Ordinance 1659
Page 9
3.39.100 Registration, Reporting and Remitting.
A. Each service supplier providing local telephone service to telephone
subscribers within the City to which this fee applies shall register with the Finance
Director upon a form prescribed by the Finance Director and shall set forth the name
under which the service supplier transacts or intends to transact business, and such
other information as the Finance Director may require, including but not limited to
information regarding the number access lines and trunk lines serving an area as a basis
for calculation of the fee. The service supplier shall update such forms on a yearly
basis with any changes as may be applicable.
B. Each service supplier shall, on or before the last working day of each
month, make a return to the Finance Director, on forms provided by the Finance
Director, stating the amount of fees collected by the service supplier during the
preceding month. (For example the amounts collected during September 2004 will be
due to the City no later than October 29, 2004). At the time the return is filed, the full
amount of the fee collected shall be remitted to the Finance Director. Payments shall be
made payable to the City of Palm Springs. The Finance Director may require further
readily attainable information in the return. Returns and remittances are due immediately
upon cessation of business for any reason.
3.39.110 Interest and Penalties.
A. Fees required to be collected from a telephone subscriber which are not
remitted to the Finance Director on or before the due date provided in this Chapter are
delinquent.
B. Service Suppliers. Interest and penalties for delinquency in remittance of
any fee not remitted shall be assessed as follows:
1. Any service supplier who fails to remit any fee imposed by this
Chapter by the last working day of the month following the month being reported shall
pay a penalty of 10 percent (10%) of the amount of the fee.
2. If the Finance Director determines that the nonpayment of any
remittance due hereunder is due to fraud, a penalty of 100 percent (100%) of the amount
of the fee shall be added thereto in addition to the penalty stated in paragraph 1 of this
subsection.
3. In addition to the penalties imposed in this subsection B, any
service supplier who fails to remit any fee imposed by this Chapter, shall pay interest on
the amount of the fee, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the remittance first
became delinquent until paid. Interest shall be paid at the rate of one percent per
month, or fraction thereof.
C. Telephone Subscribers. Failure by a telephone subscriber to pay any fee
herein imposed shall result in the following interest and penalties on the telephone
subscriber:
1. Any telephone subscriber who Fails to pay any fee
imposed by this Chapter within 120 days of the
date of the receipt of notice of the amount of fee
due from the service supplier shall pay a penalty of
10 percent (10%) of the amount of the fee.
9
Ordinance 1659
Page 10
2. Any telephone subscriber who fails to pay any delinquent
remittance within 180 days after the date of the receipt of notice of the amount of fee
due from the service supplier shall pay a second delinquency penalty of 10 percent
(10%) of the amount of the fee in addition to the ten percent penalty first imposed.
3. In addition to the penalties imposed in this subsection C any
telephone subscriber who fails to pay any fee imposed by this Chapter, shall pay interest
on the amount of the fee, exclusive of penalties, from the date on which the fee first
became delinquent until paid plus an additional collection charge for each delinquent
account in an amount to be determined by rules and regulations of the Finance Director.
The Finance Director shall establish collection charges which reimburse the costs
incurred by the City for collecting delinquent fees. Interest shall be paid at the rate of one
percent per month, or fraction thereof.
4. The penalties, interest and collection charges imposed in this
subsection C shall not be collected by the service supplier, but shall be determined and
collected by the City as set forth hereinafter.
5. Following non payment of the fee by any telephone subscriber,
the Finance Director may proceed against the telephone subscriber pursuant to
3.39.140 hereof. In such case, the subscriber shall be required to remit the payment
and penalties assessed thereon directly to the Finance Director pursuant to 3.39.140,
D. Every penalty imposed and such interest as accrues under the provisions
of this Section shall become a part of the fee herein required to be paid.
E. Any penalty imposed on the supplier or subscriber pursuant to this
Section may, in the sole discretion of the Finance Director, be waived by the Finance
Director upon a showing of good cause for such waiver.
3.39.120 Failure to Collect and Report Fee; Determination of Fee by
Finance Director.
If any service supplier shall fail or refuse to collect any fee imposed by this
Chapter and to make, within the time provided in this Chapter, any report and remittance
of said fee or any portion thereof required by this Chapter, the Finance Director shall
proceed in such manner as the Finance Director deems best to obtain facts and
information on which to base an estimate of the fee due. As soon as the Finance
Director is able to procure facts and information upon which to base the assessment of
any fee imposed by this Chapter and payable by any service supplier who has failed or
refused to collect the same and to make such report and remittance, the Finance
Director shall proceed to determine and assess against such service supplier the fee,
interest and penalties provided by this Chapter. In case such determination is made, the
Finance Director shall give a notice of the amount so assessed by serving it personally
or by depositing it in the United States mail, postage prepaid, addressed to the service
' supplier at its last known place of business. The service supplier may within 10 days
after the serving or mailing of such notice make application in writing to the Finance
Director for a hearing on the amount assessed. If application by the service supplier for a
hearing is not made within the time prescribed, the fee, interest and penalties, if any,
determined by the Finance Director shall become final and conclusive and immediately
10
Ordinance 1659
Page 11
due and payable. If such application is made, the Finance Director shall give not less
than five days' written notice in the manner prescribed herein to the service supplier to
show cause at a time and place fixed in the notice why the amount specified therein
should not be fixed for such fee, interest and penalties. At the hearing, the service
supplier may appear and offer evidence why the specified fee, interest and penalties
should not be so fixed. After the hearing, the Finance Director shall determine the proper
fee to be remitted and shall thereafter give written notice to the service supplier in the
manner prescribed herein of the determination and the amount of the fee, interest and
penalties. The amount determined to be due shall be payable after 15 days unless an
appeal is taken as provided hereinafter. The decision of the Finance Director shall be
final.
3.39130 Refunds.
A. A service supplier may claim a refund or claim a credit against fees to be
collected and remitted of the amount overpaid or paid more than once, or erroneously or
illegally collected or received by filing a claim in accordance with Chapter 3.16 of the
Palm Springs Municipal Code; provided, however, that neither a refund or a credit shall
be allowed unless the amount of the fee so collected has either been refunded to the
person entitled thereto or credited to the charges subsequently payable by such person
to the service supplier.
B. A telephone subscriber may obtain a refund of fees overpaid or paid more
than once or erroneously or illegally collected or received by the City by filing a claim in
accordance with Chapter 3.16 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code, but only when the
fee was paid by the telephone subscriber directly to the Finance Director, or when the
telephone subscriber, having paid the fee to the service supplier, establishes to the
satisfaction of the Finance Director that the telephone subscriber has been unable to
obtain a refund from the service supplier who collected the fee. The City shall be solely
responsible for administering refund claims arising out of the fact that the telephone
subscriber, pursuant to Section 3.39.040(B), has paid in excess of $10,000 in
Emergency Response Fees during a single calendar year.
3.39.140 Failure to Pay Fee; Administrative Remedy.
Whenever the Finance Director determines that a telephone subscriber has
deliberately withheld the amount of the fee owed by him for the amounts remitted to a
service supplier or that a telephone subscriber has failed to pay the amount of the fee for
a period of four or more billing periods, or whenever the Finance Director deems it in the
best interest of the City, the Director shall relieve the service supplier of the obligation to
collect fees due under this Chapter from certain named service users for specified billing
periods. The Finance Director shall notify the telephone subscriber that the Finance
Director has assumed responsibility to collect the fees due for the stated periods and
demand payment of such fees. The notice shall be served on the telephone subscriber
personally or by United States mail, postage prepaid thereon, addressed to the
telephone subscriber at the address to which billing was made by the service supplier,
or, should the telephone subscriber have changed address, to the subscriber's last
known address. If a telephone subscriber fails to remit the fee to the Finance Director
within 15 days from the date of the service of the notice, which shall be the date of '
mailing if service is not accomplished in person, a penalty of 100 percent (100%) of the
amount of the fee set forth in the notice, but not less than $5, shall be imposed. The
penalty shall become a part of the fee herein required to be paid. Such penalty shall be
in addition to any other penalty imposed by this Chapter.
I
Ordinance 1659
Page 12
3.39.150 Administrative Agreements.
The Finance Director may make administrative agreements with service
suppliers to vary the strict requirements of this Chapter so that collection of any fee
imposed herein may be made in conformance with the billing procedures of a particular
service supplier so long as the overall result of said agreements results in collection of
the fee in conformance with the general purpose and scope of this Chapter. A copy of
each agreement shall be on file and available for public examination in the Finance
Director's Office.
3.39.160 California Public Utilities Commission Jurisdiction.
Nothing contained in this Chapter is intended to conflict with applicable rules,
regulations and tariffs of any service supplier subject to the jurisdiction of the California
Public Utilities Commission. In the event of any conflict, the provisions of those rules,
regulations and tariffs shall control.
Section 4. Severability. It is the intention of the City Council that the sections,
subsections, clauses and phrases of this Chapter are severable, and if any portion of
this Chapter is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a court of
competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity or the remainder of the
Chapter, and the City Council would have enacted such remainder without the portion
found to be invalid or unconstitutional.
Section 5. Legal Construction. The provisions of this Chapter shall be construed as
necessary to effectively carry out its purposes, which are hereby found and declared to
be in furtherance of the public health, safety and convenience.
Section 6. Publication. The City Clerk of the City of Palm Springs shall certify to the
passage and adoption of this Chapter, and shall cause the same to be posted and
published in the manner and the time required by law.
ADOPTED this 28" day of July, 2004
AYES: Members Foat, McCulloch, Mills and Pougnet
NOES: None
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: Mayor Oden
CLC TY�OF PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA
City Clerk Mayor Pro tem
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING Ordinance 1659 was duly adopted
by the City Council of the City of Palm Springs, California, in a meeting held
' on the 28th day of July, 2004, and that same was published in the DESERT
SUN, a newspaper of general circula 'on—on ugust 7, 004.
PATRICIA A. SANDERS
City Clerk