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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrd - 089 - Establishing Rates, Rules and Regulations for Water Services '" .- ----. 1 ORDINANCE NO. 89 2 AN ORDINANCE OF THE EAST SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY WATER DISTRICT, 3 4 AMENDING ARTICLE 5, PARAGRAPH 75 THEREOF, AND ARTICLE 10, PARAGRAPH 181 THEREOF, OF ORDINANCE NQ. 4, ENTITLED 5 6 I ESTABLISHING RATES, RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR WATER SERVICE BY THE EAST SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY WATER DISTRICT', Be it ordained by the Board of Directors of the East San 7 8 Be~nardino County Water District as follows: 9 10 SECTION 1. Article 5, Paragraph 75 and Article 10, Para- gra,ph 181 of Ordinance No.4, entitled 'Establishing Rates, Rules 11 12 and Regulations for Water Service by the East San Bernardino County Water District', adopted November 3, 1954, are hereby ame:nded to read as follows: 13 14 ARTICLE 5. APPLICATION FOR REGULAR WATER SE:RVICE 15 16 75. A property owner or his agent may make application 17 fo:l:' Regular Water Service by signing "Application for Water 18 19 Service" provided by the District, and shall deposit with the DÜ,trict $10.00 for security of payment of District Water Charges, 20 sald deposit shall be refundable only when a new owner or tenant 21 makes a like deposit for the same property. 22 23 ARTICLE 10. BILLING 181. Consumer's Guarantee. The water charge begins when 24 a service connection is installed and the meter is set, unless the 25 26 water is ordered to be left shut off when the service connection is ordered to be installed. Before water is turned on by the 27 28 Dis:trict for any purpose whatever, the property owner must sign a form in which he guarantees payment for future water bills for 29 30 the, service required, and shall deposit with the District $10.00 for security of payment of District Water Charges, said deposit refundable only when a new owner or tenant makes a like deposit 31 32 for same property. The person signing the guarantee form or meter se1: form will be held liable for water used until the Board is Page 1. ..-. - -- 1 2 not,ified in writing to discontinue service or to transfer the account to another property owner. 3 SECTION 2. All Ordinances and parts of Ordinances incon- sistent are hereby repealed. SECTION 3. This Ordinance shall take effect March 1, 1959. 4 5 6 7 8 9 ATT:BST: 10 11 12 13 14 :Cú f the Board of f the East San County Water District. 15 I hereby certify that the foregoing ordinance was duly 161 and regularly adopted and passed by the Board of Directors of the 17 East San Bernardino County Water District at a meeting thereof 18 19 held on the 23rd day of February, 1959, by the following vote: AYES, Directors: Botts, Brooks, Littleton, Taylor, Wall NOES, Directors: None ABSENT, Directors: None 20 21 22 23 \ /h, ,;!,- ') /' ::/¡.1!t¿¿- ..4, /ø.~ Myrl~ G. ~orth, Secretary 24 25 26 27 S -p~ ~~ 28 29 30 31 32 ~'" ) ^, ~',. " t- / - C d(t.tJl KENNETH R. l-IENRY ATTORNEY AT LAW. 211 BLACKSTONE IIUILO\NG 362 NORH< ARROWHEAD AVENUE SAN BERNARDINO, CAllFORNIA / < j~/. JfV'" / -/ TURNER 4-4759 November 28, 1962 í-ILk Ie:> C'D, ,1'7 Mr. Harold G. Rickert East San Bernardino County Water District 7337 Del Rosa Avenue San Eernardino, California Re: $10.00 deposit required by Ordinance No. 89 Dear Mr. Rickert: By letter dated November 23, 1962, you have informed me that a Mr. Edward ív. Klindy has deposited with the District a "Time Certificate of Deposit" in lieu of the usual $10.00 cash deposit. You enclosed a Thermo-Fax copy of the Time Certificate of DEIposit vlhich has been issued by the Del Rosa branch of the Security First National Bank. In general, the certificate is made payable to the District as trustee for Edward VI. Klindy. The certificate provides for interest at the rate of 3!.ffo per annum. You also enclosed a copy of District Ordinance llo. £9 which, in general, provides that a property ounce upon making application to the District for vlater services "shall deposit with the District $10.00 for security of payment of District I'later Char- ges, said deposit shall be refundable only when a new ovmer or tenant makes a like deposit for the same pl.'òperty". The ordinance further provides, in part, that "Before water is turned on by the District for any purpose whatever, the property owner must sign a form in which he guarantees payment for future water bills for the service required, and shall deposit with the District $10.00 for secuL'ity of payment of District Water charges, and said deposit refundable only when a new OIvner or tenant makes a like deposit for same property". You have asked for my opinion with reference to whether' or not the Time Certificate of Deposit can or should be accepted by the District in lieu of a $10.00 cash deposit. I know this is the first instance in which a security other than cash has been deposited with the District. I also know that the District holds a substantial amount of money which has been deposited by appli- cants for water service. It would be desirable if the District could insist upon cash deposits rather than the "Time Certificate of DE,posit" or some other security deposit. However, it is doubt- ful that the District could legally refuse to accept this Time 'Certificate of Deposit." The ordinance itself does not specify /, '/'--'--'" >-i <\, /i' -- . ...,.. ..... ~ (~' " '-",./ Hr. Harold G. Rickert Page 2 NoveIT~er 28, 1962 $10.00 "in cash" or "in lawful money of the United states". Not- \~ithstanding this lack of specification, it might be a~gued that it wa,s the intention of the Board as a legislative body when it adopted Ordinance No. 89, that there shoulú be a cash deposit. Indeed, the Board could adopt a further amendQent specifically, requiring a cash deposit. However, if teither the present ordinance or such an amended ordinance were ever tested in Court, I do not believe that a Judge would look with favor upon the insistence of the District that a cash deposit Vias necessa;:y. After all, the deposit is required as security for the payment of'water bills. If a surety bond or the Time Certificate of Deposit under consid- eration here is offered, such surety bond OL Time Certificate of Deposit is just as good a guarantee for pa~nent of future water bills as a cash deposit. Indeed, if we argued the necessity of a cash deposit, then either an applicant or a Court could justifiably take the position that interest should be paid on cash deposits. _.--~-;¡;!J. my oP;!.Q!O,l}~._ll.Qj;JL.fJgl))..!.11.~_;t§'9.al._,?!)('l.p.r...?ç!-i.c~J.. ,E!:t,an.èl::.,. po in t5l..!-!J:1.'.:' _Jj..E!.~..~,t.HJs.~.t~..Q,t..P..~P..9.ê.:jJ:,_,:;¡hQ 4).,9. .P!'.., f.\<:;ç t;!.Pte.çJ", afJ ",J;¡,d~ ;j,p......Ç.Q~:!;Jl..J,>.r~_¡:¡;Ç!..-_8.9..,~. If there were a refusal to accept it, then there would be adverse publicity and there might even be an ultimate Court ruling in favor of the applicant. The result would be that more applicants would make use of this or some other type of security deposit rather than making a cash deposit. Of course, deposits other than cash should be discouraged, but if the applicant insists on such security deposits as that offered by Mr. Klindy, they should be accepted. ~v~rY trul~';:;/ ft-P/11¿L-.¿l7 f/¿ryß/~r enneth R. Henry / KRH/d;ps "