§ 134-362. Regulatory fees.

(a)

Only the board may establish and amend regulatory fees.

(b)

First installment of regulatory fee. Each utility holding a certificate from the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) as of the effective date of this article, shall pay a transitional regulatory fee to the authority in an amount equal to the amount of regulatory assessment fee which would have been paid by the utility to the FPSC for that calendar quarter as if that utility were still under the FPSC's Chapter 367, Florida Statutes, jurisdiction. That initial fee shall be paid to the county not later than the date that such fee would have been paid quarterly to the FPSC as if that utility were then still regulated by the FPSC.

(c)

In addition to the said transitional regulatory fee as denoted above, each utility shall pay a regulatory fee to the authority in quarterly installments. Notwithstanding the transition, there will be no time period for which this fee is not applicable. The quarterly installment must be paid within 30 days after the end of the next consecutive fiscal quarter of the utility. Each quarterly installment must be paid within 30 days of the end of each fiscal quarter of the utility. With each payment, the utility shall file with the chairman of the authority, a statement of gross receipts for the applicable quarter, sworn to by an authorized financial officer of the utility.

(d)

After payment of the initial quarter's regulatory fees, regulatory fee shall be four and one-half percent of the utility's gross revenues, derived from the utility's gross receipts billed within the county for the then last 12 months. Such percentage shall continue until changed by rule of the board. Commencing at the beginning of the utility's second calendar quarter, each utility that held a certificates from the FPSC shall decrease its rates pro rata to eliminate the difference between the regulatory fee the utility was required to pay to the FPSC and the regulatory fee the utility must pay to the county.

(e)

The amount of the regulatory fee shall be determined by the board from time-to-time after public hearing thereon, but shall never become effective earlier than 60 days after adoption of each such implementing resolution. The fee shall be charged pro rata to the utility's customers and each utility may add to its customer invoices a separate line item for the then applicable regulatory fee to be paid to the county.

(f)

The regulatory fees are to be used to pay for the ongoing costs of supervising and regulating utilities in the county and enforcing and administering this article, including the county's costs for any court appointed receivers, and for operation, maintenance and/or repair to abandoned franchised utilities, which may include extraordinary repairs to protect the health, safety and welfare of the general public. Extraordinary repairs are those that are neither typical nor customary and which occur infrequently, and payment of which shall require authority approval.

(g)

To account for the time lag between billing and receipt of revenues from its customers, the gross revenues received by the utility during the first three months of the then last four months shall be the sum used to calculate the regulatory fee to be paid to the county in that respective quarter. However, whenever a sale at wholesale is made of any water or wastewater service, this regulatory fee is not to be paid or payable on such revenues received by the selling utility provided the utility purchasing such water or wastewater service resells the same at retail directly to customers, whereupon such fee will be paid based upon those gross receipts by the end-use utility. Also, revenues derived from the retail sale of water or wastewater service to governmental agencies need not be included in determining the amount of such fee. Each utility that derives 50 percent or more of its revenues from the unincorporated area of the county, and which is subject to the provisions of this article as they relate to the rates charged in the unincorporated areas, shall pay the regulatory fee as provided herein. The fee shall be the gross revenues received from the utility's customers residing in the unincorporated area of the county.

(h)

Each franchisee that fails to promptly submit to the county all required fees and accurate statement of gross receipts within the prescribed period shall pay to the county a late regulatory fee charge of one percent of the delinquent fee per month, or fraction of a month.

(i)

All fees, including regulatory fees, collected by the county from utilities pursuant to this article shall be placed in a separate trust account (called the "utility fee trust account") and such funds shall at all times remain separate and distinct from other county funds unless and until the subject regulation of utilities shall be by an entity other than the county, and in such event regulatory fees remaining after paying all expenses of termination of the authority shall be refunded, with any interest accrued thereon, pro rata to each then regulated utility. All such funds at the end of each fiscal year of the county shall automatically become the beginning balance for the succeeding fiscal year.

(Ord. No. 96-6, § 1-12, 2-27-96)