No exclusive franchise shall ever be granted and no franchise shall be granted for a period longer than twenty-five years.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
No franchise shall be renewed earlier than three years prior to its expiration.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
Franchises for railroads and franchises for power lines in excess of thirty-five thousand volts shall specify plainly the streets or other public places or parts thereof to which they apply, and any other franchises shall state the bounds of the district or districts in which they shall be exercised. The City shall have the power, whether or not it is specified in any franchise, to regulate by ordinance, consistent with state law, the placing of wires carrying electricity.
Effective Date: March 25, 2009
Ordinance C34385 Section 41
Proposed ordinances for the granting of franchises, or a summary thereof, shall be filed with the city clerk and published once a week for four successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation before their final reading and final passage by the city council. No proposed ordinance granting any franchise shall be placed upon the city council's agenda for final passage within thirty days after its first reading.
Effective Date: March 25, 2009
Ordinance C34385 Section 42
All franchise ordinances, except as otherwise provided by state law, shall be subject to referendum under the general provisions of this Charter.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
No franchise shall be granted without provision for proper compensation to the City as may be determined by the city council.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
All franchises which include the use of poles or conduits shall reserve for the City suitable space on the grantee's poles or conduit lines as may be required for the City's governmental functions.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
The grant of every franchise shall be made expressly subject to the condition that the council shall have the right with respect to any such franchise so granted:
The foregoing provisions set forth in (A), (B), (C), and (D) shall not be applicable to the extent that the same may conflict with the jurisdiction of the State of Washington utilities and transportation commission or any other state or federal authority.
When any person or corporation against whom any order is directed under the provisions of subdivisions (A), (B), (C), or (D) hereof shall believe such order to be unjust or unreasonable, the person or corporation may test the justice or reasonableness of the order by a proper action in the courts, commenced within thirty days after service of such order, and in such action such order may be entered as shall be warranted by the facts developed upon the trial and the law applicable thereto.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
The City may require every grantee of a franchise whose rates, charges, and services are subject to regulation by the City, to submit to the city council within ninety days after the first day of January of each year an annual report of operations for the prior year, verified by the manager, principal officer, or treasurer of the grantee. The report shall contain detailed information. The City shall have the power to examine the books and records of any such grantee and to compel the production of the books and records pertaining to such report to determine the grantee's revenue from the use of its franchise. When a report is required, any grantee who shall fail to make such report available or refuse to permit such examination shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every day during which the grantee shall fail to file such report or refuse to permit such examination, to be sued for and recovered by the City in any court having jurisdiction.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
Ordinances granting franchises shall contain provisions prohibiting any corporation holding any franchise from issuing any capital stock on account of the franchise or the value thereof. Conditions shall be inserted in all such ordinances that the grantee shall have no right to receive upon a condemnation proceeding brought by the City to acquire the public utility using such franchise any return on account of the franchise or its value.
Effective Date: 1910
No sale or lease of any franchise granted by the City shall be effective until the assignee or lessee shall have filed in the office of the clerk of the City an instrument, duly executed, reciting the fact of the sale or lease, accepting the terms of the franchise affected, and agreeing to perform all the conditions required of the grantee thereunder. The assignee or lessee shall file a bond in such amount and with such conditions as the city council may require, which bond shall run to the City as obligee, with sureties satisfactory to the city council, and shall obligate the grantee, or lessee, to discharge all obligations and liabilities imposed upon the grantee by the franchise.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
Every franchise shall provide that the franchise and all things constructed thereunder, other than rolling stock and power, shall be subject to common use by any other grantee or assignee of any other franchise, whenever there shall be necessity therefor, upon payment or tender of compensation for such use. The question of necessity, compensation and all other questions relating thereto, shall be judicial questions, but no judicial proceeding shall suspend or postpone such use if the person or corporation desiring such common use shall deposit in the court such sums as the court, in a preliminary hearing may determine.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
Every franchise shall contain such provisions as the City shall deem reasonable regarding the commencement and continued use of such franchise and the procedures for termination thereof in the event of nonuse or abandonment.
Effective Date: November 16, 1981
Ordinance C25862
The enumeration and specification of particular matters which must be included in every franchise granted shall not be construed to impair the right of the City to insert in such franchises such other and further conditions and restrictions as the council may deem proper to protect the City's interests.
Effective Date: 1910
