§ 22-301. General provisions.

(a)

Bills. Said rates or charges for sewer service shall be payable monthly. The owner of the premises, the occupant thereof and the customer shall be jointly and severally liable to pay for the service to such premises and the service is furnished to the premises by the city only upon the condition that the owner of the premises, occupant and customer of the service are jointly and severally liable therefor to the city.

(b)

Nonpayment. Sewer bills shall be due and payable no later than the twenty-fifth (25th) day after the billing date. If any such bill, except for those to governmental agencies, is not paid within said twenty-five-day period, a ten (10) percent service charge for late payment shall be assessed and added to the amount due. The customer shall be advised by notice that if he does not agree with the bill he can ask for a hearing on the merits of the sewer usage charged, or his sewer service will be disconnected and his bill considered delinquent ten (10) days following such notice, if full payment is not made. The director of public works is designated as hearing officer, and shall conduct a hearing when requested by a customer, and shall have the authority to rectify billing errors. The customer shall be notified of the time and place for the hearing. After the hearing, the facts shall be reduced to writing, and the director of public works shall make a determination on the basis of these facts. A copy of this decision shall be sent to the customer and if the decision is adverse to the customer. The customer shall have ten (10) days to pay the bill prior to disconnecting service. All notices shall be considered as given when deposited in the mail or personally served. The same hearing procedure outlined above shall be followed when a customer is not delinquent but makes a complaint or inquiry concerning his bill which cannot be resolved to the customer's satisfaction by the director of public works.

(c)

Liens and collection actions. Pursuant to 65 ILCS 5/11-141-16, delinquent charges for sewer shall be a lien upon the premises as provided by statute. Whenever a bill for sewer service becomes delinquent, as provided hereinabove, the city administrator may file with the Recorder of Effingham County a notice of lien in the statutory form. If the sewer customer whose bill is unpaid is not the owner of the premises, and the city administrator has notice of this, notice shall be mailed to the owner of the premises, if his address is known to the city administrator, prior to filing a notice of lien. The failure of the city administrator to record such notice of lien or to mail such notice or the failure of the owner to receive such notice, shall not affect the city's right to foreclose the lien for unpaid water bills as provided by law. In addition, pursuant to 65 ILCS 5/11-141-16, the city administrator may direct the city attorney to sue a customer for delinquent sewer service bills, plus attorney fees.

(d)

Revenues. All revenues and moneys derived from the operation of the waste water treatment system shall be deposited in the sewerage account of the sewerage fund. All cash revenues and moneys shall be held by the city treasurer separate and apart from all other funds of the city and all of said sum, without any deductions whatever, shall be promptly delivered to the city treasurer. The city treasurer shall receive all such revenues from the sewerage system and all other funds and moneys incident to the operation of such system as the same may be delivered to him and deposit the same in the account of the fund designated as the "Sewerage Operation and Maintenance Fund of the City of Effingham." Said treasurer shall administer such fund in every respect in the manner provided by statute. The city treasurer is herewith authorized and directed to establish a separate equipment replacement account and to place an amount of seven thousand dollars ($7,000.00) per month (eighty thousand thirty-five dollars ($80,035.00) annually) from sewer use revenues into said account until such time as the total amount of the fund equals five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00).

(e)

Accounts. The city shall establish a proper system of accounts and shall keep proper books, records, and accounts in which complete and correct entries shall be made of all transactions relative to the sewerage system, and at regular annual intervals shall cause to be made an audit by an independent auditing concern of the books to show the receipts and disbursements of the sewerage system.

(f)

Audit. In addition to the customary operating statements, the annual audit report shall also reflect the revenues and operating expenses of the wastewater facilities, including a replacement cost, to indicate that sewer service charges do in fact meet these regulations. In this regard, the financial information to be shown in the audit report shall include the following:

(1)

Flow data showing total gallons received at the wastewater plant for the current fiscal year.

(2)

Billing data to show total number of gallons billed.

(3)

Debt service for the next succeeding fiscal year.

(4)

Number of users connected to the system.

(5)

Number of non-metered users.

(6)

A list of users discharging non-domestic wastes and volume of waste discharged.

(g)

Access to records. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or their authorized representatives shall have access to any books, documents, papers and records of the city which are applicable to the city's system of user charges for the purpose of making audit, examination, excerpts and transcriptions thereof to insure compliance with the terms of the special and general conditions to any state or federal grant.

(h)

Notice of rates. A copy of this ordinance properly certified shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk of Effingham and shall be deemed notice to all users of the city's sewerage system of the charges of the sewerage system of said city. The city clerk will annually notify the users of wastewater treatment services in conjunction with a regular bill, of the rate and that portion of the user charges which are attributable to (a) the wastewater treatment operation and maintenance (b) replacement and (c) debt service and capital outlay.

(i)

Equipment replacement. The city treasurer and city administrator are authorized and directed to pay the necessary costs of replacement of sewage treatment equipment at the waste water treatment facility or excess flow treatment facility as necessitated from time to time for dependable and efficient operation of said facilities from the equipment replacement account. The city administrator shall annually prepare and present to the city council a schedule detailing the equipment proposed to be replaced at said waste water treatment facilities. For the purpose of this ordinance, "equipment replacement" is defined as the obtaining and installing of equipment, accessories and appurtenances as necessary to insure dependable and efficient operation of a wastewater treatment facility during its useful life.

(j)

Annexation policy. Any person using the public sewer system and/or public wastewater facilities of the city and the property being so served is located outside of the corporate boundaries of the city, such person shall, upon the written request of the city, annex the property being so served by the public sewer system and/or public wastewater facilities upon becoming contiguous to the corporate boundaries of the city. In the event that such person refuses to annex said property into the city, the city shall have the right to disconnect the property from the public sewer system and/or public wastewater facilities.

(k)

Underground leaks. In the case of underground leaks on a person's property which may have been verified by the city and which cause a monthly sewer bill of more than twice the average monthly sewer bill (based on bills for the prior twelve-month period), the customer's monthly sewer bill shall be adjusted to the average monthly sewer bill for the past twelve (12) months once the leak is fixed. This policy shall apply to mobile homes parks.

(Ord. No. 4-2011, Ch. C, Art. II, 1-18-2011)