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Home My WebLink AboutCity of Tamarac Ordinance O-1991-022Temp. Ord. #1546 CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA ORDINANCE NO. 0-91---22-- AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA, AMENDING ORDINANCE 76-57 ENTITLED, "AN ORDINANCE GRANTING TO FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS AN ELECTRIC FRANCHISE, AND IMPOSING PROVISIONS AND CONDITIONS RELATING THERETO AND REPEALING ORDINANCE 64-10" AND PROVIDING A SEVERASILITY CLAUSE: A REPEALER PROVISION AND -AN -EFFECTIVE DATE: ---------_------------- WHEREAS, pursuant to Florida Statutes, Chapter 166, the City's Home Rule Powers, and the City's Charter, on January 12, 1977, the City of Tamarac purportedly enacted Ordinance 76-57 granting to Florida Power and Light Company, its successors and assigns ("FPL"), an electric franchise to deliver electricity throughout the City's boundaries on the terms stated therein, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit "A" (the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance"); and WHEREAS, in 1977 the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance was purportedly enacted subject to the powers and rights retained by the City under its Home Rule Powers, and the City Charter, andj WHEREAS, pursuant to its Home Rule Powers and the City's Charter, the Council has the authority and reserved its right to revise, amend, alter or repeal franchise ordinances when the City Council determines that to do so will be conducive to the safety, welfare and accommodation of the publics and WHEREAS, based upon the advice of the City Attorney, City Manager and Director of Finance, the City Council finds that the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance, insofar as it purports to allow FPL to deduct annually all ad valorem real property and personal property taxes owed by FPL to the City from the franchise fees owed by FPL to the City, as currently stated in Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance, constitutes an unenforceable and invalid ultra vires real property and personal property tax exemption which was not authorized in 1976 and is not currently authorized by the Florida Constitution or State laws and WHEREAS, said indirect real property and personal l property tax exemption, as currently stated in Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance, also allows FPL to annually offset against franchise fees FPL owes to the City those ad valorem real property and personal property taxes levied on FPL by the City to repay the City's outstanding general obligation bonds, and said exemption also allows FPL to annually offset against franchise fees FPL owes to the City those ad valorem real property and personal property taxes levied on FPL by the City "without regard to any discount for early payment"= neither of which actions were authorized by Florida law in 1976 and neither of which are authorized currently by Florida law, and neither of which benefits are enjoyed by any taxpayer in the City other than FPL; and WHEREAS, in order to legislatively cure certain legal defects in the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance, and in order to exhaust the City's own administrative and legisla- tive remedies, the City Attorney is recommending that the City Council, as a first step in the process of curing certain legal defects contained in Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance, consider enactment of an amendment, as set forth below, to the 1976'Electric Franchise Ordinance; and WHEREAS, the City Council agrees with the recommendation and advice of the City Attorney, City Manager and Director of Finance and finds that the proposed amendment to the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance is necessary and proper in order to protect the safety, welfare and.accommodation of the public and will serve to legislatively cure certain of the legal defects in Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance, and will thereby serve the best interests of the public by eliminating the onerous and unconscionable effect on all of the other resident taxpayers of the City caused by the indirect ad ---valorem real property and personal property tax exemption enjoyed by only FPL; and WHEREAS, since 1976, FPL's property and facilities located in the City have expanded and are expected to con- tinue to expand, thus, compounding the onerous burden placed upon the City's resident taxpayers as a result Qf the indirect ad --valorem real property and personal property tax exemption enjoyed only by FPL under Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinances and WHEREAS, the City Council finds that the enactment of the proposed amendment to the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordin- ance will only serve to cure the legal defects contained in Section 6 thereof and accordingly, will not create an undue or unreasonable hardship on FPLI and WHEREAS, the City Council finds that the proposed amend- ment to the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance has been duly noticed and advertised in accordance with applicable Florida laws and that the City Council has conducted open public hearings on the proposed amendment to the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance in accordance with applicable Florida law. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF l�Irt THE CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA: 1 2- SECTION-1 s That the preamble set forth above is true 3 and -correct and is hereby incorporated in its entirety as the 41 legislative intent of the City Council and is hereby made a S part of this Ordinance. 6 SECTION-2 : Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance is amended to read as follows: d 'That not later than sixty days after the first anniversary date of this grant and no later than �9 sixty days after each succeeding anniversary date of this grant, the Grantee, its successors and Ip assigns, shall have paid to the Grantor and its successors an amount which added to the amount of Il e��-taxes-ns-assessed;--�evied;-er-imposed-��ritheest regard--te-any--dxeeenr�t-fer---enr�p-pn�neat--er-nap (; interest--or-penalty-fer-*ate-payment} licenses, and other impositions levied or imposed, other -than 13' ad valorem-real-and-personal-property---taxes-levied or im2osed , by the Grantor upon the Grantee's 14 electric property, business, or operations, and those of the Grantee's electric subsidiaries for IS the preceding tax year, will equal six percent of the Grantee's revenues from the sale of electrical - energy to residential, commercial and industrial' customers within the corporate limits of the Grantor for the twelve fiscal months preceding the applicable anniversary date." SECTION 3 s If any word, phrase, clause, subsection or section of this ordinance is for any reason held unconstitu- 0 --a tional -or invalid, the invalidity thereof shall not affect the validity of any remaining portions of this ordinance. SECTION-4 s That all sections or parts of the Code of Ordinances, all ordinances or parts of ordinances, including, without limitation, Ordinance No. 76-56, and all resolutions or parts of resolutions, in conflict herewith, be and the same are hereby repealed, but. only to the extent of such conflict. Section 5 s That this Ordinance shall be in full force and take effect upon the earlier to occur of the following events: (i) The date upon which the City receives the written consent of Florida Power and Light Company to this Ordinances (ii) The date upon which the City obtains an order from the court of competent jurisdiction declaring that the indirect property tax exemption provided for in Section 6 of the 1976 Electric Franchise Ordinance is invalid and unenforceable. PASSED FIRST READING this 8th day of May, 1991. PASSED SECOND READING this 22nd day of May, 1991. WWWWWrr--UnFA D� ATTEST: CAROL A. EVANS RECORD OF COUNCIL VOTE CITY CLERK MAYOR ABRAMOWITZ ,/I DISTRICT 1: _ C/M KATZ 1 ,4 I HEREBY CERTIFY that I have DISTRICT 2: _ C/M SCtjU ANN� approved this ORDINANCE as S to form. DISTRIGT3:, 0/1rd GLASSER DISTRICT 4: VIM BENDER ALAN F. RUF C Y ATTORNEY ordinance.fpl