10.02 Gas Franchise & Franchise Fee Ordinances

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SECTION 8. CHANGE IN FORM OF GOVERNMENT. Any change in the form of govemment of the City shall not affect the validity of this Ordinance. Any govemmental unit succeeding the City shall,without the consent of the Company,succeed to all of the rights and obligations of the City provided in this Ordina.nce. SECTION 9. FRANCHISE FEE. 9.1 Fee Schedule. Duting the tertn of the franchise hereby granted, and in addition to any pemut being imposed on the Company,the City may impose on the Company a fra.nchise fee by separate ordina.nce. The parties have agreed that the franchise fee collected by the Company and paid to the City in accorda.nce with tlhis Section 9 shall be a fla.t fee per customer based on metered seYvice to retail customers within the City or on some other simila.t basis. 9.2 Se�arate Ordinance. The feanchise fee shall be imposed by a sepazate ordinance duly adopted by the City Council, which oxdina,nce shall not be adopted until at least 90 days after written notice enclosing such proposed ordinance has been served upon Company by certified mail. The fee shall not become effective until the beginning of a Company billing month at least 90 days after written notice enclosing such adopted ordinance ha,s been served upon Company by certified mail. Section 2.5 shall constitute the sole remedy for solving disputes between Company and the City in regard to the inteYpretation of, or enforcement o� the sepaxate ordinance. No action by the City to implement a separate ordinance will commence until this Ordinance is effective. 9.3 Collection of the Fee. The franchise fee shall be payable quarterly and shall be based on the amount collected by Company duting complete billing months during the period for which payment is to be made by imposing a surcharge equal to the desi�,mated franchise fee for the applicable customer classification in all customer billings for gas service in each class. The payment shall be due the last business da,y of the month following the period for which the payment is made. The franchise fee may be changed by ordinance from time to time; howevex, each change shall meet the same notice requirements and not occut more often than annually. The time and manner of collecring the franchise fee is subject to the approval of the Commission. No franchise fee shall be payable by Company if Company is legally unable to first collect an amount equal to the franchise fee from its customers in each applicable class of customers by imposing a sutcharge in Company's applica,ble rates for gas service. Company may pay the City the fee ba.sed upon the surcharge billed subject to subsequent reductions to account for uncollectibles, refunds and correction of erroneous billings. Company agrees to make its records available for inspection by the City at reasonable times provided that the City and its designated representative agree in writing not to disclose any information which would indica.te the amount paid by any identifiable customer or customers or any othex information regarding identified customers. 9.4 Terms Defined. 9.4.1 "Customer Class" shall xefer to classes listed in the Fee Schedule and as defined or determined in Company's gas rate book on file with the Commission. 9.4.2 "Fee Schedule"refers to the Schedule setting forth the various customer classes from which a franchise fee would be collected if a separate ordinance were implemented immediately aftex the effective date of this franchise agreement The Fee Schedule in the separate ordinance may include new Customer Cla.sses 6