Modesto Municipal Code Art. 2 Motor Buses

(a) The word "street" as used in this article shall mean and include any street, alley, avenue, road, lane or public place in the City.

(b) The words "motor bus" shall mean and include any motor vehicle doing business on the streets of the City and conveying passengers or transporting parcels or packages within the city over fixed routes and on established schedules. Automobiles used exclusively as hotel buses and school buses, and taxicabs, and other automobiles or conveyances conveying passengers, parcels or packages for hire not over fixed routes or on established schedules, are not to be deemed included in said term as used on this article.

(c) The term "grantee" as used in this article shall mean and refer to the person to whom a permit or license shall be granted under the provisions thereof.

(Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 1039-N.S.)

It shall be unlawful for any person to operate or cause to be operated any motor bus for the transportation of persons or parcels or packages for compensation on any public street in the City, unless a permit and license from the Council shall have been first secured as herein provided. Application for such permit shall be made to the Council by the person proposing to operate such motor bus. Said application shall be made in writing and verified by the applicant, and shall specify the following matters:

(a) The name and address of the applicant, or if said applicant be a corporation, then the principal place of business of said corporation and the names and residences of its officers.

(b) A brief description of the character of vehicles which the applicant intends to operate; and the route over which he intends to operate the same, showing schedules of stops and operating time.

(c) An agreement or promise of the applicant to conform to and comply with all the requirements of the permit to be granted upon said application pursuant to the provisions of this article, and also to comply with all the provisions and requirements of this article and with all valid laws existing from time to time regulating the operation of motor vehicles in the City.

(d) A brief statement of facts showing that the public convenience and necessity require the granting of such permit or license.

(Ord. 306-N.S.)

The Council shall act upon said application within thirty (30) days after the same is filed. If the said Council, after public hearing or otherwise, shall find and determine that the public convenience and necessity require the granting of such application, the said Council shall issue the permit as prayed for; but if it shall find that the public convenience and necessity do not require the granting of such application, then the application shall be denied.

(Ord. 306-N.S.)

If the application is granted and the permit issued, it shall contain the following statements:

(a) The name of the grantee.

(b) The term for which the permit is granted, which shall not exceed ten (10) years.

(c) A statement that the grantee is entitled by reason of the permit so granted, to procure a license to operate a motor bus on the streets of the City subject to the provisions of this article.

Such permit shall be signed in duplicate under the authority and pursuant to the direction of and on behalf of the Council by the City Clerk, and one (1) copy filed in the office of the City Clerk and one (1) copy delivered to the grantee.

(Added by Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 626-C.S., effective 1-8-64)

Upon the filing of said permit with the City Clerk, the said Clerk shall issue a license to the grantee of the permit, which license shall refer to the permit by its number and the date of filing the same in the office of the Clerk, and shall state that the grantee is entitled to operate a motor bus or motor buses in the City upon the terms and conditions prescribed in said permit and in this article and upon the routes and for the period designated in said permit, unless said license and permit is surrendered or revoked pursuant to the provisions of this article or said routes changed as provided herein.

(Ord. 306-N.S.)

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this article, no license shall be issued hereunder unless prior to the granting thereof applicant shall have paid to the Director of Finance a license fee in the sum of fifty dollars ($50.00). Every application for a license submitted in accordance with the provisions of this article shall be accompanied by a cash deposit of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00), or by a certified check for said amount, payable to the City, as a fund out of which to pay all expenses connected with the application.

In the event the license is granted by the Council, said deposit shall constitute a license fee and will be deposited in the City treasury. In the event the license is not granted by the Council, there shall be deducted from said deposit a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of processing said application and the balance remaining, if any, shall be returned to applicant. Costs to be deducted from said deposit shall include any and all expenses incurred by the City in connection with the advertising, traffic engineering, clerical work and granting of the application.

The issuance of a license under the provisions of this article shall not exempt the grantee from complying with the provisions of Chapter 1 of Title 6 of this Code relating to licensing.

(Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 1039-N.S., and Ord. 626-C.S., effective 1-8-64)

In order to ensure the safety of the public and in order to ensure reasonably adequate service of any such grantee of a permit or license, the grantee of any such permit or license shall comply with each and all of the following requirements, the breach of any of which requirements shall be unlawful and shall be cause for the revocation or suspension of such permit or license in the discretion of the Council.

(a) Each motor bus licensee shall provide the Finance Director with evidence of insurance coverage in the amount and form as approved by the City's Risk Manager. Such amounts shall be set forth from time to time by resolution of the City Council.

(b) Any motor bus operating under the authority of such permit or license shall comply with all of the provisions established by the laws of the State.

(c) Every motor bus operated under the authority of such license or permit shall stop to take on and let off passengers at specified points, and wherever provisions shall be made therefor by the Council, shall stop next to the curb at spaces reserved for that purpose.

(Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 235-N.S., Ord. 489-N.S., Ord. 241-C.S., Ord. 626-C.S., Ord. 2893-C.S., § 1, and Ord. 3419-C.S., § 1, effective 10-5-06)

Current schedules as to routes, stopping places and operating times shall be filed with the City Clerk. Changes in the routes, stopping places and operating times shall be filed with the City Clerk at least ten (10) days before such change is to be placed in effect.

(Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 626-C.S., effective 1-8-64)

(Repealed by Ord. 241-C.S., effective 5-29-58)

Every motor bus company operating under a permit issued by the Council shall file with the City Clerk a duplicate of the annual report of revenues and expenses he is required to file with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California as soon as practicable after the original has been filed with said Commission.

(Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 626-C.S., effective 1-8-64)

If any holder of any permit or license hereunder shall for any consecutive period of more than sixty (60) days fail to operate motor buses thereunder, except when prevented from doing so by strikes, storms, destruction of property, acts of God or other unavoidable cause, the Council may at its option, revoke or suspend such license or permit.

(Ord. 306-N.S., amended by Ord. 626-C.S., effective 1-8-64)

The violation by the grantee of any of the terms or conditions of such license and permit shall be cause for the revocation or suspension of the same; but before any license and permit shall be revoked or suspended by the Council for any alleged violation of the terms thereof, the grantee of such license and permit, shall be entitled to a public hearing before the Council upon ten (10) days' notice given to the grantee in the manner prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure of the State of California for service of summons in a civil action.

(Ord. 306-N.S.)

The holder of any such permit and license may surrender the same at any time and discontinue the operation of such motor bus by giving thirty (30) days' previous notice to the said Council of the proposed surrender of the same, and after the expiration of said period of thirty (30) days the said permit and license shall become ineffectual and the holder thereof shall be under no further obligation to maintain motor bus service in the City as herein defined.

(Ord. 306-N.S.)

Any license and permit granted or issued hereunder shall entitle the grantee thereof to operate motor buses either personally, or by his, her or its employees, agents and representatives.

(Ord. 306-N.S., § 14)

Any permit and license granted pursuant to this article may be assigned by the grantee thereof to any other person provided that as a condition to the effectiveness of such assignment the Council shall by resolution approve the same upon an application therefor filed with the City Clerk at least ten (10) days prior to the meeting of the Council at which the application for such approval is to be acted upon.

(Ord. 306-N.S., § 16)

Nothing contained in this article, nor in any permit issued pursuant thereto shall be construed as limiting or restricting the power of the City through its Council to grant permits to more than one (1) person, if in the judgment of said Council, the public convenience and necessity require the granting of additional permits to additional applicants.

(Ord. 306-N.S., § 17)