Modoc County Municipal Code Ch. 13.16 Pacific Gas and Electric Company Franchise

Whenever in this chapter the words or phrases hereinafter in this section defined are used, they shall have the respective meanings assigned to them in the following definitions:

A. The word "grantee" means Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and its lawful successors or assigns in respect to the franchise hereby granted.

B. The word "county" means the county of Modoc, a political subdivision of the state of California, in its present form or in any later reorganized, consolidated or enlarged form.

C. The word "franchise" means the right, privilege and franchise hereinafter more particularly described.

D. The phrase "public roads" means the public highways, streets, roads, ways and places as the same now or may hereafter exist within county, including state highways and/or freeways now or hereafter established within county.

E. The phrase "pipes and appurtenances" means pipes, pipelines, mains, services, traps, vents, vaults, manholes, meters, gauges, regulators, valves, conduits, appliances, attachments, appurtenances and, without limitation to the foregoing, any other property, located or to be located in, upon, along, across, under or over the public roads within county, and used or useful in conveying and/or distributing gas.

F. The phrase "installing, maintaining and using" means to lay, construct, erect, install, operate, maintain, use, repair or replace.

(Ord. 166 §1, 1959)

The franchise of installing, maintaining and using pipes and appurtenances in so many and in such parts of the public roads as the grantee of said franchise may from time to time elect to use, subject to Section 13.16.040, for the purpose of conveying and distributing gas to the public for any and all purposes, is hereby granted by county to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, its successor and assigns.

(Ord. 166 §2, 1959)

The term of said franchise shall commence with the effective date hereof, and continue and remain in full force and effect until such time as grantee shall surrender or abandon same or said franchise shall be forfeited for noncompliance by the possessor thereof with its terms, or the state of California, county or other public corporation thereunto duly authorized, shall purchase by voluntary agreement or shall condemn and take under the power of eminent domain in accordance with then existing law all property actually used and useful in the exercise of said franchise situate within the unincorporated area of county. Said franchise shall never be considered or taken into account, in fixing the value of said property, in excess of the actual cost to grantee hereof in procuring the same.

(Ord. 166 §3, 1959)

All pipes and appurtenances which shall be laid and used under and pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, and in the exercise of said franchise shall be installed, constructed and maintained in a good and workmanlike manner under the direction of the county road commissioner and shall be maintained in compliance with all valid laws and ordinances from time to time in force.

(Ord. 166 §4, 1959)

Grantee of this franchise shall relocate, without expense to county, any pipes and appurtenances theretofore installed, and then maintained or used under this franchise, if and when made necessary by any lawful change of grade, alignment or width of any public road by county, including the construction of any subway or viaduct, provided, however, that the cost of any such relocation made necessary by the construction or any lawful change of grade, alignment or width of any freeway constructed by the state of California shall be divided equally between grantee and the state of California.

(Ord. 166 §5, 1959)

Grantee shall, immediately upon installing, maintaining and using said pipes and appurtenances, or any part thereof, at its own cost and expense place said public roads, or so much thereof as may have been damaged thereby, in as good order and condition as that in which they were before being disturbed or excavated for the purpose of installing, maintaining and using said pipes and appurtenances, or any part thereof.

(Ord. 166 §6, 1959)

Grantee shall have the right of installing, maintaining and using any or all of such pipes and appurtenances from time to time as may be necessary and proper.

(Ord. 166 §7, 1959)

Grantee shall, during the term for which this franchise is granted, pay to county two percent of its or their gross annual receipts arising from the use, operation or possession thereof; provided, however, that no percentage shall be paid for the first five years succeeding the date of the grant of said franchise, but thereafter such percentage shall be payable annually, and if such payment shall not be made, such franchise shall be forfeited; provided, however, that if said franchise be a renewal of a right already in existence, the payment of said percentage of gross receipts shall begin at once. The method of computing said payment shall be in accordance with that laid down by the Supreme Court of the State of California in its construction of the foregoing language, and any future modification of such method set forth in any decision of the Supreme Court hereafter rendered shall supersede the method employed prior to such decision.

(Ord. 166 §8, 1959)

The measure or amount of annual payment hereunder may be changed at the end of any fifty-year period of this franchise in accordance with the following procedure and subject to the following conditions:

A. At least one year prior to the end of any fifty-year period, one party may give written notice to the other party that it desires to change the measure or amount of annual payment hereunder; such written notice shall specify the proposed new measure or amount of annual payment.

B. This franchise shall be subject to a change in measure or amount of annual payment only if there has occurred an amendment to the Broughten Act making a change in the compensation formula currently contained in Section 6006 of the California Public Utilities Code.

C. If the parties cannot agree as to the proposed change in the measure or amount of annual payment, the matter or matters shall be submitted to a board of arbitration for determination thereon. Such determination by said board shall be in writing and shall be final and conclusive and binding upon both parties. Such board of arbitration shall consist of three members, one to be selected by county, one to be selected by grantee, and one to be selected by the two so named by the parties.

(Ord. 166 §9, 1959)

The franchise is granted under and pursuant to the provisions of the laws of the state of California which relate to the granting of franchises by counties.

(Ord. 166 §10, 1959)

This franchise shall not be exclusive.

(Ord. 166 §11, 1959)