Sierra County Municipal Code Ch. 6.13 Transmission and Distribution of Electricity

The ordinance codified in this chapter grants to Sierra Pacific Power Company, its successors and assigns, the franchise of installing, maintaining and using poles, wires, conduits and appurtenances, including communication circuits, in so many and in such parts of the public roads within the area now being served by Sierra Pacific Power Company in Sierra County, state of California, as the grantee of said franchise may from time to time elect to use for the purpose of transmitting and distributing electricity to the public for any and all purposes.

Franchise is granted pursuant to the provisions of the Franchise Act of 1937, California Public Utilities Code, Division 3, Chapter 2 (commencing with Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 6201), which provisions exclusively govern the granting thereof. Whenever in this chapter the words “grantee” and “county” are used, they shall mean Sierra Pacific Power Company and Sierra County.

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:

“Installing, maintaining and using” shall mean to construct, erect, install, lay, operate, maintain, use, repair or replace.

“Poles, wires, conduits and appurtenances” shall mean poles, towers, supports, wires, conductors, cables, guys, stubs, platforms, crossarms, braces, transformers, insulators, conduits, ducts, vaults, manholes, meters, cutouts, switches, communication circuits, 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 Sierra County, and used or useful in transmitting and/or distributing electricity.

“Public roads” shall mean the public highways, streets, roads, ways and places as the same now or may hereafter exist within the area now being served by Sierra Pacific Power Company in Sierra County, including state highways and/or freeways now or hereafter established within said county.

The franchise of installing, maintaining and using poles, wires, conduits and appurtenances, including communication circuits, in so many and in such parts of the public roads within the area now being served by Sierra Pacific Power Company in said county as the grantee of said franchise may from time to time elect to use, subject to SCC 6.13.050, for the purpose of transmitting and distributing electricity to the public for any and all purposes, is hereby granted to said County to Sierra Pacific Power Company, its successors and assigns.

The term of said franchise shall commence with the effective date hereof, and continue and remain in full force and effect for 50 years, or until such time as the 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, said county, or other public or private 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 situated within the unincorporated area of said 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 the grantee hereof in procuring the same.

All poles, wires, conduits and appurtenances which shall be constructed 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.

Grantee of this franchise shall relocate, without expense to county, any poles, wires, conduits 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 said county, including the construction of any subway or viaduct.

Grantee shall, immediately upon installing, maintaining and using said poles, wires, conduits 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 poles, wires, conduits and appurtenances, or any part thereof.

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

Grantee shall, during the term for which this franchise is granted, pay to said county two percent of the gross annual receipts of applicant arising from the use, operation, or possession of the franchise; provided, however, that such payment shall in no event be less than one percent of the gross annual receipts of applicant derived from the sale within the limits of the county of the utility services for which the franchise is awarded. Such percentage shall be payable annually from the date of the granting of the franchise, and if such payment shall not be made, such franchise shall be forfeited. 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 prior to such decision.

This franchise shall not be exclusive. (Ord. 540, eff. 1/2/79)