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Chapter 11. Zoning, Planning, and Utilities
Article 1. Public Service Districts
§58-11.00. Creation. (Amendment 343)
The legislature may, by general or local law, provide for the creation, incorporation, organization, operation, administration, and financing of local districts within Shelby county as public corporations to provide any one or more of the following local public services: (a) fighting and prevention of fires; (b) furnishing water; (c) the collection, treatment and disposal of sewage and/or garbage, trash and solid wastes; (d) the operation of emergency medical services, including rescue and ambulance service; (e) the guarding and protection of lives and property; (f) any other local service permitted by such general or local law; authorize such district to fix and collect rates, fees and charges for such services, and to provide penalties for non-payment and liens upon the property within such district; authorize the borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds and other obligations by or on behalf of such district; provided that Shelby county shall not be responsible for any such bond or obligation and no such bond or obligation shall be chargeable against the limit on the debt of Shelby county. This amendment shall not have been adopted unless a majority of the qualified electors of Shelby county who participate in the election held on the adoption of this amendment vote in favor thereof. Any law enacted at the current session of the legislature to authorize the creation of such districts in Shelby county and to implement this amendment to the Constitution (whether with or without published notice of intention) shall become effective upon the ratification of this amendment. (Amendment 343)
§58-11.01. Additional Provisions. (Amendment 370)
The legislature may, by general or local law, provide for the creation, incorporation, organization, operation, administration, and financing of local districts within Shelby county as public corporations to provide any one or more of the following local public services: (a) fighting and prevention of fires; (b) the operation of emergency medical services, including rescue and ambulance service; authorize such district to fix and collect rates, fees and charges for such services, and to provide penalties for nonpayment and liens upon the property within such district; authorize the borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds and other obligations by or on behalf of such district; provided that Shelby county shall not be responsible for any such bond or obligation and no such bond or obligation shall be chargeable against the limit on the debt of Shelby county. This amendment shall not have been adopted unless a majority of the qualified electors of Shelby county who participate in the election held on the adoption of this amendment vote in favor thereof. Any law enacted at the current session of the legislature to authorize the creation of such districts in Shelby county and to implement this amendment to the Constitution (with published notice of intention) shall become effective upon the ratification of this amendment. (Amendment 370)
Article 2. Water and Sewer
§58-11.20. Mutual Aid Contracts. (Amendment 971)
(a) This amendment shall apply only in Shelby County.
(b) Shelby County and any city, water and sewer authority or board, sewage district, sewer authority, governmental utility service corporation, or private utility company in the county, or any two or more of any of the foregoing, may enter into contracts with each other to provide mutual aid and assistance in restoring electric, water, sewer, or gas services in the event of natural disasters or other emergencies under such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon. Mutual aid contracts may include provisions for furnishing personnel, equipment, apparatus, supplies, and materials; for reimbursement or indemnification of the aiding party for loss or damage incurred by giving aid; for delegating authority to a designated official or employee to send aid upon request; and for any other purposes consistent with this amendment.
(c) Officials and employees furnished by one party in aid of another party pursuant to a mutual aid contract entered into under authority of this amendment shall be conclusively deemed for all purposes to remain officials and employees of the aiding party. While providing aid to another and while traveling to and from another city or county pursuant to giving aid, they shall retain all rights, privileges, and immunities, including coverage under the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act, as they enjoy while performing their normal duties.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law to the contrary, any party to a mutual aid contract entered into under authority of this section, may sell or otherwise convey or deliver to another party to the contract personal property to be used in restoring utility services pursuant to the contract without following procedures for the sale or disposition of property prescribed by any general law or local act.
(e) Nothing in this amendment shall be construed to deprive any party to a mutual aid contract of its discretion to send or decline to send its personnel, equipment, and apparatus in aid of another party to the contract under any circumstances, whether or not obligated by the contract to do so. In no case shall a party to a mutual aid contract or any of its officials or employees be held to answer in any civil or criminal action for declining to send personnel, equipment, or apparatus to another party to the contract, whether or not obligated by contract to do so. (Amendment 971)
§58-11.21. Regulation of Privately Owned Sewer Systems.
(a) This amendment shall apply only in Shelby County.
(b) Except as provided for in subsection (c), any private entity and any privately owned plant, property, or facility for the collection, treatment, or disposal of sewage that uses, directly or through a lease or contract, public rights-of-way of public roads for any part of its collection or disposal system, that discharges to a Grade III or higher wastewater treatment facility as defined in and by the current classification system used by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management on January 1, 2020, and its equivalent classification thereafter, and that has residential or commercial customers that are billed a flat service fee or fee based on water usage, hereinafter referred to as utility or utilities, shall be certified and regulated by the Public Service Commission, which regulation shall include, but not be limited to, regulation of the rates, charges, and increases in rates or charges imposed on its customers. The Public Service Commission shall certify and regulate the entities, plants, facilities, and utilities affected hereby, based on and in accordance with Title 37, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended. Implementation of this amendment, whether gradual or at one time, shall be determined by the Public Service Commission. Until the Public Service Commission determines applicable rates and charges to be imposed on customers, the rates and charges shall be in accord with and governed by the most recent and controlling rate control agreement or in the event there is not a controlling rate control agreement, that utility's most recent published rate.
(c) If the county, a municipality, or a governmental utility service corporation (GUSC) in the county enters into a rate control agreement with an entity or facility described in subsection (b), the county, municipality, or GUSC may opt out of regulation by the Public Service Commission as to and for any residential or commercial customers affected by and are subject to the rate control agreement. In the event a rate control agreement or any part thereof is found to be invalid, or is terminated by the county, municipality, or GUSC that entered into the rate control agreement, or becomes unenforceable or void in whole or in part, then the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission and the provisions in subsection (b) pertaining to regulation by the Public Service Commission shall by operation of law be restored and enforced to the full force and effect of this amendment.
(d) In the event Public Service Commission jurisdiction is restored after the county, municipality, or GUSC has exercised its opt-out provision provided in subsection (c) and has voluntarily terminated the rate control agreement, the county, municipality, or GUSC may not again exercise its power to opt out of Public Service Commission jurisdiction and rate control for a period of five years from the date Public Service Commission jurisdiction is reinstated.
(e) In the event that an entity, plant, property, or facility serves customers located in more than one municipality, the opt-out option provided in subsection (c) shall vest with the municipality that has a rate control agreement executed as of or prior to January 1, 2021, subject to approval of the Shelby County Commission.[1]
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