§ 158-94. Supplemental application charges.

(a)

A utility for which a rate change or change in service application is received shall be assessed by the city council, at any time during the course of the proceedings or within one year of the termination thereof, a supplemental application charge or charges in an amount equal to the administrative costs deemed by the council to be necessary to adequately review and analyze the rate change or change of service application. Such administrative costs shall include, but not be limited to, all costs for consultants and/or consultant services, printing, communication and postage. The payment of any such charge shall be considered a legitimate operating expense of the utility.

(b)

A check for the amount of any supplemental application charge assessed by the city council shall be presented by the utility to the clerk of council within 30 days of receipt by the utility of a written statement of the amount of the assessment. The date of receipt shall be the date on which the assessment is delivered, by either certified mail of the United States Postal Service or by hand, to the main office of the utility in the parish. Legal interest shall be charged on any assessment not paid within the prescribed period and shall accrue from the 31st day following receipt of the assessment. Such interest shall not be allowed as a legitimate operating expense, except for good cause shown.

(c)

On written demand filed with the clerk of council within 15 days of receipt of an assessment for a supplemental application charge, a utility so charged may request further explanation or clarification of the assessment. Upon receipt, which shall be served as provided for in subsection (b), of such explanation or clarification, the utility shall, have 15 days to remit the assessment amount to make a written request filed with the clerk of council for a hearing as to the reasonableness or accuracy of the assessment. The hearing shall be held before the council or its designee within 45 days of the request. The director of the department of finance, the director of the council utilities regulatory office and a representative of the department of law shall appear at such hearing to defend the reasonableness and accuracy of the assessment in question. If the assessment is found to be unreasonable or excessive, it shall be set aside or reduced. The council shall decide the appeal within 60 days of the hearing. The pendency of an appeal under this section shall not suspend the obligation of the utility to make timely payment as set forth in subsection (b). Upon the filing of an appeal prior to payment, however, the payment made shall be deemed a payment under protest and shall be deposited by the city in a segregated and separate interest-bearing account in a city depository bank until the council shall have finally determined the appeal. Any supplemental application charges paid under protest by a utility, person or corporation which are subsequently found, pursuant to this section, to have been unreasonable or excessive and therefore not to have been due, shall be refunded with the interest which has accrued thereof within 30 days of the decision of the council. Any party aggrieved by a final decision of the council under this section may appeal therefrom to the civil district court for the parish.

(M.C.S., Ord. No. 22930, § 1, 12-6-07)