SB 188: Municipal utility district: utility charges: delinquencies.

(1)The existing Municipal Utility District Act authorizes the formation of a municipal utility district. The act authorizes a district to acquire, construct, own, operate, control, or use works for supplying the inhabitants of the district and public agencies with light, water, power, heat, transportation, telephone service, or other means of communication, or means for the collection, treatment, or disposition of garbage, sewage, or refuse matter. The act authorizes a municipal utility district, by resolution or ordinance, to require the owner of record of privately owned real property within the district to pay the fees, tolls, rates, rentals, or other charges for certain utility services rendered to a lessee, tenant, or subtenant, and provides that those charges that have become delinquent, together with interest and penalties, are a lien on the property when a certificate is filed by the district in the office of the county recorder and that the lien has the force, effect, and priority of a judgment lien.

The act, in addition to the above-described methods, establishes procedures, until January 1, 2016, for a municipal utility district to collect delinquent fees, tolls, rates, rentals, or other charges, together with interest and penalties thereon, for services rendered to a lessee, tenant, or subtenant, through the tax roll, in the same manner as property taxes. The act, until January 1, 2016, authorizes a municipal utility district to collect delinquent fees, tolls, rates, rentals, or other charges, together with interest and penalties thereon, for services rendered to a lessee, tenant, or subtenant, by recording in the office of the county recorder of the county in which the affected parcel is located, a certificate declaring the amount of the delinquent charges, together with interest and penalties thereon, which would then constitute a lien against the affected real property of the delinquent property owner in that county and have the force, effect, and priority of a judgment lien. The act, until January 1, 2016, requires a municipal utility district that exercises these collection measures to reimburse the county for the reasonable expenses incurred by the county.

This bill would extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. By requiring county auditors and recorders to undertake certain actions in response to the exercise of collection measures by a municipal utility district, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(2)The act prohibits a municipal utility district from collecting delinquent fees or charges using the above-described collection measures for the furnishing of electrical services and, beginning January 1, 2016, for the furnishing of water or sewer service to residential property.

This bill would permanently authorize a municipal utility district to collect delinquent fees or charges using the above-described collection measures for the furnishing of water or sewer service to residential property.

(3)The act requires any district that places a lien on a property for water or sewer service on or before December 31, 2014, pursuant to the above-described collection measures, to submit a report containing certain information to the Assembly and Senate Committees on Judiciary and to the Assembly and Senate Committees on Local Government on or before January 1, 2015.

This bill would delete this provision.

(4)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.