2012-258ORDINANCE NO. 2O12-ZSS
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF
DENTON, TEXAS BY ADDING SECTION 26-12 THERETO; PROVIDING FOR THE IM-
POSITION OF A LIEN ON REAL PROPERTY, OTHER THAN HOMESTEAD PROPERTY,
FOR DELINQUENT MUNICIPAL UTILITY BILLS FOR UTILITY SERVICE TO THE RE-
AL PROPERTY; PROVIDING FOR A SAVINGS CLAUSE; PROVIDING FOR A SEVERA-
BILITY CLAUSE; PROVIDING FOR PUBLICATION THEREOF; AND PROVIDING FOR
AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
WHEREAS, Section 552.0025 of the Texas Local Government Code provides that "a
municipality may by ordinance impose a lien against an owner's property, unless it is a home-
stead as protected by the Texas Constitution, for delinquent bills for municipal service to the
property"; and
WHEREAS, the City of Denton, Texas owns Denton Municipal Electric, which is a mu-
nicipally-owned public power utility of the City of Denton, Texas that provides retail electric
service within its certificated service area; and
WHEREAS, the City of Denton, Texas also provides water, wastewater, and drainage
utility service to properties within the municipal boundaries of the City of Denton, Texas; and
WHEREAS, the City of Denton, Texas experiences at times owners of real property who
fail to pay for electric, water, wastewater, and drainage utility service provided by the City of
Denton, Texas; and
WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Board of the City of Denton, Texas has reviewed this
proposed ordinance and deems it to be in the best interest of the City of Denton, Texas to im-
prove the efficiency and competitiveness of its municipally-provided utility service; that it fair
and equitable to all of the paying ratepayers of its utilities; and the Public Utilities Soard unani-
mously recommends adoption of this ordinance by the City Council of the City of Denton, Tex-
as; and
WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas deems it to be in the best in-
terest of its citizens and ratepayers to have the ability to impose a lien on eligible non-homestead
real properties as a further means of securing payment and collection of delinquent utility bills
for electric, water, wastewater, and drainage service; NOW THEREFORE
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DENTON HEREBY ORDAINS:
SECTION 1. The City Council hereby adopts and approves Section 26-12 of the Code of
Ordinances of the City of Denton, Texas which is hereby added; and shall be entitled "Municipal
Utility Lien for Delinquent Payments Owing for Municipal Utility Service." This Section provides
as follows:
Sec. 26-12. Municipal Utility Lien for Delinquent Payments Owing for Municipal Utility
Service.
(a) Subj ect to the provisions contained in this Section and pursuant to State law, the City
of Denton, Texas is authorized to impose a lien on real property owned by any customer of the
City's electric, water, wastewater, and drai.nage utilities when such customer has failed to pay for
the utility service provided.
(b) Any lien authorized by this Section shall include all delinquent charges for utility
service, penalties, interest, and collection costs.
(c) Any lien authorized by this Section shall be perfected by recording it in the real
property records of Denton County, Texas on a Notice of Lien, in a form approved by the City At-
torney, and duly executed by the City Manager or his designee. The Notice of Lien shall contain a
legal description of the real property and the utility's account number for the delinquent charges.
mg:
(d) Provided however, any lien authorized by this Section shall not apply to the follow-
(1) Homestead real property; or
(2) Any bills for utility service connected to a tenant's name after the appropriate City
of Denton utility department has received notice from the property owner that the proper-
ty is rental property; or
(3) Any bills for utility services connected in a tenant's name prior to the effective
date of this ordinance.
(e) The lien authorized by this Section shall be inferior to a bona-fide mortgage lien that
is recorded before the recording of the City's Notice of Lien in the real property records of Denton
County, Texas. The lien authorized by this Section is superior to all other liens, including without
limitation, p.reviously recorded judgment liens and any lien recorded after the City's lien.
(� The City Manager or his designate sha11 have the authority to release any lien im-
posed in accordance with this Section when all delinquent charges for utility service, penalties, in-
terest, and collection costs have been fully paid. The release shall be in a form approved by the City
Attorney and sha11 be duly executed by the City Manager or his designate, and recorded in the real
property records of Denton County, Texas.
(g) The authority and the rights granted in this Section are cumulative to any and all le-
gal rights and remedies, methods of collection and/or security available to the City of Denton, Texas
under common law, statutory law, the City's Charter ar the City's Code of Ordinances.
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SECTION 2. This ordinance sha11 be cumulative of all provisions of ordinances and of
the Code of Ordinances of the City of Denton, Texas, as amended, except when provisions of
this ordinance are in direct conflict with the provisions of such ordinances and such Code. All
co�flicting provisions of such ordinances and such Code are hereby repealed to the extent of that
conflict only.
SECTION 3. It is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council that the sec-
tions, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, and phrases of this ordinance are severable, and, if any
phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, or section of this ordinance shall be declared unconstitution-
al by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionali-
ty shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and sections of
this ordinance since the same would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorpo-
ration of this ordinance of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, or sec-
tion.
SECTION 4. The City Council finds and declares that sufficient written notice of the
date, hour, place and subject of this City Council meeting was posted at a designated place con-
venient to the public in the Denton City Hall for the time required by law preceding this meeting;
that such place of posting was readily accessible at all times to the general public; and that all of
the foregoing was done as required by law at all times during which the ordinance and the sub-
ject matter thereof has been discussed, considered and formally acted upon.
SECTION 5. This ordinance shall become effective fourteen (14) days from the date of
its passage, and the City Secretary is hereby directed to cause the caption of this ordinance to be
published twice in the Denton Record-Chronicle, the official newspaper of the City of Denton,
Texas, within ten days of the date of its passage.
PASSED AND APPROVED this the � day of � , 2012.
ATTEST:
JENNIFER WALTERS, CITY SECRETARY
By:
APPRO D AS O LEGAL FORM:
ANITA BURGESS, CITY ATTORNEY
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