5.45.050 Penalties for Material Breach by State Franchise Holders.
A. Any state franchise holder shall comply with the customer service provisions set forth in Public Utilities Code Section 5900.
B. The City shall impose the following penalties against a state franchise holder for any material breach of the customer service provisions set forth in subsection (A) of this section:
1. For the first occurrence of a material breach, a penalty of five hundred dollars ($500.00) shall be imposed for each day of each material breach, not to exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) for each occurrence of the material breach.
2. For a second occurrence of a material breach of the same nature as the first material breach that occurs within twelve (12) months, a penalty of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) shall be imposed for each day of each material breach, not to exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) for each occurrence of the material breach.
3. For a third or further occurrence of a material breach of the same nature as the previous material breaches that occurred within the preceding twelve (12) months, a penalty of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) shall be imposed for each day of each material breach, not to exceed seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500.00) for each occurrence of the material breach.
C. The City Manager shall have the authority to assess penalties for any material breach by a holder of a state franchise. Prior to assessing penalties for a material breach, the City Manager shall first have provided the state franchise holder with written notice of any alleged material breach of the customer service provisions set forth in Public Utilities Code Section 5900 and shall allow the state franchise holder at least thirty (30) days from receipt of the notice to remedy the specified material breach. If the material breach has not been remedied upon the expiration of this thirty-day period, the City Manager may commence the assessment of penalties. In the event that a specified material breach has not been remedied following the City Manager’s assessment of penalties in the maximum amount permitted per occurrence, the City Manager, after providing a subsequent written notice of the alleged material breach, may treat the continuing occurrence as a subsequent material breach.
D. The City shall submit one-half of any penalty amounts it receives to the digital divide account established by Public Utilities Code Section 280.5.
E. No monetary penalties shall be assessed for a material breach if it is out of the reasonable control of the state franchise holder.
F. The penalty amounts set out in subsection (B) of this section are based on the maximums allowed under Public Utilities Code Section 5900(d), and the City desires to set the penalty amounts at the highest amount authorized by law. Accordingly, the penalty amounts set out in subsection (B) of this section shall be automatically increased to the maximum penalties under Public Utilities Code Section 5900(d), as Section 5900 is amended from time to time. (Ord. 1030 § 2(4), 2018; Ord. 1003 § 2, 2015)