Sec. 18. Purchase of public utilities by City; conditions of grants; right of City to operate or sell plants and property acquired.
Every grant of a franchise or right shall provide that the City may upon payment thereof of its fair valuation, to be made as provided in the grant, purchase and take over the property and plant of the grantee in whole or in part.
The procedure to effect such purchase shall be as follows: When the Council shall, by resolution, direct the Manager to ascertain whether any such property, or part thereof, should be acquired by the City, or in the absence of such action of the Council, when a petition subscribed by ten (10) per centum of the qualified tax paying electors requesting that the Manager shall ascertain whether any such property, or part thereof should be acquired by the City, shall be filed with the City Clerk, the Manager shall forthwith carefully investigate said property and report to the Council:
1. At what probable cost said property may be acquired.
2. What, if any, probable additional outlays would be necessary to operate the same.
3. Whether, if acquired, it could be operated by the City at a profit or advantage in quality or cost of service, stating wherein such profit or advantage consists.
4. Whether, if acquired, it could be paid for out of its net earnings, and if so, within what time.
5. Such other information touching the same as he shall have acquired.
Such report shall be made in writing, shall include a statement of facts in relation thereto with such particularity as will enable the Council to judge of the correctness of his findings, and immediately after submission to the Council, shall be filed with the City Clerk, recorded in the Public Utility Record, and published once in the official newspaper of the City, or printed and distributed in pamphlet form, as the Council may direct.
a. If, within sixty (60) days after the filing of said report, a petition be filed with the City Clerk subscribed by fifteen (15) per cent of the qualified electors of the City, as provided in Chapter XV of this Charter, and requesting that there be submitted to a vote of the qualified electors the proposition whether or not the City shall acquire said property, the Council shall provide by ordinance for the submission of the proposition to a vote of the qualified electors.
b. Every grant reserving to the City the right to acquire the plant, as well as the property, if any, of the grantee, situated in, on, above or under any of the streets, avenues, alleys or public places in the City, or elsewhere, used in connection therewith, shall in terms specify the method of arriving at a valuation thereof, and shall further provide that, upon the payment by the City of such valuation, the plant and property so valued, purchased and paid for shall become the property of the City by virtue of the grant and payment thereunder; and every such grant shall make adequate provision by way of forfeiture of the grant, or otherwise, for the effectual securing of efficient service and for the continued maintenance of the property in good order and repair throughout the entire term of the grant.
c. Whenever any plant or property shall become the property of the City it shall have the right to operate the same on its own account, or by ordinance to sell the same to the highest bidder at public auction, but no sale thereof shall be made until submitted to and approved by the people as in the manner provided by Chapter XVI of this Charter.