ARTICLE XIII.
FRANCHISES

Sec. 13.1. Exclusive Franchises Prohibited.

No exclusive franchise or privilege shall be granted for the whole or partial use of any street or other place.

Sec. 13.2. Franchises and Permits — Streets and Public Ways.

Subject to the provisions of this charter, the City shall have authority to permit and regulate under such restrictions and conditions as it may set by ordinance and to grant nonexclusive franchises for the use of public streets, bridges or other public ways, structures or places above or below the surface of the ground for railroads and other routes and facilities for public conveyances, for poles, conduits, tunnels, towers and structures, pipes and wires and their appurtenances for transmission and distribution of electrical energy, signals and other methods of communication, for gas, steam and liquid fuels, for water, sewer and other private and publicly owned and operated facilities for public service. The power so granted shall be in addition to the franchise authority granted by general law to cities. No franchise shall be granted, renewed, amended or extended except by ordinance.

Sec. 13.3. Franchises — Bond.

The City Council may require a bond in a reasonable amount for any person or corporation obtaining a franchise from the City conditioned upon the faithful performance of the conditions and terms of the franchise and providing a recovery on the bond in case of failure to perform the terms and conditions of the franchise.

Sec. 13.4. Franchises — Restrictions and Limitations.

Every grant of a franchise, right or privilege shall be subject to the right of the City Council, or the people of the City acting for themselves by the initiative and referendum, at any time, subsequent to the grant, to repeal, amend or modify the grant with due regard to the rights of the grantee and the interest of the public; and to cancel, forfeit and abrogate any such grant if the franchise so granted is not operated in full accordance with its provisions, or at all; and at any time during the grant to acquire, by purchase or condemnation, for the use of the City itself, all the property of the grantee within the limits of the public streets, at a fair and just value, which shall not include any valuation of the franchise itself, which shall then terminate; and every ordinance making such grant shall contain a reservation of these rights of the City Council, and of the people of the City acting for themselves by the initiative and referendum, to so repeal, amend or modify the ordinance, and to so cancel, forfeit and abrogate the grant, and to so acquire the property of the grantee in the public streets, as provided in this section.

Sec. 13.5. Renewals — Extensions.

The City Council shall not consider or grant any application for extension of the period of any franchise, nor any new franchise covering all or any substantial part of the rights or privileges of any existing franchise, until within three (3) years of the expiration of the existing grant.

Sec. 13.6. Procedure for Assignment or Lease of Franchise Rights.

No franchise granted by the City shall ever be leased, assigned, or otherwise alienated without the express consent of the City by ordinance, and no dealing with the lessee or assignee on the part of the City to require the performance of any act or payment of any compensation by the lessee or assignee shall be deemed to operate as such consent.

Sec. 13.7. Term.

No franchise shall be granted for a longer period than twenty-five (25) years.

Sec. 13.8. Compensation to City.

No franchise shall be granted without provision for proper compensation to the City for such franchise.

Sec. 13.9. Publication.

Proposed ordinances for the grant, extension, alteration or renewal of franchises shall be filed with the Clerk and published once a week for four (4) successive weeks in the City official newspaper before they shall be placed on first reading by the Council. Every applicant for a franchise shall bear all expenses of advertising the proposed ordinance.