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0494 Public ImporvementsORDINANCE NO. 4 9 4 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE ORDINANCE CODE OF THE CITY OF OKEECHOBEE, FLORIDA TO REPEAL IN ITS ENTIRETY ARTICLE XII, STREET PAVING; PRO- VIDING FOR THE CREATION OF A NEW ARTICLE DESIGNATED III TO BE • INCLUDED IN CHAPTER 13 OF THE OKEECHOBEE CODE OF ORDINANCES; PRO- VIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. RE IT'ORDAINED BY THE City Council of the City of Okeechobee, Florida as follows: SECTION I, Artile XII, Street Paving of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Okeechobee is hereby repealed in its entirety. SECTION II There is hereby created a new Article III to be included in chapter 13 of the Okeechobee Code of Ordinances which said Article shall read as follows: ARTICLE III STREET PAVING AND OTHER PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS Section 13-27 Authority . The City of Okeechobee may by action of its City Council provide for the construction, reconstruction, repair, paving, repaving, hard surfacing, widening, guttering, and draining of streets, boulevards and alleys and for grading, leveling and resurfacing sidewalks; providing for the drainage of wet, low or overflowed lands; and provide for payment of all or any part of the costs of any such improvements by levying and collecting special assessments on the abutting, adjoining, contiguous or other specially benefited property or may pay for same by such other method as the governing body of the municipality may prescribe. Section 13-28 Resolution required for local improvements Whenever the City Council of the City of Okeechobee shall deem it for the best int&rest of the City of Okeechobee that any of the streets, or any parts thereof, shall be paved or otherwise improved, they shall determine by resolution, to be entered in their records, the streets or parts thereof or sidewalks to be so improved or constructed. Section 13-29 Assessments for local improvements The City of Okeechobee shall by this ordinance have the power to pave, hard surface, resurface or otherwise impove such streets and sidewalks and drainage structures as they have determined by resolution to be necessary and pay for said improvement by levying special assessments against property deemed to benefited by said improve- ments. Said charges shall be assessed upon the property specially benefited by the improvement in proportion to the benefits to be derived therefrom and said special benefits to be determined and prorated according to either the foot frontage of the respective properties specially benefited by said improvement or assessing the costs on the basis of one third to the abutting property on each side of the street and the remaining one third to the City of Okeechobee or by such other method as the governing body of the municipality may prescribe. Section 13-30 Resolution required to declare special assessments When the City Council may determine to make any public improvement as authorized herein and defray the whole or any part of the expense thereof by special assess- ments, City Council shall so declare by resolution stating the nature of the pro- posed improvement, designating the street or streets or sidewalks to be so im- proved, the location of said storm drains or other improvements and the part or portion of the expense thereof to be paid by special assessments, the manner in which said assessments shall be made, when said assessments are to be paid, what part, if any shall be a portion to be paid from the general improvement fund of the municipality; and said resolution shall also designate the lands upon which the special assessment shall be levied, and in describing said lands it shall be sufficient to describe them as "all lots and lands adjoining and contiguous or bounding and abutting upon such improvements or specially benefited thereby and further designated by the assessment plat hereinafter provided for." Such resolution shall also state the total estimated cost of the improvement. Such estimated cost may include the cost of construction or reconstruction, the cost • of all labor and materials, the cost of all lands, property, rights, easements, and franchises a9quired, financing charges, interest prior to and during construc- tion and for one year after completion of construction, discount on the sale of special assessment bonds, cost of plans and specifications, surveys of estimates of costs and of revenues, cost of engineering and legal services, and all other -2- Section 13-30 (continued) expenses necessary are incident to determining the feasibility or practicability of such construction or reconstruction, administrative expense, and such other • expense as may be necessary or incident to the financing herein authorized. Section 30-31 Assessment roll, type and publication requirements Upon the adoption of the resolution herein provided the City of Okeechobee shall cause to be made an assessment roll which shall show the lots and lands assessed, and the assessment against each lot or parcel of land, and if said assessment is to be paid in installments, the manner in which payment is to be made. The city shall also cause the resolution provided herein and a copy of the assessment roll be published once in a newspaper of general circulation within the City of Okeechobee. In said advertisement the City shall fix a time and place at which owners of the property be assessed, or any other persons interested therein may appear to be heard as to the propriety and advisability of making such improve- ments, as to cost thereof, as to the manner of payment therefore and as to the amount thereof to be assessed against each property owners property so improved. Ten (10) days notice in writing of such time and place shall be given to such property owners which shall be served by mailing a copy of such notice to each of such property owners at the last known address, the names and addresses of such property owners to be obtained from the records of the Property Appraiser. Notice of the time and place of such hearing shall be given by an additional publication a week apart from the other publication herein provided. Section 30-32 Equalizing Board to hear complaints and adjust assessments The time and place named in the notice provided herein the City Council shall meet as an Equalizing Board to hear and consider any and all complaints as to the special assessments and shall adjust and equalize the assessments on a basis of justice and right; and when so equalized and approved by resolution of the City Council such assessments shall stand confirmed and remain legal, valid and binding first liens upon the property against which such assessments are made until paid; however, upon completion of the improvement, the municipality shall credit to each of the assessments the difference in the assessment as originally made, approved, and confirmed and the proportionate part of the actual cost of the improvement to be paid by special assessments as finally determined upon the completion of the improvement, but in no event shall the final assessments exceed the amount of benefits originally assessed. Promptly after such confirmation, the assessment shall be recorded by the City Clerk in a special book, to be known as "The Improve- Ment Lien Book", and the record of the lien in this book shall constitute prima facie evidence of its validity. Section 30-33 Priority of lien; interest; method of payment; legal proceeding; issuance of bonds all to be in accordance with Chapter 170, Florida Statutes. The special assessments herein provided for shall be payable in the manner stipulated in the resolution providing for the improvements; shall remain liens, co-equal with the lien of all state, county, district and municipal taxes, superior in dignity to all other liens, titles and claims until paid; shall bear interest, at a rate not to exceed one percent above the rate of interest at which the improve- ment bonds authorized pursuant to this ordinance and used for the improvement are sold, from the date of the acceptance of the improvements; and may, by the resolution aforesaid, be made payable in not more than 'twenty (20) equal yearly installments, to which, if not paid when due, there shall be added a penalty at the rate of one percent per month, until paid. However, the assessments may be paid without interest at any time within thirty (30) days after the improvement is completed and a' resolution accepting the same has been adopted by the City Council. Section 30-34 Legal proceedings Each annual installment provided for shall be paid upon the date specified in the resolution, with interest on all deferred payments, until the entire amount of said assessment has been paid, and upon the failure of any property owner to pay any annual installment due, or any part thereof, or any annual interest upon deferred payments, the City Council shall cause to be brought the necessary legal proceedings by a bill in chancery to enforce payment thereof with all accrued interest and penalties, together with all legal costs incurred, including a reasonable attorney's fee, to be assessed as part of the costs and in the event of default in the payment of any installment of assessment, or any accrued interest on said assessment, the whole assessment with the interest and penalties thereon, shall immediately become due and payable and subject to foreclosure. In the foreclosure of any special assessments service of process against unknown or non-resident defendan`s-may.,be had by publication, as now provided by law in other chancery suits. The foreclosure proceedings shall be prosecuted to a sale and conveyance of the propety involved and said proceedings as now provided by law in suits to foreclose mortgages; or, in -3- Section 30-34 (continued) the alternative, said proceeding may be instituted and prosecuted under Chapter • 173, Florida Statutes. Section 30-35 Bonds may be issued in an amount not exceeding the amount of liens assessed for the cost of improvements to be paid by special assessment. After the Equalization, approval and confirmation of the levying of the special assessments for improvements as provided herein and as soon as a contract for said improvement has been finally let, the City Council may by resolution or ordinance authorize the issuance of bonds, to be designated,"Improvement Bonds, series number in an amount not in excess of the aggregate amount of said liens, levies for such improvement. Said bonds shall be payable from a special and separate fund, to be known as the "Improvement Fund, series number which shall be used solely for the payment of the principal and interest of said "Improvement Bonds, series number " and for no other purpose. Said funds shall be deposited in a separate bank account; all the proceeds collected by the city from the principal, interest, and penalties of said liens shall be deposited and held in such fund.. Said bonds so issued shall never exceed the amount of liens assessed, and said bonds shall mature not later than two (2) years after the maturity of the last installment of said liens. Said bonds shall bear certificates signed by the Mayor of the city certifying that the amount of liens levied, the proceeds of which are pledged to payment of said bonds, are equal to the amount of the bonds issued. The bonds may be delivered to the contractor in payment for his work or may be sold at public or private for sale for not less than ninety five percent of par and accrued interest, the proceeds to be used in paying for the cost of the work. Said bonds shall not be a charge on, or payable out of, the general revenues of the City, but shall be payable solely out of said assessments, installments, interest, and penalties. Any surplus remaining after payment of all bonds and interest thereon shall revert to the city and used for any lawful purpose. Section 30-36 City Council required to make new assessments until valid assessment is made if special assessment is omitted or held invalid. If any special assessment made under the provisions herein to defray the whole or any part of the expenses of any said improvement shall be either in whole or in part null, vacated or set aside by the judgement of any Court, or if the City Council shall be satisfatied that any such assessment is so irregular or defective that the same cannot be enforced or collected, or if the City Council shall have omitted to make such assessment when it might have done so, the Council shall take all necessary steps to cause a new assessment to be made for the whole or any part of any improvement or against any property benefited by any improvement, following as nearly as may be the provisions herein provided and in case such second assessment shall be annulled, City Council may obtain and make other assessments until a valid assessment shall be made. Section 30-37 Expenditure for improvements The City Council may pay out its general funds or out of any special fund that may be provided for that for such portion of the cost of any improvement as it my deem proper. Section 30-38 Assessment roll, sufficient evidence of assessment and other proceed- ings of this ordinance. Any informality or irregularity in the proceedings in connection with the levy of any special assessment under the provisions of this ordinance shall not affect the validity of the same where the assessment roll has been confirmed by the City Council, the assessment roll is finally approved and confirmed shall be competent and sufficient evidence that the assessment was duly levied, that the assessment was duly made and adopted, and that all of the proceedings adequate to the adoption of said assessment roll were duly had, taken and performed as required by this ordinance; and no variance from the directions hereunder shall be held material unless it be clearly shown that the party objecting was materially injured thereby. Section 30-39 Provisions of this ordinance, supplemental, additional and alternative This ordinance shall not appeal any other law relating to the subject matter hereof, but shall be deemed to provide a supplemental, additional and alternative method or procedure for the benefit of the city and shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purpose. -4- SECTION III. This ordinance shall take effect upon its adoption. • Introduced andpassed on first reading this day of Mayor ATTEST: City Clerk Passed on final reading after public hearing this `ldz day of 19. i ayor ATTEST: i City Clerk