Sec. 2-63. Disposition of public property; granting franchise.[28]
No ordinance or resolution granting, leasing, selling or
otherwise disposing of any public property or franchise shall
be valid unless the same be passed by the council by a recorded
affirmative vote of three-fourths of all members elected
to the city council.
No franchise, lease or right of any kind to the use of any
such public property in a manner not permitted to the general
public shall be granted for a period of over thirty years.
Before granting such franchise or privilege for a term of
thirty years, except for a trunk railway, bids therefor shall
be advertised once a week for four successive weeks in a
newspaper published in the city. Such grant, and any contract
in pursuance thereof, may provide that upon the termination
of the grant, the plant, as well as the property, if
any, of the grantee in the streets, avenues and other public
places, shall thereupon, without compensation to the grantee,
or upon the payment of a fair valuation therefor, be and
become the property of the city, but that the grantee shall
be entitled to no payment by reason of the value of the franchise.
Every such grant shall specify the mode of determining
any valuation therein provided for and shall make adequate
provision by way of forfeiture of the grant, or otherwise,
to secure efficiency of public service at reasonable rates
and the maintenance of the property in good order throughout
the term of the grant.
All persons to whom privileges or franchises have been or
may be granted by the city council shall pay in advance for the
printing and advertising of all ordinances granting such privileges
or franchises after the approval thereof and all of such
printing shall be done under the supervision and direction of
the clerk of the council.
The rights of the city in its gas, water, electric works and
sewer system, now owned or hereafter acquired, shall not be
sold even after such action of the council as is prescribed in
the first paragraph of this section, until and except such sale
shall have been approved by a majority of the qualified voters
of the city, voting on the question at a special election ordered
by the council, and subject in other respects to the provisions
of section 27 of the Charter applicable to a special election.
(Code 1959, § 2-63.)
