§ 7-82-102 — Review of rates and services

In all counties and districts, the following apply: (1) In addition to any other procedure provided by law for the review of the actions of the board of commissioners, there is granted to the Tennessee board of utility regulation the authority to review rates charged and services provided by public utility districts. The review provided for in this subdivision (1) may only be initiated by a petition containing the genuine signatures of at least ten percent (10%) of the customers within the authorized area of the public utility district; (2) To be considered by the board, the customer or customers initiating the petition must file a letter of intent to compile and file the petition with the board before the petition is signed. All signatures of customers on the petition must have been obtained within ninety (90) days of the date the notice of intent to compile and file petition is filed with the board. Each customer signing the petition shall include the address at which the customer receives utility service and the date the customer signed the petition. The petition must be addressed to the Tennessee board of utility regulation and a copy of the petition must be served upon the board of commissioners of the affected utility district. The petition must contain the genuine signatures of the customers of the utility district. All information submitted in the petition must be legible; (3) Upon receipt of the petition, the board shall verify the names and addresses of the signers of the petition to ensure that they are bona fide customers of the utility district and to ensure that all signatures have been obtained within ninety (90) days of the date the notice of intent to compile and file petition is filed with the board. As used in this part, "customer" means a person who receives a bill for utility services and pays money for such services. Each utility account shall be entitled to one (1) signature, but no person shall sign the petition more than once. Only one (1) petition to review the rates and services provided under this section can be filed in any twelve-month period. The review by the Tennessee board of utility regulation shall be held only upon public hearings, after notice; (4) For purposes of this section, "genuine signatures" means written, original signatures and excludes facsimile and electronic signatures of any kind; (5) The Tennessee board of utility regulation shall review those petitions pertaining to rates on the basis of all provisions of this chapter governing the establishment of rates, the provisions of any bond resolutions or other debt contract instruments binding upon such utility districts, and the uniform audit manual prepared by the comptroller of the treasury pursuant to § 7-82-401 ; (6) It is the express intent of the general assembly that the review granted in this section shall be a substantive and meaningful review. In order to accomplish this intention, the utility district shall take no action that will result in contractually binding the district or obligating the district to issue bonds that would require a rate increase, until the district has first given notice to the customers of the district of the anticipated action. For purposes of this subdivision (6), the notice shall be deemed to have been given by the district with respect to an issuance of bonds or notes upon the publication of the report of the comptroller of the treasury, or the comptroller's designee, as contemplated by § 7-82-501(c) , and "bonds" does not include any bond or bonds or other evidence of indebtedness of the utility district to be purchased by the United States department of agriculture or any other direct lending department of the government of the United States; and (7) The Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, applies to all procedures and proceedings coming before the Tennessee board of utility regulation pursuant to this section, to the extent not inconsistent with this chapter.

Legislative History

Amended by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 463, s 7, eff. 7/1/2023. Amended by 2018 Tenn. Acts, ch. 495, s 3, eff. 2/22/2018. Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 129, s 6, eff. 4/17/2017. Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 94, s 18, eff. 4/4/2017. Amended by 2015 Tenn. Acts, ch. 140, s 1, eff. 4/17/2015. Amended by 2013 Tenn. Acts, ch. 141, Secs.s 9, s 10 eff. 4/12/2013. Acts 1973, ch. 249, § 6; T.C.A., § 6-2637; Acts 1984, ch. 796, § 1; 1987, ch. 422, § 1; 1989, ch. 221, § 1; 1995, ch. 305, § 81.