§4096. New Orleans sewerage and water board; water rates; water revenue bonds

            A.(1) The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans shall fix the rates to be charged consumers of water, including the power to exceed the total rates in force on November 1, 1913, and shall collect the same from all persons who use water from the public water supply except that:

            (a) The Audubon Park and Zoological Garden, the New Orleans City Park, and the New Orleans Museum of Art shall only be charged for annual consumption in excess of their respective 1981 usage.

            (b) The city of New Orleans and its public institutions from which no revenue is derived shall be exempt from said charges.

            (c) The Orleans Parish School Board shall be exempt as follows:

            (i) Those Orleans Parish School Board accounts which are presently exempt shall be exempt from said charges through June 30, 1992.

            (ii) Effective July 1, 1992 through June 30, 1993, each school campus and each nonschool facility of the Orleans Parish School Board shall be exempt for all water consumed which does not exceed six gallons per day, for the three hundred sixty-five days of that year, for each student enrolled and any other person regularly assigned to that campus or facility within thirty school days of the commencement of the school year. Effective July 1, 1993, and thereafter, each school campus and each nonschool facility of the Orleans Parish School Board shall be exempt from said charges for all water consumed which does not exceed four gallons per day, per three hundred sixty-five days a year for each student enrolled and any other person regularly assigned to that campus or facility within thirty school days of the commencement of the school year. Effective July 1, 1993, and thereafter, the Orleans Parish School Board also shall be exempt from all water service charges.

            (iii) The above exemption is determined by the student/employee census report or equivalent as submitted to the state Department of Education. If said report is discontinued, a similar report shall substitute.

            (iv) Notwithstanding any provisions of law to the contrary, the exemption outlined in this Subsection may be superceded by a mutually agreed upon and executed cooperative endeavor agreement between the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish School Board, wherein the terms of the cooperative endeavor agreement shall govern the rate and means by which public schools in Orleans Parish are charged for water and sewer services.

            (2) The rates to be charged the consumers of water shall not become effective unless and until approved by the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, and by a majority vote of the council of the city of New Orleans. Prior to taking any decisive action in connection with rates and at least thirty days before setting a rate, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans shall notify the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, and the council of the city of New Orleans of its intention, and the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans shall hold at least three public meetings to discuss the new rates. The public shall be notified of the hearings in the official journal no less than three times within the week prior to each such meeting. Each member of the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, and the council of the city of New Orleans shall be furnished a copy of the transcript of each hearing at least twenty days prior to any action being taken by any of said three public agencies.

            (3) These rates shall be based as far as possible on the actual amount of water consumed, shall be equal and uniform for each grade or class of customers, and shall be framed so as to never exceed the actual cost of maintenance and operation of the public water system, the public and private supply therefrom, the cost of improvements, extensions, betterments, and repairs to said system, the establishment and maintenance of a replacement fund, and the revenues herein required to be raised annually to insure the proper development of said water system and the payment of the interest on and principal of Water Revenue Bonds, including payments required to be made into sinking funds and debt service reserve funds.

            B.(1) The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, the "sewerage and water board", shall have the power and is hereby authorized to issue from time to time in the name of the city of New Orleans, bonds payable solely out of the revenues derived from water rates for purposes relating to the water system of the city including the refunding of bonds issued under the authority of this Section. Such bonds may be additionally secured by municipal bond insurance, bank guarantees, surety bonds, letters of credit and other devices to enhance the credit quality of the bonds, the cost of which credit enhancement devices may be paid from the proceeds of the bonds or other lawfully available funds of the sewerage and water board. Such bonds shall be issued pursuant to a resolution or resolutions adopted by the sewerage and water board by affirmative vote of a majority of the members thereof, which resolution shall fix the details of such bonds including their form, terms, security, manner of execution, repayment schedule, and redemption features. The resolution or resolutions providing for the issuance of such bonds shall not be effective until approved by resolution adopted by affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the council of the city of New Orleans and by resolution adopted by affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, the "board of liquidation".

            (2) Bonds issued under the authority of Paragraph (1) of this Subsection shall bear such rate or rates of interest as provided for in R.S. 39:1424 and 1424.1 and shall be sold by the board of liquidation, subject to the limitations and restrictions contained in the resolution or resolutions adopted by the sewerage and water board providing for the issuance of such bonds. The provisions of Chapter 13-A and Chapter 14 of Title 39 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950 shall be applicable to all bonds issued under the authority of this Section.

            (3) After a resolution authorizing the issuance of water revenue bonds hereunder has been adopted by the sewerage and water board, it shall be published one time in the official journal of the city of New Orleans provided it shall not be necessary to publish exhibits to such resolution if the same are made available for public inspection and that fact is stated in the publication. For a period of thirty days from the date of publication, any person in interest shall have the right to contest the legality of such resolution and the legality of the bond issue for any cause. After that time no one shall have any cause or right of action to contest the legality of said resolution or of the bonds authorized thereby for any cause whatsoever. If no suit, action, or proceeding is begun contesting the validity of the bond issue within the thirty days herein prescribed, the authority to issue the bonds and to provide for the payment thereof, and the legality thereof and of all of the provisions of such resolution shall be conclusively presumed, and no court shall have authority to inquire into such matters.

            (4) Such bonds shall be sold by the board of liquidation at either public or private sale and may be sold at such price or prices (which may be at a discount from par) as may be determined by the board of liquidation. Bonds may be sold at private sale only if such sale is authorized by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the board of liquidation voting on the matter. If the bonds are to be sold at public sale, notice of the sale shall be published in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 39:1426. In the case of a public sale of the bonds, they shall be awarded to the best bidder therefor but the board of liquidation may reject any and all bids received.

            (5) Bonds issued hereunder to refund outstanding water revenue bonds shall be issued in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 14-A of Title 39 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, and for the purposes thereof, the sewerage and water board shall be deemed to be the governing body of the issuer wherever such term is used in said Chapter, provided, however, the refunding bonds shall be sold by the board of liquidation. The provisions of this Subsection, except for those contained in Paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 hereof, shall apply to refunding bonds issued hereunder. The payments for principal and interest and sinking and debt service funds, the use, deposit, and investment of bond proceeds and monies in such funds and any matters referenced in said Subsections shall be in accordance with the provisions of the resolution authorizing the issuance of the refunding bonds.

            (6) The sewerage and water board shall, on the first day of each month, pay to the board of liquidation not less than one-twelfth of the amount required to be paid to the board of liquidation in the current calendar year by the terms of the resolution or resolutions of the sewerage and water board authorizing the issuance of water revenue bonds hereunder for the payment of interest on and principal of such bonds due in said year and for payments required to be made in said year into the sinking fund or funds and debt service reserve funds. Such sinking funds and debt service funds required to be established by the resolution of the sewerage and water board shall be in the custody and under the control of the board of liquidation, which shall require the sewerage and water board to keep a balance in such sinking fund and debt service reserve funds at all times sufficient to meet the interest on and principal of all outstanding water revenue bonds payable solely out of revenues derived from water rates, for the next succeeding twelve month period, or such greater amount as may be provided by the resolution of the sewerage and water board.

            (7) The board of liquidation may, in its discretion, invest any of the proceeds of such water revenue bonds, debt service funds, and debt service reserve funds in such investments as it is authorized by law to make, and such proceeds shall be so invested whenever an officer designated by the sewerage and water board requests the investment thereof.

            (8) The proceeds of the sale of such water revenue bonds shall be paid to the board of liquidation for the sewerage and water board, and shall be deposited in a special water revenue bond account, and shall be used solely and exclusively for the construction of water plants, intakes, storage, and distribution systems, repairs, or betterments to the public water system, or other improvements to the water system of the city of New Orleans, or for the acquisition of land to be used in connection therewith. All funds in said water revenue bond account shall be paid out by the board of liquidation pursuant to warrants drawn by the sewerage and water board in the same manner as funds are now withdrawn under the provisions of R.S. 33:4094.

            C. The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans in the resolution authorizing the issuance of such Water Revenue Bonds shall make covenants with respect to the fixing and collection of water rates; the use of the revenues derived therefrom; the operation and maintenance of the water system of the city, including insurance of such properties and insurance against other risks; and it shall provide therein for the payments of enough revenues into the funds created for the payment of the interest on such Water Revenue Bonds and for the payment, amortization or redemption of such bonds as may be deemed expedient by the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, to insure the sale of said bonds on the best possible terms.

            D. So long as any of such water revenue bonds shall be outstanding, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans shall fix water rates which shall be sufficient to produce revenues over and above the amount required for operation and maintenance of the water system of the city of New Orleans, which shall be not less than the amount set forth in the resolution authorizing the issuance of said bonds.

            E. The Board of Liquidation, City Debt, is empowered by appropriate judicial proceedings, to compel the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans to fix water rates which will produce such net revenues as required in the resolution adopted by the Sewerage and Water Board authorizing the issuance of any water revenue bonds and to perform and do such other acts as the Sewerage and Water Board is required to do as provided herein.

            F. All such Water Revenue Bonds shall be issued in the name of the city of New Orleans, but such bonds shall be excluded in applying any limitation upon the power of the city of New Orleans to issue bonds for any purpose and such bonds shall bear on their face a statement that they do not constitute a debt of said city, but are payable, as to principal and interest, solely out of the water revenues pledged for that purpose. There shall be no obligation on the part of the city of New Orleans to provide funds for the operation and maintenance of the water system of the city of New Orleans.

            G. Such Water Revenue Bonds shall constitute negotiable instruments, and the issuance thereof shall be subject to no limitation of indebtedness or other limitation prescribed by the constitution and laws of the state of Louisiana, except as set forth in this Section.

            H. The provisions hereof and the resolutions of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans authorizing the issuance of Water Revenue Bonds hereunder and the resolutions of the council of the city of New Orleans and of the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, approving the resolutions of the Sewerage and Water Board, shall constitute a contract between the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, and the holders of such Water Revenue Bonds. The holders of such bonds shall have the right by injunction, mandamus, or other appropriate remedy to enforce the payment of said bonds and the interest thereon, and the observance of the covenants made in the resolutions authorizing the issuance of said bonds.

            I. The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans may use the collections from water rates charged to private consumers for the maintenance and operation of the public water system, and the public and private supply therefrom; the cost of improvements, extensions, betterments and repairs to said system, the establishment and maintenance of a replacement fund; and to provide for the payment of interest on and principal of such Water Revenue Bonds, including payments required to be made to any sinking fund for the amortization of such bonds, and for the creation of debt service reserves for said bonds.

            J. The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans may make reasonable rules and regulations necessary for the proper administration of the water system and for the use and consumption by such pay customers and by such free customers of the water supply furnished them and may prevent the obstruction of, interference with, or damage to the pipes, mains, and other appurtenances of the water system. Any violation of reasonable rules and regulations so established by the board and duly promulgated in the official journal shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars for each offense or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days for each offense, or both.

            K. Bonds issued under authority hereof shall be exempt from all taxation for state, parish, municipal or other local purposes. Savings banks, tutors of minors, curators of interdicts, trustees and other fiduciaries may invest the funds in their hands in said bonds. Said bonds may be used for deposit with any officer, board, municipality or other political subdivision of the state of Louisiana, in any case where, by present or future laws, deposit or security is required. Such bonds may be registered and released from registry under such rules as the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, may prescribe.

            L. The provisions hereof are self-operative, and the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, the Board of Liquidation, City Debt, and the council of the city of New Orleans, or its successor as the governing body of said city of New Orleans, shall have full power to carry them into effect. No proceedings or approvals, not required by the provisions of this Section, shall be necessary for the validity of such bonds.

            M. Any provisions of any law in conflict herewith is hereby repealed. Should any provision hereof be declared null and void, such declaration shall not affect the balance of this Section.

            N. The Board of Liquidation, City Debt, as now organized and created, and with the powers, duties and functions prescribed by existing laws and by the constitution, shall be continued while any bonds authorized by this Section are outstanding and unpaid.

            Added by Acts 1976, No. 167, §1. Amended by Acts 1980, No. 627, §2, eff. July 24, 1980; Acts 1982, No. 51, §1; Acts 1983, No. 128, §1, eff. June 24, 1983; Acts 1985, No. 731, §1, eff. July 16, 1985; Acts 1989, No. 594, §1, eff. July 6, 1989; Acts 1992, No. 706, §1, eff. July 6, 1992; Acts 2004, No. 210, §1, eff. June 14, 2004; Acts 2020, No. 120, §1, eff. June 9, 2020.