THE HEART OF OUR BUSINESS
Inherent in our business as a Utility Company are the ordinances and directives that are developed and adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District. These rules, regulations and statements of purpose are The Heart of Our Business and are intended to provide to our personnel and to the public guidance, commonality of understanding, equity and fairness in implementation and a sound road map for the development of our business today and into the future. We believe that our public is better served where our purpose is clear and known and our service is fair and equitable.
The District's Mission Statement was developed back in 1994 and has served the Board of Trustees well since that time. It is a concise document that states in a few word the principles that guide the Board of Trustees in the conduct of the District's business.
The By-Laws and Rules of Procedure of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District Board were originally adopted by the Board of Trustees on April 5, 1995. This document describes the duties and election of the Officers, what constitutes a regular and a special meeting, explains other general rules, the order of business, public hearing procedures, and several other matters of import to the Board.
The By-Laws and Rules of Procedure are intended to meet the on-going needs of the Board and, as such, have required several revisions over the years. What follows is the current By-Laws and Rules of Procedures document that serves the Board of Trustees today.
By-Laws & Rules of Procedure
of the
Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District Board
100 OFFICERS:
The Officers of the Board, and their respective duties, are as follows:
101 PRESIDENT:
The President shall preside at all meetings and hearings of the Board and shall have the duties normally performed by such an officer. The President shall have the privilege of discussing all matters before the Board and of voting thereon, and shall sign all official documents of the Board.
102 VICE PRESIDENT:
The Vice President shall act for and have all the duties and responsibilities of the President in his absence.
103 SECRETARY:
The Secretary shall record the minutes of all Board meetings, and shall prepare, maintain and secure the correspondence of the Board.
104 TREASURER:
The Treasurer shall keep the Financial Records of the Board, and oversee all financial aspects of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District.
105 ELECTION OF OFFICERS:
At the first regular meeting in each year, the Board shall elect Officers from the membership for a one year term. There shall be no limit with regard to the number of terms (whether consecutive or otherwise) any board member may hold the position of secretary. No member shall hold any other office for more than three consecutive terms; provided, however, that in the event that any term of office shall commence after February 1 of any year, that term of office shall not be counted toward the aforementioned three consecutive term limit. Vacancies in offices shall be filled as soon as possible by regular election procedure.
200 MEETINGS:
201 REGULAR:
Regular meetings of the Board shall be held at least twice per month during the months of January through October of each year at such place and on such dates and times as the Board may determine and announce at any properly called and held meeting of the Board and as designated in the Board's legal notice to the media. During the months of November and December of each year, the Board shall meet in regular session at least once per month at such place and on such dates and times as determined by the Board's legal notice to the media. No notice of a regular meeting shall be required if all Board members are present at the meeting during which the schedule of regular meetings is determined or if the schedule of regular meetings as so established is reflected in the minutes of that meeting and provided to any absent Board members at least three days before the next regularly scheduled meeting following the meeting at which the schedule of regular meetings was so established.
202 SPECIAL:
Special meetings may be called by the President or by two Trustees of the Board upon written notice to the Secretary. The notice of such a meeting shall specify the purpose of the meeting and no other business may be considered except by unanimous consent of the Board. The Secretary shall send to all Trustees of the Board a written notice, not less than three (3) days before the Special Meeting, fixing the date, time and place of the meeting. Written notice is not required if:
1. the date, time and place of the special meeting are fixed at a regular meeting; and
2. all Trustees of the Board are present at the regular meeting.
300 GENERAL RULES:
301 Quorum:
A majority of the Trustees of the Board shall constitute a quorum.
302 VOTING:
Voting shall be by voice vote. A Trustee of the Board may request a roll call vote. A record of the vote shall be kept as a part of the minutes of the Board.
303 OFFICIAL ACTION:
No action of the Board is Official unless authorized by a majority of the Trustees present and voting at any meeting at which a quorum is in attendance.
304 OPEN MEETINGS:
All meetings of the Board shall be open to the general public unless an Executive session is called for purposes identified under Indiana Statute.
305 CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
No Trustee of the Board shall participate in a hearing or decision in which the Trustee has a direct or indirect financial interest. The Board shall enter into the record the fact that the Trustee has such a disqualification.
306 PRIOR CONTACT:
No Person shall communicate with any Trustee of the Board prior to a public hearing with the intent of influencing the Trustee on the matter pending before the Board.
400 ORDER OF BUSINESS:
Roll Call
Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting (s)
Report of the President
Report of the Secretary
Report of the Treasurer
Report of the Committees
Report of the Consultants
Public Hearings
Other Business
Public Input
Adjournment
500 PUBLIC HEARING PROCEDURE:
501 PUBLIC HEARINGS SHALL PROCEED AS FOLLOWS:
501.1 The Presiding Officer shall open the Public Hearing.
501.2 Petitioners and persons appearing in support of a petition before
the Board shall have a total of fifteen (15) minutes for the
presentation of evidence, statements and arguments in support of a
petition before the Board.501.3 Remonstrators and persons appearing in opposition to the petition
shall then have a total of fifteen (15) minutes for the presentation
of their evidence, statements and arguments in opposition to the
petition before the Board.501.4 The petitioner shall then have a total of five (5) minutes for
rebuttal of evidence, statements and arguments made. No new
information or evidence may be introduced in this position of the
hearing process.501.5 The Presiding Officer shall then declare the public hearing closed.
502 EXTENSION OF TIME:
The Presiding Officer shall have the authority to cut off repetitious and irrelevant testimony and to extend the fifteen (15) minute time period specified herein, where appropriate, in the interest of affording a fair hearing.
503 ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE:
The Presiding Officer shall rule on all questions relating to the admissibility of evidence, which may be overruled by a majority of the Board.
504 PUBLIC RECORD:
All evidence presented at the hearing shall be retained by the Board and shall be a part of the public record.
600 NOTICE:
601 LEGAL NOTICE:
A legal notice of a public hearing shall appear in a newspaper of general circulation within the area involved at least ten (10) days preceding the hearing.
700 PROCEDURAL RULES:
701 ROBERTS RULES:
The most recent edition of Roberts Rules of Order shall govern the conduct of all meetings and Public Hearings except to the extent that it conflicts with White County Law or these Rules.
800 AMENDMENTS / WAIVER OF RULES:
801 AMENDMENTS:
These rules may be amended only by a majority vote of the Trustees of the Board.
802 WAIVER:
The Board may, upon affirmative vote of the Trustees of the Board, waive the rules of procedure and by-laws upon its own motion or upon request of an interested party for good cause shown.
The revision of Article 303 of the By-Laws and the Rules of Procedure was presented to and approved by the Board of Trustees of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District on the 22th Day of October, 1997. This document supersedes the By-Laws and the Rules of Procedure dated the 20th Day of November, 1996.
____________________________
Robert E. Coates, President
Attest
________________________________
Lawrence G. Wilcox, Secretary
Sewer Use Ordinance
The SEWER USE ORDINANCE was adopted on March 10, 1999 by the Board of Trustees of the Sewer District. A committee of Three (3) Trustees, working closely with the Board's Attorney and Engineering Consultant, researched the available information and compiled a draft ordinance. The draft ordinance was presented to the Board of Trustees and discussed in a public meeting. The final draft was presented to the Board in their public meeting on March 10, 1999, where, after further discussion, Ordinance 99-01 was adopted.
To fulfill the statutory requirements for public notice, a summary of Ordinance 99-01 was prepared by the Board's Attorney and published in the local newspaper on April 7, 1999 as the legal notice. For your information, this summary notice follows.
NOTICE OF ADOPTION OF SEWER USE ORDINANCE
BY THE TWIN LAKES REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT
Notice is hereby given that, on the
10th day of March, 1999, the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District adopted and
enacted Ordinance No. 99-01 entitled "the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer
District Sewer Use Ordinance". The Ordinance, consisting of 21
sections, plus subsections, and 58 pages, contains provisions regulating the
connection to and use of public and private sewers and drains, the installation
and connection of building sewers, and the discharge of waters and wastes into
the public sewers of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District.
The Ordinance prohibits the placement or depositing of excrement, garbage, or
other wastes in an unsanitary manner within the jurisdiction of the Twin Lakes
Regional Sewer District. The Ordinance also prohibits the construction,
use, or maintenance of any privy, septic tank, or other facility intended or
used for the disposal of sewage where public sewers are available and located
within 300 feet of a property owner's property line and requires connection to
public sewers, at the owner's expense, in a manner specifically prescribed by
the Ordinance, where such public sewers are available and located within 300
feet of the property line. The Ordinance requires a permit before
connection to the public sewers and an inspection by the Twin Lakes Regional
Sewer District of all sewer lines and appurtenances to be connected to public
sewers before those sewer lines and appurtenances are covered with soil or other
material.
The Ordinance prohibits the discharge of stormwater, surface water, groundwater,
water from downspouts or other unpolluted water into the public sewers of the
Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District. The Ordinance establishes and
describes installation and maintenance responsibilities for public sewers,
building sewers, connections to public sewers, and appurtenances.
The Ordinance requires the owner of property served by public sewers to
provide and maintain an electrical service for a grinder pump or other
appurtenances requiring electricity.
The Ordinance contains extensive provisions relating to and governing the
disposal of industrial wastes or process wastewaters into the Twin Lakes
Regional Sewer District's public sewers, as well as extensive additional
provisions relating to and governing the use of public sewers generally.
The Ordinance requires non-residential users of the public sewers to retain
records relating to monitoring, sampling, and chemical analysis for no less then
three years and documents pertaining to enforcement activities until those
activities have been concluded.
The Ordinance prohibits any person from entering upon, tampering with, or
damaging any of the property of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District.
The Ordinance establishes penalties for its violation, including fines not
to exceed $2,500.00 for each violation. Each day during which a violation
occurs or continues is deemed a separate, distinct violation. In addition,
a person violating the Ordinance may be assessed damages for the costs to clean
and repair property of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District. Also, a
violator of the Ordinance is liable for all costs incurred by the Twin Lakes
Regional Sewer District as a result of the violation, including reasonable
attorney's fees, court costs, additional sampling and monitoring expenses,
environmental damages, and fines imposed upon the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer
District. The Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District may enforce the Ordinance
by filing an action for injunctive or other equitable relief and/or monetary
damages or fines in any court in White County, Indiana. Fines imposed or
any other decisions made by a representative of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer
District may be appealed to the Board of Trustees of the Twin Lakes Regional
Sewer District or the White Circuit Court pursuant to the Indiana Administrative
Adjudication Act.
The Ordinance gives representatives of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District
the right to enter upon any land for inspection of records and measuring or
sampling of discharges to carryout the objectives of the Ordinance.
The Ordinance takes effect 45 days after the date of its passage.
The foregoing is intended as a summary of Ordinance No. 99-01 only; it is not
intended to be, and is not, a comprehensive statement, review or analysis of the
Ordinance or any of its provisions. This notice does not in any way
supplement, modify, alter, or amend Ordinance No. 99-01. Interested
persons should review a complete copy of Ordinance No. 99-01 to ascertain their
legal rights, duties, obligations, and responsibilities under Ordinance No.
99-01 and should not rely on the foregoing summary. A complete copy of
Ordinance No. 99-01 is available for inspection and review during normal
business hours at the following location:
White County Board of Health
Basement
White County Courthouse
110 N. Main Street
Monticello, IN 47960
Copies of the complete Ordinance No. 99-01, or any designated
portion thereof, may be obtained at the above location upon the payment of the
normal and usual copying charges authorized by law. In addition, the
original Ordinance No. 99-01 is contained within the public records of the Twin
Lakes Regional Sewer District and is available for inspection and review upon
request.
Dated this _______ day of March, 1999.
Loyd Clerget, Secretary
Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District
110 North Main Street
Monticello, IN 47960
Sewer Rate Ordinance
The SEWER RATE ORDINANCE was drafted by a Trustee Committee, with assistance from the District's Rate Consultant and Attorney. The Rate Ordinance contains the rules, regulations and policies of the Board of Trustees as they relate to the implementation and administration of billing and collections. Prior to adopting the Rate Ordinance, it was necessary that the Sewer District obtain bid prices from the contractors interested in doing the construction work, and that a low bid price for the project be accepted by the District Trustees. Shortly thereafter, the Rate Ordinance draft was thoroughly reviewed in a public meeting. Following public input, the Rate Ordinance draft was finalized and submitted to the Board of Trustees (in a public meeting) for final approval.
The Sewer Rate Ordinance final hearing was held on December 14, 1999 in the White County Courthouse lower level conference room starting at 10:00 a.m.. Following the public hearing, the Board of Trustees adopted and approved Sewer Rate Ordinance No. 99-03. The Ordinance provides in part the following rate information:
To view the Sewer Rate Ordinance 99-03 Rate Table - Click Here
A complete copy of Ordinance No. 99-03 is available for inspection and review during normal business hours at the the White County Board of Health, Basement, White County Courthouse, 110 N. Main Street, Monticello, IN 47960.
Copies of the complete Ordinance No. 99-03, or any designated portion thereof, may be obtain at the above location upon the payment of the normal and usual copying charges authorized by law. In addition, the original Oridinance No. 99-03 is contained within the public records of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District and is available for inspection and review upon request.
Inquiries regarding the Sewer Rate Ordinance can be sent via E-mail.