Sec. 380.609. - Franchise transfer.

(a) Any person desiring to transfer a franchise or the rights obtained under a franchise in whole or in part, or any franchisee desiring to transfer a controlling interest in such franchisee, shall petition the City Department for authority to transfer the franchise or controlling interest in the franchisee. The petition shall be submitted with the transfer application fee paid by cashier's check payable to the City. The application fee for franchise transfer can be found in www.coj.net/fees . Any transfer application fee shall be nonrefundable and shall be deposited into the Solid Waste Disposal Enterprise Fund of the City. The City Department shall report to the Council a franchisee's request to transfer its franchise within 30 days of the City Department's receipt thereof, and recommend approval, approval with specified conditions, or denial. The Council may disapprove any such transfer if the transfer would be contrary to Section 126.204 , Ordinance Code, or it has reasonable grounds to believe that the transfer will result in a degradation of performance or service provided, such grounds to include, without implied limitation, issues relating to the moral character, commercial viability, credit worthiness or operational ability of the transferee or its principals. The City Department may defer reporting on the transfer request until all franchise fees owed by the franchisee to the City are paid. As used in this paragraph, the term "controlling interest" means 25 percent or more of the ownership or of the voting rights of the franchisee. Any change in ownership of a franchisee exceeding ten percent of the stockholder ownership, assets, or partnership interest shall be reported to the City Department within 30 days of the change. (b) Prior to any transfer under this Section, the transferee must submit to the City an application with the application fee. (c) Any person to whom a franchise is transferred, whether for a valid consideration or not, shall be responsible for all fees owed to the City by the original franchisee even though the obligation is incurred prior to the transfer. (Ord. 93-1774-1411, § 1; Ord. 2017-665-E , § 22)