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HomeMy WebLinkAbout028575 ORD - 04/20/2010AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, CHAPTER 9, "AVIATION," BY CREATING NEW SECTION 9-68, ENTITLED "CAR RENTAL CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE," AND ENACTING ALL NECESSARY PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE IMPOSITION, COLLECTION, AND EXPENDITURE OF THE CHARGE; PROVIDING FOR SEVERANCE; PROVIDING FOR PENALTIES; PROVIDING FOR PUBLICATION; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. WHEREAS, the City of Corpus Christi, Texas ("City"), is vested with authority to own, construct, enlarge, improve, maintain, equip, finance, operate, manage, and regulate a municipal airport, pursuant to Chapter 1503, as amended, Texas Government Code, among other laws; WHEREAS, the City owns and operates the Corpus Christi International Airport ("Airport") located in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas; WHEREAS, car rental companies conduct car rental transactions at and on Airport property; WHEREAS, the City and car rental companies mutually desire to improve existing car rental facilities for the benefit of the traveling public and the commercial Airport business of both parties; WHEREAS, the City desires to create a special Airport fund to finance the planned construction, operation, maintenance, and improvement of consolidated car rental facilities and common use transportation equipment and facilities through the imposition, collection, and expenditure of uniform customer facility charges directly related to the use of car rentals at and on the Airport; WHEREAS, the receipts in the special Airport fund shall remain intact from year to year and may be pledged to the payment of future debt obligations undertaken by the City to construct, equip, operate, maintain, and improve the car rental facilities available at the Airport and as otherwise provided by law; WHEREAS, an amendment to the Code of Ordinances of the City is necessary to enact the special Airport customer facility charge and establish this special Airport fund; and WHEREAS, the City Council has determined that this amendment will best serve and promote the interests and welfare of the City and its citizens. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS, THAT: 028575 EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Page 1 of 8 INDEXED SECTION 1. The Code of Ordinances, City of Corpus Christi, Chapter 9, "Aviation," is amended by creating new Section 9-68, entitled "Car Rental Customer Facility Charge," to read as follows: "Sec. 9-68. Car Rental Customer Facility Charge. "Section 9-68.01. Definitions. "(A) "Airport" refers to the defined term in Section 9-20 of this Code. "(B) "Car Rental Company" means any individual or business entity that has an existing lease or concession agreement with the Airport for the purpose of renting vehicles to Customers who originate from Airport property or who may later leave the Airport and operate under a permit. "(C) "Charge Effective Date" means the date on which the Customer Facility Charge is effective as provided by Section 9-68.03 of this Code. "(D) "Customer" means any person, including an entity, that rents a motor vehicle from a Car Rental Company regardless of whether or not the person receives the vehicle on the Airport premises or is shuttled to an Off -Airport location of a Car Rental Company. "Customer" includes any person receiving complimentary or discounted rentals. "(E) "Customer Facility Charge" or "CFC" means a per -day charge imposed by a Car Rental Company upon a car rental Customer arriving at the Airport and renting a vehicle from a Car Rental Company serving the Airport. The CFC must be collected by the Car Rental Company for the benefit of the Airport and the City, pursuant to Section 9-68.03 of this Code. "(F) "On -Airport" means a Car Rental Company that is located at, upon, or within the Airport. "(G) "Off -Airport" means a Car Rental Company that is not located at the Airport but which conducts business at the Airport through a permit agreement. "(H) "Transaction Day" means that period of time a car is rented to a Customer for twenty-five or fewer hours for the initial or first transaction day and any portion of one or more additional twenty-four hour period(s) for each transaction day thereafter. "Section 9-68.02. Findings and Purpose. "(A) The City owns and controls certain Airports and facilities located in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas; and EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Page 2 of 8 "(B) The Airport promotes and supports a strong economic base for the community and surrounding locale, assists and encourages local, regional, national, and world trade opportunities; and, "(C) The operation of the Airport as a public facility attracting scheduled airline passengers who utilize car rental facilities at the Airport imposes financial responsibilities on the City to make and have available car rental facilities and operations to serve its Customers; and, "(D) The City will expend substantial resources for capital investment, operation, maintenance, and development of consolidated car rental facilities to meet the future demand for Customers using the Airport and its facilities; and "(E) It is in the City's best economic interest, and likewise in the interest of the car rental Customers and Car Rental Companies, to adopt a Customer Facility Charge (CFC) program as established in this Ordinance to construct, maintain, improve, equip, and further expand the car rental facilities at the Airport; and "(F) In establishing and implementing the Customer Facility Charge program, the car rental Customers using the Airport should contribute to a greater degree toward the development and improvement of car rental facilities; and "(G) The purpose of this Ordinance is to enact and impose a uniform per -day charge for Airport car rental Customers to pay for the costs of Airport rental car and ancillary facilities and establish a Customer Facility Charge program consistent with the above findings, and the regulations published pursuant thereto shall be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes expressed. "Section 9-68.03. Customer Facility Charge. (A) Commencing on or about the forty-fifth (45th) day following approval of this Ordinance by the City Council, the Airport's Customer Facility Charge program authorized by this Ordinance shall be imposed. (B) The CFCs must be used to pay, or reimburse the Airport, for the costs associated with the design, acquisition, planning, development, construction, operation, maintenance, repair, equipment, and replacement of facilities and related improvements made use of in or connected to the business of renting cars at the Airport.. Any or all of the CFCs collected may be pledged to the punctual payment of debt service on obligations (and any other pecuniary obligation) issued by or on behalf of the City for the benefit of the Airport for the cost of the car rental portion of facilities, parking lots, buildings, and other improvements, and to create and maintain reasonable operating and maintenance reserves as well as EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Page 3 of 8 capital asset repair and replacement reserves. Eligible costs for the car rental facilities and related improvements include all costs, fees, and expenses associated with the design, acquisition, planning, development, construction, equipping, operation and maintenance, capital repair and replacement, and site improvement. Nothing herein shall be construed to make fees, costs, or expenses incurred in tenant improvements for space exclusively used by a Car Rental Company ineligible. "Equipping" for the purposes of this section is limited to providing necessary equipment within the common use areas and car maintenance bays of the car rental facilities. "Operation and maintenance" for the purposes of this section does not include fees, costs, or expenses incurred for or associated with consumables, such as paper supplies, oils and lubricants, or other products used in the business of the car rental facilities. "(C) The CFC fees imposed by Car Rental Companies shall be identified on separate lines on the car rental Customer contract, before taxes, and shall be described as the "Transaction Fee" or "Airport Facility Fee." "(D) There shall be no suspension of CFC collections unless all of the following occur: "(1) All Car Rental Companies operating at the Airport have timely and accurately remitted their CFC collections to the Airport together with the required reports of Transaction Day data. "(2) The City has completed all design development, architectural, and engineering drawings for the facility construction or improvements. Sufficient CFC proceeds have been collected to reimburse the City for the costs identified in Section 9-68.03(B) incurred through the completion of design, development, and planning. "(4) The Airport has not entered into the construction phase of the project. The CFCs have not been pledged to the payment of debt service on obligations issued by or on behalf of the City for the benefit of the Airport. "(E) Following any suspension of CFC collections under Section 9-68.03(D), the Airport Director shall consider relevant economic factors and consult with the Airport's Car Rental Companies regarding such factors and review the size, scope, and projected costs of the car rental facilities or improvements prior to re -imposing the CFC collection requirement. Any recommendation by the Airport Director of a suspension of CFC collections must be approved by the City Manager. "(F) The Customer Facility Charge authorized by this Ordinance shall expire on the date determined pursuant to the full payment of debt obligations undertaken by the City for which the CFC collections have been pledged or EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Page 4 of 8 "(3) "(5) while any debt obligations issued by the City for the benefit of the Airport remains unpaid and outstanding. "(G) The Airport Director is authorized to execute the authorization of the City's CFC program, including the assurances to be contained therein, and other documents necessary for implementation of the CFC program on behalf of the City. "Section 9-68.04. Eligible Projects. "The Customer Facility Charge collected pursuant to this program shall be expended solely for car rental projects recommended by the Airport Board and approved by the City Council." "Section 9-68.05. Collections. "(A) All CFCs collected by all Car Rental Companies are and shall be funds held by the Car Rental Companies in trust for the City for the benefit of the Airport and recognizing the third party beneficiary status of any holders of any debt obligations issued by the City for the benefit of the Airport. Car Rental Companies and their agents hold only a possessory interest in the CFCs and no equitable interest. All Car Rental Companies shall segregate, separately account for, and disclose all CFCs as trust funds in their financial statements and shall maintain adequate records that account for all CFCs charged and collected. Failure by a Car Rental Company to segregate the CFCs shall not alter or eliminate their trust fund nature. The Airport shall have the right to audit the CFC records of a Car Rental Company upon reasonable notice. "(B) All Car Rental Companies shall remit all CFC funds that were collected or should have been collected from its Airport car rental Customers on a monthly basis to the Airport. The CFCs shall be remitted on the 20th day of the month following the month the CFCs were collected. Failure of a Car Rental Company to strictly comply with this subparagraph shall be considered a material breach of the Car Rental Company's authorization to do business at the Airport. "Section 9-68.06. Annual Rate Adjustments. "(A) Each April, the Airport Director shall recalculate the Customer Facility Charge to be effective June 5 of the same year to recover the amount equivalent to the remaining portion of the amount pledged by the City to the payment of debt service on obligations (or any other pecuniary obligation related thereto) issued by or on behalf of the City for the benefit of the Airport. The Airport Director shall consider any written comments of the Car Rental Companies regarding the adjustment, but the Airport Director, with the concurrence of the Director of Financial Services, has the sole and final determination of the amount. EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Page 5 of 8 "(B) Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, the Customer Facility Charge shall not be Tess than $3.50 per Customer per Transaction Day. "Section 9-68.07. Reporting Requirements. "(A) Along with the monthly remittance of CFC funds, a Car Rental Company shall submit a monthly statement identifying the number of Transaction Days and the total amount of CFCs separate from any other payments due to the Airport or City. "(B) Each Car Rental Company shall provide an initial annual report to the Airport by February 1, 2011, indicating the amount of CFCs collected by the Car Rental Company for the period beginning June 5, 2010, and ending October 31, 2010, the number of total Transaction Days, and any other information required by the Airport with respect to the CFCs. Each Car Rental Company shall provide a full annual report by February 1, 2012, for the period beginning November 1, 2010, and ending October 31, 2011, containing all of the information required in the initial annual report. Subsequent annual reports shall be submitted by the Car Rental Companies each February 1 of the calendar year following the same successive CFC collection measurement period. The initial annual report and each succeeding annual report must be in a form acceptable to the Airport. "(C) Each September, December, March, and June, the Airport Director shall prepare and submit a quarterly report to each Car Rental Company detailing the expenditures, reserved allocations, and balance in the Airport's CFC Fund. "Section 9-68.08. Application; Exclusions. "(A) This Ordinance only applies to any Car Rental Company that has a lease or concession agreement with the Airport on the date this Ordinance takes effect, new entrants from the date they begin On -Airport operations, and any Car Rental Company that meets the definition of "Car Rental Company" on the date of enactment of this Ordinance but later leaves the Airport and operates under a permit granted by the Airport, with respect to any Customers that arrive at or depart from the Airport. "(B) This Ordinance applies to all of the Customers of a Car Rental Company, regardless of whether or not the Car Rental Company shuttles some Customers to an Off -Airport location. "Section 9-68.09. Violations. "In the event a Car Rental Company violates any term or condition of this Ordinance, the City may exercise any rights or remedies allowed by law or equity. Violations are also actionable under Sections 1-6 and 1-6.1 of this Code. EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Page 6 of 8 "Sec. 9-69. Reserved." SECTION 2. If, for any reason, any section, paragraph, subdivision, clause, phrase, word, or provision of this ordinance is held invalid or unconstitutional by final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, it will not affect any other section, paragraph, subdivision, clause, phrase, word, or provision of this ordinance, for it is the definite intent of the City Council that every section, paragraph, subdivision, phrase, word, and provision of this ordinance be given full force and effect for its purpose. SECTION 3. A violation of any provision of this ordinance or requirements implemented under this ordinance constitutes an offense punishable as provided in this ordinance and in Sections 1-6 and 1-6.1 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Corpus Christi. SECTION 4. Publication of this ordinance is to be made in the official publication of the City of Corpus Christi as required by the City Charter of the City of Corpus Christi, Texas. SECTION 5. The provisions of this ordinance are effective on and after June 5, 2010. SECTION 6. Upon the written request of the Mayor or five Council members, copy attached, the City Council: (1) finds and declares an emergency due to the need for immediate action necessary for the efficient and effective administration of City affairs, and (2) suspends the Charter rule that requires consideration of and voting upon ordinances at two regular meetings so that this ordinance is passednd takes effect upon first,prading s an emergency measure on this the day of , 2010. ATTEST: CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI Armando Chapa City Secretary APPROVED: April 9, 2010 Eliza ► - h R. Hundley Assi. -- nt City Attorney for the City Attorney EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc Joe A me Mayor Page 7 of 8 Corpus Christi, Texas O&dayof ,2010 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL Corpus Christi, Texas For the reasons set forth in the emergency clause of the foregoing ordinance an emergency exists requiring suspension of the Charter rule as to consideration and voting upon ordinances at two regular meetings: 1/we, therefore, request that you suspend said Charter rule and pass this ordinance finally on the date it is introduced, or at the present meeting of the City Council. Respectfully, Respectfully, Council Members Joe A me Mayor The above ordinance was passed by the following vote: Joe Adame Chris N. Adler Brent Chesney. Larry Elizondo, Sr. Kevin Kieschnick Priscilla G. Leal John E. Marez Nelda Martinez Mark Scott _ EHord293 v10 Final 20100415.doc 028575 EFFECTIVE DATE Arri Page 8 of 8 PUBLISHER'S AFFIDAVIT State of Texas } CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI County of Nueces } Ad # 5938356 PO # Before me, the undersigned, a Notary Public, this day personally came GEORGIA LAWSON, who being first duly sworn, according to law, says that she is LEGAL SALES REPRESENTITIVE AND EMPLOYEE OF THE PUBLISHER, namely, the Corpus Christi Caller -Times, a daily newspaper published at Corpus Christi in said City and State, generally circulated in Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricia, Victoria and Webb Counties, and that the publication of, NOTICE OF PASSAGE OF ORDINANCE NO. 02857 which the annexed is a true copy, was inserted in the Corpus Christi Caller -Times on the 412612010,4/2612010. $ 96.75 1Time(s) On this day of is a true and an exact copy ma LEGAL SALES R PRESE GWENN J. MEDINA MY COMMISSION EXPIRES August 2, 2012 , 2 I certify that the attached document by publisher. Notary Public, State of Texas 4E Z; April 2b, 2O1O » CALLER -TI MES Loial Notices 1110 NOTICE OF PASSAGE OF ORDINANCE NO. 028575 Ordinance amending the Code of Ord., Ch. 9, "Aviation,' by creating new Sect. 9.58, entitled "Car Rental Customer Fa- cility Charge," & enacting all neces- sary provisions related to the imposi- tion, collection, & expenditure of the charge. This ord. was passed & approved on April 20, 2010. The effective date is on & after June. 5, 2010. IsfA do Chapa Secretary