§ 10.01. Authority.

The City of Ocala may:

(a)

Acquire, construct, maintain, own, lease and operate all public utilities, either within or without the corporate limits of said city; regulate all public utilities operated or conducted within the corporate limits of said city now owned, leased or operated by the city, subject to such rules, laws and regulations vested in the Public Service Commission of the State of Florida; and regulate all utilities owned by the municipal corporation and operated or conducted outside the corporate limits of said city.

(b)

Fix the rates and charges to be paid by users, customers and consumers, both within and without the corporate limits of the city, of any public utility owned or operated by the city; and levy and collect assessments for the installation of such utilities.

(c)

Provide for the mandatory connection of any building, dwelling or structure to sewer lines adjacent to or connecting any real property within the corporate limits of the city upon which is situate any dwelling, structure or building.

(d)

Provide for the connection of any dwelling, structure or building within the corporate limits of the city to the city water distribution system contiguous or adjacent to such premises, where other sources of water are insanitary, polluted, and injurious to the health of any occupant, tenant, invitee, the public, or neighbor.

(e)

Enter into any co-operative agreement with any other municipality, political subdivision or agency of the State of Florida, with any municipality or agency of another state, with the United States or any of its agencies, or with any corporation or nonprofit corporation or public trust operating or organized under the laws of the State of Florida or any other state, or with any federal corporation, for the construction, maintenance, regulation, operation, ownership and leasing of joint electric power production and transmission plants and facilities or joint water and sewer facilities, or may enter into any agreement for the interconnection of separately-owned facilities and the exchange, purchase or sale of electric power and energy or water or sewage treatment and disposal, and the term of such agreements shall not be restricted as to length of time except as such agreements extend beyond the expected useful life of said joint or separately owned and operated facilities; may become a member of a public nonprofit corporation formed for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, regulating, operating, owning or leasing of joint electric power production and transmission plants and facilities and have a beneficial interest in such public nonprofit corporations or accept the beneficial interest in any public trust created for such purposes; may participate in the financing of such joint electric power production and transmission plants and facilities and joint water and sewer facilities by the issuance and sale of bonds and notes and other instruments of indebtedness, or pledge as a credit for security of bonds, notes and other instruments of indebtedness issued by others the revenues of its electric, water or sewer utility systems; and may exercise the power of eminent domain with respect to such transmission lines, plant sites, and location of related facilities either jointly or separately owned, operated or leased, both within and without the corporate limits of said city.

Editor's note— Insofar as § 10.01 relates to the exercise of power within the corporate limits, it has assumed ordinance status by virtue of the Municipal Home Rule Powers Act (F.S. ch. 166) and may be amended by the city without a referendum, or is a limitation on power which has been repealed. Insofar as § 10.01 relates to the exercise of extraterritorial powers by the city, such section cannot be amended except by the state legislature, as Fla. Const. art. VIII, § 2(c) provides that the exercise of extraterritorial powers "shall be as provided by general or special law." See Op. Atty. Gen. 073-478.

For limitations on water and sewer rates charged to customers outside of the city, see F.S. § 180.191.