SUBPART B. GRANT OF FRANCHISE BY POLICE JURIES

§4361. Police jury may grant franchise for use of streets, roads and alleys outside municipalities

A. Police juries may, subject to any conditions, regulations, and restrictions which they impose, grant franchises or operating system over the public places, roads, streets, and alleys of their respective parishes, not within the limits of any municipality, to any person for:

(1) The construction, maintenance, and operation of lines of poles and wire for the transmission of electric current for heat, light, or power.

(2) Laying, maintaining, and operating lines of pipe or mains for supplying gas or water in, over, under or along the public roads, streets, or alleys.

(3) The construction, maintenance, and operation of sewerage and drain pipes across, along and underneath the roads, alleys, and public places.

(4) The construction, maintenance, and operation of railways utilizing electric or motive power other than steam, under the conditions hereinafter set forth.

(5) The construction, maintenance, and operation of television lines and cables whether erected on poles owned or leased from existing public utilities or on poles to be erected, or through cables to be laid underground for receiving, distributing, and transmitting television impulses or signals to residences, commercial establishments, or other customers. Each such franchise shall be awarded to the highest responsible bidder in accordance with the public bid laws of the state. The specifications shall state the area to be served by the franchise, the duration of the franchise, and other terms of the agreement. Each franchise or operating system granted for this purpose is hereby approved and recognized as legal until the franchise termination or operating system termination date or until September 1, 1991, whichever occurs sooner, or such later date as may be specified in a franchise, but no such system shall have exclusive cable rights in any area in which it extends its present operations.

B. Franchises awarded under the provisions of this Section shall be nonexclusive.

C. Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary, on or after January 1, 2013, the Louisiana Public Service Commission may require that whenever a parish governing authority imposes a franchise fee upon a public utility which the utility collects or recovers from the utility's consumers, the utility's monthly billing statement shall specifically and clearly include a separate line item for the applicable franchise fee, with the name of the parish imposing the fee, the total amount or rate of the franchise fee, and the total amount of the billing attributable to the fee.

Amended by Acts 1976, No. 573, §1; Acts 1978, No. 83, §1; Acts 1980, No. 455, §§1, 2; Acts 2012, No. 766, §1, eff. June 12, 2012.