(a) Any unified government created and established pursuant to this chapter may at any time assume and take over the utility services provided within its county by any utility service provider created, authorized or owned by any private or public entity located outside such county, referred to as “outside utility service provider”.
Terms Used In Tennessee Code 7-21-302
Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
County: means any county whose voters have adopted a county charter government. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
unified: means consolidation or consolidated pursuant to this chapter and that power granted by the Constitution of Tennessee, Article XI, §. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
Unified government: means the governmental entity created by the unification of the governmental and corporate functions of a charter county government with the governmental and corporate functions of one (1) or more municipalities within that county's boundaries. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
(b) In exercising the powers granted in subsection (a), the unified government shall notify any outside utility service provider of its desire to assume responsibility for all or any part of the outside utility service provider’s functions, services or duties within the county of the unified government. It shall then be the duty of the outside utility service provider and the unified government to attempt to reach agreement in writing for the allocation to the unified government of any such public functions, services or duties as the unified government may desire to assume, and all related rights, duties, property, assets and liabilities of the outside utility service provider that justice and reason may require under the circumstances. Any matters upon which the respective parties are not in agreement in writing within sixty (60) days after a unified government gives such notice shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the law of arbitration of the state of Tennessee effective at the time of submission to the arbitrators, except that § 29-5-101(2) shall not apply to any arbitration under this section. The award so rendered shall be transmitted to the chancery court of the county of the unified government, and then shall be subject to review in accordance with §§ 29-5-113, 29-5-115 and 29-5-118.
