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• 43. The City's newfound scheme for counting customers was contrived to avoid the <br />• <br />• <br />referendum election requirements in Section 366.04(7), and is contrary to established utility <br />practice for counting utility customers. Moreover, it differs radically from the method of <br />counting customers which the City uses for purposes of its own audited financial reports, and its <br />filings with the PSC and the credit rating agencies. <br />44. Section 366.04(7) in fact applies to the City, and all of the City's customers are <br />entitled by that statute to participate in a referendum election and vote on the creation of a utility <br />authority, which if approved, would give all customers a voice in electing the governing board of <br />their utility. The Plaintiffs, along with the City's other Non -Resident Customers, continue to be <br />harmed by the City's ongoing failure to comply with Section 366.04(7) because they continue to <br />be disenfranchised and have no voice in electing those officials that manage the City's electric <br />utility and set their electric rates. <br />COUNT I <br />For Declaratory and Injunctive Relief Relating to the <br />City's Unreasonable and Unjust Electric Rates <br />45. This count is an action for declaratory and injunctive relief by the Plaintiffs <br />against the City relating to the City's unreasonable and unjust electric utility rates. <br />46. The Plaintiffs adopt paragraphs 1 through 44 as if set forth fully herein. <br />47. The City has a legal duty to its customers, including the Town and the Customer, <br />to charge only "reasonable rates" for the electric services that the City provides, and to keep <br />those rates as low as possible because the City is a monopoly electric service provider and is <br />only allowed to operate as such in order to provide its customers with electric service at prices <br />that are as low as reasonably possible. Ch. 14439, § 40, Laws of Fla. (1929); § 180.13(1), Fla. <br />Stat. (2014); Ex. A, Franchise Agreement, § 5. <br />11 <br />840 <br />