70-1409 Joint authority; rights and powers; enumerated.
70-1409. Joint authority; rights and powers; enumerated.Each joint authority shall have all the rights and powers necessary or convenient to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of the Joint Public Power Authority Act including, but not limited to, the right and power:(1) To adopt bylaws for the regulation of the affairs and the conduct of its business and to prescribe rules, regulations, and policies in connection with the performance of its functions and duties;(2) To adopt an official seal and alter the same at pleasure;(3) To maintain an office at such place or places as it may determine;(4) To sue and be sued in its own name and to plead and be impleaded;(5) To receive, administer, and comply with the conditions and requirements respecting any gift, grant, or donation of any property or money;(6) To acquire by purchase, lease, gift, or otherwise, or to obtain options for the acquisition of, any property, real or personal, improved or unimproved, including an interest in land less than an interest in fee;(7) To sell, lease, exchange, transfer, or otherwise dispose of, or to grant options for any such purposes with respect to, any real or personal property or interest in such property;(8) To pledge or assign any money, rents, charges, or other revenue and any proceeds derived by the joint authority from the sales of property, insurance, or condemnation awards;(9) To issue bonds of the joint authority for the purpose of providing funds for any of its corporate purposes;(10) To authorize the construction, operation, or maintenance of any project or projects by any person, firm, or corporation, including political subdivisions and agencies of any state or of the United States;(11) To acquire by negotiated purchase or lease an existing project, a project under construction, or other property, either individually or jointly, with one or more public power districts in this state or with any political subdivisions or agencies of this state or any other state or with other joint authorities created pursuant to the Joint Public Power Authority Act;(12) To dispose of by negotiated sale or lease an existing project, a project under construction, or other property, either individually or jointly, with one or more public power districts in this state, with any political subdivisions or agencies of this state or any other state or, with other joint authorities created pursuant to the Joint Public Power Authority Act, except that no such sale or lease of any project located in this state shall be made to any private person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of generating, transmitting, or distributing electricity for profit;(13) To fix, charge, and collect rents, rates, fees, and charges for electric power or energy, hydrogen, or ethanol and other services, facilities, and commodities sold, furnished, or supplied through any project;(14) To generate, produce, transmit, deliver, exchange, purchase, or sell for resale only electric power or energy, to produce, store, deliver, or distribute hydrogen for use in fuel processes, or to produce, deliver, or distribute ethanol and to enter into contracts for any or all such purposes, subject to sections 70-1410 and 70-1413;(15) To negotiate and enter into contracts for the purchase, exchange, interchange, wheeling, pooling, or transmission of electric power and energy with any public power district, any other joint authority, any political subdivision or agency of this state or any other state, any electric cooperative, or any municipal agency which owns electric generation, transmission, or distribution facilities in this state or any other state;(16) To negotiate and enter into contracts for the sale or use of electric power and energy, hydrogen, or ethanol with any joint authority, electric cooperative, any political subdivision or agency or any public or private electric utility of this state or any other state, any joint agency, electric cooperative, municipality, public or private electric utility, or any state or federal agency or political subdivision, subject to sections 70-1410 and 70-1413;(17) To make and execute contracts and other instruments necessary or convenient in the exercise of the powers and functions of the joint authority under the Joint Public Power Authority Act, including contracts with persons, firms, corporations, and others;(18) To apply to the appropriate agencies of the state, the United States, or any other state and to any other proper agency for such permits, licenses, certificates, or approvals as may be necessary to construct, maintain, and operate projects in accordance with such licenses, permits, certificates, or approvals, and to obtain, hold, and use the same rights granted in any licenses, permits, certificates, or approvals as any other person or operating unit would have under such documents;(19) To employ engineers, architects, attorneys, appraisers, financial advisors, and such other consultants and employees as may be required in the judgment of the joint authority and to fix and pay their compensation from funds available to the joint authority. The joint authority may employ technical experts and such other officers, agents, and employees as it may require and shall assess their qualifications, duties, compensation, and term of office. The board may delegate to one or more of the joint authority's employees or agents such powers and duties as the board may deem proper;(20) To make loans or advances for long-term, supplemental, short-term, and interim financing for both capital projects and operational purposes to those member districts on such terms and conditions as the board of directors of the joint authority may deem necessary and to secure such loans or advances by assignment of revenue, receivables, or other sums of the member district and such other security as the board of directors of the joint authority may determine; and(21) To sell or lease its dark fiber pursuant to sections 86-574 to 86-578.Any joint authority shall have the same power of eminent domain as the public power districts have under section 70-670. SourceLaws 1982, LB 852, § 9; Laws 1986, LB 1230, § 54; Laws 2001, LB 827, § 17; Laws 2002, LB 1105, § 479; Laws 2005, LB 139, § 22.