Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-03-30


screed with his full name. not necessarily for
publication but as a guarantee of good faith.
A Fools Paradise-ValidIty of the
New City Charter Discussed.
EDITORS HERALD-The new city gov
ernment has entered upon its functions
without any opposition from the mem
bers of the preceding government; and
there seems to be very general disposi-
ton upon the part of all to acquiesce in
the fact. Could such acquiescence es-
tablish the validity of the Charter, it
would, perhaps, be better, in view of this
general acquiescence, to let the matter
90 without further discussion; but, un-
fortunately, this is not the case. At
every step in the future action of the
municipality any citizen will have the
power to draw in question the validity
of the incorporation, and will, undoubt-
edly, do so. 1t is already proposed, il
we may Judge by the indications given by
the public press, to enter upon various
improvements, such as the building oi
new school houses, the improvement of
streets, the making of sewers, etc., the
expense of which will run into the hun.
dreds Of thousands of dollars, and will
in the end probably reach o million.
Yet not bond can be issued, nor dol
lar of taxes or assessments collected,
without bringing in question the validity
of our Charter; and it is obviously better
that at the very beginning of its at
tempted operation its validity shall be at
once determined; and no one is more in
terested in having this done than the
members of the city government itself,
who may otherwise subject the city and
themselves and the taxpayers to great
embarrassment. The question of the
validity of our incorporation should,
therefore, be at once considered; and
upon such consideration it will be
found that there are very grave ques-
tions arising as to its validity,
and we think we simply act the part OF
good citizens in briefly stating these ques-
tions without undertaking to pass upon
them one way or the other.
By reference to Section s of Ar
ticle XI of the Constitution, as
amended by the act of 1887, it
will be seen that it was required
that the Board of Freeholders should,
go days after said election, "prepare and
propose a Charter for said city, which
should be signed in duplicate by the
members of such Board, or a majority
OF them, and returned, one copy thereof
to the Mayor or other chief executive
officer of said city, and the other to the
Recorder of the county,"
Whether this was done or not is an
i'm Mt c,1aot;Oy, z-binb 1ra ora iolo
to determine but we have been informed
returned to the Recorder of the County.
II this information is correct, it is obvi-
GUS that it is extremely doubtful whether
the action of the Freeholders, and the
subsequent action of the Legislature,
could have any validity.
1t will also be seen, by reference to the
same section, that it was required, upon
| the approval of the Charter by a major
| ity of the electors, that sit shouldl
thereafter be sub bnitted to the Legislature
for its approval or rejection as a whole,
without power of alteration or amend
ment; and if approved by a majority vote
of the members elected to each House, it
should become the Charter of such city ;"
1t was assumed by the Legislature that
a simple resolution, passed by majority
vote of each House, would be sufficient
to give validity to the Charter without
any action on the part of the Governor /;
but it is extremely doubtful whether
such proposition can be maintained.
The act of the Legislature approving the
Charter is undoubtedly legislative act,
because it repeals pre-existing laws, and
itself operates on the liberty and prop
perty of the citizen. 1t is, therefore.
unquestionably law; and while it was
doubtless in the power of the
constitutional function to provide that
law might be passed by the Legislature
without the concurrence of the Governor
there seems to be nothing in the Ian
guage used which would indicate such
an intention. On the contrary, we find
by reference to the first section of Article
Ill, of the Constitution that the ''legisla-
tive power of this State shall be vested
in Senate and Assembly, which shall be
designated the Legislature of the State of
California and the enacting clause of
every law shall be as follows: The peo-
pie OF the State of California, represented
in Senate and Assembly, do enact as
follows: )" (Section 15.) And it is fur
ther provided that no law shall be
passed except by bill, and that every
bill which may have passed the Legis-
lature shall, before it becomes law, be
presented to the Governor, etc, for his
approval.
In order to hold that these provisions
do not apply to the action of the Legis-
lature in passing upon the Charter, it is
necessary to hold that such action is not
legislative and that the result is not a
law; but it would be very curious con-
clusion to resch that an act of the Legis-
lature, which has the effect of repeating
other laws and affecting the rights and
liberties of citizens, is not law. Such a
conclusion is certainly opposed to the re-
ceived definition of law as given in
Section 1896 of the Political Code as
being "a solemn expression OF the will of
the supreme power OF the State;" and
such q construction of the Constitution
would be in conflict with the provision Of
Section 1867, that claws shall be en-
acted" or, in other words, "the will of
the supreme power bel expressed" Il,