Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-03-30

Legislature, in approving Charter, is
an exercise of legislative power. and that
the result is law or statue which re-
quires but the concurrent action OF the
Governor to give it validity. 1t seems,
indeed, that this has already been, in
fact, held by our Supreme Court in the
case of er parte Wall rs California, R79)
That case involved the validity OF the
Local Option law, which provided for
prohibition in any township, incorporated
city or town, upon majority OF the vote
Of the electors TO that effect and i was
there held that the function imposed
upon the people by the law of voting for
or against its taking effect was legisIa-
tive junction and, therefore, could not be
delegated by the Legislature. The case
differs in some respects from this; for,
unquestionably, the Constitutional Con
veniion could have delegated the power
OF passing upon Charter to the separate
houses of the Legislature, or to either OF
them, or to the County Judge or any other
official, and, therefore, it does not follow
that had such delegation been made it
would have been void. But it is clearly
and unequivocally held that the power
involved upon the people by that act,
which is precisely of the same nature as
the power involved upon the Legislature
by the Constitution, was a legislative
power; and from this proposition it fol-
lows necessarily that the approval by
the Legislature is a law, and that, like
other laws, it must be enacted by bill
in the form prescribed by the Copstitu-
ton, and submitted to the Governor for
his approval.
There is also another case which has
strong bearing upon the question. viz,
Hatch vs. Stoneman, (66 CGL, 632) and
which, for the benefit of nom professional
readers, we shall briefly explain. By
Section of Article XVIII of the Consti-
tuition it is provided THAT any amend
ment or amendments to this Constitution
may be proposed in the Senate or Assem-
bly,, and if two-thirds of all the members
elected to each of the two Houses shall
vote in favor thereof, such proposed
amendment or amendments shall be en-
tered in their journals, with the yeas
and nays taken thereon, and it shall be
the duty of the Legislature to submit
such proposed amendment or amend
ments to the people in such manner and
at such time and after such publication
as may be deemed expedient."
In that case certain amendments had
been adopted by two-thirds majority OF
each House, and entered in their journal,
and it was contended that the mere
action of the Legislature was, under the
Constitution referred to, sufficient Of
itself without the concurrence of the
Governor. Or, in other words, THAT it
was intended by the trainers of the Con-
stitution that the same power that could
propose an amendment (videlicet the
Legislature without the Governor) could
provide for its submission to the people
at any time it saw fit, and that it was
never intended that any one man could
thwart their WISH" and it was held by
the Court that the Legislature could act
only by law which would require the
appropriate action of the Governor. The
language OF this section is the same as in
the section under discussion. In the
one il provides that it "shall be the duty
of the Legislature" to submit the Con-
stitutional amendment; in the other it is
provided that the proposed Charter shall
be submitted to the Legislature for its
approval or rejection, as whole, with
out power of alteration or amendment"
and it seems clear that in the latter case,
as in the former, the Legislature can only
act by law or statute.
There is also another very serious
question with reference to most of the
provisions of the Charter.
By Section of Article XI of the Con-
stitution, it is expressly provided that all
cities and towns heretofore organized or
incorporated "shall be subject to and
controlled by general laws" and in Sec
ton of the same article, as amended, it
ia TrnNriHaH fhot oftar hn NhoYt0r hoo
been adopted and approved by the Leg
islature, it "shall become the organic
law thereof, and shall supersede any ex-
thereof, and all special lalVS consistent
the provision of Section that it shall be
subject to all general laws previously or
thereafter passed.
Now, looking to the general laws upon
the subject of Municipal Corporations, !"
we find that on the I'd day of March,
1888, law was passed to provide for the
classification of municipal corporations
acc cording to numbers, in which it was
provided that the census taken in 1880
should be the basis upon which the re-
spective populations of such municipal
tiles should be determined, except a
special enumeration should be made as
provided by law, which has never been
done. Afterwards, on the 18th day of
March, 1883, an act was passed entitled
can act to provide for the organization,
incorporation and government of muni-
cipal corporations" according to their
classification under the law, and the re-
naming chapters for the government of
all corporations existing or to exist. By
reference to the latter chapters it will be
seen that a complete organization or
Charter is provided for each class of cor
porations, each chapter commencing
with the words, every municipal COR
poration of the - class shall be en-.
titled" etc.
1t seems reasonable to suppose that, in
the enactment of the amendment of
1887, under which our Charter was
made, the Legislature, in proposing the
amendment, had in view the existing
law which determined the classification
of municipalities according to the census
of 1880, and that the amendment must
be construed with reference to that law.
If this is the case, the classification of
our city will be determined by the census
of 1880, according to which we had a
population of $4,000 or $4,000 only; and
we, therefore fall to the fourth class,
which includes all cities having popu-
lation of more than 10000, and not ex-
ceeding $4,000. We, therefore, come
within the operation of Chapter V OF the
Municipal Corporation law of March 13,
1888; by reference to which it will be