Title: State v. City of St. Petersburg
Citation: 61 So. 2d 416
Docket Number: N/A
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: November 18, 1952

61 So. 2d 416 (1952)
STATE
v.
CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG.

Supreme Court of Florida, Division B.
November 18, 1952.
Archie Clement, Tarpon Springs, for appellant.
Lewis T. Wray, Harry I. Young, Frank D. McDevitt and Carroll R. Runyon, St. Petersburg, for appellee.
DREW, Justice.
From a decree validating certificates of the City of St. Petersburg in the aggregate principal amount of $1,500,000 designated "Sewer System Revenue Certificates, 1952 Series", the State of Florida, through its States Attorney, has appealed.
The appeal presents four propositions for determination. We will discuss them in the order presented.
*417 The first question presented is whether the City of St. Petersburg had the power to issue these certificates without first obtaining the approval of the freeholders at an election as provided by Section 6 of Article IX of the Florida Constitution, F.S.A.
The resolution authorizing the issuance of these certificates provides:
The appellant urges that the plan of financing the certificates is liable indirectly to create a pledge of the taxing power or impose an obligation coercive upon the city to exercise the power of taxation to meet the principal and interest upon said certificates in the event the net revenues derived from the sewer system should be insufficient. The record discloses, however, that, based upon past revenues derived from the system then in operation, the increased charges imposed by Ordinance No. 17.c (passed on first reading at the same meeting the ordinance providing for the issuance of the certificates herein involved was adopted) would be adequate to retire the principal and interest on such certificates as they matured. There was adequate and substantial evidence to support this contention in the lower court. See Town of Riviera Beach v. State, Fla., 53 So. 2d 828.
We have repeatedly and consistently held that certificates of the kind here considered may be issued without an election as contemplated by Section 6, Article IX of the Florida Constitution. See State v. City of Miami, 157 Fla. 726, 27 So. 2d 118, 124, where we held:
See also the more recent cases of Zinnen v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 159 Fla. 498, 32 So. 2d 162; State v. City of Winter Park, 160 Fla. 330, 34 So. 2d 740.
Appellants  in their second question  contend that Chapter 23523, Special Acts of 1945, as amended by Chapter 24875, Special Acts of 1947, requires the certificates here involved to be first authorized by a vote of the qualified electors of said city. It is true that the 1945 Act, as *418 amended, does contain such a provision, but Section 10 of that Act contains a provision that:
We hold that the 1945 Act, as amended, was intended to be and was (as stated in the Act) a grant of supplemental and additional power and did not supplant or repeal the then existing powers under the charter of the city, viz., Chapter 15505, Special Acts of 1931, under which these certificates are to be issued. Herbert v. City of Daytona Beach, 121 Fla. 212, 163 So. 565; Sullivan v. City of Tampa, 101 Fla. 298, 134 So. 211; State v. City of Hollywood, 131 Fla. 584, 179 So. 721.
In numerous cases we have upheld the issuance of revenue certificates under the city's charter authority, supra. See Blocker v. City of St. Petersburg, 125 Fla. 156, 157, 169 So. 647; State v. City of St. Petersburg, 135 Fla. 642, 185 So. 451; State v. City of St. Petersburg, 145 Fla. 206, 198 So. 837.
We now come to the question of whether the City of St. Petersburg has the power and authority under its charter and the laws of Florida to issue the certificates here under consideration and to impose and collect the service charges imposed to service such certificates.
In this connection the following are the pertinent provisions of the Charter of the City, Chapter 15505, Special Acts of 1931:
In Section 3(e):
In Section 3(f):
In Section 3(uu):
In Section 3(ee):
On the authority of State v. City of St. Petersburg, 145 Fla. 206, 198 So. 837; State v. City of St. Petersburg, 135 Fla. 642, 185 So. 451; State v. Miami, 157 Fla. *419 726, 27 So. 2d 118, and the charter provisions heretofore quoted, we hold that the city had ample power and authority to issue the certificates.
As to the right of the city to impose and collect the charges prescribed in Ordinance 17.c, supra, and pledged to the payment of the certificates in the Resolution authorizing the issuance of said certificates, we find ample authority therefor in Section 3(uu) of the city charter, supra, and Chapter 167.73, Florida Statutes, 1951, F.S.A. We have many times upheld charges and fees of the character here involved. Clein v. Lee, 146 Fla. 306, 200 So. 693; State v. City of Daytona Beach, 160 Fla. 204, 34 So. 2d 309; Buchanan v. City of Miami, Fla., 49 So. 2d 336; State v. City of Miami, 157 Fla. 726, 27 So. 2d 118.
The final proposition presented for determination is the question of whether Ordinance 17.c, which increased the rates theretofore in existence for sewer charges, was the kind of Ordinance contemplated by Section 8, Subsection J, of Chapter 15505, Special Acts of 1931 (the Charter Act). This Section is as follows:
We hold that appellant's contention that this Ordinance should have been either repealed or submitted to the qualified electors at an election is wholly without merit. The rule is uniformly accepted that initiative and referendum do not apply to executive or administrative matters of the kind covered by this Ordinance. We approve the following quotation from McQuillin's Municipal Corporations, Volume 5 (3rd ed.), Section 16.55:
The decree of the lower court is hereby affirmed.
Affirmed.
SEBRING, C.J., and ROBERTS and MATHEWS, JJ., concur.