Opinion ID: 2262083
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ADMINISTRATIVE vs. LEGISLATIVE ACTION

Text: ¶ 11 Municipal legislative bodies regularly perform both legislative and administrative functions. The trial court found that these initiatives were administrative in nature and thus not the proper subject for initiatives. See Ruano, 81 Wash.2d at 823, 505 P.2d 447. Generally speaking, a local government action is administrative if it furthers (or hinders) a plan the local government or some power superior to it has previously adopted. Id. at 823-24, 505 P.2d 447; Heider v. City of Seattle, 100 Wash.2d 874, 876, 675 P.2d 597 (1984). Discerning whether a proposed initiative is administrative or legislative in nature can be difficult. Justice Brachtenbach suggested that at least for the case before the court at the time, the appropriate question was whether the proposition is one to make new law or declare a new policy, or merely to carry out and execute law or policy already in existence. Ruano, 81 Wash.2d at 823, 505 P.2d 447 (citing People v. City of Centralia, 1 Ill.App.2d 228, 117 N.E.2d 410 (1953)). ¶ 12 Ruano concerned the King County stadium. After the county council had voted to build it and the bonds had been sold to finance it, an initiative was filed to prevent construction. Id. at 822, 825, 505 P.2d 447. Noting that the original ordinance authorizing the project was legislative in nature and that no referendum had been proposed to repeal it, the court found that the later initiative attacked only administrative decisions that were beyond the scope of the initiative power. Id. at 824-25, 505 P.2d 447. [4] Similarly, this court held that the Seattle City Council acted administratively, and thus was not subject to referendum, when it passed an ordinance changing the name of Empire Way to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. In a brief opinion, this court dismissed a proposed referendum [5] repealing the name change as outside the scope of the referendum power. After again acknowledging there were several ways of determining whether an action was legislative or administrative, we said: The power to be exercised is legislative in its nature if it prescribes a new policy or plan; whereas, it is administrative in its nature if it merely pursues a plan already adopted by the legislative body itself, or some power superior to it. 5 E[ugene] McQuillin, [Municipal Corporations] § 16.55, at 194 [(3d rev. ed.)]; Durocher v. King Cy., 80 Wash.2d 139, 152-53, 492 P.2d 547 (1972); Ruano v. Spellman, supra at 823 [505 P.2d 447]. .... ... The name change ordinance merely amended Seattle's comprehensive street names ordinance. Therefore, the ordinance should be characterized as administrative, since it was enacted [pursuant to] a plan already adopted by the legislative body itself ... Heider, 100 Wash.2d at 876, 675 P.2d 597 (some alterations in original) (quoting Citizens for Fin. Responsible Gov't v. City of Spokane, 99 Wash.2d 339, 347, 662 P.2d 845 (1983)); accord Leonard, 87 Wash.2d at 850, 852, 557 P.2d 1306 (finding the decision to rezone property was administrative and not subject to referendum).