Opinion ID: 1834498
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Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Powers of the Charter Commission

Text: In Merriam v. Moody's Executors, 25 Iowa 163, 170 (1868), Chief Justice John F. Dillon established a rule for the determination of local government power which came to be known as the Dillon Rule. City of Des Moines v. Master Builders, 498 N.W.2d 702, 703 (Iowa 1993). This rule held that municipal and county governments could only possess and exercise powers which were: (1) expressly granted by the legislature; (2) necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted; and (3) those indispensably essentialnot merely convenientto the declared objects and purposes of the municipality. Gritton v. City of Des Moines, 247 Iowa 326, 331, 73 N.W.2d 813, 815 (1955). The effect of the Dillon Rule was to, render cities [and counties] incapacitated in numberless matters of vital importance to local governments. Master Builders, 498 N.W.2d at 703. The legislature and the electors responded by adding home rule amendments to the Iowa Constitution in 1968 and 1978 which removed the Dillon doctrine from Iowa law. Iowa Const. art. III, § 38A (added by amend. 25 in 1968) (municipal home rule); Iowa Const. art. III, § 39A (added by amend. 37 in 1978) (county home rule); Kasparek v. Johnson County Bd. of Health, 288 N.W.2d 511, 514 (Iowa 1980). The county home rule amendment expressly provides, [t]he proposition or rule of law that a county or joint county-municipal corporation government possesses and can exercise only those powers granted in express words is not a part of the law of this state. Iowa Const. art. III, § 39A. Section 39A gave counties power and authority to determine their local affairs subject to the limitation that they could not exercise powers inconsistent with state law. Id.; cf. Master Builders, 498 N.W.2d at 703-04. The parties to this matter have entered into a stipulation which provides that the Charter Commission does not have home rule authority and that the home rule amendments to the Iowa Constitution are not applicable to the Commission. The Board therefore asserts that, as a body of county government, the Commission is subject to the Dillon Rule and holds only those powers expressly granted by or necessarily or fairly implied in the relevant statutes. As a result, the Board contends that we must strictly construe those statutes which delineate the Commission's power. The Board argues that a narrow reading of the relevant statutes will demonstrate that in drafting the commonwealth charter, the Commission has exceeded those powers the legislature has expressly granted to it. The Commission accepts the stipulation but argues that the Dillon Rule does not control the limits of its authority because it does not perform governmental functions. The Commission instead asserts that we should construe statutes delineating the Commission's authority liberally because the statutes are remedial in nature and a liberal interpretation would best satisfy the purposes of the legislation. The district court agreed with the Commission and held that the Dillon Rule did not control the extent of the Charter Commission's authority because the Commission did not exercise governmental power. The district court therefore held that a liberal construction which would accomplish the legislature's purposes was appropriate for statutes dealing with Commission powers. When courts have considered application of the rule, the only determinative factor appears to have been whether the entities in question were creatures of the state legislature. Gritton, 73 N.W.2d at 815. The Board asserts that since the legislature expressly subjected the Commission to the Iowa Code chapter 21 open meeting requirements, it is a governmental body subject to the Dillon Rule. See Iowa Code §§ 21.2, 21.3, 331.234. We note the general rule that litigants may not bind the supreme court with stipulations as to law. State v. Aumann, 236 N.W.2d 320, 322 (Iowa 1975); Zeigler v. Simmons, 353 Mich. 432, 91 N.W.2d 819, 822 (1958); 73 Am.Jur.2d Stipulations § 5, at 539 (1974). The propriety of this rule is especially clear when the controversy at issue involves important public interests. North Platte Lodge 985 v. Board of Equalization, 125 Neb. 841, 252 N.W. 313, 314 (1934); 73 Am.Jur.2d Stipulations § 5, at 540. We will not be bound by a stipulation regarding statutory and constitutional interpretation. The district court, in its excellent analysis of the legal questions prompted by the commonwealth charter, referred to language in State v. Fairmont Creamery Co., 153 Iowa 702, 711, 133 N.W. 895, 899 (1911), that it characterized as prophetic. Although springing from a constitutional question, the precept announced is equally applicable to the statutory construction issues in the case at bar, where we are charged with the responsibility of allowing, under law, the voice of the people to be heard. In 1911 our court said: The Constitution was intended to announce certain basic principles to serve as the perpetual foundation of the state. It was not intended to be a limitation upon its healthful development, nor to be an obstruction to its programs. New days bring new problems. Legislation must meet these problems as they come; otherwise our plan of government must prove inadequate. Manifestly, we ought not to be swift to adopt such a technical or strained construction of the Constitution as would unduly impair the efficiency of the legislature to meet its unavoidable responsibilities. Id., 153 Iowa at 711, 133 N.W. at 899. We therefore hold that the county home rule amendment, Iowa Const. art. III, § 39A, controls the extent of the Commission's powers since the Commission is a creature of the state legislature. The Dillon Rule does not govern our interpretation of those statutes which delineate Commission functions. We construe the statutes at issue liberally in order to promote the objectives of the legislature supporting their enactment. Bevel v. Civil Serv. Comm'n, 426 N.W.2d 380, 382 (Iowa 1988); Sommers v. Iowa Civil Rights Comm'n, 337 N.W.2d 470, 473 (Iowa 1983). In addition, we consider all relevant provisions together in order to best ensure promotion of the statutory goals. Sommers, 337 N.W.2d at 473.