Opinion ID: 1834498
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Process for Transfer of Services

Text: Iowa Code section 331.261(10) provides: The community commonwealth charter shall provide for the following: .... 10. A process by which the governing body of the community commonwealth and the governing bodies of the member cities provide by mutual agreement for the delivery of specified services to the community commonwealth. The Board asserts that the charter violates this provision because it does not provide a method for mutual agreement between each member city council and the Commonwealth Council on the transfer of services. The Charter Commission argues that the Mayors' Commission satisfies the requirement of section 331.261(10) because the cities' mayors are the cities' chief executive officers, hold veto powers, and are part of and represent the respective city councils. The term process means a particular method or system of doing something, producing something, or accomplishing a specific result. Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1808 (1993). The result to which the legislature refers in section 331.261(10) is the delivery of specified services in the commonwealth. Under the charter, the method to achieve this result is by action of the mayors on the Mayors' Commission and the decision of the Commonwealth Council. That process, when completed, effectuates a mutual agreement for the delivery of services. Section 372.14(1) of chapter 372 on Organization of City Government states that the mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and presiding officer of the council. Except for supervisory duties that have been delegated to a city manager, the mayor supervises all city offices and departments. The mayor is also authorized to take command of the police and govern the city by proclamation in time of emergency or public danger. Within the city limits, the mayor also has all the powers conferred upon the sheriff to suppress disorders. Iowa Code § 372.14(2). A city mayor is further empowered to sign, veto, or take no action on an ordinance, amendment, or resolution passed by the council. Iowa Code § 380.5. These governing powers and functions by a city's mayor are numerous and provide representation of the city by its mayor in widely differing capacities. The legislature is well aware that Iowa cities are empowered to act variously by decisions of a mayor, a city council, or through other forms of government. By not stating, as it might have in section 331.261(10), that a city could only agree to a process for delivery of services by action of its city council, the legislature left to the Charter Commission the choice of selecting the method of process. Other jurisdictions typically define governing body to include both the mayor and city council of a city. See, e.g., City of Wichita, Kan. v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 828 F.Supp. 851 (D.Kan.1993). Since the mayor is an integral part of the governing body of a member city, a commission consisting of mayors substantially satisfies the charge of the legislature in section 331.261(10) to the Commonwealth Commission to provide a process for the delivery of services. We also note that the construction urged by the Board runs counter to the liberal interpretation of this remedial legislation that we embrace in order to satisfy its purpose. To read into section 331.261(10) a requirement that only city councils can act would effectively scuttle much of the benefit predicted for the commonwealth form of government. Little would be changed from the present inert situation where intergovernmental agreements are authorized under Iowa Code chapter 28E, but seldom accomplished. Moreover, the legislature is not presumed to perform a useless act. See Slockett v. Iowa Valley Community Sch. Dist., 359 N.W.2d 446, 448 (Iowa 1984). The process by which the Mayors' Commission and the Commonwealth Council mutually agree on the transfer of services satisfies the requirements of section 331.261(10).