Opinion ID: 1315995
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Heading: the prohibition against delegating legislative power

Text: The prohibition against delegating legislative power to politically unaccountable persons is found in the following language in article XXI, section 4 of the Colorado Constitution: Every person having authority to exercise or exercising any public or governmental duty, power or function, shall be an elective officer, or one appointed, drawn, or designated in accordance with law by an elective officer or officers, or by some board, commission, person or persons legally appointed by an elective officer or officers, each of which said elective officers shall be subject to the recall provision of this constitution.... The plain language of this section mandates that every person having authority to exercise a governmental power must either be an elective officer or be appointed or designated in accordance with law by an elective officer. We first interpreted this prohibition against the delegation of legislative power in the context of a challenge to binding arbitration provisions in Greeley Police Union v. City Council of Greeley, 191 Colo. 419, 553 P.2d 790 (1976). In Greeley Police Union we considered the constitutionality of binding interest arbitration provisions contained in a charter amendment passed by the voters of the City of Greeley. The arbitration system in the Greeley charter amendment provided for the American Arbitration Association (AAA), an independent organization with no political accountability, to submit a list of five names of potential arbitrators to each party. Each party then had the opportunity to cross off two names and number the remaining three names on their list in order of preference. The AAA then would select a single person who was granted the authority to resolve all disputed issues. The arbitrator's decision was binding on the parties. We held that the binding arbitration provisions in the Greeley charter amendment violated the Colorado Constitution. [6] In reaching our holding, we explained that article XXI, section 4 prohibits the delegat[ion] of legislative power to politically unaccountable persons. Id. at 422, 553 P.2d at 792 (emphasis added). We reaffirmed the holding of Greeley Police Union one year later in City of Aurora v. Aurora Firefighters' Protective Ass'n, 193 Colo. 437, 566 P.2d 1356 (1977). The arbitration system contained in the charter amendment in Aurora Firefighters' paralleled the system in Greeley Police Union in all important respects in that the AAA was to submit a list of seven names of potential arbitrators to each party and the parties were then to each cross off two names from their list. The AAA was then to select three arbitrators from the names remaining to decide the disputed issues. The Aurora Firefighters' system suffered from the same fatal flaw as Greeley Police Union: the organization charged with creating the list of potential arbitrators and making the final selection of the arbitrator had no political accountability. Accordingly, we held that Greeley Police Union controlled and invalidated the binding arbitration provisions. See id. at 440, 566 P.2d at 1358. In City & County of Denver v. Denver Firefighters Local No. 858, 663 P.2d 1032 (Colo.1983), we considered the constitutionality of binding grievance arbitration provisions. We contrasted this type of arbitration with binding interest arbitration: Grievance arbitration, on the other hand, arises only after the parties have reached complete agreement on terms and conditions of employment.... When an arbitrator is required to interpret the provisions of an existing agreement, he acts in a judicial capacity rather than a legislative one. The authority to interpret an existing contract, therefore, does not constitute legislative authority, and the nondelegation principle is not implicated in grievance arbitration. Id. at 1038 (citation omitted). Therefore, in upholding the validity of the binding grievance arbitration provisions, we distinguished Greeley Police Union and Aurora Firefighters' because those decisions both involved binding interest arbitration. See id. at 1037-38. Finally, we most recently considered the validity of binding arbitration provisions in Regional Transportation District v. Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, 830 P.2d 942 (Colo.1992) [hereinafter RTD ]. In RTD we considered the validity of binding arbitration provisions contained in the Colorado Labor Peace Act, sections 8-3-101 to -123, 3B C.R.S. (1986 & 1991 Supp.). The arbitration provisions were challenged as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority in violation of both article V, section 35 and article XXI, section 4 of the Colorado Constitution. We first addressed the provisions of article V, section 35 [7] and held that RTD was not a municipality and was not performing a municipal function within the meaning of that section and, therefore, the nondelegation requirement contained in section 35 did not prevent the General Assembly from requiring binding arbitration. See RTD, 830 P.2d at 947. We next considered the article XXI, section 4 challenge to the arbitration provisions and noted that the Director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Labor (Director) was authorized to order arbitration and to appoint an arbitrator. We restated the test we formulated in Greeley Police Union by observing that [t]o comply with article XXI, section 4, of the Colorado Constitution, the Director must be politically accountable. Id. (emphasis added). We found that this political accountability test was satisfied because the Director was appointed by the Executive Director of the Department of Labor, who, in turn, was appointed by the Governor, an elective official subject to recall. Consequently, we held that the Director's appointment of the arbitrator[ ] compl[ied] with the requirements of article XXI, section 4. Id. at 948. In reaching our holding in RTD, we distinguished our decisions in Greeley Police Union and Aurora Firefighters' by observing that our concern in these cases was that the arbitrator was not politically accountable. Id. In both of those cases, the original list of potential arbitrators was submitted by the AAA and the final selection of the arbitrator(s) was made by the AAA after a striking process. In contrast, we explained that in RTD the selection of the arbitrator is by a politically accountable government official and complies with [a]rticle XXI, section 4. Id.