Opinion ID: 2629200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: amendment of an ordinance by a resolution

Text: Government Code section 66016, part of the Mitigation Fee Act (Gov.Code, § 66000 et seq.), provides in subdivision (b): Any action by a local agency to levy a new fee or service charge or to approve an increase in an existing fee or service charge shall be taken only by ordinance or resolution.  (Italics added.) We agree with the Court of Appeal that this provision authorizes the District to use a resolution to increase existing connection fees, and that this authorization applies even when the fees were initially imposed by an ordinance. Arguing to the contrary, plaintiffs assert that the Mitigation Fee Act is procedural rather than substantive. In other words, it does not give local water districts substantive authority to impose fees, but instead it merely regulates the manner in which fees may be imposed. But whether a fee imposed by ordinance may be amended by resolution is essentially a question of procedure, not substance. Therefore, we may and do construe Government Code section 66016 as giving the District authority to use a resolution to amend a fee ordinance. In support of their position that the District may not use a resolution to amend an ordinance imposing a connection fee, plaintiffs rely on Cavalier Acres, Inc. v. San Simeon Acres Community Services District (1984) 151 Cal.App.3d 798, 199 Cal.Rptr. 4 ( Cavalier Acres ), in which the Court of Appeal concluded that a community services district could impose or increase water charges only by ordinance. In reaching this conclusion, the Cavalier Acres Court of Appeal relied on Government Code section 61621.5 and Health and Safety Code section 5471. Relying on the rule of construction that when two statutory provisions conflict, the one that is more specific controls, the Cavalier Acres Court of Appeal stated that, as applied to water charges imposed by a community services district, Government Code section 61621.5 and Health and Safety Code section 5471 were both more specific than Government Code section 66016. Government Code section 61621.5 is part of the Community Services District Law (Gov.Code, § 61000 et seq.). As here relevant, it provides: Except as otherwise provided in this section, a district may by ordinance adopt regulations binding upon all persons to govern the construction and use of its facilities and property, including regulations imposing reasonable charges for the use thereof. (Gov.Code, § 61621.5, subd. (a), italics added.) By its terms, this provision applies only to charges for the use of a community services district's facilities, not charges for its services. The Community Services District Law gives districts authority to impose charges for services, including charges for water, in a different section, Government Code section 61621. (See Waterman Convalescent Hospital, Inc. v. Jurupa Community Services Dist. (1996) 53 Cal.App.4th 1550, 1552-1553, 62 Cal.Rptr.2d 264.) As relevant here, it provides: A district may prescribe, revise and collect rates or other charges for the services and facilities furnished by it.... (Gov.Code, § 61621.) Nothing in this provision requires a community services district to act by ordinance rather than by resolution when, as here, it revises and prescribes the charges for water service. Health and Safety Code section 5471 is part of article 4 (Sanitation and Sewerage Systems) of chapter 6 (General Provisions with Respect to Sewers) of part 3 (Community Facilities) of division 5 (Sanitation) of the Health and Safety Code. As relevant here, it reads: In addition to the powers granted in the principal act, any entity shall have power, by an ordinance approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of the legislative body thereof, to prescribe, revise and collect, fees, tolls, rates, rentals, or other charges, including water, sewer standby or immediate availability charges, for services and facilities furnished by it, either within or without its territorial limits, in connection with its water, sanitation, storm drainage, or sewerage system.... (Italics added.) Health and Safety Code section 5471 does not apply to the District because it is not an entity within the meaning of this provision. Health and Safety Code section 5470 states that `[e]ntity' means and includes counties, cities and counties, cities, sanitary districts, county sanitation districts, sewer maintenance districts, and other public corporations and districts authorized to acquire, construct, maintain and operate sanitary sewers and sewerage systems. The District is a public agency organized as a community services district under the Community Services District Law (Gov.Code, § 61000 et seq.) to provide water service. Nothing in the record indicates it is authorized to construct, maintain, or operate sewers or sewerage systems. In this respect, Cavalier Acres, supra, 151 Cal.App.3d 798, 199 Cal.Rptr. 4, is distinguishable because the community services district at issue there provided both water and sewer services. (See id. at p. 800, 199 Cal.Rptr. 4.) Moreover, even if we assume that Health and Safety Code section 5471 applies to the District, that provision, by its terms, confers authority [i]n addition to the authority otherwise granted to a public entity. In other words, its main purpose is to supplement rather than to limit a public agency's authority to impose charges for water or sewer services in connection with a water or sewerage system. For a public agency organized as a community services district, the principal act ( ibid. ) providing its authority is the Community Services District Law (Gov.Code, § 61000 et seq.). As we have seen, Government Code section 61621 authorizes community services districts to establish charges for water services without requiring that they act by ordinance rather than by resolution, and Government Code section 66016, part of the Mitigation Fee Act (Gov.Code, § 66000 et seq.), expressly authorizes districts to use either a resolution or an ordinance to impose or increase a service charge. We do not read Health and Safety Code section 5471 as limiting or abrogating that authority. Again, we find Cavalier Acres, supra, 151 Cal.App.3d 798, 199 Cal.Rptr. 4, to be distinguishable. In 1984, when the Court of Appeal decided Cavalier Acres, the wording of Health and Safety Code section 5471 was materially different. The introductory phrase (In addition to the powers granted in the principal act) was not present, having been added later by amendment. (Stats.1988, ch. 706, § 1, p. 2348.) The 1988 amendment demonstrates the Legislature's intent that Health and Safety Code section 5471 not be read as limiting the powers conferred on public entities by the laws under which they were organized.