Opinion ID: 1839902
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Beaches and Baldwin

Text: Plaintiffs contend that the Charter does not comply with the Jacksonville Consolidation Amendment because the urban services districts into which the municipalities of Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach and Baldwin are converted are allowed to retain their former governments. Plaintiffs contend that this is improper because it creates four municipalities within a municipality. This contention is without merit. The Jacksonville Consolidation Amendment gives the Legislature power `to establish    a Municipal corporation to be known as the City of Jacksonville, extending territorially throughout the present limits of Duval County in place of any or all    municipal and local governments   '. In Wilson v. Crews, (1948) [160 Fla. 169] 34 So.2d 114, cited by plaintiffs for another point, the Supreme Court quoted an earlier case, saying: `It has been said that, as statutes are hastily and unskillfully drawn, they need construction to make them sensible, but Constitutions import the utmost discrimination in the use of language, that which the words declare is the meaning of the instrument.' The provision of the Jacksonville Consolidation Amendment quoted above clearly contemplates that the consolidated city government will extend throughout the territory, but that one or more municipal or local governments in the territory may continue in existence. Continuation of quasi municipal corporations appears to be well within the amendment. The Jacksonville Consolidation Amendment also authorizes the Legislature `to establish subordinate districts.' That is what the Legislature did in the Charter. It designated the areas which were formerly within the municipalities of Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach and Baldwin as urban services districts. The term `district' is not defined in the constitutional provision. It is susceptible of many meanings. Some of these are indicated in 27 C.J.S., Districts, p. 618: `The term districts is defined as meaning a division of territory made for administrative, electoral, or other purposes; a defined portion of a state, county, town, borough, or city for legislative, judicial, fiscal or election purposes; a special geographical area over which specific authority, executive, legislative, or judicial is exercised by properly constituted officers;   '. It is not unusual in Florida for districts to have governing bodies, the power to tax, the power of eminent domain and various other powers enjoyed by municipal corporations. Under the constitutional provision the Legislature had wide latitude in determining the characteristics of districts to be included in the consolidated government. Under the first sentence of the constitutional provision the retention of their former governments does not prevent them from being districts. It also appears that the districts are `subordinate'. The Consolidated Government has the power to tax and to enact ordinances operative throughout the county, to render services in those urban services districts, and to consolidate them subject to referendum by the voters. Under the circumstances, I conclude that the Legislature was authorized to permit the Beaches and Baldwin to retain their former governments subject to the controlling provisions of the Charter.