Opinion ID: 1857813
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: scope of authority under act

Text: The primary issue raised by Jackson is whether the Village ordinance exceeds the scope and authority granted by the Act. The Act, enacted in 1992, is designed to provide a comprehensive scheme to control the collection and disposal of solid wastes. In furtherance of this goal, the Act specifically requires each county and municipality in this state to provide or contract for facilities and systems as necessary for the safe and sanitary disposal of solid waste generated within its solid waste jurisdiction area. § 13-2020(1). Further authority is granted to a municipality in § 13-2020(4), which provides in pertinent part: The governing body of a county, municipality, or agency may make all necessary rules and regulations governing the use, operation, and control of a facility or system. Such governing body may establish just and equitable rates or charges to be paid to it for the use of such facility or system by each person whose premises are served by the facility or system, including charges for late payments.... (Emphasis supplied.) For purposes of the Act, a system includes contractors utilized for the purpose of collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste. § 13-2016. The Act also allows a municipality to adopt ordinances or regulations governing solid wastes within its jurisdiction as necessary to protect the public health and welfare as well as the environment. § 13-2023. In reliance upon these statutory provisions, the Village enacted an ordinance which states in pertinent part: Every property owner, occupant, or lessee, who owns, occupies, inhabits, uses, or possesses any residence, house, mobile home, building or institution within the corporate limits of the Village of Winside, Nebraska shall pay a garbage fee as assessed and determined by the Village of Winside, Nebraska. Winside Code § 4-307 (1993). As the ordinance makes clear, a resident or business may be assessed a garbage collection fee for occupying any building within the Village. The Village has, in essence, given its citizens an offer they cannot refuse. In determining the validity of this ordinance, we note that all ordinances are presumed to be valid. Whitehead Oil Co. v. City of Lincoln, 245 Neb. 660, 515 N.W.2d 390 (1994). However, the power of a municipality to enact and enforce any ordinance must be authorized by state statute. State v. Austin, 209 Neb. 174, 306 N.W.2d 861 (1981). The Village essentially argues that the ordinance in question is a proper exercise of authority granted by the Act. There is little doubt that the Act allows the Village to establish and maintain a garbage collection service within its jurisdiction. The question is whether the Village may charge a flat fee to persons that do not use this service. In construing a statute, a court must look to the statute's purpose and give to the statute a reasonable construction which best achieves that purpose, rather than a construction which would defeat it. Goolsby v. Anderson, 250 Neb. 306, 549 N.W.2d 153 (1996); Omaha Pub. Power Dist. v. Nebraska Dept. of Revenue, 248 Neb. 518, 537 N.W.2d 312 (1995). The purpose and intent of the Legislature must be ascertained from the entire language of the statute considered in its plain, ordinary, and popular sense. County Cork v. Nebraska Liquor Control Comm., 250 Neb. 456, 550 N.W.2d 913 (1996); Baker's Supermarkets v. State, 248 Neb. 984, 540 N.W.2d 574 (1995). We begin by noting that a municipality is expressly empowered to establish ordinances regulating the collection and removal of garbage. See § 13-2023. This grant of authority, however, must be construed together with other portions of the Act. See Nebraska Life & Health Ins. Guar. Assn. v. Dobias, 247 Neb. 900, 531 N.W.2d 217 (1995). The question before us is addressed by § 13-2020(4), which specifically controls the ability of a municipality to charge for garbage services. As previously noted, this section allows a municipality to assess equitable fees for the  use of such facility or system by each person whose premises are served by [ it ]. A plain and ordinary reading of this language can lead to only one conclusion: A municipality can impose a garbage fee on only those persons that actually use the garbage services provided. To read the Act as giving a municipality the ability to assess a flat garbage fee on all residents regardless of whether they use the service would require us to read a meaning into the statute that is contrary to the plain and ordinary meaning of the terms employed in § 13-2020(4). While the Legislature is free to regulate a municipality's ability to charge garbage fees as it sees fit, it is not within the province of this court to read a meaning into a statute that is not there, or to read anything direct and plain out of a statute. Nebraska Life & Health Ins. Guar. Assn. v. Dobias, supra . Our plain reading of the Act in no way removes the obligation or ability of a municipality to create a garbage removal service for its residents. Rather than employing language that expressly allows the imposition of a garbage fee on all residents, the Legislature gave municipalities the authority to levy a tax to pay for the garbage services provided. § 13-2020(5). This granting of tax power effectively eliminates any need a municipality may have to assess garbage fees on nonusers in order to defray any costs associated with the providing of such services. In applying our reading of the Act to the present case, we note that both parties are in agreement that Jackson has not used the garbage collection service offered by the Village. As Jackson is a nonuser of this service, the Village ordinance requiring Jackson to pay a garbage fee is contrary to the plain language of § 13-2020(4). This court has recently noted that where there is a direct conflict between an ordinance and a state statute, the statute is superior law. Gillis v. City of Madison, 248 Neb. 873, 540 N.W.2d 114 (1995). Because the imposition of a flat garbage fee on residents is incompatible with the Act, we hold that Winside Code § 4-307 is invalid insofar as it requires residents to pay a fee for garbage services they do not use.