Opinion ID: 1266619
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: election requirements

Text: The municipalities' decision to purchase an interest in an electric utilities system through a joint agency constitutionally belongs to its qualified electors, not to its governing body as permitted by the Act. This right to election is expressed in Article VIII, § 16, as follows: Any incorporated municipality may, upon a majority vote of the electors of such political subdivision who shall vote on the question, acquire by initial construction or purchase and may operate gas, water, sewer, electric, transportation or other public utility systems and plants. The record does not reflect the question upon which the various municipalities voted before coming to be involved in the generation, transmission and/or distribution of electric power. Certainly there is nothing in the record to indicate that any question contemplated that result which the Act and the contracts would bring about. Both the letter and the spirit of the constitutional provision mandates that the electors in the respective municipalities be given an opportunity to voice their opinion on this enormous undertaking. The joint agency is no more than an instrumentality of the municipalities. It is a sort of alter ego created for the purpose of doing indirectly that which the Constitution forbids municipalities to do directly. The Act itself in § 6-23-110 recognizes that: ... the creation of a joint agency is an alternative method whereby a municipality may obtain the benefits and assume the responsibilities of ownership in a project.... I would hold that the governing body of the respective municipalities may not commit its users of electricity to the proposed project without first having submitted an appropriate question to the electors as contemplated by Article VIII, § 16.