Court Opinion

ID: 9552732
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:15:45.752263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:28:45.767801
License: Public Domain

SHENK, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the order that the writ of prohibition issue but I do not agree with the reasons on which it is based.
It was clearly announced in Housing Authority v. Dockweiler, 14 Cal.2d 437 [94 P.2d 794], and Kleiber v. City and County of San Francisco, 18 Cal.2d 718 [117 P.2d 657], that a measure such as is here sought to be subjected to the referendum is but an administrative step to be taken by the local body under the Housing Authorities Law (Stats. 1938, Ex. Sess., p. 9, Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1939 Supp., Act 3483).
One of the contentions of the respondent is that the electors of the city have the right to vote on the question whether the city council properly found that there was a slum area and a need of low-rent housing. But that point in the housing project has long since passed. The Housing Authorities Law *560provides: 11 See. 4. Creation of Housing Authorities. In each city (as herein defined) and in each county of the state there is hereby creatéd a public body corporate and politic to be known as the ‘housing authority’ of the city or county; provided, however, that such authority shall not transact any business or exercise its powers hereunder until or unless the governing body of the city or the county, as the case may be, by proper resolution shall declare at any time hereafter that there is need for an authority to function in such city or county.” Provisions follow relative to the methods by which the proceeding for investigation and determination of the need may be initiated and concluded. The section then provides : “In any suit, action or proceeding involving the validity or enforcement of or relating to any contract of the authority, the authority shall be conclusively deemed to have become established and authorized to transact business and exercise its powers hereunder upon proof of the adoption of a resolution by the governing body declaring the need for the authority ...”
The petition for the writ of prohibition alleges: “That at all times herein mentioned Housing Authority of the City of Eureka was and is a public corporation properly constituted and validly functioning by authority of the Housing Authorities Law of this State, and Eesolution No. 3720 of the said City of Eureka.” No attempt was made to subject that resolution to the referendum and its validity is not properly under attack here. The allegation admits that the initial step provided for in section 4 of the Housing Authorities Law has been duly taken and has established the Housing Authority of the city of Eureka as a functioning arm of the state to carry out the objectives of the state law.
The injunction proceeding in the Kleiber case involved an attack upon the validity of contracts entered into by the similarly established Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco. Neither that case nor any other case should be deemed to have decided that the initial action establishing the housing authority under section four is an administrative act. The action of the governing body under section 4 is undoubtedly a legislative act subject to the referendary provisions of the city charter. That is to say, when the city council by resolution decided to proceed under the state law pursuant to the procedures there provided and made its determination that there was need for a housing authority in the city of Eureka, it was exercising a legislative function. All *561steps taken thereafter pursuant to the statute as indicated in the Kleiber decision, are administrative and the electors of the city have no referendary power under the city charter to interfere with the performance of those powers and duties. It would follow that the action of the city council here involved is not subject to the referendary provisions of the city charter.
The majority appear to accept Kleiber v. City and County of San Francisco, supra (18 Cal.2d 718), and Hopping v. Richmond, 170 Cal. 605 [150 P. 977], as settling in all cases that the power of referendum may he exercised only as to legislative acts. The Kleiber case did not involve the reserved power by the electorate. The Hopping case involved the referendary provision of the Richmond city charter and the decision was confined to the express language of that organic, instrument. It was recognized, however (170 Cal. at p. 611), that if the reserved powers in the charter exceeded those reserved in the constitution, the effect of the charter would be to give to the electors of the city the additional reserved powers. The court should not now foreclose the question which was thereby left open when it is not necessary to do so. I therefore do not agree with the statement of the majority that the “power of referendum applies only to acts that are legislative in character; executive or administrative acts are not within the scope of that remedy.” The people of the state might constitutionally provide for a referendum on administrative measures, however impractical that might prove to be. Also a city through a freeholders’ charter—its fundamental law—could expressly provide for a referendum on administrative measures that are of local concern.
Nor do I agree with the majority declaration that the words in the charter used in the disjunctive, namely, “ordinance or measure,” mean one and the same thing. Quite often powers of a city, even those legislative in character, may be exercised by resolution. Under the language of the charter of the city of Eureka, a resolution would be a “measure” as distinguished from an ‘1 ordinance. ’ ’
It is unnecessary in this proceeding to determine the extent of the reserved powers of the city under its charter for the reason that in acting in the matter now sought to he subjected to the referendum the city is merely performing an administrative act pursuant to a statute which provides the implements to carry out a project which, once duly initiated, is a matter of more than local concern.