Court Opinion

ID: 9686816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:07:30.224835+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:22.107116
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(dissenting).
The proposed ordinance is within the proper scope of the initiative power.
South Dakota Constitution, art. Ill, § 1 provides to the people the right to refer legislative acts to a public vote. Municipalities are specifically subject to initiative and referendum. Id. South Dakota was the first state to reserve legislative powers to its citizens by initiative and referendum. Wyatt v. Kundert, 375 N.W.2d 186, 192 (S.D.1985). “Initiative is the constitutional reservation of power in the people to propose bills and laws and to enact or reject them at the polls independent of the legislative assembly.” Byre v. City of Chamberlain, 362 N.W.2d 69, 79 (S.D.1985).
Legislative matters of a municipality are subject to initiative and referendum unless specifically excluded by statute. Id.; see SDCL 9-20-18 and 9-20-191 (excluding administrative acts only). In Wang v. Patterson, 469 N.W.2d 577, 580 (S.D.1991), we stated that “[wjhere discretion is left to the local government as to what it may do, when the local government acts, it acts legislatively and its actions are subject to normal referendum procedure.” Id. (quoting 5 E. McQuil-lin, The Law of Municipal Corporations, § 16.55 (3rd ed. 1989)). “Where a matter is of local rather than statewide concern, a local decision which is intrinsically legislative retains that character even in the presence of a state law authorizing or setting limits on the particular field of action.” 5 McQuillin, at § 16.55.
Wang involved the planning of a municipal airport and whether a condemnation action was subject to referendum. 469 N.W.2d at 577-78. In upholding the citizens’ right to refer the matter to a referendum, we apply a “liberal rule of construction permitting rather than preventing ... citizens from exercising their powers of referendum.” Id. Wang held that unless the Airport Master Plan directed the condemnation of specific land, the City retained discretion; if so, then it was subject to the referendum process as a legislative act. Id.
Our task is to determine whether some key act performed by the Council removed discretion from any further action by City regarding the Airport, making it an administrative matter. Wang, 469 N.W.2d at 579-80. Council claims that SDCL ch. 50-7 is a specific grant of authority and $18,892.47 has been spent planning for the Airport. It claims its Airport matters are administrative only and therefore, beyond the reach of the initiative or referendum process. See Id. City has entered into agreements with the State and the FAA, and has hired consulting engineers. However, the proposed Master Plan does not apprise citizens of any specific future action by the Airport Board or the City. See Id.; Baker v. Jackson, 372 N.W.2d 142, 147 (S.D.1985) (holding abrogated by SDCL 9-20-18 which provides that decision-making authority granted to municipal governing bodies is subject to initiative and ref*717erendum unless otherwise excluded). City has retained discretionary authority for approving the site of the Airport. No land has been acquired or subjected to condemnation through the power of eminent domain. Construction plans have not been approved or made public. No other concrete action has been taken which would apprise citizens of future actions by City. The City has not even attained the same stage of development reached in Wang, which we held to be legislative. 469 N.W.2d at 579-80. Therefore, the Airport involves legislative rather than administrative matters. Id.
The people are on equal footing with the municipality in their power to make laws concerning legislative matters under the initiative process. See State v. Houge, 67 N.D. 251, 271 N.W. 677, 680 (1937) (citation omitted); Klosterman v. Marsh, 143 N.W.2d 744, 748 (Neb.1966). An initiative may conflict with or repeal legislation previously passed by a municipal council. 5 McQuillin, at § 16.52. The initiative may be used to amend or propose new legislation reaching any legislative matter. State ex rel. Sharpe v. Hitt, 155 Ohio St. 529, 99 N.E.2d 659, 664 (1951); 5 McQuillin, at § 16.52; SDCL 9-20-18 and 19. We should not abridge the right of the people to use the initiative process except upon a clear showing that the proposed law is unconstitutional. Laam v. McLaren, 28 Cal.App. 632, 153 P. 985, 988 (Cal.App.3rd 1915). Therefore, if the scope of the ordinance is proper for passage by a city council, it is proper for the municipality’s citizens to have an initiated petition covering the same subject matter. Houge, 271 N.W. at 680; State ex rel. Boyer v. Grady, 201 Neb. 360, 269 N.W.2d 73, 77 (1978); see SDCL 9-20-19 (excluding administrative matters only).
Under SDCL eh. 50-7,2 the City is given the power to establish an airport. No specific procedures are delineated which would make the power administrative only. SDCL ch. 50-7; Wang, 469 N.W.2d at 580. No statewide policy is established: only the authority to establish and maintain airports is granted to municipalities if they choose to exercise that discretion. Id.; see 5 McQuillin, at § 16.55. This is enabling legislation only, not mandatory legislation. City’s actions under SDCL ch. 50-7 are discretionary until they are specifically delineated in a City ordinance. The Council could enact an ordinance choosing not to exercise its discretionary power to establish an airport. Therefore, the municipality’s citizens may also enact such an ordinance by the initiative process.
The majority relies heavily on Byre, 362 N.W.2d at 79, which set forth distinctions between initiative and referendum. The defect in the majority’s analysis is the fact that it overlooks Byre’s own language:
Initiative is the constitutional reservation of power in the people to propose bills and laws and to enact or reject them at the polls independent of the legislative assembly [.]
Id. at 79 (emphasis added).
I recognize that Byre provides distinctions between initiative and referendum, but those distinctions do not control the facts of this case. Byre, 362 N.W.2d at 79, relies upon 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 116 (1953), which cites State ex rel. Richards v. Whisman, 36 S.D. 260, 272, 154 N.W. 707, 711 (1915). Whis-man stated:
The fact that the people themselves may propose or enact laws in connection with the Legislature in no manner conflicts with *718or prohibits the Legislature from itself also enacting the same law that might be desired by the people. If the Legislature of its own volition should enact the same law desired by the people, the initiative would then become unnecessary and useless as to such law. The evident purpose of this constitutional amendment was not to curtail or limit the powers of the Legislature to enact laws, but the purpose was to compel enactment by the Legislature of measures desired by the people, and, if the Legislature neglected to act as so desired by the people, that then the people by means of the initiative might enact such measures into laws themselves.... The only prohibition or inhibition or limitation in relation to legislative power appearing in the initiative portion of the amendment is that which relates to the veto power [of the executive].
Id. 154 N.W. at 709-10 (emphasis added).
The phrase “in the event the legislature fails to act” in Byre, 362 N.W.2d at 79, refers to the Legislature’s failure to act on the “same law that might be desired by the people.” Whisman, 154 N.W. at 709. Therefore, the majority’s proposition that the initiative cannot be used if the municipality has in any manner acted upon the subject is not supported by its own authorities. Whisman, 154 N.W. at 711, held that the people are on equal footing with the Legislature and that the Legislature may repeal or amend initiated laws. Id. (citing Kadderly v. Portland, 44 Or. 118, 74 P. 710 (1903)). See State ex rel. Wegner v. Pyle, 55 S.D. 269, 272, 226 N.W. 280, 281 (1929) (“[The Legislature’s] power is only concurrent with the power of the people to initiate a law on any subject.”) (emphasis added). The majority has confused the power of the municipality to amend or repeal the initiative once it becomes law with the municipality’s refusal to allow a public vote of a measure initiated by the people.3
If an initiative can propose bills and laws and enact or reject them, it certainly can be used to stay, freeze or halt activity for a *719period of time. Byre, 362 N.W.2d at 79. The Council’s remedy is to set the matter for a vote of the people, not to delay the vote of the people. At this time, less than $2,000 of the City’s funds have been spent on the project. Why prolong the agony of a public vote until thousands and thousands of dollars are spent, only to find out that the people do not want to pay for an airport?
Therefore, we should affirm the trial court.4
WUEST, Retired J., joins this dissent.

. SDCL 9-20-19 provides:
Any legislative decision of a governing body is subject to the referendum process. A legislative decision is one that enacts a permanent law or lays down a rule of conduct or course of policy for the guidance of citizens or their officers. Any matter of a permanent or general character is a legislative decision.
No administrative decision of a governing body is subject to the referendum process, unless specifically authorized by this code. An administrative decision is one that merely puts into execution a plan already adopted by the governing body itself or by the Legislature. Supervision of a program is an administrative decision. Hiring, disciplining and setting the salaries of employees are administrative decisions.

Id.

. SDCL 50-7-2 provides in part:
The board of county commissioners of any county in this state is hereby authorized to acquire, establish, construct, own, control, lease, equip, improve, maintain, operate, and regulate airports or landing fields for the use of airplanes and other aircraft within the limits of such counties, and may use for such purpose or purposes any property suitable therefor that is now or may at any time hereafter be owned or controlled by such county. The same power and jurisdiction is hereby provided for municipalities except that any municipality may exercise such powers either within or without the corporate limits of such municipality....
Id. (emphasis added).

. Whisman, 154 N.W. at 710, notes that Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Ohio have similar constitutional provisions on initiative and referendum. None of these states have restricted the scope of the initiative power to exclude initiatives which affect existing laws even if they affect only legislative matters. In Amalgamated Transit Union-Div. 757 v. Yerkovich, 24 Or.App. 221, 545 P.2d 1401, 1403 (1976), the Court of Appeals of Oregon held that an initiative can propose any measure for any legislative matter, while excluding any measure for an administrative matter. However, an initiated measure may first be scrutinized to determine if it reaches a legislative matter. Id. 545 P.2d at 1404 n. 7 (citation omitted). In determining the scope of the initiative power and its ramifications, we cited an Oregon case, Kadderly, 74 P. 710. Whisman, 154 N.W. at 711.
The Nebraska Supreme Court, in interpreting its similar initiative and referendum constitutional provisions, has placed the people and the legislative body on equal footing:
Under Nebraska constitutional provisions vesting the legislative power of the state in the Legislature, but reserving to the people the right of initiative and referendum, the Legislature, on the one hand, and the electorate on the other, are coordinate legislative bodies, and there is no superiority of power between the two. In the absence of specific constitutional restraint, either may amend or repeal the enactments of the other.
Klosterman, 143 N.W.2d at 748 (citation omitted) (emphasis added).
Montana has also placed the legislature and the people on equal footing in their power to enact laws through the initiative process. State ex. rel. Jones v. Erickson, 75 Mont. 429, 244 P. 287, 290 (1926). "[N]o distinction ... is made between the two methods of enacting laws in this state.” Id. (citation omitted). As long as the initiated measure complies with constitutional requirements, it is valid. Id.
Other states having similar constitutional provisions have held that the initiative may reach any legislative matter. The Ohio Supreme Court has held that the initiative may be used to amend or propose new legislation reaching any legislative matter. Sharpe, 99 N.E.2d at 664. The Supreme Court of Arkansas has held that the initiative may reach any legislative matter, even if it affects or repeals actions taken by a municipality. Cochran v. Black, 240 Ark. 393, 400 S.W.2d 280, 282-83 (1966). In Cochran, 400 S.W.2d at 283, the initiated measure was upheld even though it repealed all actions taken by the city in activating the local Housing Authority, and dissolved the local Housing Authority.

. The majority states that without "the distinction between initiative and referendumL] ... every municipal administrative decision could be challenged by the electorate through the initiative process.” Administrative decisions cannot be challenged by the initiative and referendum process. SDCL 9-20-19. However, the majority has not shown that the proposed initiative involves an administrative matter. The Airport involves a legislative matter. See Wang, 469 N.W.2d at 580. Also, the majority states "presumably ... initiatives are not intended to affect existing laws.” (Emphasis added). No authority is given.