Court Opinion

ID: 9547092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:41:39.031031+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:18.771583
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
“ ‘[I]t has long been our judicial policy to apply a liberal construction to [the initiative] power wherever it is challenged in order that the right be not improperly annulled. If doubts can reasonably be resolved in favor of the use of this reserve power, courts will preserve it.’ ” (Associated Home Builders etc., Inc. v. City of Livermore (1976) 18 Cal.3d 582, 591 [135 Cal.Rptr. 41, 557 P.2d 473, 92 A.L.R.3d 1038]; see Hunt v. Mayor & Council of Riverside (1948) 31 Cal.2d 619, 628 [191 P.2d 426].) The majority make no attempt to resolve doubts in accordance with this important policy; instead of jealously guarding “ ‘one of the most precious rights of our democratic process’ ” (Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 591), they appear to seek doubts they can resolve against the initiative power.
The majority’s analytical methods are in error. Instead of applying the well-established tests for determining the validity of a proposed local initiative (see, e.g., Yost v. Thomas (1984) 36 Cal.3d 561, 569-570 [205 Cal.Rptr. 801 [685 P.2d 1152]; Arnel Development Co. v. City of Costa Mesa (1980) 28 Cal.3d 511, 521 [169 Cal.Rptr. 904, 620 P.2d 565]; Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 596, fn. 14; Simpson v. Hite (1950) 36 Cal.2d 125, 129 [222 P.2d 225]; Housing Authority v. Superior Court (1950) 35 Cal.2d 550, 557), the majority assert that the “first point to be determined” is whether Government Code section 66484.3 (hereafter “section 66484.3”) can be construed in such a way as to preempt the proposed initiative. (Ante, p. 501.) Having thus set their course, they proceed to find such a construction; only then do they reach the applicable standards, which—citing no authority—they summarily cast aside as “unnecessary fiction.” (Ante, p. 501.)
Article II, section 11, of the California Constitution provides for the initiative and referendum powers not as a right granted to the people, but as a power reserved by them. (Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 591; Builders Assn. of Santa Clara-Santa Cruz Counties v. Superior Court (1974) 13 Cal.3d 225, 231 [118 Cal.Rptr. 158, 529 P.2d 582]; Blotter v. Farrell (1954) 42 Cal.2d 804; 809 [270 P.2d 481]; Ley v. Dominguez (1931) 212 Cal. 587, 593 [299 P. 713]; Dwyer v. City Council (1927) 200 Cal. 505, 513 [253 P. 932].) The electorate’s initiative power is “coextensive with the power of the Legislature” (Legislature v. Deukmejian (1983) 34 Cal.3d 658, 675 [194 Cal.Rptr. 781, 669 P.2d 17]); the general rule is that “in situations where a municipal legislative body may enact an ordinance, so also may the *514city’s electors by the initiative process.” (Gibbs v. City of Napa (1976) 59 Cal.App.3d 148, 157 [130 Cal.Rptr. 382].)
However, we have long recognized that “the efficiency necessary to the successful administration of the business affairs of a city” (Hopping v. Council of City of Richmond (1915) 170 Cal. 605, 611 [150 P. 977]) requires that the general rule apply only to the local body’s legislative acts, and not to those which are merely administrative. (Yost v. Thomas, supra, 36 Cal.3d at pp. 569-570.) The majority find this longstanding distinction “awkward and confusing” (ante, p. 511); I do not.
When, as here, a local proposal deals with a subject affected by state law, the test is simple: an act is administrative if it “deals with a subject which is ‘one of statewide concern in which the Legislature has delegated decision-making power, not to the local electors, but to the local council or board as the state's designated agent for local implementation of state policy.’ ” (Merriman v. Board of Supervisors (1983) 138 Cal.App.3d 889, 892 [188 Cal.Rptr. 343], italics added.) Stated another way, an act is deemed administrative when the “state has acted to establish the basic policy and has vested the responsibility for carrying out that policy” in the local board or council. (Simpson v. Hite, supra, 36 Cal.2d at p. 130, italics added.)
When, on the other hand, the act in question “is an exercise of the police power constitutionally delegated to counties and cities (Cal. Const., art. XI, § 7), it is likely to constitute an act of legislation rather than administration.” (Merriman v. Board of Supervisors, supra, 138 Cal.App.3d at p. 892.) If the matter involved 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.” (Hughes v. City of Lincoln (1965) 232 Cal.App.2d 741, 745 [43 Cal.Rptr. 306], italics added.)
Thus the true “first point to be determined” here is whether section 66484.3 (1) establishes a “basic state policy” that the city councils are bound to carry out—in which case their decisions are “administrative” and beyond the reach of the electorate’s initiative power, or (2) merely authorizes the city councils to exercise their constitutionally delegated police powers in a particular manner if they so choose—in which case their decisions are “legislative” and subject to the initiative. Section 66484.3 obviously invokes the latter.
The only “basic state policy” evident in section 66484.3 is no policy. The Legislature has explicitly given each individual city in Orange County complete and total discretion as to whether it will or will not enact a develop*515ment fee ordinance. Even if; as the majority assert, the Legislature passed section 66484.3 to “facilitate local action” (ante, p. 509), the only action being facilitated is the exercise of each city’s constitutionally guaranteed power to “make and enforce within its limits all local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws.” (Cal. Const., art. XI, § 7.) The statute neither compels any city to act nor mandates that one inch of state highway ever be built. It simply authorizes each city to make a local decision regarding whether local taxpayers will pay fees. Such a decision is intrinsically legislative and clearly subject to the electorate’s initiative power.1
Further, to find a “basic state policy” here would be to hold that virtually any local discretionary decision made under color of a special “authorizing” state statute is immune from the initiative power. The law is otherwise (Hughes v. City of Lincoln, supra, 232 Cal.App.2d at p. 745), and for good reason: “if the constitutional power reserved by the people can be abridged by special statutes, then by enacting a host of special statutes the Legislature could totally abrogate that power.” (Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 595.)
The majority, in their failure to protect the initiative power, appear willing to risk such abrogation. After correctly observing that the state may preempt the entire field in matters of statewide concern, they boldly assert that “[i]f the state chooses instead to grant some measure of local control and autonomy, it has authority ... to bar the exercise of the initiative and referendum.” (Ante, p. 511.) Thus the majority apply a hitherto unknown standard: as long as the Legislature could have preempted the field, it can bar the electorate from exercising its reserved initiative and referendum powers. As I will explain, this conclusion does more than simply misstate California law; it violates the California Constitution.
*516The majority’s abandonment of the long established “legislative/administrative” dichotomy in favor of their novel “could have preempted the field” standard is utterly unsupported by the case law. The three cases cited by the majority as authority for their radical departure not only fail to support the majority’s position: all three apply the very standard the majority seek to abandon. (See Ferrini v. City of San Luis Obispo (1983) 150 Cal.App.3d 239, 249 [197 Cal.Rptr. 694] [“It has long been established that the powers of initiative and referendum reserved to the people of the cities apply ‘only to the acts of the city council. . . which are exercises of its legislative power’ ”]; Mervynne v. Acker (1961) 189 Cal.App.2d 558, 562 [11 Cal.Rptr. 340] [“ ‘The provisions of the charter of the city relating to the initiative apply only to its legislative acts,’ ” quoting Riedman v. Brison (1933) 217 Cal. 383, 387]; Riedman v. Brison, supra, 217 Cal. at p. 387 [“The provisions of the charter of the city relating to the initiative apply only to its legislative acts”].)
Furthermore, in two of the three cases the initiative was barred because the Legislature did preempt the field. (See Ferrini v. City of San Luis Obispo, supra, 150 Cal.App.3d at p. 246 [“we are persuaded that the Legislature’s intent to occupy the field ... is clearly established”]; Mervynne v. Acker, supra, 189 Cal.App.2d at p. 564 [“the Legislature appears to have directly occupied that field”].) In the third, the court held the initiative was unavailable because, under the traditional analysis, the local legislative body acted as a mere agent bound to implement state policy. (Riedman v. Brison, supra, 217 Cal. at p. 387 [“the legislature . . . has designated the city council. . . as the state agency which may initiate proceedings”].)
Even more untenable than this citation of nonauthority, however, is the majority’s reliance on it to avoid the constitutional implications of their holding. The 1911 amendment to the California Constitution, which provided for the initiative and referendum, stated: “This section is self-executing, but legislation may be enacted to facilitate its operation, but in no way limiting or restricting either the provisions of this section or the powers herein reserved.” (Former Cal. Const., art. IV, § 1.) In Associated Home Builders, this court interpreted that language to mean that “legislation which permits council action but effectively bars initiative action may run afoul of the 1911 amendment.” (18 Cal.3d at p. 595; see Legislature v. Deukmejian, supra, 34 Cal.3d at p. 675; Building Industry Assn. v. City of Camarillo (1986) 41 Cal.3d 810, 821 [226 Cal.Rptr. 81, 718 P.2d 68].) As interpreted by the majority, section 66484.3 does exactly that: it permits each city council complete legislative discretion, yet bars initiative action. This interpretation plainly violates the people’s initiative power reserved in article II, section 11, of the California Constitution.
*517In my view, the majority have abdicated both their duty to guard the initiative power (Associated Home Builders, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 591) and their responsibility to construe statutes, if possible, so as to harmonize with the Constitution (In re Kay (1970) 1 Cal.3d 930, 942 [83 Cal.Rptr. 686, 464 P.2d 142]; Palermo v. Stockton Theaters, Inc. (1948) 32 Cal.2d 53, 59-60 [195 P.2d 1]). I would reverse the decision of the Court of Appeal, and remand the case to that court with directions to issue a writ of mandate directing the superior court to vacate its previous judgment and order the Irvine City Council to submit the initiative to the voters of that city at the earliest opportunity.

 It is illuminating to compare Irvine’s discretion under section 66484.3 with that of the City of Santa Barbara under the California Coastal Act (Pub. Resources Code, § 30000 et seq.). That act, among other things: (1) explicitly enumerates “the basic goals of the state” for the entire California “coastal zone” (id., § 30001.5); (2) requires each local government within the coastal zone to prepare and submit a land use plan to the California Coastal Commission (id., § 30500, subd. (a)); and (3) sets forth specific policies establishing standards by which the adequacy of the local coastal programs is determined (id., §§ 30200-30264).
In Yost v. Thomas, we considered whether this statutory scheme precluded the local electorate’s exercise of the referendum power with regard to the city council’s actions under a land use plan already approved by the commission. (36 Cal.3d at p. 564.) We unanimously concluded it did not prohibit the referendum, because the act “leaves wide discretion to a local government not only to determine the contents of its land use plans, but to choose how to implement these plans. Under such circumstances a city is acting legislatively and its actions are subject to the normal referendum procedure.” (Id. at p. 573, italics added.)
If wide discretion in determining how to comply with mandatory state regulations is sufficient to render local acts legislative, is not complete discretion under a statute merely authorizing local actions sufficient to do the same?