Court Opinion

ID: 9621266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:55:06.821302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:00.602790
License: Public Domain

Head, Justice,
concurring specially. The ruling stated at the conclusion of division 1 of the opinion, and in the corresponding headnote, that the contract entered into between the parties would constitute an unauthorized diversion of property of the City of Gainesville, is correct in result, but not for the reasons stated in the opinion.
The Constitution of 1945, art. VII, sec. VI, par. I (Code, Ann., § 2-5901), authorizes contracts by a city or municipality with a governmental agency or public agency discharging governmental functions for a period not exceeding fifty years. The Gainesville Lions Club is not a governmental or public agency within the meaning of the constitutional provision referred to, and the contract entered into by named individuals as members of the Gainesville Playground and Recreation Board with Gainesville Lions Railway Company and the Gainesville Lions Club violates the rule that one council of a municipality may not by ordinance or contract bind itself or its successors so as to prohibit free legislation in matters of municipal government. Code § 69-202; Horkan v. City of Moultrie, 136 Ga. 561 (71 S. E. 785); City Council of Augusta v. Richmond County, 178 Ga. 400 (173 S. E. 140); Aven v. Steiner Cancer Hospital, 189 Ga. 126 (5 S. E. 2d 356); Screws v. City of Atlanta, 189 Ga. 839 (8 S. E. 2d 16).
The object of all city parks is for the recreation and entertainment of residents and persons within the environs thereof. The charter of the City of Gainesville as amended is sufficiently broad to authorize the operation of a miniature railroad in its public park or parks, and such use would not amount to a diversion of public property, provided the contract and the method of operation were otherwise lawful.
The contract in this case, for a purported term of ten years, is prohibited by the general law of this State, and it is therefore ultra vires and void.