Court Opinion

ID: 9687628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:39:56.949004+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:29.460510
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(concurring in part; dissenting in part).
Although some would consider any judicial action to invalidate the proposed commonwealth charter, in whole or in part, to be an unwarranted intrusion into the political process, it should not be viewed in that manner. The issues presented in this declaratory judgment action relate to the legality of specific portions of the proposed charter rather than the merits of commission charter government as such. A substantial change in the form of local government is a serious issue that should not be taken lightly. Manifestly, if there are statutory requirements to be observed in this process, those requirements should be met. If the proposed charter does not conform to the enabling statutory law, this court has an obligation to so rule. These are questions that, if not decided now, would in all likelihood become the basis of legal challenges lodged after the time and expense of an election on this particular plan.
Perhaps the appellants have made a tactical error by lodging a series of infirm legal challenges that have directed the scrutiny of the majority of the court away from a clearly meritorious challenge to the proposed charter. This relates to the requirement of subsection 10 of Iowa Code section 331.261 (1993). That statute provides:
The community commonwealth charter shall provide for the following:
10. A process by which the governing body of the community commonwealth and the governing bodies of the member cities provide by mutual agreement for the delivery of specified services to the community commonwealth.
Iowa Code § 331.261(10) (1993).
Nothing contained in the proposed charter provides the required process by which specified services are to be delivered to the community commonwealth through mutual agreement of the commonwealth governing body and the governing body of the affected member city. The opinion of the court mistakenly finds such process to exist in the interaction that the charter establishes between the Commonwealth Council, which the court concedes to be the “governing body” of the community commonwealth, and the Mayors’ Commission, whose voting members are the mayors of the member cities of the commonwealth. To support that conclusion, the majority of the court concludes that these mayors are the governing bodies of the cities they represent. That is not a sustainable position.
The most common definition for the “governing body” of a municipal corporation is that body which performs legislative functions. Humthlett v. Reeves, 212 Ga. 8, 12, 90 S.E.2d 14, 18 (1955); Borough of Rutherford v. Hudson River Traction Co., 73 N.J.L. 227, 238, 63 A. 84, 88 (1906); Burch v. City of San Antonio, 518 S.W.2d 540, 542 (Tex.1974). Clearly, the mayor of a city does not fall within this definition.
A broader definition of “governing body,” not tied specifically to municipal corporations, is “[that] body which has the ultimate power to determine [an institution’s] policies and control its activities.” Student Bar Ass’n Bd. of Governors v. Byrd, 293 N.C. 594, 239 S.E.2d 415, 421 (1977). A mayor does not fall within this definition either. Nor can a mayor qualify as a “governing body” under the common understanding of that term.
The opinion of the court seeks to qualify a mayor as a governing body by listing a series of powers granted by law to the mayor of a city, including emergency powers and the power to veto resolutions and ordinances enacted by the council. These are powers granted to the mayor as chief executive officer of the city. Iowa Code § 372.14(1). Although these powers are substantial, they fall *797short of conferring on the mayor ultimate control of the city’s policies. The council has, by law, been granted that control. The council has the power to override a mayor’s veto under Iowa Code section 380.6. Thus, in any contest between the mayor and the council over who holds the governing authority, the council wins hands down. Clearly, the legislature was cognizant of that fact when it placed the words “governing bodies” in the statute.1
Even if a mayor could conceivably be viewed as a “governing body” of a member city, the charter would still not meet the requirements of subsection 10 of section 321.261. That statute requires that there be mutual agreement concerning the delivery of specified governmental services between the governing body of the community commonwealth and the governing body of each member city acting individually. That requirement is not satisfied by the interaction established between the Commonwealth Council and the Mayors’ Commission. The Mayors’ Commission acts collectively, and there is nothing to assure that a decision by that body will accord with the wishes of an individual member city.
The majority of the court attempts to justify its decision by a suggestion that requiring mutual agreement with city councils on delivery of governmental services “would effectively scuttle much of the benefit predicted for the commonwealth form of government.” This view tracks with that of counsel for the Charter Commission who, in arguing the ease, made the exceedingly candid admission that this plan was chosen because mayors would probably make better judgments on these matters than council members. The clear answer to that contention is that, even if the Charter Commission is correct in that belief, the legislature mandated that the Commonwealth Council reach agreement with the city councils of the member cities rather than their mayors.
While I concur in the conclusions in the opinion of the court as to the other challenges lodged against the proposed charter, I cannot agree that the charter even minimally complies with section 331.261(10).
ANDREASEN, J., joins this concurrence and dissent.

. This conclusion is buttressed by the fact that in the same sentence containing the words "governing bodies of the member cities” the legislature also refers to "governing body of the community commonwealth.” Neither the Charter Commission or the opinion of the majority of the court dispute the fact that the latter reference is to the Commonwealth Council rather than the Com-' monwealth Mayor.