Court Opinion

ID: 9657401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:24:56.664819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:44.770564
License: Public Domain

TERNUS, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Although I agree with the majority’s underlying premise that a city may exercise any power not inconsistent with state law, I disagree with its conclusion that the initiative and referendum provision of the Clinton city charter does not conflict with the City Code of Iowa.
The City Code of Iowa vests city powers in the city council. Iowa Code § 364.2(1) (1993). The City Code then places “limitations upon the powers of a city” by stating that the council must exercise a power “only by the passage of a motion, a resolution, an amendment, or an ordinance.” Id. § 364.3(1) (emphasis added). This limitation is particularly significant in view of the legislature’s express requirement that cities “substantially comply with a procedure established by a state law for exercising a city power.” Id. § 364.6.
The dear result of these statutes when read together is that a city power may be exercised only by the city council’s passage of a motion, a resolution, an amendment, or an ordinance. An initiative and referendum provision such as the one in the Clinton city charter allows the electorate to exercise a city power by enacting an ordinance. Such a provision conflicts with the legislature’s express limitations on the exercise of city powers. Unlike the majority, I think this conflict is irreconcilable.
The majority appears to rely on Eckerson v. City of Des Moines, 137 Iowa 452, 115 N.W. 177 (1908), to support its conclusion that initiative and referendum votes do not conflict with the City Code of Iowa. The majority points out that the pertinent provisions of the City Code were also in existence at the time of the Eckerson decision, where we allowed a local initiative and referendum vote. However, the initiative and referendum provision approved in Eckerson was contained in a state law and for that reason alone would not conflict with the City Code. See Iowa Code § 364.2(1) (1993) (“A power of a city is vested in the city council except as otherwise provided by a state law.”) (emphasis added). In contrast, the initiative and referendum provision involved in this case is in a city charter, an important factual difference. Consequently, the Eckerson decision has no precedential value here.
I would affirm the district court’s declaratory ruling that the initiative and referendum provision of the Clinton city charter is illegal.
CARTER, J., joins this dissent.