Moses Inc. v. Semcog

• Decision Date: 23 March 2006
• Docket Number: Docket No. 258749.
• Citation: 270 Mich. App. 401,716 N.W.2d 278
• Parties: MOSES, INC; Transportation Riders United, Inc; City of Ferndale, Lawrence Birchfield, Phyllis Williamson, Anthony Fillipis, Marcia Yakes, and Richard Bernstein, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS, a/k/a/ SEMCOG, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Page 278

716 N.W.2d 278

270 Mich. App. 401

MOSES, INC; Transportation Riders United, Inc; City of Ferndale, Lawrence Birchfield, Phyllis Williamson, Anthony Fillipis, Marcia Yakes, and Richard Bernstein, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS, a/k/a/ SEMCOG, Defendant-Appellee.

Docket No. 258749.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted March 14, 2006, at Detroit.

Decided March 23, 2006, at 9:20 a.m.

Released for Publication May 24, 2006.

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Michigan Legal Services, Inc. (by Marilyn Mullane, Gary A. Benjamin, and Charles D. Brown), and Richard Bernstein, Detroit, Farmington Hills, for the plaintiffs.

Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. (by Jerome R. Watson and Christopher M. Trebilcock), Detroit, for the defendant.

Before: COOPER, P.J., and JANSEN and MARKEY, JJ.

MARKEY, J.

Plaintiffs appeal by right the trial court's order granting defendant's motion for summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(8) and denying plaintiffs' motion for partial summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(10). We hold that all plaintiffs lack standing to assert the political questions they raise in their complaint. To the extent that the individual plaintiffs have standing to allege a violation of their civil rights or the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law, the trial court correctly concluded that plaintiffs' complaint failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted and that the corporate plaintiffs' derivative claims also fail. We affirm.

I. Summary of Facts and Proceedings

SEMCOG is the acronym of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, a multipurpose regional planning commission formed under MCL 125.11 et seq. SEMCOG is composed of local units of government from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Monroe, St. Clair, and Washtenaw counties; membership is voluntary. The federal government has designated SEMCOG as a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the purposes of planning regional transportation projects and eligibility for federal funding. See 23 USC 134 and 49 USC 5303. Plaintiffs contend that the organizational structure of SEMCOG accords the city of Detroit less voting power than the city might otherwise have because of its population as compared to that of other governmental members of SEMCOG.

In essence, plaintiffs claim that because the majority of Detroit's residents are African-American, the disparate voting power of the city as a SEMCOG member violates Michigan's Civil Rights Act (CRA), MCL 37.2101 et seq., and the Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan Constitution, Const 1963, art 1, § 2. Plaintiffs further argue that the city of Detroit's alleged illegal disparate voting rights causes SEMCOG to unfairly favor federal funding of road maintenance projects over federal funding of mass transit. Plaintiffs also allege that this bias against funding mass transit violates the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act (PWDCRA), MCL 37.1101 et seq., and plaintiffs' constitutional right to travel. The city of Ferndale asserts that inadequate funding of mass transit harms its citizens, basing its claims on the alleged discriminatory structure of SEMCOG.

In its written opinion granting defendant's motion for summary disposition, the trial court summarized the governing structure of SEMCOG as follows:

The governing structure of SEMCOG is organized into a General Assembly and an Executive Committee. The General Assembly meets at least twice annually to adopt the annual work program, annual budget, and membership fee schedules, amend by-laws, and approve regional plans. Delegates must be elected officials of the designating governmental unit. The Executive Committee (EC) is a subset of the General Assembly and is composed of 46 members. The EC is the main policy committee of SEMCOG, and it meets periodically to review regional studies and to take action on policies and legislation. With the exception of the City of Detroit, membership on the EC is primarily limited to the seven member counties of the region. Membership on the EC is not based on a one person-one vote basis but rather on a modified one government-one vote basis in which additional delegates are allocated to the most heavily populated counties and to the City of Detroit. For example, the City of Detroit is allocated three delegates on the EC for its population of more than 900,000 people. Livingston County, which has a population of less than 200,000 people, is allocated four delegates. Detroit is presently more than 80% African-American, while Livingston County on the opposite extreme is less than 1% African-American. In August 2003, the SEMCOG By-laws Committee was apparently asked to correct the under-representation of the City of Detroit. However, in October 2003, SEMCOG ratified the voting structure and refused to change the by-laws.

Plaintiffs filed their four-count complaint on November 19, 2003. In count I, plaintiffs allege that SEMCOG's governing structure violates § 302 of the CRA, MCL 37.2302, because it discriminates against residents of Detroit on the basis of their race. In count II, plaintiffs allege that the disparate voting power accorded Detroit in SEMCOG denies African-American residents of the city the equal protection of the laws in violation of Const 1963, art 1, § 2. The city of Ferndale asserts in count III derivative claims based on the alleged racial discrimination set forth in counts I and II. Plaintiffs allege in count IV that the racial discrimination asserted in counts I and II causes SEMCOG to be biased against funding mass transit, which in turn violates the PWDCRA and plaintiffs' constitutional right to travel. Plaintiffs contend, as stated in their brief on appeal, that "SEMCOG has a duty under the [PWDCRA] to provide for public transportation for those with disabilities" and that defendant violates plaintiffs' constitutional right to travel by not adequately funding mass transit.

Plaintiffs identify themselves in their complaint as MOSES, Inc. (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength), a coalition of faith-based nonprofit organizations operating in the Detroit and Wayne County areas; Transportation Riders United, Inc. (TRU), a Detroit-based nonprofit organization that advocates for mass transit and other transportation issues; the city of Ferndale, a member of SEMCOG; Richard Bernstein and Anthony Fillipis, persons with disabilities who reside in southeast Michigan; Phyllis Williamson and Lawrence Birchfield, African-American residents of Detroit who use public transportation; and Marcia Yakes, a Detroit resident with disabilities who uses public transportation.

SEMCOG filed its motion for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(8) and plaintiffs subsequently filed their motion for partial summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(10). The trial court heard oral arguments on the motions and subsequently authored an opinion stating its reasons for granting defendant's motion and denying plaintiffs'. The court entered its order accordingly on October 4, 2004.

In its opinion, the trial court first addressed count II, plaintiffs' constitutional claim. The court reasoned that the constitutional equal protection principle of one person, one vote, i.e., that each qualified voter has a right to cast a ballot that carries a weight equal to that of every other qualified voter, does not apply when government officials may lawfully be appointed to their positions. The court relied on Sailors v. Kent Co. Bd. of Ed., 387 U.S. 105, 111, 87 S.Ct. 1549, 18 L.Ed.2d 650 (1967), which found no constitutional impediment to the appointment of state or local "nonlegislative officers." The Sailors Court determined that the board of education performs essentially administrative functions and because "the choice of members of the county school board did not involve an election and since none was required for these nonlegislative offices, the principle of `one man, one vote' has no relevancy." Id.

The trial court also relied on this Court's decision in Van Zanen v. Keydel, 89 Mich. App. 377, 280 N.W.2d 535 (1979). That case considered an equal protection challenge to the appointment of commissioners to a multicounty park commission, the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HCMA). The seven-member HCMA board consisted of two commissioners appointed by the Governor and five other commissioners, each of whom was appointed by the board of supervisors of one of the five participating counties. Id. at 379, 280 N.W.2d 535. The trial court noted that the HCMA possessed powers, including the ability to levy taxes and issue bonds, that were substantially similar to those of the board of education in Sailors. After surveying United States Supreme Court decisions applying the one person, one vote principle to state and local government, the Van Zanen Court concluded:

In short, the one person-one vote doctrine applies to state and local government units which are composed of members elected by the voters. However, a state or local government may select some government officials by appointment. And where appointment is permissible, the one person-one vote doctrine does not apply. [Id. at 384, 280 N.W.2d 535.]

Applying the principles discussed in these cases to plaintiffs' equal protection claim, the trial court determined that it must fail because each member government lawfully appointed its representatives to SEMCOG. The trial court wrote:

In the instant case, as a limited-purpose unit of local government with the purpose of regional planning, SEMCOG's powers and functions are substantially similar to those of the HCMA in Van Zanen or the board of education in Sailors. Moreover, SEMCOG actually lacks several of the powers possessed by the HCMA. Specifically, SEMCOG is not empowered to levy taxes, condemn private property, or issue bonds. Furthermore, although SEMCOG is empowered to allocate...