Williams v. Parrack, 6311
| Decision Date | 31 December 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 6311,6311 |
| Parties | Jack WILLIAMS, Mayor of the City of Phoenix, a municipal corporation, and V. A. Cordova, Joseph Madison Greer, G. Wesley Johnson, David P. Jones, Faith I. North and Clarence H. Shivvers, Councilmen of the City of Phoenix, a municipal corporation, Appellants, v. Fred E. PARRACK, Appellee. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
William C. Eliot, City Atty., George Mariscal, John F. Mills, Dale Marenda, Asst. City Attys., Phoenix, for appellants.
Parker & Muecke, Phoenix, for appellee.
This is an appeal from a judgment in mandamus against Jack Williams, as mayor, and the members of the city council of the City of Phoenix, a municipal corporation, hereinafter called respondents, directing them to proceed in respect to the said initiative petition in one or the other of two courses of action enjoined upon them by the provisions of Chapter XV of Section 4 of the Charter of the City of Phoenix.
The facts are that on November 10, 1955, Fred E. Parrack, appellee, filed with the city clerk of the City of Phoenix an initiative petition proposing the adoption of an ordinance entitled:
'An Ordinance establishing classifications of employees of the Fire Department of the City of Phoenix and fixing rates of compensation and hours of work for such employees; providing for a system of increases in such rates of compensation; prohibiting changes on certain existing ordinances and rules and regulations; repealing conflicting ordinances, defining terms, requiring an appropriation.'
On the 22nd day of November following, the city clerk of said city certified said petition as legally sufficient with respect to the number of qualified electors required to sign the same according to the provisions of Chapter XV of Section 4 of the City Charter which reads as follows:
'If the petition accompanying the proposed ordinance be signed by electors equal in number to fifteen (15) per cent of the entire vote cast for all candidates for mayor at the last preceding general municipal election at which a mayor was elected, and contains a request that said ordinance be forthwith submitted to the vote of the people at the special election, then the council shall either:
'(a) Pass said ordinance without alteration within twenty (20) days after the attachment of the city clerk's certificate to the sufficiency of the accompanying petition (subject to a referendary vote, under the provisions of Chapter XVI of this Charter), or
'(b) Within twenty-five (25) days after the city clerk shall have attached to the petition accompanying such ordinance his certificate of sufficiency, the council shall proceed to call a special election at which said ordinance without alteration shall be submitted to the vote of the people.'
On advice of the city attorney the mayor and the city council failed to act on said petition, and on the 15th day of February, 1956, Parrack filed a petition in the Superior Court of Maricopa County against respondents praying for a writ of mandamus against them directing that they act as required by the provisions of Chapter XV, Section 4 of the City Charter above quoted.
In response to the order to show cause, however, respondents moved to quash the alternative writ of mandamus and answered setting up the defenses that the subject matter of the initiative petition (1) is not within the power of the city council to enact as an ordinance; (2) is not within the provisions of the state constitution relating to matters subject to initiative by the electors of the City of Phoenix; and (3) is void as being in contravention of the charter of the City of Phoenix.
It was agreed by counsel for the parties that the petition for the writ of mandamus correctly set forth the facts of the case leaving only questions of law to be determined by the trial court. Arguments were made and briefs submitted, and on the following May 17 the court ordered the entry of the judgment from which this appeal is being prosecuted.
The State Constitution, Article 4, Part 1, Section 1(8), A.R.S., provides in part in so far as the initiative and referendum powers of the City of Phoenix are concerned that:
'(8) (Local, city, town or county matters) The powers of the Initiative and the Referendum are hereby further reserved to the qualified electors of every incorporated city, town, and county as to all local, city, town, or county matters on which such incorporated cities, towns, and counties are or shall be empowered by general laws to legislate. * * *'
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...prescribed has not been followed that the court has authority to intervene and enjoin its enactment.’ " (quoting Williams v. Parrack , 83 Ariz. 227, 319 P.2d 989, 991 (1957) )); Stewart v. Advanced Gaming Techs., Inc. , 272 Neb. 471, 723 N.W.2d 65, 76 (2006) ("We have thus made a distinctio......
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Wennerstrom v. City of Mesa
...544 (1915), we have not extensively focused on the distinction between legislative and administrative acts. In Williams v. Parrack, 83 Ariz. 227, 231, 319 P.2d 989, 991 (1957), opponents of an initiative that sought to enact a comprehensive scheme of employee classification, hours, salaries......
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...where the petitioner satisfied all the requirements to obtain the license. 67 Ariz. at 168, 192 P.2d at 729. In Williams v. Parrack, 83 Ariz. 227, 319 P.2d 989 (1957), we held that the Phoenix City Council, in refusing to submit a valid initiative petition to the voters, violated a duty tha......