Charter Cities: A
Quick Summary for the Press and Researchers
The
following summary was drafted by the League of California Cities' legal
staff,
in an attempt to give the press and research communities a primer on
some
frequently asked questions regarding charter cities.
Charter Cities vs. General Law Cities -
The Basics
The
California Constitution gives cities the power to become charter
cities. (1) The benefit of
becoming a charter city is that
charter cities have supreme authority over "municipal
affairs." (2) In
other words, a charter city's law
concerning a municipal affair will trump a state law governing the
same topic.(3)
Cities that have not adopted a charter
are general law cities. General law cities are bound by the
state's general law, even with
respect to municipal affairs. Of California's 478 cities, 108 of them
are charter cities.
The charter city provision of the State
Constitution, commonly referred to as the "home-rule"
provision, is based on the
principle that a city, rather than the state, is in the best position
to know
what it needs and how to satisfy
those needs.(4) The home-rule provision allows charter cities to
conduct their own business and
control their own affairs.(5) A charter maximizes local control.
A city charter, in effect a city's
constitution, need not set out every municipal affair the city would
like to govern. So long as the
charter contains a declaration that the city intends to avail itself of
the full power provided by the
California Constitution, any city ordinance that regulates a municipal
affair will govern over a general
law of the state.(6)
Defining 'Municipal Affairs'
Determining what is and is not a
"municipal affair" is not always straightforward. The California
Constitution does not define
"municipal affair." It does, however, set out a nonexclusive list of
four
"core" categories that are, by
definition, municipal affairs.(7)
These categories are:
1) regulation of the "city police force";
2) "subgovernment in all or part of a city";
3) "conduct of city elections"; and
4) "the manner in which . . . municipal officers [are]
elected." �(8) Beyond this
list, it is up to the courts to determine what is and is not a
municipal affair.
To determine if a matter is
a municipal affair, a court will ask whether there are good reasons,
grounded on statewide interests,
for the state law to preempt a local law.(9) In other words, courts will ask whether there is a need for
"paramount state control" in the particular area of law.(10) The
Legislature's intent when enacting
a specific law is not determinative.(11)
The concept of "municipal
affairs" is fluid and may change over time.(12) Issues that are
municipal
affairs today could become areas of
statewide concern in the future.(13) Nonetheless, there are
some areas that courts have
consistently classified as municipal affairs. These include:
- Municipal election matters(14)
- Land use and zoning decisions
(with some exceptions) (15)
- How a city spends its tax
dollars
(16)
- Municipal contracts, provided
the
charter or a city ordinance exempts the city from the Public Contract Code, and the
subject matter of the bid constitutes a municipal affair. (17) Thus, a charter may exempt a city
from the State's competitive bidding statutes.
Likewise, there are some areas that courts have consistently classified
as areas of statewide
concern, including:
- Traffic and vehicle
regulation (18)
- Tort claims against a
governmental entity (19)
- Regulation of school systems
(20)
How to Become a Charter City
To become a charter city, a city
must adopt a charter. There are two ways to adopt a charter:
- The city's voters elect a
charter commission.(21) The commission has
the responsibility of
- drafting and debating the
charter.
- The governing board of the
city, on
its own motion, drafts the charter. (22)
In either case, the charter is not
adopted by the city until it is ratified by a majority vote of the
city's
voters. (23)
For more
information about charter cities, please visit the "Charter Cities"
section of the League's
Web site at http://www.cacities.org/chartercities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Cal. Const. art. XI, §
3(a).
2 Cal. Const. art. XI,
§ 5(a).
3 Johnson v. Bradley, 4 Cal. 4th
389, 399 (1992).
4 Fragley v. Phelan, 126 Cal. 383,
387 (1899).
5 Id.
6 There are some exceptions to this
rule. For example, a charter city is bound by the Public Contract Code
unless the
city’s charter expressly
exempts
the city from the Code’s provisions or a city ordinance
conflicts with
a provision in the
Code. See Cal. Pub. Cont. Code
§
1100.7.
7 Cal. Const. art. XI,
§ 5(b);
Johnson, 4 Cal. 4th at 398.
8 Cal. Const. art. XI,
§ 5(b).
9 Johnson, 4 Cal. 4th at 405.
10 Id. at 400.
11 Id. at 405.
12 Cal. Fed. Savings & Loan
Ass’n v. City of Los Angeles, 54 Cal. 3d 1, 16 (1991); Isaac v.
City of
Los Angeles, 66 Cal.
App. 4th 586, 599 (1998).
13 Isaac, 66 Cal. App. 4th at 599.
14 Mackey v. Thiel, 262 Cal. App.
2d 362, 365 (1968).
15 See Brougher v. Bd. of Pub.
Works, 205 Cal. 426, 440 (1928).
16 Johnson, 4 Cal. 4th at 407.
17 Pub. Cont. Code §
1100.7; R
& A Vending Services, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, 172 Cal. App. 3d
1188, 1191 (1985);
Howard Contracting, Inc. v. G.A.
MacDonald Constr. Co., 71 Cal. App. 4th 38, 51 (1998).
18 Cal. Veh. Code § 21.
19 Helbach v. City of Long Beach,
50 Cal. App. 2d 242, 247 (1942).
20 Whisman v. San Francisco Unified
Sch. Dist., 86 Cal. App. 3d 782, 789 (1978).
21 Cal. Gov’t Code
§ 34451.
22 Cal. Gov’t Code
§ 34458.
23 Cal. Gov’t Code
§§ 34457, 34462.
Cggna.org Home Page
