City Hall Refuses to Rewrite Its Own Rulebook — and Dares the Supreme Court to Decide

In accordance with an opinion from Corporation Counsel Scott, the city council last night rejected the petition recently filed with the city clerk asking that there be a special election of freeholders to frame a new city charter, on the ground that the new law on the subject is unconstitutional. At the same time the council expressed itself in favor of the city paying all expenses, aside from the attorneys' fees, in having the law passed upon by the supreme court.

Counsel Scott's opinion, read in the board of aldermen and then sent to the house of delegates, held that however great the necessity for a change, the first question was whether the procedure intended to be followed was valid. "In order to test its legality, nothing short of a decision of the supreme court will be, or ought to be, satisfactory," he wrote. Under the constitution all legislative power is lodged in the legislature, and unless the constitution itself provides for delegation, that power cannot be delegated to other bodies or to any number of citizens to make the laws the legislature is required to make.

He quoted the constitutional provision allowing any city of over 20,000 people to elect fifteen freeholders to frame a charter, to be ratified by popular vote, and noted that Seattle had already availed itself of that power. He cited the California case of The People vs. Hoge and the Washington case of State ex rel. Seattle vs. Carson, and concluded that the shortest way to obtain a construction of the act of 1895 was for the city council to reject the petition.

Alderman James moved to adopt the opinion and urged that every effort be made to obtain a speedy decision by the supreme court, the city bearing the expenses outside of attorneys' fees. If the court held the law good, he said, there should be an election of freeholders; if not, the council should proceed at once to give the city a simple charter. Hurd and Voigt indorsed the remarks, and the house unanimously favored a report embodying the city's willingness to pay the costs of the test case.