Court expounds on Holladay ruling

The people and their elected lawmakers — not mayors — should make the choice if a city is going to change its form of government, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The high court made its statements to explain an earlier ruling that essentially kicked Holladay's mayor out of office late last year.

In a Sept. 11, 2003, ruling, the high court rejected former Mayor Dennis Larkin's appeal of a lower court ruling that he had no right to veto the City Council's resolution calling for an election to change the city's system of government.

In that ruling, the court provided no explanation, saying it would release a more detailed opinion later. That opinion was released Friday.

While admitting that questions of legislative authority in municipalities is difficult because cities can choose from several different forms of government, it ultimately said a change in government format is up to the municipality's legislative body and the people.

"Constitutional amendments are legislative in nature and it is, therefore, appropriate that the power of the people to initiate amendments be shared with their elected representatives," Friday's ruling states. "No claim to participation in the amendment process can be made by the executive branch in our federal or state system of government. Thus . . . participation in the municipal government reorganization process (should be limited) to the legislative branch and the people, not the mayor."

The lower court case came after the Holladay council voted in June 2003 to present the city's voters with the question of whether to change from a council-mayor form of government to a council-manager form. Proponents of the change in government said Larkin's relationship with certain members of the City Council had become so adversarial that little progress in city government was being made.

Under the council-mayor form of government, mayors have veto power over ordinances, but measures sending a question to voters are resolutions, and "municipal ordinances are an entirely different statutory species than resolutions," the court ruled.

After the court's initial ruling in September, Larkin declined to comment, saying he wanted to wait until he read a full opinion. However, Larkin was not available for comment Friday after the opinion was released.

Larkin opposed the change — "an understandable position since his office would disappear in the council-manager form," according to Friday's opinion. Larkin was initially elected to serve as mayor through the end of 2005.

On Aug. 5, 2003, voters approved the change in a vote of 3,102 to 2,783, and September's high court opinion validated the vote. In November, voters elected Dennis Webb as the city's new mayor.

The new form of government went into effect at the beginning of January. Under the new system, the mayor has less power than he did under the old system but is now a voting member of the City Council.

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com