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CHAPTER THREE:
<br />REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT - LEGISLATION
<br />AND ELECTIONS
<br />MUNICIPAL LEGISLATION
<br />Ordinances, resolutions, and motions. Town boards and city councils may exercise their powers only through the
<br />adoption of an ordinance, resolution, or motion. Elected officials occasionally have difficulty determining what form
<br />certain official actions should take, and whether certain official acts would best be performed by the enactment of an
<br />ordinance, resolution, or motion.
<br />In general, an ordinance is considered the highest and most authoritative form of action that a governing body can
<br />take. By state statute, the governing body of each municipality has the power to provide for the enforcement of its
<br />ordinances in municipal court by a fine, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both such fine and
<br />imprisonment."16
<br />An ordinance is intended to be the permanent law of the municipality, although it can, of course, be repealed by
<br />future ordinances, referenda, or initiatives. Statutes require many actions by municipal legislatures to be by
<br />ordinance. State statutes must be consulted to determine what actions may require an ordinance to be valid. In
<br />addition, some ordinances may be adopted by the approval of a simple majority of a quorum of the members, while
<br />others may require a two-thirds vote or other "super majority" approval."' Where an ordinance is not required, the
<br />adoption of a written resolution often is used to evidence a board or council's decision, such as the award of a
<br />contract or a purchase of goods or services. Some actions may be expressed by simply approving a motion, such
<br />as a land use or licensing approval.
<br />Municipal ordinances. Enforceable municipal laws are established by the governing body through the
<br />introduction and approval of ordinances. Ordinances represent the most formal type of action a municipal
<br />governing body can take.
<br />In the exercise of the ordinance power, municipalities must comply with certain procedural requirements and a failure
<br />to meet these requirements may render the ordinance invalid."$
<br />The municipal ordinance power is granted to governing bodies by state statute:
<br />Municipalities shall have the power to make and publish ordinances not inconsistent with the laws of this
<br />state, from time to time, for carrying into effect or discharging the powers and duties conferred by this title
<br />which are necessary and proper to provide for the safety, preserve the health, promote the prosperity, and
<br />improve the morals, order, comfort, and convenience of such municipality and the inhabitants thereof not
<br />inconsistent with the laws of this state.1'
<br />Municipal codes. Several Colorado municipalities have enacted codes that contain all of the general and
<br />permanent laws in effect in the municipality. Private firms or individuals usually undertake the process of
<br />"codification," although some towns and cities have looked to their clerks for codifying and maintaining their
<br />ordinances in book forms that when adopted, become the town and city's municipal codes. Whether outsourced to a
<br />company or done by a municipal employee, in either case the codifier organizes the ordinances into an orderly and
<br />concise code, and the governing body then enacts the code as the official law of the municipality. Once the official
<br />code is enacted as the governing law of the municipality, the original ordinances should be repealed.12'
<br />The advantages of establishing and maintaining a municipal code are numerous. Codes are accessible more readily
<br />to citizens, allowing them to locate most of the important laws that affect their community in a single book or
<br />116 C.R.S. § 31-16-101 (Limitation on municipal court fines, originally set at $2,650 in 2013, shall be adjusted on January 1 of each
<br />subsequent year by the annual percentage change in the Denver -Boulder consumer price index).
<br />117 For example, while most actions of the governing body require only the approval of a majority of a quorum of members present at
<br />a meeting, ordinances and resolutions for the appropriation of money require for their passage the concurrence of a majority of ALL
<br />members of the governing body, present or not. See C.R.S. § 31-16-103.
<br />118 See, e.g., Inland Util. Co. v. Schell, 285 P. 771, 775 (Colo. 1930).
<br />119 C.R.S. § 31-15-103.
<br />120 Codes must be distinguished from "compilations," which are merely collections of existing ordinances in single volumes without
<br />revision, reclassification, or reenactment.
<br />Heather Balser / City of Louisville
<br />Order #azzov
<br />CQr�rLNN Xb&� UNICIPAL LEAGUE 13
<br />opyright by C
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