City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2019 11 12

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CHAPTER FOUR: GENERAL POWERS EXERCISING MUNICIPAL POWERS The governing body may exercise a number of powers in carrying out the public business and promoting and protecting the safety, health, and general welfare of its citizens. Inherently, the powers of the municipal governing body are limited. Statutory municipal corporations are political subdivisions of state, and have only those powers delegated to them by state statute. There is "no purely private right to have any particular area invested with the powers of municipal government."185 Municipalities do not have inherent authority to enact legislation. Such authority is dependent upon the authority granted by the constitution and General Assembly.181 The state legislature has absolute control over the number, nature, and duration of the powers conferred and the territory over which they are to be exercised. The legislature may qualify, enlarge, abridge, or entirely withdraw the powers of a municipal corporation at its pleasure.181 All of this is true only for statutory cities and towns. As previously mentioned, home rule municipalities derive their powers from the state constitution and their home rule municipal charters. This does not necessarily mean that statutory municipalities possess only the powers as those powers are specifically stated in the statutes. A municipality's express powers include additional powers that are necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted. This includes powers essential to giving effect to the declared object and purpose of the powers that the state has authorized or required the municipality to exercise.188 By state statute, in addition to the powers expressly granted to them, municipalities have such implied and incidental powers, authority, and privileges as may be reasonably necessary, proper, convenient, or useful to the exercise of their expressly stated powers.189 The fact that municipalities have implied and incidental powers in addition to their express powers does not amount to carte blanche authority to act as a municipality sees fit. Rather, statutes granting powers to municipalities are construed strictly, any claim of implied or incidental power must be based on a showing of its relationship to an express power. If a doubt exists as to a municipality's power to act in a certain field, that doubt usually is resolved against the municipality.190 When conflict arises between states and their municipalities, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the states' power, saying, for example, that a "municipal corporation created by a state for the better ordering of government has no privileges or immunities under the federal constitution which it may invoke in opposition to the will of its creator."191 Despite its broad powers, the state legislature also remains subject to federal and state constitutional limitations in its control over municipalities. Article V of the Colorado Constitution, for example, prohibits the General Assembly from imposing special restrictions or passing special or local legislation that would affect only a single city or town19'. The legislature also is prohibited from imposing local taxes on local residents for local and municipal purposes.193 Most of the powers granted to municipalities are set forth in Article 15 of Title 31 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. More than 100 different grants of power are enumerated in that article. Powers also are granted in other articles, and the statutes should be consulted to determine powers on specific subjects. The following sections briefly outline some of the more important and common powers. REGULATING COMMUNITY ACTIVITY THE POLICE POWER Colorado's municipalities have the general power to enact ordinances that promote the safety, health, and welfare of its citizens.114 This is known as the municipal police power. Municipal police power is granted "to provide for the 185 McQuillin, Mun. Corp. § 4.08 (3d ed. 1996). 186 McQuillin, Mun. Corp. § 4.09. See generally, CML, Home Rule Handbook. 187 See generally McQuillin, Mun. Corp. § 4.05. 188 McQuillin, Mun. Corp. § 10.13. 189 C.R.S. § 31-15-101(2). 190 See generally, e.g., Aurora v. Bogue, 489 P.2d 1295 (Colo. 1971). 191 Williams v. Baltimore, 289 U.S. 36, 40 (1933). 192 See COLO. CoNST. art. V, § 25. 193 COLO. CoNST. art. X, § 7; Walker v. Bedford, 26 P.2d 1051, 1053-54 (Colo. 1933). 194 See City of Leadville v. Rood, 600 P.2d 62 (Colo. 1979) Heather Balser / City of Louisville Order #4zzov CQ 36R!!Xb&�UNICIPAL LEAGUE 23 opyright by C