City Of Coralville, Iowa Vs. Iowa Utilities Board (Department Of Commerce) ( 2008 )

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 17 / 07–0558
Filed May 30, 2008
CITY OF CORALVILLE, IOWA,
Appellant,
vs.
IOWA UTILITIES BOARD
(DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE),
Appellee,
MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY, and
CONSUMER ADVOCATE DIVISION OF
THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Appellees.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Robert B.
Hanson, Judge.
A city challenges an Iowa Utilities Board ruling affirming a public
utility’s right under a tariff to include the costs of relocating power lines
in the price charged to its customers for electricity. AFFIRMED.
Ivan T. Webber, Ahlers & Cooney, P.C., Des Moines, for appellant.
David J. Lynch, General Counsel, and Gary Stump, Assistant
General Counsel, for appellee Iowa Utilities Board.
Sheila K. Tipton of Belin Lamson McCormick Zumbach Flynn, P.C.,
Des Moines, for interested party-appellee MidAmerican Energy Company.
John R. Perkins and Ben A. Stead, Office of Consumer Advocate,
for interested party-appellee Office of Consumer Advocate.
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HECHT, Justice.
In this case we examine the limits of a municipality’s home rule
authority to control its right-of-way. On review of a decision of the Iowa
Utilities Board, we conclude a tariff filed by a public utility does not
conflict with an ordinance adopted by the City of Coralville so as to
constitute a violation of the City’s home rule authority. We affirm.
I. Factual and Procedural Background.
A controversy between MidAmerican Energy Company and the City
of Coralville arose in January 2000, when the City notified MidAmerican
of a plan to widen 1st Avenue in Coralville. The plan necessitated the
relocation of MidAmerican’s overhead power lines. MidAmerican
determined the lines should be placed underground, and claimed a tariff
it had filed with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) permitted the company to
charge the costs of “undergrounding” to the City. In City of Coralville v.
MidAmerican Energy Co., Johnson Co. No. LACV61728 (Coralville I), the
district court determined that although the tariff addressed the
imposition of the costs of “undergrounding” on customers requesting a
change of service, the City was not acting as a customer when it passed
its undergrounding ordinance and undertook the road-widening project.
The court concluded the City acted instead in its role as the owner of the
right-of-way, and had authority, incident to its police power, to order the
utility to move wires underground “at the utility’s expense.”
MidAmerican did not appeal the judgment in Coralville I.
In 2005, the City of Coralville determined the overhead power lines
in a different location along Quarry Road and 7th Street should be placed
underground to facilitate another public project. The City, relying on its
ordinance requiring utilities to relocate at their expense equipment
located in the City’s right-of-way, directed MidAmerican to place its
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power lines at that location underground and refused MidAmerican’s
request for reimbursement of the cost. MidAmerican acquiesced to the
City’s undergrounding directive, but informed the City it reserved the
right to recover from its customers in the City of Coralville the costs of
relocating the wires in accordance with a tariff on file with the IUB.
The relevant tariff became effective in 2003. It provides, in relevant
part:
Conversion of existing overhead facilities to underground or
relocation of facilities will be allowed unless an engineering,
operating, construction, safety or legal reason would make
such installation inadvisable.
The customer(s) requesting the conversion or relocation
must pay a contribution. . . .
If conversion is required by a governmental unit, the
conversion cost will be charged to the governmental unit or
to the Company’s customers in the governmental unit.1
The City filed a petition in the district court seeking a declaration
that the tariff was inapplicable and enjoining MidAmerican from
assessing the tariff against Coralville residents.2 While that action was
pending in the district court, MidAmerican filed a petition before the IUB
seeking a declaration that the IUB had exclusive jurisdiction over the
rates and tariffs charged by public utility companies, and requesting a
determination that the City could not, through its ordinance, prevent the
company from charging its customers for the costs of relocating its
equipment. The City intervened in the proceeding before the IUB,
contending (1) the preclusive effect of the district court’s decision in
1Thetariff relied upon by MidAmerican in Coralville I included identical language
permitting the conversion costs to be “charged to the governmental unit or to the
Company’s customers in the governmental unit.”
2The district court’s decision addressing the declaratory judgment action is the
subject of our opinion filed today in City of Coralville v. MidAmerican Energy, No. 06–
1420, 2008 WL 2222234.
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Coralville I barred MidAmerican’s plan to pass through the costs of
undergrounding to its Coralville customers, (2) the IUB lacked
jurisdiction “over a dispute that is not about rates and services but about
use of [the City’s] right of way,” (3) the tariff violated the City’s home rule
authority to control its right-of-way, and (4) the tariff violated provisions
of the Iowa Constitution requiring uniform application of the state’s laws.
The IUB issued a declaratory order rejecting the City’s preclusion
argument on the ground the issue before the agency was different than
the one addressed by the court in Coralville I. The board’s order also
rejected the City’s claim that the utility’s plan to charge the costs of the
undergrounding to the City’s residents would violate the City’s home rule
authority to control the right-of-way. The board further concluded the
interpretation of the ordinance advanced by the City would infringe on
the board’s “jurisdiction related to utility tariffs, cost recovery, and cost
allocation,” reasoning if the City’s position were to prevail, “[c]ities across
Iowa could impose all manner and types of costs on utilities, regardless
of reason, and force ratepayers in other areas to pay the bill.”
The City sought judicial review of the IUB’s declaratory order,
contesting the IUB’s jurisdiction to limit a municipality’s control of its
right-of-way and challenging the validity and constitutionality of the
tariff. The district court affirmed the board’s exercise of jurisdiction and
the validity of the tariff. The court also rejected the City’s issue
preclusion claim, and denied the City’s constitutional challenge.
II. Scope of Review.
On appeal from judgment entered on judicial review of agency
action, we review for errors at law. Gaffney v. Dep’t of Employment
Servs., 540 N.W.2d 430, 433 (Iowa 1995). Where interpretation of a
statute has clearly been vested in the agency’s discretion, we generally
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defer to the agency’s interpretation, and may grant relief only if the
agency’s interpretation is “irrational, illogical, or wholly unjustifiable.”
Iowa Code § 17A.19(10)(l) (2005). If interpretation of the statute has not
clearly been vested in the agency’s discretion, we afford no deference to
the agency’s interpretation, and may substitute our own judgment for
that of the agency. Id. § 17A.19(10)(c), (11)(b); Auen v. Alcoholic
Beverages Div. of the Iowa Dep’t of Commerce, 679 N.W.2d 586, 589–90
(Iowa 2004). Interpretation of a statute has been clearly vested in the
agency’s discretion where
the precise language of the statute, its context, the purpose
of the statute, and the practical considerations involved
[indicate] that the legislature intended (or would have
intended had it thought about the question) to delegate to
the agency interpretive power with the binding force of law
over the elaboration of the provision in question.
Arthur E. Bonfield, Amendments to Iowa Administrative Procedure Act,
Report on Selected Provisions to Iowa State Bar Association and Iowa
State Government 68 (1998).
The issue before the IUB involved the intersection between Iowa
Code section 476.1, which grants to the IUB authority to regulate public
utility rates and services, and section 364.2(4)(e), which grants to cities
the power to regulate the use of their streets and public grounds.
Consequently, the agency’s resolution of this matter necessitated an
interpretation of the intended scope of these provisions. The IUB has
been granted “broad general powers to effect the purposes” of chapter
476, which includes the authority to regulate public utility rates. Id.
§ 476.2(1). The agency has clearly been vested with authority to
interpret the “rates and services” provision of section 476.1, and we may
therefore overturn its interpretation only if it is “irrational, illogical, or
wholly unjustifiable.” Id. § 17A.19(10)(l). The agency has not, however,
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been vested with authority to interpret chapter 364, and we therefore
review its interpretation of section 364.2(4)(e) de novo. Id.
§ 17A.19(10)(c); Birchansky Real Estate, L.C. v. Iowa Dep’t of Pub. Health,
State Health Facilities Council, 737 N.W.2d 134, 138 (Iowa 2007).
We review de novo constitutional challenges to a statute. Wright v.
Iowa Dep’t of Corr., 747 N.W.2d 213, 216 (Iowa 2008).
III. Discussion.
A. Issue Preclusion. The City contends the district court erred
in concluding the holding in Coralville I did not preclude a finding in this
case that MidAmerican could charge the cost of undergrounding to its
Coralville customers. We identified the four elements of an issue
preclusion claim in Hunter v. City of Des Moines, 300 N.W.2d 121 (Iowa
1981):
(1) the issue concluded must be identical; (2) the issue must
have been raised and litigated in the prior action; (3) the
issue must have been material and relevant to the
disposition of the prior action; and (4) the determination
made of the issue in the prior action must have been
necessary and essential to the resulting judgment.
300 N.W.2d at 123 (citation omitted). The City’s issue preclusion claim
fails to satisfy these elements.
The City claims the issue of who must pay for the undergrounding
was raised and decided in Coralville I, and that the issue raised in this
case is identical. This claim relies primarily on the district court’s
statement in Coralville I that “[t]he central question in the case is
whether the City of Coralville has authority to order a utility to move
overhead utility service and place it underground at the utility’s expense.”
(Emphasis added.) A careful reading of the court’s decision in Coralville
I, however, discloses the court was not asked to decide, and did not
decide, whether MidAmerican could pass the costs of undergrounding
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through to its Coralville customers. In fact, MidAmerican’s effort to
recover the costs of undergrounding from its Coralville customers was
not undertaken until after the district court determined in Coralville I
that the City, as a governmental unit, should not bear the costs of the
undergrounding. We conclude the district court’s determination in
Coralville I that undergrounding be undertaken “at the utility’s expense”
must be read in its proper context: viz., as between the City and the
utility, which party should bear the cost of the relocation of the utility’s
wires. The court was not called upon to decide whether, should
MidAmerican rather than the City be required to bear the cost, the utility
could pass that cost through to its Coralville customers under the
prevailing tariff. Thus, the issue in Coralville I was clearly not identical
to the issue decided in this case by the IUB. We therefore agree with the
district court on this issue.
B. Authority of the IUB to Issue a Tariff Permitting a Utility
to Recover Costs Incurred for the Relocation of Equipment. The City
contends the tariff exceeded the IUB’s authority. In particular, the City
asserts the tariff regulates and infringes illegally upon the City’s right to
control its right-of-way. See Iowa Code § 364.2(4)(e) (granting
municipalities the right to “regulate the conditions required and the
manner of use of the streets and public grounds of the city”). The tariff
regulation goes far afield, the City contends, from the IUB’s legitimate
authority to regulate the “rates and charges for public utility service.” Id.
§ 476.1. We disagree. Coralville’s argument is precariously based on a
perceived conflict between the City’s and the IUB’s authority to control
the City’s right-of-way. We now address the question whether the
conflict perceived by the City is real or imagined.
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The City has exercised its right to regulate the “conditions
required” of its streets by enacting an ordinance, section 141.28, which
provides:
Upon written notification by the City, the registrant shall
promptly and at its own expense remove and replace,
relocate or otherwise adjust its equipment located in the
right-of-way and restore the right-of-way to the same
condition it was in prior to said removal or relocation.
(Emphasis added.) The requirement that public utilities relocate at the
City’s request equipment situated in the right-of-way can be reasonably
understood as a regulation of the “conditions required” of the right-of-
way. The types of equipment permitted and their location in the right-of-
way are essential features of the City’s statutory authority to control the
condition of the right-of-way. In contrast, the italicized phrase “at its
own expense” within the ordinance relates only to the means by which a
utility elects to generate the funds required to pay for a relocation of its
equipment. The manner in which a public utility chooses to allocate or
recover such costs bears no factual or legal relationship to the City’s
exercise of control over its right-of-way. We therefore conclude the
conflict perceived by the City between its ordinance and the tariff is
nonexistent. The absence of an actual conflict between the tariff and the
City’s authority to control its right-of-way dooms the claim that the IUB’s
decision contravenes the City’s home rule authority.
An ordinance is within a municipality’s home rule authority only if
it is not inconsistent with a state statute. Iowa Const. art. III, § 38A
(stating a city may exercise its home rule authority only to the extent
that its actions are “not inconsistent with the laws of the general
assembly”); Iowa Code § 364.1 (same). “A municipal ordinance is
‘inconsistent’ with a law of the General Assembly and, therefore,
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preempted by it, when the ordinance prohibits an act permitted by a
statute, or permits an act prohibited by a statute.” Sioux City Police
Officers’ Ass’n v. City of Sioux City, 495 N.W.2d 687, 694 (Iowa 1993)
(citations omitted). Prior to 1963, the Iowa Code authorized cities to
regulate utility rates. Davenport Water Co. v. Iowa State Commerce
Comm’n, 190 N.W.2d 583, 590 (Iowa 1971) (superseded on other grounds
by statute as stated in Interstate Power Co. v. Iowa State Commerce
Comm’n, 463 N.W.2d 699, 702 (Iowa 1990)). That power is now vested
exclusively in the IUB under chapter 476. Id. Iowa Code section 476.1
provides the IUB “shall regulate the rates and services of public utilities.”
With the creation of the IUB, and the vesting of authority in that agency
to regulate public utility rates, municipalities lost their authority to
regulate such rates. Davenport Water Co., 190 N.W.2d at 590; see Sioux
City Police Officers’ Ass’n, 495 N.W.2d at 694 (noting the legislature may
impose limitations on municipalities’ power over local affairs). The City’s
interpretation of the cost-allocation provision in section 141.28, if
accepted, would have the effect of prohibiting MidAmerican from
reflecting its costs of doing business through the appropriate adjustment
of rates charged to its customers under a valid tariff. That interpretation
of the ordinance cannot be reconciled with the legislature’s abrogation of
municipal authority over public utility rates and the statutory grant of
broad authority to the IUB to “regulate the rates and services of public
utilities.” Sioux City Police Officers’ Ass’n, 495 N.W.2d at 694 (stating
that “[i]f a statute and ordinance cannot be reconciled, the statute
prevails”). We find no error in the board’s rejection of the City’s home
rule argument.
The City also challenges the IUB’s affirmation of the validity of the
tariff, contending no rule or contested case specifically authorizes
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utilities to recover from their customers costs incurred in equipment
relocation. Iowa Code section 476.4 requires a public utility to file tariffs
with the IUB “showing the rates and charges for its public utility
services,” and requires the IUB to promulgate rules for the filing of
tariffs. Based on this rulemaking authority, the IUB requires that “rates
charged by an electric utility for providing electric service to each class of
electric consumers shall be designed, to the maximum extent
practicable, to reasonably reflect the costs of providing electric service to
the class.” Iowa Admin. Code r. 199—20.10(2). These authorities amply
support the board’s issuance of the subject tariff. The cost of
municipally mandated undergrounding is clearly a cost of providing
service to MidAmerican’s customers, and may be reflected in the rates
charged by MidAmerican. The tariff constituted a valid exercise of the
broad authority vested in the IUB.
C. Constitutional Claims. Finally, the City contends the tariff
regime under chapter 476 violates the uniformity requirements of
article I, section 6 and article III, section 30 of the Iowa Constitution.
Article I, section 6 provides:
All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation;
the General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class
of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same
terms shall not equally belong to all citizens.
Article III, section 30 contains a similar requirement that all laws be
general and operate uniformly throughout the state. Iowa Const. art. III,
§ 30 (requiring that “where a general law can be made applicable, all laws
shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the state”). We
have generally viewed these provisions of the Iowa Constitution as being
similar in scope, import, and purpose to the equal protection provision of
the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution. See Dickinson v.
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Porter, 240 Iowa 393, 400, 35 N.W.2d 66, 71–72 (1949). But see Racing
Ass’n of Cent. Iowa v. Fitzgerald, 675 N.W.2d 1, 4–5 (Iowa 2004) (noting
that we may, in an appropriate case, adopt a different analytical
framework under the state constitution). While we maintain our
authority to adopt our own equal protection analysis under the Iowa
Constitution, we see no basis for doing so in this case.3
We review the City’s constitutional challenge to this economic
legislation under the rational basis standard. State v. Simmons, 714
N.W.2d 264, 277 (Iowa 2006). Under this standard we will sustain a
legislative classification if it is rationally related to a legitimate state
interest. Id.
The City asserts the tariff system violates the Iowa uniformity
clauses in two ways. First, the City contends that because MidAmerican
is not the only public utility servicing Coralville, the Coralville residents
who are not serviced by MidAmerican will receive the benefit of the
undergrounding without bearing its costs. Assuming this to be true, we
nonetheless find no violation of equal protection.
The Iowa Constitution “requires ‘uniform operation throughout the
State’, not uniformity of consequences resulting from such operation.”
Cook v. Dewey, 233 Iowa 516, 519, 10 N.W.2d 8, 10 (1943). The City’s
uniformity clause claim is in substance a misplaced argument for
3
The City urges us in this case to adopt an equal protection analysis different
from the one routinely followed under the federal Equal Protection Clause. See Racing
Ass’n of Cent. Iowa, 675 N.W.2d at 5. Specifically, the City urges that the uniformity
provisions in the Iowa Constitution require that all Iowa laws be geographically uniform,
applying to all parts of the state. The City does not explain how its proposed
“geographic uniformity” standard differs from the equal protection analysis undertaken
in our previous decisions in which we discussed the Iowa uniformity clauses. See Cook
v. Dewey, 233 Iowa 516, 519, 10 N.W.2d 8, 10 (1943) (noting the Iowa Constitution
“requires ‘uniform operation throughout the State’, not uniformity of consequences
resulting from such operation”). We therefore decline in this case to depart from our
long-standing uniformity clause jurisprudence.
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uniformity of consequences rather than uniformity of operation. Chapter
476 and the regulations implementing it provide a uniform system for
filing and approval of tariffs setting rates based on costs of the individual
public utility. Iowa Code § 476.4 (“Every public utility shall file with the
board tariffs showing the rates and charges for its public utility services
. . . .”); Iowa Admin. Code r. 199—20.10(2) (requiring that public utility
rates “reasonably reflect the costs of providing electric service to the
class”). All public utilities are required to file tariffs with the IUB
reflecting the costs unique to their service area. Iowa Code § 476.4; Iowa
Admin. Code r. 199—20.10(2); see Fleur de Lis Motor Inns, Inc. v. Bair,
301 N.W.2d 685, 689 (Iowa 1981) (holding amendments to local option
hotel-motel tax statute that did not single out certain classes or entities
and applied equally to all municipalities were valid under the uniformity
clauses “even though when applied they incidentally affect some entities
differently due to differing fact situations”). Dissimilar treatment of
persons dissimilarly situated does not offend equal protection. In re Det.
of Hennings, 744 N.W.2d 333, 339 (Iowa 2008). Citizens serviced by
different public utilities are not similarly situated, and consequently the
City cannot sustain a constitutional challenge based on the fact that
customers of different utilities may pay different rates.
Finally, the City asserts the tariff system violates the uniformity
clauses because other regulated, investor-owned utilities operating in the
same area allegedly do not have tariffs on file permitting them to recover
from their customers the costs of undergrounding. We need not engage
in a constitutional analysis of this claim because the record does not
support the factual contention upon which it purports to be based. The
only other regulated, investor-owned utility mentioned in the record,
Interstate Power and Light Company, has a similar tariff on file with the
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IUB in which the utility reserves the right to recover from customers the
costs of equipment relocation. The district court correctly determined
the tariff is not unconstitutional on its face or as applied by the IUB in
this case.
IV. Conclusion.
We conclude MidAmerican is not precluded from utilizing its valid
tariff to recover from its Coralville customers the costs of relocating the
company’s equipment in the City’s right-of-way. We affirm the IUB’s
determination that MidAmerican’s cost-recovery tariff was a valid
exercise of the board’s authority which did not illegally infringe upon the
City’s home rule authority to control its right-of-way. Coralville’s
constitutional claims against the tariff are without merit.
AFFIRMED.
All justices concur except Baker, J., who takes no part.