State ex rel. Waldick v. Williams , 74 Ohio St. 3d 192 ( 1995 )

The State ex rel. Waldick, Law Dir., Appellee, v. Williams, Safety/Service Dir.,
Appellant.
[Cite as State ex rel. Waldick v. Williams (1995), Ohio St.3d .]
Mandamus to compel city of Delphos Safety Service Director to execute a
waterline engineering contract authorized by an ordinance passed
by city council -- Writ granted, when.
(No. 95-1551 -- Submitted December 5, 1995 -- Decided December 14,
1995.)
Appeal from the Court of Appeals for Van Wert County, No. 15-95-6.
On March 27, 1995, the Delphos City Council passed Ordinance No. 1995-
15, which “authorized and directed” appellant, G. Roland Williams, the Delphos
Safety/Service Director, “to enter into an agreement with the Poggemeyer Design
Group, Inc. for the Lima Waterline Project.” The ordinance provided that the
“engineering services shall include all the waterline design and corresponding
improvements required by the City of Delphos to obtain potable water from the
City of Lima; and other such conditions or requirements as deemed to be in the
best interest of the City of Delphos,” with the cost of the agreement not to exceed
$150,000. The ordinance was declared an emergency measure by the city council
“for the purpose of the preservation of the public peace, safety and welfare and
because the City of Delphos must comply with the EPA imposed deadlines for the
improvements to its water system.”
After Delphos Mayor John E. Sheeter vetoed the ordinance, council voted to
override the veto by the statutorily required two-thirds majority on April 21, 1995.
Shortly thereafter, although he received a copy of the engineering contract,
appellant refused to sign it. While conceding that there were no procedural
defects relating to the enactment of the ordinance, appellant, in part, based his
refusal to comply with the ordinance on his belief that any action affecting the
municipal water system was an administrative decision to be made by him rather
than by council.
On June 8, appellee, Juergen A. Waldick, the Delphos Law Director,
instituted this action in the Court of Appeals for Van Wert County for a writ of
mandamus compelling Williams to execute the waterline engineering contract
specified in the ordinance. Following the issuance of an alternative writ and the
submission of evidence and briefs, the court of appeals granted the writ.
The cause is now before the court upon an appeal as of right. We granted a
motion to expedite consideration of this appeal.
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Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, C. Craig Woods and Loren L. Braverman, for
appellee.
Kagay, Albert & Diehl and David K. Lowe, for appellant.
____________________
Per Curiam. Appellant asserts that the court of appeals erred in granting the
writ of mandamus. In order to be entitled to a writ of mandamus, Waldick had to
establish a clear legal right to have appellant execute the waterline engineering
agreement noted in the ordinance, a corresponding clear legal duty on the part of
appellant to do so, and the lack of a plain and adequate remedy in the ordinary
course of law. State ex rel. Ms. Parsons Constr., Inc. v. Moyer (1995), 72 Ohio
St.3d 404, 405, 650 N.E.2d 472, 473.
Appellant does not contend that Waldick possesses an adequate legal
remedy to enforce the ordinance. Instead, appellant claims that Waldick failed to
establish either a clear legal right to execution of the contract or a corresponding
clear legal duty on his part to sign the contract. More specifically, appellant
contends that he has no duty to comply with an unlawful ordinance.
Appellant asserts in his first and second propositions of law that Ordinance
No. 1995-15 illegally usurps his statutory authority and attempts to control his
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administrative discretion. In general, enactments of a municipal legislative
authority are presumed valid, and the presumption “continues until bad faith or
abuse of legislative discretion *** is clearly proven, or it is manifest that the
legislative authority has exceeded its powers, or if the legislation bears no
reasonable relation to the public health, safety, welfare, or morals.” 1 Gotherman
& Babbit, Ohio Municipal Law (2 Ed.1992) 108, Section T 7.17, citing Benjamin
v. Columbus (1957), 104 Ohio App. 293, 4 O.O.2d 439, 148 N.E.2d 695, affirmed
(1957), 167 Ohio St. 103, 4 O.O.2d 113, 146 N.E.2d 854.
“All municipal corporations have the general powers mentioned in Sections
715.01 to 715.67, inclusive, of the Revised Code, and the legislative authority of
such municipal corporations may provide by ordinance or resolution for the
exercise and enforcement of such powers.” R.C. 715.03. Among the general
powers are that cities “may provide for a supply of water” and “prevent the
unnecessary waste of water and the pollution thereof.” R.C. 715.08.
Appellant relies on R.C. 735.02, which provides that the director of public
service of a municipal corporation shall manage and supervise public works of the
city, including municipal water, “except as otherwise provided by law.” Similarly,
R.C. 743.03 states that the “director of public service shall manage, conduct, and
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control the water works of a municipal corporation, furnish supplies of water,
collect water rents, and appoint any necessary officers and agents.”
Appellant claims that under R.C. 735.02 and 743.03, the issue of whether he
should execute the waterline engineering contract is within his administrative
discretion. However, R.C. 735.05 provides:
“The director of public service may make any contract, purchase supplies or
material, or provide labor for any work under the supervision of the department of
public service involving not more than ten thousand dollars. When an expenditure
within the department, other than the compensation of persons, employed therein,
exceeds ten thousand dollars, such expenditure shall first be authorized and
directed by ordinance of the city legislative authority.”
Where it is necessary for the municipal legislative authority to authorize an
expenditure by the safety-service director in an amount over that provided in R.C.
735.05, “such legislative body has the power to incorporate in the authorizing
ordinance specifications and conditions binding on the administrative agency.”
State ex rel. Huddle v. Evans (1961), 172 Ohio St. 144, 145, 15 O.O.2d 282, 174
N.E.2d 94, 95. In Huddle, we granted a writ of mandamus to compel the safety-
service director to advertise for bids and enter into a contract for the purchase of a
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fire truck according to specifications adopted in an ordinance passed by council.
In so holding, we rejected the safety-service director’s argument that the ordinance
constituted “an encroachment on the executive powers given to [his]
administrative office,” stating that “there is no statute giving to the safety-service
director exclusive power to write the detailed specifications of contracts which
must first be authorized by the legislative branch of the municipality.” Id. at 145,
15 O.O.2d at 282, 174 N.E.2d at 95.
Similarly, in State ex rel. Leach v. Redick (1959), 168 Ohio St. 543, 7
O.O.2d 422, 157 N.E.2d 106, we granted a writ of mandamus compelling a
director of public service to execute a lease where the city council had enacted an
ordinance authorizing and directing its execution. In rejecting the contention of
the director of public service that the city could not compel him to sign the lease,
the court stated:
“It seems to us that if council has the legislative authority to authorize the
lease and to authorize the respondent to execute it, it must have the authority to
direct the respondent so to do, and that such direction in no way constitutes an
unlawful interference with an administrative function.
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“Respondent himself has no power to enter into the contract but is simply
the party to complete the contract properly authorized by council.” Id. at 548-549,
7 O.O.2d at 425, 157 N.E.2d at 110.
Appellant argues that Huddle and Leach are distinguishable because, unlike
the respondents in those cases, he had acted on the waterline problems prior to
council’s enactment of the ordinance. However, as Waldick aptly notes, nothing
in the applicable statutes vests the authority to enter into contracts in the
governmental branch that first exercises it. As in Leach, and pursuant to the
manifest language of R.C. 735.05, appellant has no power to enter into any
waterline engineering contract exceeding ten thousand dollars, and he is merely
the party to complete the contract authorized by the Delphos City Council.
Appellant further contends in his second proposition of law that the
ordinance does not require him to execute the contract since it gives him discretion
as to “other such conditions or requirements as deemed to be in the best interest of
the City of Delphos.” However, the ordinance clearly mandates him to “enter into
an agreement with the Poggemeyer Design Group, Inc. for the Lima Waterline
project” and that the agreement shall be for engineering services for the “waterline
design” in order to obtain drinkable water from Lima. The discretion accorded
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appellant by the ordinance was only as to other provisions of the contract, not the
execution of the contract itself.
Therefore, based on the pertinent statutes and Huddle and Leach, Ordinance
No. 1995-15 does not unlawfully usurp appellant’s administrative discretion to
manage, conduct, and control the water system of Delphos pursuant to R.C. 735.02
and 743.03. Appellant’s first and second propositions of law are meritless.
Appellant asserts in his third proposition of law that Ordinance No. 1995-15
is invalid because it is not an emergency ordinance. However, as we have
repeatedly held, “‘[w]here an ordinance, passed by the council of a municipality, is
declared to be an emergency in accordance with the municipality’s laws and sets
forth the reasons for the immediate necessity thereof, the legislative determination
of the existence of an emergency is not reviewable by a court.’” State ex rel.
Moore v. Abrams (1991), 62 Ohio St.3d 130, 132, 580 N.E.2d 11, 12, quoting
Jurcisin v. Cuyahoga Cty. Bd. of Elections (1988), 35 Ohio St.3d 137, 519 N.E.2d
347, paragraph three of the syllabus. Although purely conclusory, tautological, or
illusory language in an emergency measure does not meet the requirements for a
valid ordinance under R.C. 731.30, see Huebner v. Miles (1993), 92 Ohio App.3d
493, 497, 636 N.E.2d 348, 351, the language of the ordinance that the measure
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was “for the purpose of the preservation of the public peace, safety and welfare
and because the City of Delphos must comply with the EPA imposed deadlines for
the improvements to its water system” is sufficiently specific. Cf. Youngstown v.
Aiello (1951), 156 Ohio St. 32, 45 O.O. 45, 100 N.E.2d 62 (ordinance prevented
from taking immediate effect where purported emergency clause stated that it was
necessary to preserve the public peace, health, and safety, but gave no specific
reasons for the necessity); see Walsh v. Cincinnati City Council (1977), 54 Ohio
App.2d 107, 8 O.O.3d 208, 375 N.E.2d 811 (ordinance invalid since emergency
clause merely stated that it was an emergency because it was an emergency).
In that the emergency clause of Ordinance No. 1995-15 sufficiently states
and defines the emergency, the issues of whether an emergency actually existed or
the accuracy of the reasons given by council are not subject to review by this
court. Moore, supra, 62 Ohio St.3d at 133, 580 N.E.2d at 13. Appellant’s third
proposition of law is also meritless.
Appellant has failed to overcome the presumed validity of the ordinance,
and the court of appeals properly determined that Waldick had established his
entitlement to the requested writ of mandamus. Accordingly, for the foregoing
reasons, the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.
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Judgment affirmed.
MOYER, C.J., DOUGLAS, WRIGHT, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER and
COOK, JJ., concur.
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