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State ex rel. Commt. for the Charter Amendment, City Trash Collection v. Westlake

OhioOctober 3, 2002No. 2002-1552Cited 31 times
Plaintiff WinCity of Westlake

Case Details

Status
Published
Procedural Posture
Writ of mandamus granted; attorney fees awarded

Related Laws

No specific laws identified for this ruling.

Outcome

Writ of mandamus granted compelling the City of Westlake to submit a charter amendment petition to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections for placement on the November 2002 ballot. Attorney fees awarded to the plaintiff.

Excerpt

Municipal corporations—Ordinance passed privatizing city of Westlake's trash collection services—Elections—Mandamus sought to compel city et al. to submit petition proposing amendment to city charter to use only public service employees for trash collection services to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and to have the proposed charter amendment placed on the November 5, 2002 general election ballot—Writ granted—Request for attorney fees granted.

What This Ruling Means

**What Happened** The City of Westlake, Ohio passed an ordinance to privatize its trash collection services, meaning they would hire a private company instead of using city employees. A citizens' committee opposed this decision and gathered petition signatures to propose a charter amendment that would require the city to use only public employees for trash collection. However, the city refused to submit this petition to the county elections board for the November 2002 ballot. **What the Court Decided** The Ohio court ruled in favor of the citizens' committee. The court issued a writ of mandamus, which is a legal order forcing a government entity to perform a required duty. This compelled the City of Westlake to submit the petition to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and place the charter amendment on the ballot. The court also awarded attorney fees to the committee. **Why This Matters for Workers** This case shows that citizens have legal tools to challenge privatization decisions that could eliminate public sector jobs. When local governments try to replace public employees with private contractors, workers and community members can use the ballot initiative process to fight back, and courts will enforce their right to do so.

This summary was generated to explain the ruling in plain English and is not legal advice.

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<p>APPEAL from tbe District Court of tbe Third Judicial District for Ada County. Hon. Carl A. Davis, Judge.</p> <p>Action for writ of mandate to compel tbe state engineer to give notice and issue a certificate of completion of diversion</p> <p>works. Writ granted. Appeal by defendant.</p> <p>Numerous eases bave been tried involving questions of jurisdiction relative to tbe distribution of tbe waters of interstate streams for irrigation purposes. These cases, however, only determined tbe rights of individuals, and in no case has tbe interest of the state in its waters been decided; in fact, tbe supreme court of tbe United States has held that this question cannot be raised by tbe individual, but must be raised by the state itself. (Rickey Land & Cattle Co. v. Miller & Lux, 218 U. S. 258, 31 Sup. Ct. 11, 54 L. ed. 1032; Kansas v. Colorado etc., 206 U. S. 46, 27 Sup. Ct. 655, 51 L. ed. 956.)</p> <p>Although title to things in tbe negative community was never recognized as vesting in the individual, yet tbe right of a state or nation, either as proprietor or by reason of its sovereignty to control the use of things in the negative community for the benefit of its citizens, has become firmly established by the courts. (1 Farnham on Waters and Water Rights, 74, 75; State v. Rodman, 58 Minn. 393, 59 N. W. 1098; Freund, Police Power, p. 447; Commissioners etc. v. Withers, 29 Miss. 21, 64 Am. Dec. 126; Geer v. Conn., 161 U. S. 519, 16 Sup. Ct. 600, 40 L. ed. 793; Hudson County Water Co. v. Me-Garter, 209 U. S. 349, 28 Sup. Ct. 529, 52 L. ed. 828, 14 Ann. Cas. 560.)</p> <p>When Idaho became a state, Congress approved the constitution adopted in the constitutional convention, and thereby passed the title and control of all of the public waters within the state to the state of Idaho, by ratifying sec. 1 of art. 15.</p> <p>That the legislature has always assumed that the state owns its waters is to be gathered from a careful consideration of all the water laws passed since Idaho

Plaintiff Win

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