City and County of Denver v. State

788 P.2d 764, 14 Brief Times Rptr. 341, 1990 Colo. LEXIS 177, 1990 WL 25379
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMarch 12, 1990
Docket89SA60
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 788 P.2d 764 (City and County of Denver v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City and County of Denver v. State, 788 P.2d 764, 14 Brief Times Rptr. 341, 1990 Colo. LEXIS 177, 1990 WL 25379 (Colo. 1990).

Opinion

Justice MULLARKEY

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment and permanent injunction issued in the Denver District Court finding unconstitutional section 8-2-120, 3B C.R.S. (1989 Supp.), which forbids municipalities, with few exceptions, from adopting residency requirements for municipal employees. The court permanently enjoined the state from enforcing section 8-2-120 against the appellees, the City and County of Denver, and the City of Durango, finding that it violated Article XX, Section 6(a) of the Colorado Constitution by improperly interfering with the power of home rule municipalities to determine conditions of employment for their employees. We affirm.

I.

On September 12, 1978, Denver voters approved an initiative amending the City Charter to require that all employees hired after July 1, 1979 become residents of the City and County of Denver as a condition of continued employment with the city. The amendment was codified at Denver Charter Section C5.12. 1 Effective January 1, 1980, the City Council of the City of Durango enacted 2 Rule 4.1 of its personnel rules which requires residency in certain instances as a condition of continued employment. 3

Since being adopted, the residency requirements have been enforced by both Denver and Durango. On April 11, 1988, Governor Roy Romer signed House Bill 1152, codified at section 8-2-120, 3B C.R.S. (1989 Supp.), which purports to preempt residency rules such as those of Denver, Durango and other cities and local governments in Colorado. 4

*766 The cities of Denver and Durango filed their complaint on June 21, 1988 naming the State of Colorado and Governor Romer as defendants and seeking a preliminary injunction to enjoin the state from enforcing section 8-2-120. The Denver Police Protective Association, the Colorado Professional Fire Fighters, and several individual Denver employees successfully moved to intervene. After conducting a hearing on the matter, the district court granted a motion for a preliminary injunction finding that section 8-2-120 was unconstitutional as applied to the City and County of Denver and the City of Durango in that it conflicted with the authority of those home rule cities to adopt a residency requirement under Article XX, Section 6(a) of the Colorado Constitution.

In granting the preliminary injunction, the court found the residency requirement for municipal employees to be a matter of strictly local concern. After the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, the court granted the cities’ motion and permanently enjoined the state from enforcing section 8-2-120 against the appel-lees. The court found that the Denver and Durango residency provisions were in direct conflict with section 8-2-120 and that because the residency requirements were a term and condition of employment under Article XX, Section 6(a), those requirements superseded section 8-2-120. The state took this direct appeal.

II.

Once again this court is required to delineate the limits of the power of a home rule municipality to adopt charter provisions and ordinances which are in conflict with state statutes. We often have stated the principles under which we resolve conflicts between provisions of state statutes and home rule charters or ordinances. A brief review is proper here. Article XX, Section 6, of the state constitution, adopted by the voters in 1912, granted “home rule” to municipalities opting to operate under its provisions and thereby altered the basic relationship of such municipalities to the state. 5 It abrogated “Dillon’s Rule” which stated:

*767 Municipal corporations owe their origin to, and derive their powers and rights wholly from, the legislature. It breathes into them the breath of life, without which they cannot exist. As it creates, so may it destroy. If it may destroy, it may abridge and control.

City of Clinton v. Cedar Rapids & Mo. River R.R., 24 Iowa 455, 475 (1868); see generally Klemme, The Powers of Home Rule Cities in Colorado, 36 U.Colo.L.Rev. 321 (1964) (hereinafter Klemme).

The effect of the amendment was to grant to home rule municipalities “every power theretofore possessed by the legislature to authorize municipalities to function in local and municipal affairs.” Four-County Metro. Capital Improvement Dist. v. Board of County Comm’rs, 149 Colo. 284, 294, 369 P.2d 67, 72 (1962) (emphasis in original). Although the legislature continues to exercise supreme authority over matters of statewide concern, a home rule city is not inferior to the General Assembly with respect to local and municipal matters. Board of County Comm’rs v. City of Thornton, 629 P.2d 605 (Colo.1981). In determining the respective authority of the state legislature and home rule municipalities, we have recognized three broad categories of regulatory matters: (1) matters of local concern; (2) matters of statewide concern; and (3) matters of mixed state and local concern. City & County of Denver v. Board of County Comm’rs, 782 P.2d 753, 762 (Colo.1989); National Advertising Co. v. Department of Highways, 751 P.2d 632, 635 (Colo.1988); City & County of Denver v. Colorado River Water Conservation Dist., 696 P.2d 730, 740-741 (Colo.1985).

In matters of local concern, both home rule cities and the state may legislate. Conrad v. City of Thornton, 191 Colo. 444, 448, 553 P.2d 822, 825 (1976). However, when a home rule ordinance or charter provision and a state statute conflict with respect to a local matter, the home rule provision supersedes the conflicting state provision. City & County of Denver v. Colorado River Water Conservation Dist., 696 P.2d at 740; Colo. Const., Art. XX, Sec. 6. In matters of statewide concern, the General Assembly may adopt legislation and home rule municipalities are without power to act unless authorized by the constitution or by state statute. City & County of Denver v. Colorado River Water Conservation Dist., 696 P.2d at 740.

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788 P.2d 764, 14 Brief Times Rptr. 341, 1990 Colo. LEXIS 177, 1990 WL 25379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-and-county-of-denver-v-state-colo-1990.