224 Mass. 176 | Mass. | 1916
This is a bill in equity under R. L. c. 25, § 100, by ten taxpayers of the city of Medford,
This contention is founded on § 7 of the city charter of Medford. St. 1903, c. 345, as amended by St. 1906, c. 252, § l.
The conception of the referendum as to definite measures of local administration in cities is a comparatively new one in the legislation of this State. While it has been the legislative practice for a long time to make the taking effect of a statute of local concern in a particular municipality dependent upon acceptance in some form, Barnes v. Chicopee, 213 Mass. 1, 4, it is only within recent years that what are popularly known as the initiative and referendum have been applied in matters involving policy as to particular measures of improvement. Graham v. Roberts, 200 Mass. 152. It is hardly to be inferred that so radical a departure in municipal government would have been undertaken in any city without plain words indicative of that purpose.
When the Legislature has designed to give binding force to an initiative or referendum vote, it has been able to find expression for that purpose in unmistakable words. See, for example, the city charters referred to in the footnote, where provisions in this respect are clear.
The conclusion seems to us inevitable that the effect of the referendum vote of the voters of Medford in 1913 had no more than an advisory effect and did not prevent the board of aldermen from dealing with the subject as it deemed wise at any time.
Shortly before the order in question was passed by the board of aldermen, a petition signed by twenty-five per cent of the qualified voters of the city was presented to the board, requesting that there be placed on the official ballot at the municipal election for 1916 the questions whether a city hall should be built and whether, if to be built, it should be built under the supervision of three or more citizens. What has been said disposes in substance of the contention that the filing of this petition operated to stay the right of the board of aldermen to pass the order until after such election. It cannot have been the intent of the Legislature to
The city charter of Medford provides in § 16
Bill dismissed without costs.
The case was heard by Loring, J., who ruled that the bill should be dismissed, but at the request of the defendants in order that the matter might be adjudicated speedily, reserved the case for determination by the full court.
That section is as follows: “General meetings of the inhabitants of the city may from time to time be held, according to the right secured to the people by the Constitution of the Commonwealth; and such meetings may, and upon the request in writing of fifty qualified voters setting forth the purposes thereof shall, be called by the board of aldermen. The board, upon request in writing of twenty-five per cent of the qualified voters, shall order placed upon the official ballot for a municipal election any question of public interest set forth in such request, provided that such question can be answered by ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”
St. 1908, c. 611, §§ 27, 28, 29, Gloucester. St. 1908, c. 574, §§ 42, 43Haverhill. St. 1910, c. 602, Part I, §§ 64, 65, Lynn. St. 1911, c. 621, Part I, §§ 45, 53, Lawrence. St. 1911, c. 680, Part I, §§ 54, 55, Chelsea. St. 1911, c. 645, §§ 60, 61, Lowell. St. 1914, c. 680, §§ 25, 26, Attleborough. St. 1914, c. 609, §§ 28, 29, Westfield. St. 1911, c. 732, Part III, § 55, Pittsfield. St. 1911, c. 531, § 69, Cambridge. St. 1915, c. 267, Part I, § 42, General Act.
The whole of that section is as follows: “Any ordinance, order or resolution of the board of aldermen may be passed through all its stages of legislation at one session by unanimous consent of the members of the board present. Should one member or more object action on the measure shall be postponed for at least one week; and if when it is next considered five or more members object to its passage a second postponement for at least one week shall take place.”