“In matters purely local and municipal, the legislature may enact conditional laws, and refer it to the people or proper municipal authorities to decide whether such laws shall or shall not have force and effect in their respective municipalities.” Slinger v. Henneman, 38 Wis. 510. Such a law must he a complete enactment in itself. It must contain an entire and perfect declaration of the legislative will, and it must require nothing to perfect it as a law. The only thing that may be left to the people to determine is whether they will avail themselves of its provisions. State ex rel. Att’y Gen. v. O’Neill, 24 Wis. 149, 153; Dowling v. Lancashire Ins. Co. 92 Wis. 63, 69, 65 N. W. 138; In re North Milwaukee, 93 Wis. 616, 620, 67 N. W. 1033; Adams v. Beloit, 105 Wis. 363, 369, 81 N. W. 869. .
“The legislature cannot delegate its power to make a law, hut it can make a law to delegate a power to determine some fact or state of things upon which the law makes, or intends*637 to mate, its own action to depend.” Dowling v. Lancashire Ins. Co., supra, at p. 69; Adams v. Beloit, supra, at p. 369; Minneapolis, St. P. & S. S. M. R. Co. v. Railroad Commission, 136 Wis. 146, 116 N. W. 905.
Tested by these principles, can ch. 651, Laws of 1907, be sustained as a valid enactment in its entirety? While the case under consideration, might be disposed of without pointing out the infirmities of the law, it was thought best to do so in order to prevent illegal courts from being’ established thereunder and to avoid the confusion that might arise from the trial of causes and the rendition of judgments by unconstitutional courts. Sec. 2523 — 1 of the law in question provides:
“There is hereby created and established in each county of this state one or more courts, as may be provided for, to be known and designated as- special municipal courts and with the powers and jurisdiction as hereafter provided.”
Sec. 2523 — 2 provides that the board of supervisors of any county may, by a majority vote of all its members elect, adopt the act by resolution, and upon such adoption may, “in like manner and upon a like vote, provide for a special municipal court or courts as herein provided, to be known and designated as the First (or other numerical designation) Special Municipal Court of-County.”
'Can the legislature vest in a county board the power to say when and how many municipal courts may be established in a given county ? Does not the power attempted to be given confer upon the county board something more than the mere right to adopt the provisions of the law ? Does it not in fact confer upon such board the power to legislate new courts into existence ? If the law iñ its entirety can be upheld, it is the duty of the court to uphold it. If the entire act cannot be sustained, it is the duty of the court to sustain the valid portion of it, if it can do so without violating, established principles of law. It is well settled that an act may be unconstitutional in some of its provisions and valid in others. Where parts
Sec. 22, art IY, Const., empowers the legislature to confer ■on the boards of supervisors of the several counties of the state such powers of a local, legislative, or administrative character as they shall from time to time prescribe. But by sec. 2, ■art. VII, Const., the power to create and establish such courts ■as are provided for by ch. 651, Laws of 1907, is exclusively vested in the legislature and must be exercised by it. We do not doubt that a valid option law may be passed providing for the creation of municipal' courts. But such a. law must be complete and perfect in -itself, and must become operative upon a vote which simply adopts its terms. Discretion to say what the law shall be after it is adopted, or to what extent it shall be applicable, may not be conferred on the people of a county or on its board of supervisors. It is here left to the discretion of the county board to say whether there shall be two or more courts in a given county. This is a legislativa function which we hold cannot be delegated. The board is given not only the option to adopt the law, but the further option to decide upon the number of courts that may be established under it. This cannot be done. People ex rel. Bolt v. Riordan, 73 Mich. 508, 41 N. W. 482; Pueblo Co. Comm’rs v. Smith, 22 Colo. 534, 45 Pac. 357, 33 L. R. A. 465; State v. Nine Justices, 90 Tenn. 722, 18 S. W. 393.
As we view the law, it does create and establish one municipal court in each county of the state, or at least in such counties as had no municipal court when the act was passed. When a county board votes to adopt its provisions, the law creating the single court becomes effective. Certain adminis
Uo substantial reason occurs to us why the valid portion of this law should not be upheld. Th,e legislature had the laudable purpose in mind of passing one general act applicable to the entire state in lieu of enacting a multitude of special acts limited in their application to a single county. The valid portion of the law will no doubt fulfil the requirements of most of the counties of the state, and it is not apparent how the void portion was any condition or compensation for the passage of the valid part. We conclude, therefore, that the act is valid to the extent of creating and establishing one municipal court in each county of the state, and that to such ex- ' tent only does it become operative when adopted in the manner therein provided.
The county board by a single resolution adopted the provisions of ch. 651, Laws of 1907, provided for the establishment of a single municipal court, fixed the salary of the municipal judge, designated the places where court should be held, provided for office accommodations, provided that notice of election should be given, and provided for various other matters pertaining to such court. Manifestly the plain mandate of the statute was violated by the adoption of such a resolution. The law required that the board should first
If the law had been properly adopted and the proper resolution had been passed creating the court, it would be beyond the power of a county board by subsequent resolution to rescind its action, at least in the absence of express legislative authority so to do. To hold otherwise would be equivalent to saying that it might repeal a law of the legislature of the state which had become operative in the particular county. Northern T. Co. v. Snyder, 113 Wis. 516, 533, 89 N. W. 460.
It is argued that the only proceeding attacked is the resolution of the county board of. April 2d rescinding its- former action, and that if the law was adopted in a legal way then it was beyond the power of the board to undo what had been done, and, if not, no injury resulted from reversing the action of the county board in passing a resolution which served no useful purpose. We think it was proper for the board to expunge from its records, in so far as it could, the former resolution passed by it, which was at least void in part. We do not hold that so much of the resolution of March 2d as adopted the provisions of the act in question may not be valid; and, if valid, it could not be repealed by the action subsequently taken. It was proper, however, to rescind so much of the resolution as we hold to be void for the reasons herein stated.
By the Court. — Judgment reversed, and cause remanded 'with directions to dismiss the proceedings.