It would appear that we will not be allowed to have an election to revoke permission for issuing the bonds for the arena.
There may be more recent case law, but the most recent case we can find dealing with the issue is the 1932 appeals court case Orr v. Marrs.
In that case the voters approved a bond issue for a school district. Subsequently three-fourths of the registered voters signed a petition asking that the bonds not be issued. The school board agreed and issued an order rescinding the vote of the taxpayers.
From the court’s decision:
It is fundamental that voters of a district can only exercise such powers as are conferred by statute, either expressly or by implication. All powers not expressly or by implication conferred are excluded. The power to rescind the former vote for the bond issue not being expressly given by the statute, it may not be, it is believed, reasonably implied. The power to vote on a bond issue implies the power to vote against it, but not to vote to rescind it after it has been regularly authorized.
If the Legislature had intended to grant the right of withdrawal of the vote, it could easily have been expressed.
New laws may have been passed that would allow a vote to rescind a bond vote but we have not been able to find any.
Just don’t issue a contract
At this point it would appear that our only hope of not building the arena is for city council to fail to authorize construction.
If they do nothing the arena will not be built.
That would open up the possibility of a mandamus action that would seek to compel each city representative to vote to approve construction. A problem there would be that each city representative could vote no on a proposed construction contract if they thought the contract was not in the public’s better interest.
We deserve better
Brutus
You must be logged in to post a comment.