Griffin v. City of Tacoma

Citations

• 49 Wash. 524
• 95 P. 1107
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 615

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations— Water Supply — Acquisition — Ordinance — Submission to Vote — Validity. An ordinance for an election- to authorize the purchase by a city of the plant of a water company need not specifically mention a source of supply held in reserve by the company, where the vote authorized the purchase of all sources of supply owned in connection with the system.</p> <p>Same. An extension of a city’s water system to springs which it purchased with an existing system, and which it held for years as a reserve supply, is not a change in the plan of the city’s water system which need be authorized by a vote of the people within the contemplation of Bal. Code, § 835.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Fiscal Management — Diverting Funds. A city charter providing for special funds, and that all moneys collected by taxation for a special purpose shall remain in the special fund therefor, and that no fund shall be diverted from the purpose for which it was originally collected without a vote of the people, has reference only to a permanent diversion of funds, and does not prevent the temporary transfer as a loan of part of the general fund to a special fund having a permanent income under the control of the city.</p> <p>Same — Indebtedness—Constitutional Limit. The transfer of general funds to a special fund for the purpose of constructing an extension to a water system is not the incurring of a municipal indebtedness, within the constitutional inhibition, where the special fund is solvent and the general fund is not imperilled (Rudkin and Fullerton, JJ., dissenting).</p> <p>Same — Pledging Water Receipts- — Submission to Vote. The pledging of receipts from a water system for the purpose of paying for the cost of an extension does not create a municipal indebtedness; and the same need not be authorized by a vote of the people, where the funds are used to further a general plan pursuant to a vote once taken.</p> <p>Same — Power of City — Statutes—Construction. Laws