Kugler

We hold here that an ordinance which decrees that the salaries of certain city employees shall be no less than the average of those of an adjoining city and those of an adjoining county does not unlawfully delegate legislative power because the power to legislate has been expressed and exerted in the enactment of the policy of such parity; future adjustment in salaries pursuant to that formula is no more than the automatic execution of that policy; that process is protected from any abusive or arbitrary consequences by its own inherent safeguards.

Plaintiffs, residents of the City of Alhambra, bring mandate to compel defendants, as members of the city council of that city, either to adopt a proposed initiative ordinance or to call a special citywide election to vote upon it. Although plaintiffs, had obtained the required number of signatures to secure the election, the city council refused to hold it; the council likewise rejected the proposed ordinance.

The proposed ordinance reads, in relevant part, as follows: “Except as otherwise provided for herein the monthly salaries of the members of the Fire Department in each classification shall not be less than an amount computed as…

I dissent. If by charter amendment the people of Alhambra undertook to establish a minimum wage for members of the Fire Department of the City of Alhambra by reference to an average (to be computed periodically) of the wages generally prevailing for work of a similar character in, for example, all of the cities in the same county (County of Los Angeles) or all of the cities and unincorporated areas within a more limited geographical area, or even of a substantial number of such communities of comparable size and with similar fire problems, then I could agree that under the prevailing wage eases there would be no question of unlawful delegation of legislative authority. As an amendment to the organic law of the city this would be a lawful limitation upon the exercise of the legislative power of the local legislative body and also upon the initiative power of the city’s electorate. But this is not what is attempted here. The city charter sets forth how the legislative power of the city is to be exercised and places equal power to legislate in the council and the electorate; what one may do so may the other. But here, one, the electorate by initiative ordinance, seeks to limit the…