The Sagebrush State, 4th Ed: Nevada’s History, Government, and Politics

City and County Governments

111 Chapter Nine City and County Governments It is generally true that most citizens pay far more attention to the actions of the national and state governments than they do to local governments such as counties and cities. This is due in part to the nature of the issues dealt with by those larger entities,such as war and peace and economic policies;in part it is due to the microscopic attention paid by the mass media to their every move. Yet, the policies and concerns of local governments affect citizens’ lives in significant ways: taxes, streets, sewage and garbage services, law enforcement, zoning, liquor licenses, schools, and a host of others. Indeed, on a daily basis, these governments may have a more profound effect on citizens than those at the national and state levels. It is worth noting, however, that the powers exercised by local governments are highly circumscribed by the state. Under the U.S. Constitution, states are autonomous and independent of the federal government in many ways. The Tenth Amendment reserves to the states all powers not delegated to the federal government or prohibited to the states.Thus,states are generally free to exercise these reserved powers as they see fit, so long as they do not infringe upon federal power or the civil liberties of their citizens. The same is not true for local governments. They are considered creatures of the state and have no independent power; as subdivisions of the state they may exercise only those powers given to them by the state constitution and statutes. In 1911, John F. Dillon defined the powers of local governments: It is a general and undisputed proposition of law that a municipal corporation possesses and can exercise the following powers, and no others: first, those granted in express words; second, those necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted; third, those essential to the accomplishment of the declared objects and purposes of the corporation— not simply convenient, but indispensable. Any fair, reasonable, substantial doubt concerning the existence of power is resolved by the courts against a corporation, and the power is denied.1 Dillon’s rule, as this formulation is called, continues to hold sway in Nevada in the twenty-first century. One other point of interest that will become clearer below is that local governing boards (e.g.,county commissions and city councils) are not required to abide by the separation of powers that characterizes the national and state governments. These boards exercise executive, legislative, and, on occasion, quasi-judicial powers. Counties and Townships When Nevada’s first territorial legislature met in 1861,it established nine counties . Between 1861 and 1864, two additional counties were created so that, at the time of statehood, Nevada had eleven. During its first decade of statehood, four more were created and one of the original nine, Roop County, was folded into Washoe County. Today, the state has seventeen counties; the most recently established was Pershing County (1919), although in 1969 the legislature consolidated Carson City and Ormsby County into a single city-county. Given that the state constitution requires a majority of a county’s voters to approve the abolitionoftheircounty ,itisdoubtfulthatfurtherchangeswilltakeplace.(Seetable9.1.) Article 4 of the state constitution requires the legislature to establish a “uni112 The Sagebrush State table 9.1 Nevada Counties County Year of Creation Current County Seat Carson City 1969 Carson City Churchill 1861 Fallon Clark 1909 Las Vegas Douglas 1861 Minden Elko 1869 Elko Esmeralda 1861 Goldfield Eureka 1873 Eureka Humboldt 1861 Winnemucca Lander 1862 Battle Mountain Lincoln 1866 Pioche Lyon 1861 Yerington Mineral 1911 Hawthorne Nye 1864 Tonopah Pershing 1919 Lovelock Storey 1861 Virginia City Washoe 1861 Reno White Pine 1869 Ely Source: Dean Heller, Political History of Nevada, 2006, 11th ed., 122. Reprinted with permission. form” system of county and township governments. This language means that the legislature may not arbitrarily single out a certain county for special treatment ; all must be treated uniformly. However, the state may distinguish between counties based on reasonable and neutral criteria. For example, the state supreme court has upheld a statute allowing consolidation of city and county law enforcement agencies in county seats with populations of more than 200,000, even though at the time the law was passed few cities and counties in the state would qualify. This distinction was permissible because it was “prospectively applicable to all...