Yesterdays ordinance article was well read and also received a comment from California based attorney Richard Hamlin of the Hamlin|Cody firm.  We always appreciate feedback from our readers and wanted to share his comment.

“When a state agency acts in its governmental capacity, that trumps local ordinances. When a state agency acts in a proprietary capacity, the local ordinances will control. What’s the difference?

In California, a Cal State University campus hosted a circus. The City of Los Angeles tried to enforce its animal-control regulations. The Cal State University campus asserted its state-agency status and argued that it did not need to comply with the city’s ordinance.

The court said it needed to comply. Hosting a circus on campus had nothing to do with the university’s governmental purpose, which was education. Instead it was renting its recreational fields to a commercial organization for a commercial or proprietary purpose. Since it was not acting in its governmental capacity, it needed to comply with local ordinances.

In a digital context, the greater the percentage of time devoted to the governmental purpose, the more likely it is that the courts will uphold the state exemption from local ordinances. In the context of a university or college, if a material portion of the flips show educational opportunities and information, there will be a better chance that a court will sustain an exemption from local ordinances.”

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