## Facts

- Residents, property owners, and taxpayers of Des Moines and West Des Moines sued the Des Moines Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency (Agency) and participating local governments.
- Fourteen local governmental units, including cities in the Des Moines area and Polk County, entered an intergovernmental agreement under Iowa Code chapter 28E to create the Agency.
- The agreement’s purpose was regional cooperation in solid-waste services, including developing a system for collection and disposal.
- The Agency planned to finance the system through revenue bonds authorized by chapter 236, Acts of the 63rd General Assembly.
- Bond principal and interest were to be paid solely from service fees charged to participating governments, not from general taxes or the general credit of any member.
- Plaintiffs challenged (1) the Agency’s creation and the interlocal agreement as unlawful delegation/combination of governmental power and (2) the financing plan as creating unconstitutional local-government indebtedness.
- The trial court upheld the Agency, the agreement, and the revenue-bond/fee structure, but limited Polk County’s participation to waste disposal (not collection).
- Plaintiffs appealed; the Agency and members cross-appealed the limitation on Polk County’s authority.

## Issues

1. Whether chapter 28E and the intergovernmental agreement validly authorized creation of the Agency or instead involved an unconstitutional delegation or aggregation of governmental powers.
2. Whether revenue bonds issued under chapter 236 and payable solely from project revenues (fees) created unconstitutional indebtedness of participating cities and the county under Iowa constitutional debt limits.
3. Whether Polk County had statutory authority to participate in waste collection, or whether its authority was limited to waste disposal.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of chapter 28E and chapter 236 and held the Agency was properly created under those statutes.
- The Court held the Agency could issue revenue bonds and fix and collect fees from members to pay operating costs and bond principal and interest.
- The Court concluded the revenue bonds did not constitute constitutional “debt” of participating governments because payment was limited to designated revenues and did not pledge general taxing power.
- The Court affirmed the limitation that Polk County could participate only in waste disposal, not collection.

## Legal Principles

- Public agencies may use intergovernmental agreements to jointly exercise powers each member already possesses; doing so through a joint entity is not an unconstitutional delegation when the entity’s functions remain within those shared powers.
- Under the special-fund doctrine, obligations payable solely from a special fund of project revenues, without a pledge of general credit or taxing power, do not constitute constitutional indebtedness subject to municipal debt limits.
- A county’s participation in an intergovernmental program is confined to powers granted by statute; absent statutory authority for waste collection, a county may be limited to disposal functions even if cities may perform both.

## Conclusion

The Iowa Supreme Court sustained the interlocal formation of a regional solid-waste agency and its revenue-bond financing funded solely by service fees, while restricting Polk County’s role to disposal because county statutory authority did not extend to waste collection.


Goreham v. Des Moines Metro. Area Solid Waste Agency, 179 N.W.2d 449 (Iowa 1970)