LaCrosse considers change to code city

Jana Mathia, Gazette Reporter | Nov 23, 20170

LaCrosse is considering a move the county’s two largest cities have already made. The LaCrosse town council has been kicking around the notion of changing to a code city for at least a year with more discussion expected to come.

“We’re really unsure of what we’re going to do with it,” said Randy Camp, LaCrosse mayor.

A code city is a classification alternative to the basic statutory classification system of municipal government. It was created to provide broad statutory home rule authority in matters of local concern. This allows more control over municipal operations, according to Dodd Snodgrass, Colfax city administrator.

“Most cities now are code cities instead of second class cities,” he said. Colfax made the switch to a code city at the beginning of this year, before Snodgrass was hired.

The Colfax City Council Jan. 3 unanimously approved an ordinance to make Colfax a non-charter code city. At the time, Councilman Jim Kackman said the change in designation made Colfax a home-rule community. The city can undertake projects which are not specifically prohibited under state law. Under the second-class city classification, the city was limited to undertake projects which were specifically authorized by state law. There are only five second class cities still in the state as most have made the move to code cities.

Towns making the change to code cities is not as prevalent. Camp noted that while being a code city may give more freedom to create local ordinances, there may be less freedom and weight in enforcing those ordinances without the state’s backing given while still classified as a town.

According to the MRSC, second class cities and towns have only the powers granted specifically to their class or all classifications whereas a code city has all powers granted to any class of city and any not specifically denied. For home rule authority, towns have only those powers expressly or implicitly grated by legislature whereas code cities have broad authority in all matters of local concern.

While no other towns in Whitman County have made the change to code cities, similar towns in the region have, including Harrington, Prescott, Spangle and Kahlotus, which is the smallest code city.