Municipal Service Suits, Local Public Services and Service Equality

• Author: Mitchell F. Rice,Woodrow Jones
• Published date: 01 March 1980
• Date: 01 March 1980
• DOI: 10.1177/027507408001400103
• Subject Matter: Articles

Municipal Service Suits, Local Public Services
and Service Equality
MITCHELL F. RICE
Southwest Texas State University
and
WOODROW JONES, JR.
San Diego State University
Since local public bureaucracies are the key determinants in the
quality of urban life, governmental outputs, particularly public services, must
be distributed in such a manner to assure that the poor, disadvantaged and
minorities receive their proper share of services. A number of researchers
have written that public bureaucracies tend to be less responsive to these
groups (Sjoberg et al, 1966; Jacobs, 1967; White, 1969; Waldhorn, 1972;
Lipsky, 1973). Given this observation, the distributional aspects of municipal
public services have become the focal point of much interest, concern and
inquiry because of an alleged relationship to race, class and political power.
Public service &dquo;Distribution
concerns what kinds of
...
people enjoy
the benefits of governmental activity and what kinds suffer because of that
activity&dquo; (Jones and Kauffman, 1974; 337). The delivery of services is
intricately tied to the spatial distribution of the population in a given
municipality. Individuals are sorted into identifiable neighborhood groups
based on class, race, religion or ethnicity. Because of this fact local govern-
ments may distribute their services in such a way whereby certain citizens
enjoy more of the benefits of governments than do others. Service delivery,
then, may vary within a single neighborhood in both quality and quantity.
The fact that service disparities exist in local government entities raises some
serious questions in the provision of services. First, are blacks and other
minority groups discriminated against in service distribution? Second, can
judicial relief be sought for disparities in service delivery? Third, do in-
equalities in services reveal a consistent pattern? Fourth, do internal bureau-
cratic conditions influence distributional patterns? A small but growing body
Mitchell F. Rice is an assistant professor of political science and public administration
at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. He holds the Ph. D, in Government
from Claremont Graduate School. His current research interests are in the areas of urban
service distribution, and urban minorities and public employment.
Woodrow Jones, Jr. is an associate professor of political science at San Diego
State University. He holds the Ph. D. in Political Science from the University of Oregon.
His major research interests are in the areas of urban politics and human service delivery
and planning.
This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Southern Political Science
Association, November 1978, Atlanta, Georgia.
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of research now exists on the subject which allows for a comparative
analysis of the literature. This paper examines judicial responses to municipal
service suits and analyzes the literature in service distribution. Based on
this analysis, the paper with its comparative focus will offer several explana-
tions for inequalities in service distribution.
The Courts and Municipal Services
For nearly three decades the courts have been quite active in
invalidating state actions that have violated the Equal Protection clause,
particularly for black citizens. The most prominent cases have been in the
area of education. Yet, until recently the distribution of local basic public
services such as streets, street lighting, sanitary sewers, parks and the like
were left virtually untouched by the courts. Citizen demands for a more
equitable distribution in the provision of local government services have
resulted in a number of municipal service equalization suits.
Municipal service litigation involves a class of citizens who live in a
neighborhood where the quantity and quality of governmental services are
inferior to those provided elsewhere in the municipality. Fessler and May
(1976; 161) suggest three possible answers for an equalization effort: Equal
Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment (federal
constitutional claims) and &dquo;the common law duty of equal and adequate
services&dquo; (state constitutional claims). A potentially viable claim alleging
discriminatory services and provisions may be based on race, economic
status or geographic location. Legal redress may be sought under &dquo;suspect
classification&dquo; where laws or programs reflect differential treatments based
on race, nationality or alienage. In this situation the Supreme Court applies
the &dquo;strict review standard&dquo; or &dquo;strict scrutiny test&dquo; whereby the government
must demonstrate that the actions are necessary to some compelling govern-
ment interests or are a rational approach toward a proper state objective-1
The first municipal service equalization suit to survive appellate
scrutiny was Hawkins v. Town of Shaw, Mississippi, population 2500, in
1967 (303 F. Supp. 1162 N. D. Miss. 1969). For this reason it was seen as
a landmark case (Time, 1971 :59).2 Upon appeal from the district courts the
1
For a brief summary of these views, see Mitchell F. Rice, "Urban Services and
Equalization: The Issues of Inequality and Discrimination in the Delivery of Public Services."
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Los
Angeles, California, March 1978.
2
For a concise review of the city’s arguments for disparities in service areas and the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ rationale and theory, see Clark Waddoups "Hawkins v. Town
of Shaw — Equal Protection and Municipal Services: A Small Leap for Minorities But a
Giant Leap for Commentators," 3 Utah Law Review (1971), pp. 397-404, especially p. 421
and notes section, and "Equal Protection Across the Tracks — Hawinks v. Town of Shaw,"
University of Pittsburg Law Review (Summer, 1971), pp. 555-579.
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following statistical evidence was presented to the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals (437 F 2d 1286 5th Cir 1971 ): 97 per cent of the black residents
lived in all Black neighborhoods - residential segregation was nearly total;
98 per cent of all the housing fronting unpaved streets were in black
neighborhoods - only three per cent white; 19 per cent of all the black
residences were...