George A. Codding, Jr., Governing the Commune of Veyrier: Politics in Swiss Local Government, 1967.

Chapter Four
The Legislative Authority: The Municipal Council

The municipal council (Conseil Municipal) is the legislative body of the commune throughout the canton of Geneva. Its list of functions is impressive, its structure and composition are quite interesting, and the method of election of its members is fascinating. Regarding its actual power and influence in the affairs of the commune, however, it would be best to withhold final judgment until the municipal executive has been examined in the chapter that follows.

Composition

The municipal council of the commune of Veyrier is made up of seventeen individuals elected for four-year terms by the qualified electors of the commune from among their own number. The length of the term and the provision for a democratic election are set forth in the Geneva constitution and are applicable to all of the communes in the canton.¹ The exact number to be elected, however, varies from commune to commune, depending upon the commune's size. The formula, as determined by Article 6 of the cantonal law dealing with the administration of communes, is as follows:²

	Size of Council	Number of residents
a.	7 members	300 or less
b.	9 members	301 to 600
c.	11 members	601 to 800
d.	13 members	801 to 1,500
e.	15 members	1,501 to 2,000
f.	17 members	2,001 to 3,000
g.	19 members	3,001 to 5,000
h.	21 members	5,001 to 8,000
i.	23 members	8,001 to 12,000
j-	25 members	12,001 to 17,000
k.	27 members	17,001 to 23,000
I.	29 members	over 23,000

The determination of the class into which a commune falls is made by the Conseil d'Etat of the canton of Geneva and is transmitted to the commune in advance of each election.

The commune of Veyrier was notified by the Conseil d'Etat that it had the right to elect 19 members to its municipal council in the elections in the spring of 1967 inasmuch as its population definitely exceeded 3,000 but was not yet 5,000.³

There are few additional elements that either directly or indirectly influence the composition of the municipal council. The individuals who serve on the council must be chosen from among the electors of the commune, but they may not be members of the clergy nor members of the cantonal executive body. Further, there may not be more than two persons on the council who are directly related.

Two characteristics pertaining to the individuals elected to the municipal council of Veyrier stand out above all others: the diversity of occupations and continuity. The former characteristic is demonstrated in Table IX which lists the members of the municipal council of Veyrier elected in 1963, along with their occupations, party affiliations, and date of birth. The nature of the duties of the councillor and the time of meetings are not such as to preclude the participation of any occupational group.

Continuity is manifested in two ways. First, there is a tendency to re-elect members of the council. Even three or four successive terms on the council are not unusual in the annals of the commune. Of the members of the 1963 council, for instance, nine had also served on the preceding council. Two of the members of the 1963 council, Burdet and Hugon, were also members of the council elected in 1943. The other manifestation of continuity is to be found in the number of council members whose names are among those of the older families of the commune.⁴ On the one hand, a good family name is a political asset in Veyrier, and on the other hand, the older families tend to take a special interest in political activity.

As the table demonstrates, there is a fairly young average age (47.41 years) for the members of the council. Mr. Guex-Joris is the oldest at sixty-nine and Mr. Babel is the youngest at thirty-three.

Method of Election

All communes in the canton of Geneva with more than 800 inhabitants, and with thirteen or more members on their municipal councils, must use a flexible list system of proportional representation. All communes with less than 800 inhabitants must use a majority system. Veyrier with its more than 3,000 inhabitants is in the former category and uses a system of proportional representation. As of 1967, twenty-five communes used the proportional system and twenty the majority system.⁵

The first part of the process is the making up of the lists of candidates.⁶ Lists of candidates for the municipal council may be submitted to the communal authorities by either a political party or an informal group of electors. To be valid, a list must contain the names of at least three candidates, be accompanied by the signatures of at least five electors, and be deposited at the mayor's office 20 days in advance of the final day of voting. All lists must have a distinctive designation at the top and are given a number by the authorities. A list may contain no more names than the number of seats to be filled. If a candidate's name should appear on more than one list, the candidate must choose the list on which he wishes to be represented. If he should fail to make his preference known, the choice is made by lot under the direction of the mayor. The law also permits alliances between parties, but notice must be given to the mayor at least 16 days before the last day of voting. Lists are published eight days before the final voting day.

The cantonal executive divides communes into voting wards. In Veyrier there are two, Veyrier I, the village-dominated part of the commune, and Veyrier II, the Pinchat-dominated part. In each ward, the cantonal executive designates a voting place in a public building. That public building may not, however, be a place of worship.

The cantonal executive also fixes the voting date, usually for April, but the voting times are set by law. Normal voting takes place at the designated voting places on a Sunday between the hours of 10 and 12. There are, in addition, provisions for advance voting. In all communes this takes place at the regular voting place on Fridays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. There is also advance voting on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in a central voting place especially designated by the cantonal executive. In communes of more than 5,000 population there is advance voting at the regular communal voting place on Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. There is also a very generous provision for absentee voting.

Any Swiss citizen who has been domiciled in the commune for three months may vote for the municipal council if he is at least twenty years old, if he has not lost his political rights through court action, and if he is not exercising his voting rights in another commune.⁷ The method of voting is quite simple. He presents himself at the designated voting place and, after identification, receives the various party ballots, a blank official ballot, and a special gummed stamp. The voter then proceeds to the isolation booth (this is obligatory) where he affixes the stamp to the ballot of his choice, then proceeds to the urn where he deposits his stamped ballot. The voter disposes of as many votes as there are candidates. He may cast a party ballot as it stands or he may modify it by substituting names of other official candidates (from other official lists) for those on the party ballot. The voter may also use the official blank ballot to compose his own list from the official candidates.

Next comes the calculation of votes. As stated earlier, the commune of Veyrier uses a flexible list system of proportional representation. Thus it is necessary to determine both the number of seats to be allotted to each party and the ranking of the candidates within the various party lists. First, all votes cast directly for a candidate are attributed both to the individual candidateâ€"these are nominal ballotsâ€"and to the party on whose list he is running. Second, the party whose list the voter is using receives additional votes in cases where a ballot is incomplete (i.e., the voter did not vote for 17 candidates by name). These votes are called supplementary votes. In the case where a voter uses a ballot without an official party designation at the top, or official number, the individual candidates listed receive credit for the vote, but the party does not. Thus an official party ballot containing only five names (and party ballots often do not contain the maximum number of names since it is almost out of the question that they could elect them all) would result in five votes for the individuals and their parties and 12 supplementary votes for the party whose ballot was being used.

In order to determine the number of seats to which a party is entitled, the tellers begin by adding all of the party's nominal and supplementary votes. First, any party that has not received 7 percent of the total vote is eliminated. Then the total number of all remaining party votes is divided by the number of seats to be filled plus one to determine the "electoral divider." The parties receive the number of positions equivalent to the number of times the electoral divider can be contained in their total vote. In the first round all parties that are allied are treated as one party. A supplementary calculation similar to that already described but involving only their votes is made to divide the total number of seats obtained by the allied parties. If, as is sometimes the case, there remain unappor-tioned seats after the electoral divider has been applied (including any supplementary calculation), further assessments are made. In the second and subsequent assessments, the total of each party's vote is divided by the number of seats already gained, plus one. The first unassigned seat is given to the party with the highest remainder. The process is continued until all the seats have been allotted.

The following example taken from the official results of the 1963 election in Veyrier should provide a good illustration of the proportional representation system in particular and the Veyrier voting habits in general.⁸ In the elections of April 1963, out of a total of 1,493 registered voters (796 men and 697 women) 879, or about 59 percent, turned out to vote. Five parties provided a total of 46 candidates for their inspection: (1) the Communal Interest Movement fielded 6 candidates; (2) the Catholic party, uniquely, had a complete slate of 17 candidates; (3) the Liberal Party, 8; (4) the Radical Party, 12; and (5) a party running under the name of Communal Unity, 3. The ballots cast, minus 11 that were found to be null and void, were distributed among the five parties as shown in Table X.

The total number of individually cast ballots was then broken down into nominal and supplementary party votes, as indicated in Table XI.

The process then took the following path. The 7 percent rule was first applied, resulting in the elimination of the votes of the Communal Unity Party. The electoral divider, found by dividing the total remaining party votes by eighteen (17 seats plus 1), was 776.38 or 777 when rounded off into the next higher complete number. In the 1963 election the Catholics, Liberals and Radicals had allied their lists. Consequently, in the first part of the first round it was these three parties against the Communal Interest Movement. Application of the electoral divider gave two seats to the Communal Interest Movement and fifteen to the alliance. The second part of the first round was similar in that the remaining party votes, after the 2,235 belonging to the Communal Interest Movement had been deducted, were divided by 16 (15 remaining seats plus 1) for an electoral divider of 734. This divider applied to the votes of the three allied parties treated separately resulted in the Catholics and Radicals each obtaining six seats and the Liberals three.

The election of the individual candidates on each of the winning lists was determined by the nominal votes received by each candidate. In the case of the Communal Interest Movement, for example, Pittet and Hugon were the winners with the highest number, 170 and 160 votes respectively. The four other candidates on the list, all with fewer votes, were the losers.⁹ In the case of a tie vote, the older candidate is given the election. And if the tie should occur between two people of the same age, the Chancellerie of the canton will organize a drawing of lots.

Successful candidates are given eight days following the publication of the election results, one month in case the successful candidate is absent from the commune, to accept the seat. If a seat should fall vacant, or a candidate should refuse to take his seat after election, the seat is given to the candidate of the same party who had the most votes among those not elected. This provision comes into play after almost every election because it is traditional for the mayor and his deputies to run first for the municipal council and then to give up their seats on the council when elected to the executive. It was in this manner that Mrs. Hauri became the first female member of the council in 1963 when Mr. Bordier resigned his seat to become deputy mayor.

Successful candidates for seats on the Council take the following oath before taking office:¹⁰

"I swear or I solemnly promise:
to be faithful to the Republic and Canton of Geneva;
to obey the constitution and the laws and to perform my duties with honor, zeal and exactness."

Functions

Article 27 of the Geneva law on communal administration provides that the municipal council has the right to deliberate on the following matters:¹¹

1. the annual budget of the commune;
2. communal expenses outside the budget and the means of covering them;
3. the annual administrative and financial report;
4. the method of administration and of employment of communal property and the upkeep and improvement of communal public building.
5. communal loans and securities as well as the pledging of communal property;
6. leasing of communal property;¹²
7. the transfer, establishment of easements and other real property claims, exchange, division, or acquisition of communal real estate;
8. the setting up of special-purpose funds in the public interest;
9. acceptance of gifts or legacies to the commune with or without specific purpose but with obligations or conditions;¹³
10. projects for the construction or demolition of public buildings, opening or closing of roads and streets, public works and improvements, as well as the exercise of the power of eminent domain;
11. changes to be made in the boundaries of the commune;
12. requests for naturalization (citizenship) of interest to the commune;
13. compensation to the administrative councillors or to the mayor and his deputies;
14. pay and working conditions of communal officials and employees;
15. advance notice of the appointment of officers of the fire department and cattle inspectors;
16. commercial operations and judicial actions affecting the interests and property of the commune;
17. the annual audit of the accounts of establishments the administration of which rests with the commune.

Article 28 of the same law provides that whenever the communal budget estimates expenses exceeding ordinary receipts, it is the duty of the municipal council to vote the sum necessary to cover that excess in the form of additional centimes.¹⁴

While the actual details of the functions of the municipal council will become clearer as we proceed, suffice it at this point to record the feelings of one of the knowledgeable members of the municipal council of Veyrier to the effect that the most important function of the council is control of local administration and budget management. If the council is to play any significant role in communes of the size of Veyrier, according to this councillor, it is to make certain that every item in the commune's budget is necessary and then to make certain that the commune is administered in a manner consistent with the wishes of the citizens and the councillors representing them.

Organization

Municipal councils throughout the canton of Geneva meet twice a year in ordinary session.¹⁵ The general time of the meetings and the duration of sessions are fixed by the cantonal executive authorities and the days and hours of meetings are fixed by the municipal councils themselves. Members must be convoked in writing at least two days in advance of the day fixed for the meeting, and notice of the convocation and the agenda must be posted in each village and hamlet in the commune.

Extraordinary sessions of the municipal council may be called by the Conseil d'Etat of the canton of Geneva; by the administrative council or the mayor, depending on the executive system in use in the particular commune; or by written request of one-third of the members of the municipal council. In the latter case, the meeting must take place within 10 days of the date of the deposit of the request. The cantonal Conseil d'Etat must be informed of the convocation and the agenda at least three days before the date fixed for the meeting. The other details of the convocation of extraordinary sessions are similar to those of ordinary sessions with the exception that the notices of convocations to individual members of the council must always contain a statement of the agenda.

The municipal council of Veyrier holds two ordinary sessions a year, a spring session occurring in April and May and a fall session in October and November. During these sessions, the council ordinarily meets once a week from 8:30 p.m. to around 11:30 p.m. The council is often forced to meet in extraordinary sessions during the year in order to keep up with its normal load of business. The extraordinary sessions are also held from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and usually are completed in one sitting. In recent times the Veyrier municipal council has held an average of six extraordinary sessions a year, all called by the mayor.

The cantonal law on communal administration permits municipal councils to draw up their own rules of procedure, providing fairly strict guide lines for what they must contain, and decrees that the rules of procedure that have been adopted must be sent to the cantonal executive for approval. The law provides, for instance, that all sessions must normally be open to the public, but allows councils to close specific sessions to the public if they deem it necessary. In ordinary session, a municipal council may treat any question that should arise within its jurisdiction, but in extraordinary session it may treat only those subjects that had been announced on the agenda at the time the meeting was called. The law also permits the fixing of a quorum, but provides that the deliberations of a council are normally valid no matter how many members are present.

Cantonal law provides that decisions should normally be taken by a simple majority vote. In the transfer, pledging, or division of communal property and approval of communal loans and securities, however, an absolute majority is required. In all such decisions the texts of the deliberations must include the names of the majority and minority as well as a statement of position from both. In the case of a tie vote, the matter must be submitted to the cantonal Conseil d'Etat. If the Conseil d'Etat decides that the matter should be solved, it invites the mayor to re-submit it to a vote. If on the second vote a tie should again result, the Conseil d'Etat may decide the issue. (None of the authorities of Veyrier who were consulted in this matter could recall a tie vote that could not be resolved within the council without recourse to the cantonal authorities.) Finally, the tenor of all decisions made by the council must be posted on the commune's official bulletin boards within 48 hours following the date of the meeting in which they were taken.

Cantonal law makes the keeping of minutes of meetings of municipal councils mandatory. The minutes must be kept in a special register and must contain the names of members present, proposals made, and decisions taken, with information concerning any votes. The minutes must be read at the next meeting unless a copy of the minutes has been sent to each of the members of the council before the meeting. The minutes must be submitted to the council for approval, and after approval they are signed by the president and secretary of the council. The municipal authorities must fix a time when any voter or taxpayer may consult the minutes of the council in the presence of the mayor or his representative.

Further, and very importantly, in communes of less than 3,000 population where the executive is composed of a mayor and his deputies, the mayor presides over the meetings of the municipal council. In communes of more than 3,000 where the executive is an administrative council, the municipal council has the right to elect its own officers.¹⁶ All administrative councillors, and mayors and deputy mayors, who are not an actual part of the municipal council, have the right to attend the meetings of the council and its committees. In so doing, they possess the right to initiate measures, but do not have the right to vote. The cantonal law on the administration of communes provides that no municipal authority, either councillor or member of the communal executive, may participate in the discussion of an issue or vote on any question in which he has a personal interest, or in which his ascendants or descendents, brothers, sisters, spouses, or in-laws have a personal interest.

The actual procedure used in the Veyrier municipal council is quite simple as befitting a relatively small group governing a small community with the lack of a hard-core opposition.¹⁷ In a typical session of the council, the mayor will start the proceedings with an announcement that the meeting has been legally convened in accordance with the decisions of the cantonal Conseil d'Etat. The mayor then calls on his secretary to read the minutes of the last meeting and calls for comments or corrections.¹⁸ After the minutes of the previous meeting have been disposed of, the council begins to attack the issues on the agenda one by one. The mayor leads off each time with a general statement of the nature of the issue or the aims to be achieved by the proposal, and then turns it over to discussion. Any member of the council who wishes to do so may speak on the question at issue and there is no time limit on speeches. This very democratic method of procedure, according to several members of the council, permits the free expression of every point of view on all important communal issues. (It also accounts, according to the same people, for the lengthy meetings.) An open voice vote or show of hands is used when a decision must be made. Although a unanimous agreement can often be reached, in many cases there will be one or two votes in opposition and an abstention or two. According to several of the municipal authorities, there has not been a group in the council for the past twenty years that has engaged in systematic opposition. Although the mayor keeps fairly close control over the subjects to be discussed, some opportunity is provided in the regular sessions for members to discuss new business.

As mentioned earlier, the municipal councils have the right to create committees and sub-committees. The manner in which the use of committees has increasedâ€"the number has doubled since World War IIâ€" and the subjects of concern of the committees give us an idea of the way in which the work of local legislative bodies, even in small communities like Veyrier, is becoming more and more complex. During the legislative period 1947-1950, it was possible to get along with only four: (1) revenue; (2) roads, garbage, cemetery and fire service; (3) finances, police, celebrations, and charities; and (4) buildings, schools, and naturalizations. For the legislative period 1964-1967 there were ten: finances, public works, buildings, celebrations, H.L.M. buildings, private roads, city planning, social welfare, canalizations, and agriculture. Most of the names of the committees are self-explanatory, but a word might be in order for celebrations and H.L.M. buildings. There are many public and private events in Veyrier which are held in public buildings, such as school promotions and school Christmas festivals, and the annual banquets of the Shooting Society and Sports Club. The celebrations committee is involved in the coordination and use of communal property for such purposes. At present it is also exploring the need for the building of a communal auditorium in the Pinchat section of the commune. The H.L.M. is the publicly financed middle-income housing project in Veyrier. The H.L.M. committee is responsible for keeping an eye on the management of the buildings already completed and the progress of those under construction.

Each political party is given the right to representation on each of the committees and the over-all size varies from ten on the town planning committee to only five on canalizations and agriculture. Committees meet as the need arises. In 1965 the Veyrier legislative committees met 23 times. In 1964, a busy year, the committees met 30 times.

In addition to the ten regular committees, there are also a tax committee and a vital statistics committee. The former is made up of seven individuals, three nominated by the municipal council, two by the mayor, and two by the Conseil d'Etat of the canton of Geneva. All are members of the municipal council or the mayor's office, and their task is to advise the mayor on matters dealing with taxation. The vital statistics committee is made up of the secretary to the mayor, who has the title of "officer," and four deputies including the mayor, the two deputy mayors, and one member of the municipal council. This committee is in charge of supervision of the commune's registrar's office.

The Communal Referendum

Any discussion of the legislative branch of government would be incomplete without a mention at least of the communal referendum.¹" The constitution of the canton of Geneva provides that a referendum may be demanded on any decision of the municipal council (except for the budget as a whole) when demanded by 20 percent of the electors.²⁰ The only parts of the communal budget that can be submitted to the referendum are items introducing a new income or a new expense or modifying the incomes and expenses of previous budgets. There is also a provision that the referendum may not be used against any decisions of the municipal council that have been declared to be of an exceptionally urgent character. It is the municipal council itself that can declare decisions to be urgent, but such declarations are subject to approval by the cantonal Conseil d'Etat.

All decisions of the municipal council must be posted throughout the commune within 48 hours following the day of the meeting in which they were taken. These notices must contain an indication of the rights of electors to consult the official texts and to indicate the last day for demanding a referendum. In the case of the communal budget, the notice must also indicate those portions of the budget subject to the referendum procedure. In communes with 1,000 electors or less, the referendum must be requested within 21 days after the notice was posted, and in communes of more than 1,000 electors within 30 days.

Petitioning for a referendum must conform to fairly strict standards. For example, even before the petitions are circulated, the promoters of the referendum must inform the mayor in writing, designate a representative or agent to whom official communications may be addressed, and submit to the municipal authorities a specimen of the petition. The petitions must have room for at least five signatures, and must state at the top, in a precise and clear manner, the object of the referendum and the information that signing someone else's name is punishable by a fine of 100 francs. In addition to the signature, the petition must contain the following information concerning the person who signs: last name, usual given name, date of birth, canton of origin, the commune of which he is an elector, and domicile.

Petitions for a referendum deposited with the municipal authorities within the legal time limit are sent within 48 hours to the cantonal chancellor's office for verification. The results of the verification process are published in the official cantonal publication. If the initiators of the petition for referendum are successful, the cantonal executive sets the dates for a popular vote on the matter. To be approved, the proposal must receive an absolute majority of the votes of the commune's qualified electors.

A careful perusal of the cantonal records reveals that there have been only three cases of the use of a referendum in the commune in Veyrier. The first referendum occurred in 1916 when the municipal council decided to purchase the chateau of the former count of Veyrier from his heirs. A great deal of controversy arose as to the need for the purchase, and a referendum was demanded and held. In the referendum, however, the voters agreed with the council. The second was held on December 17 and 18, 1932, and the electors of the commune turned down a decision to appropriate 150,000 francs for the construction of a communal auditorium by a vote of 153 in favor and 170 against. The fact that 66 out of the 188 signatures on the petitions for the referendum came from the old people's home in Vessy near Pinchat resulted later in a decision to take away the local vote of the old-age pensioners. (They were permitted, however, to vote in their commune of origin.) The auditorium was actually financed and built five years later without any difficulty.²¹

The third referendum in Veyrier occurred on April 2 and 3, 1960, and involved the acquisition of a lot and building in the center of Veyrier Village for the sum of 120,000 Swiss francs. The decision to acquire the lot and building was made by the mayor of Veyrier and approved by a majority of the municipal council on the grounds that there was a danger that the building would be razed and rebuilt in a more modern style which would tend to ruin the style and charm of the center of the village. It would also mean the displacement of the Saleve Circle, the society founded in 1898. The decision was unpopular with some members of the municipal council, mainly because it was feared that the other concessions made to the seller would be detrimental to the interests of the commune. One of the councillors, Mr. J. Fontanel, resigned and started an active campaign against the decision including the petitioning for a referendum. The opponents to the purchase were successful, and the decision was reversed by a vote of 134 in favor and 215 against. In this case, the mayor proceeded to purchase the property himself, and it has subsequently been preserved in its original style.²²

It is also of interest that a later decision of the communal council to make the purchase of two lots for H.L.M. construction, an urgent decision and thus not susceptible to a referendum, was upheld in the Chambre de Droit publique court of the canton of Geneva. The lots were needed to round out a real estate holding to be used for the construction of the new 24 unit H.L.M. block. The owner claimed that he had had several higher offers for the lots in question and could not afford to sell to the commune unless it acted quickly. The person who brought the unsuccessful suit claimed that the action to make the decision an urgent matter was arbitrary.

There has also been discussion as to the possibility of introducing a legislative initiative into the communes in addition to the legislative referendum. In one of the latest suggestions of this type, the sponsor proposed that the communal voters should have the right under some circumstances to force the municipal council to present to the people a draft law or to force the municipal council to deliberate on a predetermined matter. The number of signatures that would be necessary to start the process would be 30 percent of the electors in the communes of 500 electors or less; 20 percent in communes with 501 to 5,000 electors, but with a minimum of 150; 10 percent in communes of 5,001 to 30,000 electors, with a minimum of 1,000; 3,000 electors in communes of more than 30,000 electors, with the exception of the city of Geneva; and 6,000 electors in the city of Geneva.²³ The measure was proposed by a member of the Geneva Communist party.

In view of the fact that there is an initiative at the federal and cantonal levels, it would not be surprising if the cantonal government should, one day, approve its use at the communal level. If the experience in Veyrier today is any indication, it would be surprising if the people of Veyrier would abuse such a privilege if it were offered.

---

Notes

1 See Constitution de la Republique et canton de Geneve du 24 mai 1847, Arts. 147, 148 and 149.

2 Loi sur l'administration des communes du 3 juillet 1954. The legislature of the city of Geneva comes under a special section of this law. See Arts. 54 and 68.

3 Twelve other communes increased the number of their municipal councillors in 1967 and one, Dardagny, dropped to a lower number because of a decrease in population.

4 See Yves Martin, "Les anciennes families de Veyrier," in Histoire de la Commune, pp. 145-153.

5 The system of proportional representation used in the communes of the canton of Geneva is similar to the one used for cantonal and federal elections. For the system used in Geneva cantonal elections see Loi sur les votations et elections du 23 juillet 1961, Arts. 117-124. For an account of the operation of the federal system, see Codding, pp. 75-78.

6 The rules for communal elections using the list system of proportional representation, which will be described here, are found in the Constitution de la Republique et canton de Geneve du 24 mai 1847, Arts. 147, 148, 149 and 153; Loi sur l'administration des communes du 3 juillet 1954, Arts. 6, 7 and 54; and Republique et canton de Geneve, Loi sur les votations et elections du 23 juin 1961 (Geneva: Chancellerie d'Etat, July, 1965), Arts. 3, 77-82, 133-139, 142- 149, and 181-193.

7 Since 1960 women have had the right to vote in all cantonal and municipal elections in Geneva. Three other cantons, Vaud, Neuchatel, and Basle City also permit women to vote in cantonal and communal elections.

8 The information that follows was obtained from Elections municipals, Veyrier, Proems-Verbal, 28 avril 1963. These forms, which are filled in by hand by the election judges at the time of the election are held by the Service des votations et elections only for the four-year period between elections, after which they are destroyed. Plans have been made, however, to keep them for longer periods in the future.

9 These four, Nobs, Benoit, Bozonet, and Zurcher received 156, 154, 151, and 140 votes respectively.

10 See Loi sur l'administration des communes du 3 juillet 1954, Art. 9. The words "or I solemnly promise" were added in 1958.

11 Ibid., Art. 27.

12 With the exception that in communes with administrative councils the administrative council is given the power to lease communal property for periods of less than nine years.

13 Gifts or legacies without encumbrances or consisting of movable property not exceeding 1,000 francs may be accepted by the municipal executive acting alone.

14 Communal additional centimes (centimes additionnels communaux) is the basic municipal tax, based on the tax paid by individuals and corporations to the canton, and will be explained in detail in Chapter Six.

15 The outlines of the organization and operation of the municipal councils in the canton of Geneva are to be found in the Constitution de la Republique et canton de Genive du 24 mai 1847, Arts. 150 and 151 and Loi sur I'administration des communes du 3 juillet 1954, Arts. 12 to 26.

16 Other aspects of the changeover from the mayor and deputy mayor system to the collegiate administrative council, which mostly affects the communal executive, will be treated in the following chapters.

17 The municipal authorities are in the process of drawing up a more detailed set of rules of procedure they consider to be necessary for the switch to the administrative council executive.

18 Since 1964 the entire proceedings of council meetings have been taken down on a tape recorder, and may be consulted by any authorized person.

19 The Swiss are the world's greatest proponents of direct government. Their constitution provides for a national constitutional initiative and referendum and a legislative referendum. Most cantonal constitutions also provide for cantonal constitutional and legislative initiatives and referenda and for legislative referenda at the local level. For a discussion of direct government on the national level see Codding, pp. 60-67. For an example of direct government in a canton, see Constitution de la Republique et canton de Geneve du 24 mai 1847, Arts. 53-58 and 64-69, and Loi sur les votations et elections du 23 juin 1961, Arts. 117-130. The following material on communal referenda is from Constitution de la Republique et canton de Geneve du 24 mai 1847, Arts. 59-63, and Loi sur les votations et elections du 23 juin 1961, Arts. 175-180.

20 The number of electors needed to initiate a referendum varies according to the size of the commune. For communes of 500 electors or less it is 30 percent, in communes with 501 to 5,000 electors it is 20 percent (but with a minimum of 150), in communes with 5,001 to 30,000 electors it is 10 percent (but with a minimum of 1,000), in communes with more than 30,000 electors, except for the city of Geneva, it is 3,000 electors, and in Geneva petitions need the signatures of 4,000 electors.

21 See Histoire de la Commune, pp. 124-125.

22 See Geneva, Republique et canton de Geneve, Commune de Veyrier, Compterendu administratif pour la periode ler juin 1959 au 31 mai 1960 et financier pour I'exercice 1959 presente au Conseil municipal le vendredi 21 mai 1960 (Geneva, 1960), p. 4.

23 See Le Journal de Geneve, December 1, 1966, p. 11.