Article VIII
Sec. 15b: (a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Constitution, the government of Wayne County may be organized under a charter, which shall provide for: a chief executive; a legislative body of not to exceed 21 members elected from single districts arranged as nearly as may be according to population, provided that not more than two-thirds of said members shall be from the City of Detroit and they may be elected by districts or at large; procedure for re-apportionment of members of said legislative body from time to time as may be necessary; other necessary county officers and employees; the qualifications, powers, duties, time and manner of election. or appointment, terms, and compensation of all county officers provided by said charter; non-partisan nominations and elections; the initiative and referendum; the levying and collecting of taxes, subject to the limitations in the Constitution and general laws; the power to contract with other governmental units; a system of civil service which shall not be in derogation of the rights of present county officers and employees within the classified service under any system of civil service now in effect in and for said county. Wayne County shall, under such charter, have power and authority to pass all laws and ordinances relating to its county municipal concerns. Said charter shall provide for the performance by officers and authorities of said county of all duties and functions now or from time to time conferred or imposed by law upon all counties or upon any officer provided by law for counties not under charter government. No present county office, or board, need be retained under said charter, provided, however, that nothing in this section shall authorize any change in the time and manner of election, term of office, or jurisdiction of Judges of Courts of Record or of persons elected to offices created by legislative enactment authorized by Section 21 of Article VII of this Constitution, or in the provisions of Sections 16 to 19, inclusive, of this Article, pertaining to townships. The term “county office” as used herein shall include any office the incumbent of which is chosen by the electors of the whole of said county, or the jurisdiction of which is co-extensive with said county.
(b) Wayne County shall have all of the rights, powers, and benefits conferred and shall be subject to all restrictions and limitations imposed by law on all counties. Wayne County shall not by classification on any basis or by any method be made subject to any general law not applicable in actual fact in all counties. Nothing herein contained shall exclude Wayne County from the benefit of legislation enacted, and approved by the electors of said county, pursuant to the last sentence of Section 30 of Article V of this Constitution. All local or special acts or acts having local application, now in effect in said county, shall continue in effect, unless and until superseded by some provision of the charter of said county or by an ordinance adopted thereunder, but no such charter provision or ordinance shall modify or affect any local act having application in both Wayne County and an adjoining county or counties.
(c) The framing, adopting, revising, and amending of such charter shall be done, as nearly as may be, in accordance with those provisions of general law from time to time in effect providing for the revision and amendment of charters of cities, now known as Sections 18 to 26, both inclusive, of Act 279 of the Public Acts of 1909, all of which provisions shall be applicable as if the word “county” appeared therein wherever the word “city” appears, except that, in the first instance, elections to select charter commissioners for said county shall be called and held within five months from the effective date of this amendment: and except that a charter commission for said county shall consist of 21 persons who are qualified electors of Wayne County but are not paid county, city, village, or township officials, such persons to be chosen by non-partisan primary and election, and of whom twelve shall be elected at large from the City of Detroit, one each from the cities of Dearborn, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, one from that portion of said county lying easterly of the City of Detroit, and five from the remainder of said county from single districts arranged by the county election commission; and except further, that in the case of an initiatory petition the required signatures shall be five per cent of the registered voters of said county. Candidates for said primary shall be determined by the filing of a petition signed by at least 500 registered voters or by the deposit of $50 to be returned to the candidates nominated.
