American Federation of State etc. Employees v. County of Los Angeles, AFL-CIO

Citation194 Cal.Rptr. 540,146 Cal.App.3d 879
Decision Date04 August 1983
Docket NumberAFL-CIO
PartiesAMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES LOCAL 685,, an unincorporated association, Petitioner and Appellant, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Respondent and Respondent, Rodolfo Valdez Berumen, Intervenor and Respondent. Civ. 66581.
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeals

Reich, Adell & Crost and Hirsch Adell and Alexander B. Cvitan, Los Angeles, for petitioner and appellant.

John H. Larson, County Counsel and Alan K. Terakawa, Deputy County Counsel, Los Angeles, for respondent and respondent.

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and Joaquin G. Avila, San Antonio, Morris J. Baller, San Francisco, John E. Huerta and Ana I. Segura, Los Angeles, for intervenor and respondent.

SPENCER, Presiding Justice.

INTRODUCTION

Petitioner American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 685, AFL-CIO appeals from a judgment denying its petition for a writ of mandate, wherein petitioner sought to compel respondent County of Los Angeles to make fiscally-related reductions in rank of deputy probation officers in the inverse order of seniority.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Due to the economic exigencies of a reduced budget for fiscal year 1981, the department of probation was required to develop a surplus plan for the removal of certain personnel from the department's payroll. An initial plan would have called for the reduction from level II to level I of all deputy probation officers hired on or after April 16, 1973, in inverse order of seniority with no exemptions. Apparently, Michael Ishikawa, respondent's affirmative action compliance officer took exception to the plan, in that it showed an adverse impact on Hispanic employees and would detrimentally affect the department's ability to adequately serve the non-English-speaking client population. As a result, the plan was returned to the probation department for revisions.

The revised budget curtailment plan provided for the reduction in rank of all level II deputy probation officers hired on or after October 20, 1972, and included exemptions for 69 certified bilingual deputy probation officer positions.

Although the probation department had recognized the need for bilingual, particularly Spanish-speaking, deputy probation officers as early as 1971 and had taken steps to provide adequate bilingual services for the department's client population, a complaint in 1977 prompted County Supervisor Edelman to order the development of a plan to increase the Spanish-speaking deputy probation officer staff. The criteria utilized to determine the department's need for bilingual Spanish-speaking employees were: (1) the percentage of Spanish-surnamed persons served by the department, and (2) a survey of those persons certified bilingual in Spanish and occupying positions certified as requiring such skills on a continuing and frequent basis. Spanish-speaking bilingual certification has never been limited to or favored Hispanics per se. No comprehensive study of the extent of the need had ever been done, although it was widely recognized in the department that the need was continually increasing. In some field offices served by level II deputies, 30 to 40 percent of the clientele require bilingual services.

Without the budget curtailment plan bilingual exemption, the department's capacity to serve non-English-speaking juvenile wards in various county institutions would be severely impaired. Further, 38 deputy probation officer field service positions of demonstrated bilingual need would have been filled by noncertified bilingual officers, in that no level I deputy probation officers are assigned to field services. Twelve of the 69 persons exempted were non-Hispanic; some of the exempted positions required bilingual skills other than Spanish.

In seeking approval of the county director of personnel for the exemptions, pursuant to civil service rule 19.05, Acting Chief Probation Officer Kenneth Fare wrote: "The Department has historically established a need to provide bilingual services to its Spanish-surnamed clients. This need was further identified and upheld in the matter of Romano, et al .... In 1977 at the request of a Board member, the Department made a commitment to increase its number of Spanish speaking, case-carrying Deputy Probation Officers in field offices .... The formula used, at that time, was approximately 2.86% Spanish surnamed caseload equalled (1) Deputy position in a given field office .... Computing [a work force reduction of 25 percent] into previous formula established a projected current need of 97 Spanish speaking case-carrying Deputy Probation Officers in field offices .... [E]xemptions are needed to maintain this level of staffing inasmuch as a number of these were to be demoted; .... A part of the aforementioned plan specified ... that a standard of 18% of staff in the Detention and Residential Treatment Services Bureaus be Spanish speaking, given the uniformity of the ethnic breakdown of the ward population in their facilities ...."

On July 24, 1981, petitioner and respondent entered into a memorandum of agreement. Article 16 thereof sets forth a commitment to affirmative action in reassignments

                and promotions.  Section 1, paragraph B states, with respect to reassignment:  "If the client population of a work location contains over 5% of one of the [protected] classes ..., one out of every three vacant positions in said location shall be designated to be filled by voluntary bid by an employee in that class."   Paragraph E provides, "Vacancies not filled in accordance with the criteria listed in Paragraphs B and D will be filled on the regular seniority basis."   However, paragraph L provides in part:  "In assigning employees to vacant positions, Management shall select the employee in the applicable protected class with the greater seniority [146 Cal.App.3d 884] ..., unless the position requires a special skill such as the ability to speak Spanish."   Finally, Article 30 of the memorandum expressly states, "Layoff procedures shall be followed according to appropriate Los Angeles County Civil Service Rules."
                
CONTENTIONS
I

Petitioner contends the trial court erred in finding that the civil service rules permit exemptions for certified bilingual employees to the order of reductions.

II

Petitioner further contends the trial court erred in ruling petitioner was estopped from challenging bilingual ability as a legitimate basis for exemption from the usual rule of seniority.

III

Petitioner asserts the trial court erred in ruling the exemptions did not deprive those union members, who had seniority but were demoted as a result of the exemptions, of their right to equal protection of the laws.

IV

Finally, petitioner avers the trial court erred in finding that union members were not denied their right to procedural due process notice and hearing prior to demotion.

DISCUSSION
I

There is no merit to petitioner's contention the trial court erred in finding that the civil service rules permit exemption for certified bilingual employees to the order of reductions. As petitioner concedes, the interpretation of civil service rules is purely a question of law. (Cf. Wilson v. County of Santa Clara (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 78, 84, 137 Cal.Rptr. 78.) Accordingly, we begin with the well-settled rule of statutory construction that various parts of a statutory framework must be harmonized by considering each portion in the context of the whole. (Moyer v. Work men's Comp. Appeals Bd. (1973) 10 Cal.3d 222, 230, 110 Cal.Rptr. 144, 514 P.2d 1224.)

Civil service rule 19 governs county layoffs and reemployment. Rule 19.01 provides authority for the appointing power to "lay off or reduce " (emphasis added) an employee for reasons of economy, lack of work or lack of adequate positions in a particular class. Rule 19.03 provides generally for the order of layoff or reduction of permanent employees as follows: "Employees ... shall be laid off or reduced on the basis of inverse order of seniority in County service ...." Rule 19.06 provides authority for the appointing power to make reductions to lower level positions in lieu of layoffs when deemed in the best interests of the service. Rule 19.06 further requires that reductions be made in the same order (inverse seniority) specified in rules 19.02 (governing employment status generally) and 19.03 (governing permanent employees specifically). Similarly, rule 19.07 provides that an employee may request reduction in lieu of layoff.

Finally, rule 19.05 provides exceptions to the general order, reading:

"Where the appointing power deems it to be for the best interest of the service, the appointing power may retain an employee despite the order of layoff provided in Rule 19.03.

"The best interest of the service may be defined on the basis of such considerations as:

"(a) special qualifications possessed by only the employee(s) retained important to performance of the department's work.

"(b) loss of the employee's skills on a particular assignment would adversely affect public welfare.

"(c) an employee's distinctly superior documented work performance.

"The appointing power shall submit written justification for such retention to the Director of Personnel and obtain the latter's concurrence.

"Where the appointing power deems it to be in the best interests of the service the appointing power may combine with the concurrence of the Director of Personnel classes of the same grade into a single group for the purpose of layoff or reduction."

It is apparent that rule 19 sets forth a comprehensive scheme governing the circumstances, the order (by employment status and within the category of permanent employee), and exceptions to the general order, in which layoffs and reductions are to be made, for each part of rule 19 concerned with layoffs makes reference also to reductions. Indeed rule 19.05 makes...

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