Bagley v. Blagojevich
| Decision Date | 02 May 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 10–1389.,10–1389. |
| Parties | Colleen BAGLEY, et al., Plaintiffs–Appellants,v.Rod R. BLAGOJEVICH, et al., Defendants–Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
John A. Baker (argued), Attorney, Baker, Baker & Krajewski, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.
Jane E. Notz (argued), Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Defendants–Appellees.Before KANNE, TINDER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.TINDER, Circuit Judge.
A group of former captains from the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) sued state and union officials alleging that the defendants unlawfully punished them for seeking to organize with a rival union. One of the defendants is former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Much of the litigation below, which began in June 2005, focused on plaintiffs' efforts to depose Governor Blagojevich. After a series of motions and rulings, the district court found the Governor immune from deposition pursuant to legislative immunity and later granted summary judgment to the Governor and the remaining defendants. We affirm the district court's rulings.
When Governor Blagojevich assumed office in January 2003, the state faced a $5 billion budget deficit, or 10% of the state's budget. A Blagojevich campaign plank promised to reduce costs and layers of management in state government. Thus, to reduce the budget gap and fulfill a campaign promise, Blagojevich administration officials required state agencies in early 2003 to find efficiencies in their organizational structures with the goal of saving money.
Part of the administration's review targeted eliminating management positions in IDOC. Governor Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff Julie Curry (an appellee) was responsible for about fifteen state agencies, including IDOC. In April 2003, IDOC's high security facilities maintained a twelve-level rank structure. The relevant positions up the twelve-layered chain of command were correctional officers, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, majors/chiefs of security, superintendents, and assistant wardens. At about the same time, IDOC employed 217 captains, 40 majors, and 42 superintendents. Captains performed a variety of supervisory jobs, including that of a “shift commander.” Captains performing “shift commander” duties did exactly what the title suggests—they took command of a shift at a facility. Shift commanders reported to the facilities' chiefs of security or higher up the chain of command. Facilities generally maintained three shifts, but some facilities had more than three captains. One facility had 28 captains, but only one captain could command an individual shift at a time. The following diagram represents IDOC's command structure at the time.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Council 31 represented about 37,000 Illinois state employees, including about 10,000 IDOC employees. AFSCME contributed $125,000 to Blagojevich's primary campaign and $250,000 to his general election campaign. AFSCME's RC–6 bargaining unit represented IDOC officers, sergeants, and other security employees. AFSCME's CU–500 bargaining unit represented lieutenants. The captains were not represented. In 2000, the captains began meeting with Illinois State Employees Association (ISEA) representatives. In 2002, ISEA initiated attempts to organize the captains. In March 2003, AFSCME petitioned to have the captains become part of the CU–500 bargaining unit. ISEA intervened to block AFSCME and filed its own petition in April 2003.
In early 2003, Curry began working with James Underwood (an appellee and IDOC personnel director starting in February 2003) and Nancy Bounds (IDOC personnel director but only until June 2003) to identify positions to eliminate or consolidate, including captains, chiefs of security, superintendents, and assistant deputy directors. Curry believed eliminating captains consolidated IDOC management and saved about $17 million annually. Governor Blagojevich proposed a state budget in March 2003 that did not fund the captain position. Yet eliminating the captains would not happen until June 30, 2003, the day before the proposed budget became effective on July 1, 2003.
Curry told AFSCME officials in an April 17, 2003, meeting that Governor Blagojevich would eliminate the captain position. But on May 23, 2003, the Illinois General Assembly passed a budget that included $17.3 million in funding for the captain position. The Blagojevich administration issued a press release on June 4, 2003, declaring that the Governor would veto various budget items, including funding for “Corrections' Captains” because he could not ask the public “to cover the cost of middle management we just don't need.” Governor Blagojevich formally vetoed the line item funding the captain position on June 4, 2003. IDOC eliminated the position on July 31, 2003.
But the process of eliminating the captain position began earlier. A plan for layoffs, dubbed the June 30 Layoff Plan, anticipated reassigning the captains' duties to other positions up and down the chain of command. This plan anticipated giving captains the following options: demotion to another position in state government; demotion to correctional officer within their current facility; or being laid off. Meanwhile, AFSCME opposed offering the captains lower-ranking IDOC positions, particularly that of lieutenant (right below captain). Earlier that year, IDOC received permission to fill 122 lieutenant spots. AFSCME officials made it quite public that IDOC should not offer the position “to people outside the bargaining unit” and that 700–plus AFSCME members had passed an exam making them eligible for the position. A newspaper article quoted the Governor saying that AFSCME appeared AFSCME filed a grievance on May 28, 2003, complaining that IDOC violated the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by offering lieutenant spots to the former captains. AFSCME's complaint failed in arbitration.
Meanwhile, eliminating the captains did not make the work performed by the captains go away. On June 17, 2003, IDOC created a new position called “shift commander.” Shift commanders performed at least one of the functions carried out by captains: they commanded shifts. Employees with the title major/chief of security and superintendent (the two positions above captain) took some of the shift commander positions and IDOC promoted 55 of the former captains to fill the remaining spots. The following diagram represents IDOC's revised command structure.
Budgetary reasons kept the state from giving IDOC permission to fill all shift commander positions. So IDOC temporarily assigned some lieutenants to serve as shift commanders. Operational needs prevented IDOC from eliminating all superintendent positions and reassigning those individuals as shift commanders. Of the remaining former captains, 83 became lieutenants; 64 became correctional officers; 5 became youth supervisors; and 10 were laid off. Since 2003, Illinois has agreed to an ISEA-represented bargaining unit of shift commanders. Former captains taking lieutenant positions became part of AFSCME's CU–500 bargaining unit. For purposes of determining seniority, the CU–500 CBA provides (emphases supplied):
Seniority shall, for the purpose of layoff and recall, be continuous service as currently defined and administered by the Rules of the Director of Central Management Services. Seniority for all other purposes shall be the continuous length of service in the affected employee's classification, except that employees employed in the CU–500 bargaining unit as of July 1, 1989, shall have his/her length of service prior to July 1, 1989, whether continuous or not, in his/her affected classification counted toward his/her seniority.
Because the former captains assumed a different classification, IDOC gave them seniority based on their demotion date. Former captains demoted to the lowest rank of correctional officer were another matter. Officers were in AFSCME's RC–6 unit. The CBA determining seniority for the RC–6 unit differed slightly and perhaps—depending how it is interpreted—meaningfully (emphases supplied):
Seniority for RC–6 and 9 shall, for the purposes stated in this Agreement, consist of the length of service of an employee with their department in an AFSCME bargaining unit(s), except when a previously excluded position enters a bargaining unit pursuant to labor board procedures, seniority for an employee in that position shall consist of the employee's total length of service with their department.
IDOC initially gave captains demoted to officer seniority credit for time previously spent in the bargaining unit. AFSCME opposed giving the former captains credit. Some existing RC–6 bargaining unit members would lose seniority. Seniority determined bidding rights for shifts, days off, promotions, and the order of layoffs. AFSCME maintained that the language from the RC–6 CBA barred persons entering the RC–6 bargaining unit from receiving seniority credit for past service in the unit. AFSCME argued that the phrase “length of service” actually meant “length of continuous service.” IDOC refused to accept AFSCME's position so AFSCME filed a grievance on July 22, 2003. The grievance went to the state's Central Management Services (CMS) for resolution. Before arbitration, CMS determined that the state's position was not viable. AFSCME and IDOC agreed on November 18, 2003, to stipulate that the captains...
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