Carman v. Yolo County Flood Control and Water
| Decision Date | 23 January 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV. S-06-1374 FCD KJM.,CIV. S-06-1374 FCD KJM. |
| Citation | 535 F.Supp.2d 1039 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
| Parties | Raymond CARMAN, Plaintiff, v. YOLO COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT, Defendant. |
Diane Elizabeth Aqui, Jordan Leonard and Aqui, Santa Rosa, CA, Karen Fuller Tynan, Walter Law Firm, Healdsburg, CA, for Plaintiff.
Stephen R Mccutcheon, Jr., Terry Wills, Erick Corporon Turner, Cook Brown Llp, Sacramento, CA, for Defendant.
Plaintiff Raymond Carman ("Carman" or "plaintiff") brings this action against defendant Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (the "District"), claiming violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") (29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq.). Specifically, plaintiff seeks damages, in the form of allegedly unpaid minimum wages and overtime wages, for his work as a damtender at the Cache Creek Dam. Plaintiff also seeks equitable remedies and unpaid benefits based upon the allegedly uncompensated work hours, which would have increased plaintiffs benefits under the District's Money Purchase Pension Plan. This matter comes before the court on defendant's motion for summary judgment, or in the alternative, summary adjudication. Plaintiff opposes the motion. For the reasons discussed below,1 defendant's motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.
Plaintiff Carman has been employed as a damtender by defendant District at the Cache Creek Dam (the "Dam") from approximately 1984 through March 17; 2006, and has resided at the Dam since 1984. (PUF ¶ 53; Decl. of Raymond Carman ("Carman Decl."), filed Jan. 3, 2008, ¶ 1; PUF ¶ 87). The District was created by the Legislature in 1951 for the purpose of controlling, managing, and distributing water. (PUF ¶ 27). The District is a political subdivision and public agency of the State of California. (PUF ¶ 28). In 1967, the voters in the District authorized the purchase of the privately owned Clear Lake Water Company and the Dam. (PUF ¶ 30). The District then began operating the enterprise, which included the right to store water in Clear Lake. (PUF ¶ 39).
The Dam is located approximately five miles downstream of Clear Lake, and the waters from that lake are controlled by the dam. (SDF ¶ 3). Clear Lake is the largest lake that supplies Cache Creek and is the primary water source for the Dam. (SDF ¶ 7). Clear Lake is used for recreational purposes, including boating and fishing, and Cache Creek is also open to the public for recreational purposes. (SDF ¶¶ 120-21). The Dam and the two mile long access road to the dam is not open to the public and has not public campgrounds, boat ramps, day use amenities, or other recreational facilities. (PUF ¶¶ 31, 52).
The District actively manages the Dam to provide deliveries of water to agricultural users and, in the average year, provides approximately 150,000 acre-feet of irrigation water to more that 55,000 acres of agricultural fields. (PUF ¶¶ 33; 49). The District receives orders for deliveries of water from agricultural users, and only delivers water when there is a demand or order. (PUF ¶ 35).3 Such deliveries typically occur during "irrigation season" which begins in March or April and continues through September or October in any given year. (PUF ¶ 35). There may be deliveries in other months and, whether deliveries take place in "irrigation season" or otherwise, the District maintains records of these deliveries. (PUF ¶ 35). Pursuant to contract, the District also provides water to public and private water companies in Lake County for domestic and potable uses. (PUF ¶ 33). These companies draw water from the lake using their own infrastructure and report their water usage to the District. (PUF ¶ 33). The District measures and controls deliveries of water and accounts for usage by others who utilize a portion of the District's water rights pursuant to contract. (PUF ¶ 34).
Throughout the year, the District is required to comply with decrees respecting the limits on the District's storage rights in Clear Lake, and must operate the Dam within parameters dictated by state and federal laws. (Am. Decl. of Christy Barton ("Barton Decl."), filed Dec. 17, 2007, ¶ 4). The District asserts that its rights in regard to Clear Lake extend only to the supply and storage of water between zero and 7.56 feet on the Rumsey Gauge and that it has no responsibility for, authority over, or ability to control activities that take place on the lake. (PUF ¶ 32; Barton Decl. ¶ 4). The District also contends that it has no right to utilize water below zero or to store water in excess of 7.56 feet on the Rumsey Gauge, and must operate the Dam to release waters in excess of 7.56 feet. (Barton Decl. ¶ 4). Moreover, the District asserts that it does not use the dam to facilitate any activities that may take place on the lake. (PUF ¶ 32). Plaintiff asserts that the District uses the dam to control the levels of Clear Lake to facilitate recreational use in the summer and to prevent flooding in the winter. (PUF ¶ 32).
Carman's duties as a damtender included performing routine maintenance for the Dam and related facilities, inspecting dam facilities and reporting current status, maintaining water releases related to the Dam, reading meters and logging water releases, maintaining batteries, maintaining the auxiliary generators, operating road graders, backhoes, and front end loaders, repairing plumbing, preparing data reports each month on weather conditions at the dam site, performing tasks in the maintenance of dam facilities, hand cranking to open and close water spillways, and reading and recording lake levels and discharge and precipitation readings. (PUF ¶ 1). The damtender is responsible for making sure adjustments are timely and accurate and for monitoring levels to assist the District in the proper distribution of water to end users. (PUF ¶ 42). However, Carman's most important job as damtender was to make sure that he is releasing the waters in accordance with the District's instructions. (PUF ¶ 7).
Carman generally inspected the gauges in the morning, and the District would call him at approximately 11:00 a.m. if adjustments to the dam gates were necessary to facilitate deliveries of water. (PUF ¶ 8). The physical act of adjusting the gate could take as little as ten minutes or up to three hours, depending upon `how many times a gate needed further adjustments to come into specification. (PUF ¶ 10; Carman Decl. ¶ 18). The time it takes to confirm whether the adjustment was correct depends upon how much water is released. (PUF 11 ¶). It may take as little as one hour for the adjustment to register on the gauges when large amounts of water are released or as much as five hours when smaller amounts of water are released. (PUF ¶ 11). Carman would also make entries in the Clear Lake Dam Record of Operations on a daily basis. (PUF ¶ 12). These entries reflected the dam level, the flow, the lake level whether it was raining, the temperature, what gates were in operation, and other significant events; these records served the purpose of demonstrating the daily operation of the dam, compliance with applicable rules and regulations, and plaintiffs performance of expected duties. (PUF ¶ 13). On some days, the entries indicated one reading per day. (See PUF ¶ 20). However, Carman contends that the number of entries does not reflect the number of occasions that he took readings; he would take readings to ensure the flow was right and not log it because it was, for his own information in maintaining the facility at the District's standards. (See PUF ¶ 20; SDF ¶ 58). Plaintiff estimates that he made readings five to six times a day, especially when there was a change. (SDF ¶ 61). Carman contends that to read and record all monitors on a daily basis took several hours a day during irrigation season and took about an hour and a half during non-irrigation season. (SDF ¶ 63). Carman also asserts that during flood season, it can take 24 hours a day to read and record all monitors on the dam log. (SDF ¶ 75).
After the hydroelectric facility went off-line, Carman spent between one and three hours per day maintaining the facility. (SDF ¶ 50). He was responsible for, among other things, removing debris, keeping trespassers off the property, replacing spillway beams, keeping lights workings, weed spraying, keeping sliding rocks down, maintaining the septic, electrical, and plumbing system, painting, maintaining the lawns and grounds, maintaining tools and equipment, and replacing things that broke. (SDF ¶¶ 49, 52). The damtender has discretion to determine how and when to perform these duties and when to take breaks. (PUF ¶ 88).
Carman also performed work on the water system at the Indian Valley Reservoir (the "Reservoir") starting in approximately 1994. (PUF ¶ 23; Carman Decl. ¶ 22). The amount of work performed by plaintiff varied over the years, but he generally went to the Reservoir once or twice a week, sometimes biweekly, and for emergencies. (Carman Decl. ¶ 22). When Carman performed work at the Reservoir, it would take from five to seven hours per day. (SDF ¶ 51). He would also attempt to solve problems over the phone with the Reservoir's damtender if called for advice. (Carman Decl. ¶ 22).
Carman contends that he was on the job and available at all times. (SDF ¶ 107). He asserts that he carried a mobile phone and pager, issued by defendant, at all times. (Carman Decl. ¶ 33). He received between 10 and 20 notification a year. (PUF ¶ 125). Carman also asserts that he understood that he needed to be able to respond and be ready to work within thirty minutes of receiving notice. (Carman Decl. ¶ 33). Plaintiff contends that because it took eighteen minutes to go from the damtender residence to the last gate, he could only go twelve minutes from the last gate into town....
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...they stayed within hailing distance of alarm and station]; Carman v. Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation Dist . (E.D.Cal.2008) 535 F.Supp.2d 1039, 1056–1057 ["damtender" was not entitled to additional compensation; though required to stay near dam, he was free to have visitors, d......
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Mendiola v. CPS Sec. Solutions, Inc.
...or with family, as long as they stayed within hailing distance of alarm and station]; Carman v. Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation Dist. (E.D.Cal. 2008) 535 F.Supp.2d 1039, 1056-1057 ["damtender" was not entitled to additional compensation; though required to stay near dam, he w......