City of Columbia v. Mo. State Bd. of Mediation

• Decision Date: 02 September 1980
• Docket Number: WD 31099.,No. WD 31080,WD 31080
• Citation: 605 S.W.2d 192
• Parties: The CITY OF COLUMBIA, Missouri, a Municipal Corporation, Respondent, v. MISSOURI STATE BOARD OF MEDIATION, International Association of Firefighters Local No. 1055, Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

605 S.W.2d 192

The CITY OF COLUMBIA, Missouri, a Municipal Corporation, Respondent, v. MISSOURI STATE BOARD OF MEDIATION, International Association of Firefighters Local No. 1055, Appellants.

Nos. WD 31080, WD 31099.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

September 2, 1980.

John Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Brenda Farr Engel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for appellant, Missouri State Board of Mediation.

Charles C. Shafer, Jr., Kansas City, for appellant Local No. 1055 IAFF.

W. Scott Snyder, City Counselor, Columbia, for respondent.

Before CLARK, P. J., and DIXON, and SOMERVILLE, JJ.

CLARK, Presiding Judge.

On petition of the International Association of Firefighters, the State Board of Mediation determined after hearing that the appropriate bargaining unit for employees of the Columbia, Missouri fire department included persons holding the rank of captain as well as lieutenants, fire fighters, engineers, operators and inspectors. On petition for review filed by the City of Columbia, the circuit court reversed the decision of the board holding that substantial and competent evidence did not support the decision. The effect of the circuit court judgment was to reconstitute the bargaining unit to exclude fire captains. The union and the board appeal contending that the circuit court erred by substituting its judgment and discretion for that of the board on fact issues. Reversed.

The decision of the board included findings of fact, as follow, reached upon evidence which was essentially not in dispute. A fire captain on the Columbia force is in charge of a two-company fire house with five to seven employees. The captain is responsible to direct daily activities and training programs and will command the company firemen at the scene of a fire until a higher ranking officer arrives. Captains also handle minor disciplinary problems, prepare employee evaluation reports and maintain other records which reflect the day to day events and work at the fire house.

The board also found that captains were entitled to exercise only limited independent judgment and discretion when acting to supervise the men in their company and that captains had no effective authority in hiring, promotion, transfer or discharge of those working under them. In an area which was quite apparently subject to interpretive and inferential alternatives, indeed, the ultimate question of fact in the case, the board concluded that captains merely reported to supervisors who made the decisions and exercised the discretion on management and policy matters. Thus, the board found captains to be of the nature of leadmen or working supervisors having a community of interest with the work force and therefore includable in the bargaining unit.

In labor matters involving employees of public bodies, the State Board of Mediation acts under the directive of § 105.525, RSMo 1978. The board by this statute is empowered to resolve issues as to the appropriateness of bargaining units and majority representative status. One of the primary purposes of the statute is to provide a forum to decide if the bargaining unit proposed by the employees is acceptably constituted. City of Kirkwood v. Missouri State Board of Mediation, 478 S.W.2d 690, 697 (Mo.App.1972). The board must decide, in cases where the issue arises, the status of supervisory personnel and whether they are includable in the employee bargaining unit because they are employee oriented in their job function. Golden Valley Memorial v. Missouri State Board of Mediation, 559 S.W.2d 581 (Mo.App.1977).

While the statute, § 105.500, RSMo 1978, uses the word "employees" without additional specificity in describing the composition of the bargaining unit, it is apparent that all persons who work for the public body cannot be employees for bargaining purposes because someone must act for the interests of the employer. Golden Valley Memorial v. Missouri State Board of Mediation, supra. Thus, the board performs a fact finding function to determine if those in supervisory positions are, by the nature of their work activities, more closely identified with the labor force or with management.

On this appeal, we review the decision of the State Board of Mediation, not the judgment of the circuit court, Ingram v. Civil Service Commission, 584 S.W.2d 633 (Mo.App.1979), and do so without weighing the evidence or substituting our discretion, but to determine if the board's decision was supported by competent and substantial evidence and was not arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable. Greene County v. Hermel, Inc., 511 S.W.2d 762, 768 (Mo.1974). The evidence must be considered in the light most favorable to the board's decision drawing from that evidence all reasonable inferences supportive of the decision. Board of Education, Mt. Vernon Schools v. Shank, 542 S.W.2d 779 (Mo. banc 1976). If the evidence before the board would warrant either of two opposed findings, the reviewing court is bound by the board's decision and it is irrelevant that there is supportive evidence for a contrary finding. Hanebrink v. Parker, 506 S.W.2d 455 (Mo.App.1974).

When examined with the guide of review standards applicable to decisions of administrative bodies, the record in this case, on the whole, supports the result reached by the State Board of Mediation. The question of classifying supervisory employees as management or labor presents inherent difficulty because any supervisor necessarily directs the work of others and may therefore be labeled as an...