Claremont Police Officers v. Claremont
| Decision Date | 09 October 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. B163219.,B163219. |
| Citation | 112 Cal.App.4th 639,5 Cal.Rptr.3d 326 |
| Parties | CLAREMONT POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF CLAREMONT et al., Defendants and Respondents. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Claremont Police Officers Association (the association) appeals a judgment denying a petition for writ of mandate against the City of Claremont (the city) and its police chief, Roy Brown. The petition challenges the city's adoption of a policy requiring police officers to record information concerning the race and ethnicity of a person subjected to a vehicle stop if the stop does not result in an arrest or citation. The association contends the policy affects the "terms and conditions of employment" (Gov.Code, § 3505)1 and does not involve "consideration of the merits, necessity, or organization of any service or activity provided by law or executive order" (§ 3504), so the city must meet and confer with the association before adopting the policy. We agree that the city was required to meet and confer, and therefore reverse the judgment with directions to grant the petition.
The city police department implemented a program in May 2000 to record the race of drivers and pedestrians stopped by police officers if the stop did not result in an arrest or citation. Police officers were required to inform the dispatcher by radio of the reason for the stop and the race, age group, and gender of the driver or pedestrian. The purpose of the program, known as the tracking program, was to determine whether officers engaged in racial profiling. The program was in effect through April 2001.
The city and the association entered into a collective bargaining agreement known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in July 2000. The MOU governs salary increases, retirement benefits, health insurance, accrual of sick leave and vacation time, grievance procedures, drug and alcohol testing, and other matters. The MOU does not address data collection requirements for vehicle stops or describe the duties for each job classification.
Article XXXI.B. of the MOU states:
"During the term of this Agreement, the parties expressly waive and relinquish the right to meet and confer and agree the parties shall not be obligated to meet and negotiate with respect to any subject matter, whether referred to or covered in this Agreement or not, even though each subject or matter may not have been within the knowledge or contemplation of either or both the City or the Association at the time they met and negotiated on and executed this Agreement, and even though such subjects or matters were proposed and later withdrawn."
The police commission determined that the information gathered through the tracking program was insufficient to determine whether police officers engaged in racial profiling. The commission appointed a subcommittee and an advisory panel to consider the issue. The subcommittee recommended a new data collection program, designated the Vehicle Stop Data Study. The association's president was a member of the advisory panel and objected to some provisions of the proposed new policy. The police commission approved the new policy in February 2002.
The association invoked the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (§ 3500 et seq.) and asked to meet and confer with the city concerning the policy in April 2002. The city, citing advice of counsel, refused the request.
The police department implemented the policy in July 2002. The policy applies only to vehicle stops that do not result in an arrest or citation. A police officer must check boxes on a written form to indicate the time and date of the stop, age group and gender of the driver, driver's race or ethnicity, officer's perception of the driver's race or ethnicity before the stop, initial reason for the stop, initial reason for any search and type of search conducted, outcome of the stop, driver's city of residence, general location where the infraction occurred, duration of the stop, year of the vehicle, and whether the police vehicle was equipped with a camera. A team of researchers will analyze the data collected. The initial term for data collection and analysis is 15 months, after which the city proposes to reevaluate the merits of the program.
The association petitioned the superior court for a writ of mandate in July 2002 seeking to compel the city to meet and confer with the association concerning the vehicle stop policy. After a hearing on the merits, the superior court denied the petition. The court concluded in a written ruling that (1) the association did not unreasonably delay its assertion of rights, and the city suffered no prejudice from delay, so the association's claim is not barred by laches or waiver; (2) the vehicle stop policy causes only a minimal workload increase for police officers and does not substantially increase the potential for disciplinary action against an officer, and the cost of the bargaining process would outweigh its value; (3) the policy falls predominantly within the city's management prerogative to determine policy objectives and therefore is not subject to the meet and confer requirement; and (4) since the policy is not subject to the meet and confer requirement, article XXXI.B. of the MOU is inapplicable.
The association contends the vehicle stop policy affects the "terms and conditions of employment" (§ 3505) because the data collected could result in disciplinary action against an officer and because the policy imposes a new work rule, and the policy is not a fundamental policy decision involving "consideration of the merits, necessity, or organization of any service or activity provided by law or executive order" (§ 3504), so the city must meet and confer with the association regarding the policy. The association does not seek to meet and confer concerning the necessity to collect information concerning potential racial profiling, but only seeks to meet and confer concerning the specific requirements of the vehicle stop policy, use of the data collected, and proposed restrictions on dissemination of the data.
The city contends (1) the vehicle stop policy directly affects police-community relations and therefore is within the realm of its managerial discretion; (2) the potential for disciplinary action against an officer based on the data collected is speculative and is not supported by the record; (3) the policy is an insignificant change from the prior tracking program and therefore is not subject to mandatory negotiation; (4) the association expressly waived the right to meet and confer with the city concerning matters within the scope of representation, under article `LB. of the MOU; and (5) the association did not seek to meet and confer with the city promptly after learning that the city had begun to develop the new policy, so the association waived the right to meet and confer and is barred by laches, and the association's participation in the advisory panel through its president also waived the right to meet and confer.
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act states that a public agency must notify and offer to meet with a recognized employee organization affected by "any ordinance, rule, resolution, or regulation directly relating to matters within the scope of representation proposed to be adopted...." (§ 3504.5.) Section 3504 states, "The scope of representation shall include all matters relating to employment conditions and employer-employee relations, including, but not limited to, wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, except, however, that the scope of representation shall not include consideration of the merits, necessity, or organization of any service or activity provided by law or executive order."
Section 3505 states that a public agency "shall meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment" with representatives of recognized employee organizations and "shall consider fully" the representatives' presentations before making a decision.2
The purposes of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act are "to promote full communication between public employers and their employees by providing a reasonable method of resolving disputes regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between public employers and public employee organizations" and "to promote the improvement of personnel management and employer-employee relations within the various public agencies in the State of California by providing a uniform basis for recognizing the right of public employees to join organizations of their own choice and be represented by those organizations in their employment relationships with public agencies." (§ 3500, subd. (a).)
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