Gordon v. Sheriff of Suffolk County

• Decision Date: 18 November 1991
• Parties: John GORDON et al. 1 v. SHERIFF OF SUFFOLK COUNTY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1039

580 N.E.2d 1039

411 Mass. 238

John GORDON et al. ¹ v. SHERIFF OF SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,

Suffolk.

Argued Oct. 10, 1991.

Decided Nov. 18, 1991.

James F. Lamond, Newton, for plaintiffs.

Chester A. Janiak, Ann E. Merryfield and Walter M. Foster, Boston, for defendant.

Scott Harshbarger, Atty. Gen., and Luis A. Lavin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Com. amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

Before LIACOS, C.J., and WILKINS, LYNCH, O'CONNOR, and GREANEY, JJ.

GREANEY, Justice.

This case involves a dispute between employees at the Suffolk County house of correction at Deer Island (Deer Island) and the sheriff of Suffolk County (sheriff) over control and supervision of the house of correction and its personnel. The plaintiffs, the president and members of the labor union that represents correction officers at the house of correction, commenced this action in the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County against the sheriff pursuant to G.L. c. 231A, § 1 (1990 ed.). The action sought injunctive and declaratory relief against the implementation of portions of line item 8910-0030, and the operation of §§ 356-363 of the Massachusetts Fiscal Year 1992 Budget Appropriation Act, St.1991, c. 138. Under this legislation, control over the Suffolk County house of correction was transferred from the penal institutions department of Boston to the sheriff. The transfer legislation removed correction officers and other employees at Deer Island from the provisions of G.L. c. 31 (1990 ed.), the civil service law, and brought them into conformity with the employees of the Suffolk County jail, and the employees of all other county houses of correction and jails, none of whom is under the provisions of the civil service law. The plaintiffs challenged the validity of the transfer legislation, particularly with respect to removal of personnel from G.L. c. 31, on the grounds that the legislation violates specific provisions of the Home Rule Amendment, art. 89 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, and G.L. c. 29, § 7L (1990 ed.), which states that legislation making an appropriation for the expenses of the Commonwealth may not contain provisions on any other subject matter. A statement of agreed facts and documents was prepared, and a single justice reserved and reported the case to the full court for decision. We conclude that the transfer legislation does not violate the Home Rule Amendment or G.L. c. 29, § 7L.

The statement of agreed facts and documents furnishes the following background. By St.1896, c. 536, § 9, the Legislature established Deer Island and placed it under the control and direction of the institutions commissioner of Boston. (The institutions department and its executive officer came to be known respectively as the penal institutions department and the penal institutions commissioner. St.1897, c. 395, § 5.) By St.1915, c. 116, Deer Island employees were placed under the provisions of the civil service law. The position of deputy commissioner of penal institutions was placed under the provisions of G.L. c. 31. St.1957, c. 153.

Line item 8910-0030 of the budget of the Commonwealth for fiscal year 1992, St.1991, c. 138, appropriated $33,350,000 "to fund county correctional expansion programs" and conditioned that appropriation as follows:

"provided that ... not less than five million dollars shall be expended for the new Suffolk [County] House of Correction ... and provided further, that, notwithstanding any provision of chapters one hundred and twenty-six or one hundred and twenty-seven of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the current Suffolk County House of Correction and the new Suffolk County House of Correction shall be under the sole and exclusive control of the sheriff of Suffolk county who shall administer the same in the same manner and with the same authority as found in the statutes which govern the administration of the Suffolk County Jail and under the provisions of sections 356 to 363 of this act."

Sections 356-363 of St.1991, c. 138, among other things, place Deer Island employees under the control and supervision of the sheriff. The legislation removes the employees from the provisions of G.L. c. 31, and places them under the provisions of St.1960, c. 135, which governs employees of the Suffolk County jail. The legislation also makes applicable to these employees the provisions of G.L. c. 31, §§ 43 and 45, and preserves for them seniority, compensation, salary, holidays, sick leave, vacation, and group insurance benefits.

The transfer legislation takes into account that Suffolk County is composed of four municipalities, ² administered by county commissioners, and served by a county treasurer and a county auditor. ³

Although certain matters pertaining to employees at the Suffolk County house of correction are handled by and through the city of Boston and its employees, ⁴ the transfer legislation was enacted with the following additional facts in mind:

(a) By December 31, 1991, Deer Island is scheduled to be closed and the new Suffolk County house of correction at South Bay opened. The funds for the construction of the new Suffolk County house of correction were provided by the Commonwealth pursuant to St.1986, c. 658, which authorized the expenditure of funds for construction of jails and houses of correction "in the several counties of the commonwealth" through the "County Correction Loan Act of 1986."

(b) Deer Island receives sentenced inmates who may be residents of any of the four municipalities which constitute Suffolk County. ⁵

(c) Pursuant to the provisions of G.L. c. 126, the Commonwealth provides for county jails and houses of correction, including those in Suffolk County, ⁶ and pursuant to G.L. c. 127, the Commonwealth, through its Commissioner of Correction, regulates county correctional facilities, including Deer Island.

(d) The budget to operate Deer Island, which includes the funds for the salaries and benefits paid to the plaintiffs and other union members, is passed as the budget for "the Suffolk County House of Correction," ⁷ the authority for which is attributed, among other sources, to the "County Commissioners for Suffolk County, MGLA, c. 34, § 4"; G.L. c. 126, which provides for county jails and houses of correction; G.L. c. 127, which confers on the Commissioner of Correction oversight over county correctional facilities, and regulations of the Commissioner of Correction pertaining to county correctional facilities. See 103 Code Mass.Regs. § 900.00 (1986). The budget lists the appropriation for the penal institutions department among the "county departments," and not as one of the "city of Boston departments."

(e) The transfer legislation provided not less than $5,000,000 for a new Suffolk County house of correction as part of a larger appropriation for "county correctional expansion programs" and, by removing these employees from the provisions of G.L. c. 31, and transferring control over that facility and its employees to the sheriff, brought Suffolk County into conformity with all other counties (except Dukes County which is too small to have a house of correction and Nantucket County which has neither a jail nor a house of correction), where the sheriff controls both the county jail and house of correction and their personnel.

1. Under § 8 of the Home Rule Amendment, the Legislature is restricted from passing a special law (a statute that is applicable to only one city or town) unless the affected municipality requests the Legislature to do so by means of a petition approved either by its voters or its mayor and city council or unless the Legislature acts on a recommendation by the Governor with a two-thirds vote of each branch of the Legislature. ⁸ "Section 9 of the Home Rule Amendment mandates that existing special laws relating to cities and towns shall have the status of city or town charters and requires either a home rule petition or a law of general applicability in conformity with the requirements of § 8 ... to amend or repeal such special laws." ⁹ Emerson College v. Boston, 393 Mass. 303, 308, 471 N.E.2d 336 (1984).

The plaintiffs argue that St.1915, c. 116, and St.1957, c. 153, placing the Deer Island employees and the deputy commissioner of penal institutions under the civil service law, constitute special laws under the provisions of the Home Rule Amendment because the statutes apply by their plain text only to employees (and an administrator) of the penal institutions department of the city of Boston. In the plaintiffs' view, these statutes, and others concerned with the operation of a Suffolk County house of correction by the penal institutions department, have become part of the Boston city charter and are subject to being repealed or amended only in accordance with the procedures detailed in § 8 of the Home Rule Amendment--a petition approved by the voters of Boston or the city's mayor and city council or a recommendation by the Governor with a two-thirds vote of each branch of the Legislature. Because the transfer legislation is not the product of action pursuant to § 8 of the Home Rule Amendment, ¹⁰ the plaintiffs conclude that the legislation (a) can have no effect on removing Deer Island employees or the deputy commissioner of the penal institutions department from the civil service law, and (b) otherwise does not pass control over the personnel of that facility to the sheriff. The sheriff argues, on the other hand, that the transfer legislation is outside the scope of the Home Rule Amendment because the legislation promotes State, regional, or general concerns rather than concerns restricted solely to Boston. We agree with the sheriff. ¹¹

The purpose of the Home Rule Amendment is to preserve the right of municipalities to self-government in essentially "local matters" by allowing them to adopt and amend their own charters, while preserving the...