Sindlinger v. Iowa State Bd. of Regents, 91-1973
| Citation | 503 N.W.2d 387 |
| Decision Date | 21 July 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-1973,91-1973 |
| Parties | 84 Ed. Law Rep. 839 Joan P. SINDLINGER, Appellant, v. IOWA STATE BOARD OF REGENTS, the Iowa State Board of Regents Merit System, and the University of Northern Iowa, Appellees. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Iowa |
John T. McCoy of Lindeman & Yagla, Waterloo, for appellant.
Bonnie J. Campbell, Atty. Gen., Lynn M. Walding, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Grant K. Dugdale, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellees.
Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and HARRIS, LARSON, CARTER, and NEUMAN, JJ.
Petitioner, Joan P. Sindlinger, an employee of the University of Northern Iowa, challenges the district court's order upholding the Iowa State Board of Regents' denial of a reclassification of her position under comparable worth guidelines. After considering her claims, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
Petitioner has been employed with the University of Northern Iowa since 1978 at various positions. Since 1988, she has worked in a Secretary I position at Rider Hall. On January 29, 1990, she requested a reclassification of her job to a Secretary II position. In the official description of job responsibilities, a Secretary I position is described as performing tasks under direct supervision. A Secretary II position is described as working under general supervision with significant independent work. Petitioner's reclassification request was made pursuant to the Board's merit system rules. Under those rules, the reclassification involves a comparison of petitioner's duties, as a Secretary I, with the duties of a Secretary II position. The quality of petitioner's work did not affect the decision.
In response to petitioner's request, a recruitment and classifications specialist reviewed her job duties both by desk audit and by considering information provided by petitioner. This person also interviewed petitioner's supervisor. The recruitment and classification specialist concluded that petitioner spent approximately twenty-five percent of her time performing Secretary II duties and that she worked under direct supervision. For this reason, it was recommended that petitioner's position not be reclassified as a Secretary II. The director of the Board of Regents merit system agreed with this recommendation.
Petitioner then appealed to a review committee pursuant to agency rules. An informal hearing was conducted on her appeal. The review committee heard testimony from petitioner and petitioner's husband. Both members of the appeals committee and petitioner had the opportunity to ask questions and seek additional information and clarification of the agency's classification decision. After the hearing was adjourned, the appeals committee deliberated and rendered a written opinion, which determined that petitioner's position was properly classified as a Secretary I position. That decision was adopted as the final action of the Board of Regents.
Petitioner's petition for judicial review was considered by the district court not as review of a contested case hearing adjudication but as "other agency action." She has appealed, challenging the court's conclusion that she was not entitled to a contested case hearing before the agency and also challenges the limitations that the court placed on evidence to be received at the judicial review hearing. We consider each of these claims.
We first consider petitioner's claimed entitlement to a contested case hearing on her position classification under Iowa Code section 17A.12 (1991). We have recognized that some but not all agency action requires utilization of the contested case procedure. Agency action is a broad classification defined in Iowa Code section 17A.2(9) and includes rule making, adjudication (some but not all of which need be by contested case procedure), 1 and the performance of any other agency duties. Polk County v. Iowa State Appeal Bd., 330 N.W.2d 267, 276-77 (Iowa 1983).
We may not, as the Board of Regents suggests, begin our analysis with the conclusion that the challenged activity is "other agency action" and thereby eliminate petitioner's right to a contested case hearing. We must approach the issue from the opposite direction. So-called "other agency action" is the residuum of this classification if rule making and adjudication required to be made by contested case procedure are eliminated.
Petitioner presents the argument that, under Iowa Code section 19A.3(5) (1991), the Board of Regents is required to adopt rules "not inconsistent with the objectives of this chapter." That chapter further provides in section 19A.9(1) that
[a]ny employee or agency officials affected by the allocation of a position to a class shall, after filing with the director a written request for reconsideration in a manner in form the director prescribes, be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard by the director.
That section further provides, "[a]n appeal may be made to the commission or to a qualified classification committee appointed by the commission." This language does not mandate, in our view, that a contested case hearing must be provided in the review process. We are cognizant of the fact that the Department of Personnel, also subject to the provisions of section 19A.9(1), has adopted rules that do provide for a contested case procedure in such reviews. 581 Iowa Admin.Code 3.5(1). While we do not dispute the authority of the agency to provide that type of procedure, we do not believe that it was mandated by statute.
In the absence of a discernible statutory right, petitioner's claim must rest on a constitutional entitlement to a contested case hearing. Such entitlement must be found, if at all, in the due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution or Article I, Section 9 of the Iowa Constitution. We conclude that petitioner has failed to demonstrate that...
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...procedure; and the performance of any other agency duties, sometimes referred to as "other agency action." Sindlinger v. Iowa State Bd. of Regents, 503 N.W.2d 387, 389 (Iowa 1993); Allegre v. Iowa State Bd. of Regents, 349 N.W.2d 112, 114 (Iowa 1984); Iowa Code § 17A.2(2) (1995). Agency act......
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