Watkins v. County of Alameda, A122992.

• Decision Date: 03 September 2009
• Docket Number: No. A123320.,No. A122992.,A122992.,A123320.
• Citation: 98 Cal. Rptr. 3d 847,177 Cal.App.4th 320
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: RONNIE WATKINS et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. COUNTY OF ALAMEDA et al., Defendants and Appellants.

177 Cal.App.4th 320

98 Cal. Rptr. 3d 847

RONNIE WATKINS et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. COUNTY OF ALAMEDA et al., Defendants and Appellants.

No. A122992.

No. A123320.

Court of Appeals of California, First District, Division Three.

September 3, 2009.

Richard E. Winnie, County Counsel, Calvin C. James, Assistant County Counsel, and Andrew J. Massey, Associate County Counsel, for Defendants and Appellants.

Jennifer B. Henning for California State Association of Counties as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants.

Public Interest Law Project, Judith Z. Gold, Stephen Ronfeldt; Bay Area Legal Aid and Steven Weiss for Plaintiffs and Respondents.

OPINION

McGUINESS, P. J.

In the 1990's, the Legislature amended the statutory scheme governing general assistance (GA) in order to allow counties to adopt specified restrictions on benefits and thereby obtain relief from the fiscal burdens of the state-mandated program.¹ The allowable restrictions were enacted as exceptions to the broad statutory mandate requiring counties to provide aid to indigent residents. One such restriction is authorized by Welfare and Institutions Code² section 17001.5, subdivision (a)(4) (hereafter section 17001.5(a)(4)), which permits a county to place a time limit upon the receipt of GA benefits by an "employable individual."

Relying upon the authorization contained in section 17001.5(a)(4), appellant County of Alameda implemented a time limitation on the receipt of GA benefits by "employable" recipients, generally defined as persons under 64 years of age who have no physical, mental, or emotional incapacity that prevents them from working. At the urging of a number of GA recipients who challenged the county's GA time limitation, the trial court issued a writ of mandate directing the county to construe the term "employable individual" with reference to "practical employability factors," such as an individual's education, skills, and experience in light of the relevant labor market.

Section 17001.5(a)(4) does not compel such a restrictive view of the class of persons who may be subject to time limits on receipt of GA benefits. Rather, a definition of "employable individual" that turns upon one's physical and mental fitness for work is consistent with the plain meaning of the term, its common usage, and the intent of the Legislature in enacting section 17001.5.

By authorizing the limitations contained in section 17001.5, the Legislature intended to give counties meaningful options to reduce GA costs, fully aware that these cost savings would be achieved through reduced or periodically discontinued benefits for certain GA recipients who might suffer hardship as a result. Neither the state of the economy nor discomfort with the statute's consequences permits us to eviscerate section 17001.5(a)(4) by defining "employable individual" so narrowly that few GA recipients would actually have their benefits discontinued as a result of the time limitation. If economic conditions or policy considerations justify reexamination of the limitation authorized by section 17001.5(a)(4), the issue is properly addressed to the Legislature or the counties that have adopted the limitation.

We conclude the county acted within its discretion in implementing time limitations on GA benefits for able-bodied and mentally competent recipients, without regard to whether they may face practical barriers to employment. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The Alameda County General Ordinance Code (ACGO) provides for the establishment of a GA program to be administered by the Alameda County Social Services Agency (agency). (ACGO, § 7.04.010.) The agency issued the "Alameda County General Assistance Regulations" to implement the program.³

(1) The ACGO directs the agency to administer an "employability program" under which the agency may place time limits on GA benefits received by an "employable recipient," defined as "a recipient who does not have a medical statement of unemployability on file with the agency." (ACGO, § 7.08.060.A., G.) Under the "employability program," "[o]therwise eligible employable recipients become ineligible to receive general assistance after receiving three months of benefits within any twelve (12) month period." (Id., § 7.08.060.F.)

To implement the employability program, the agency revised its GA regulations in November 2007 to provide that employable GA applicants and recipients would be limited to six months of benefits within any 12-month period.⁴ (Regs., § 9-2-5.) The revised regulations provide that persons determined to be "unemployable" are not subject to time limits on receipt of GA benefits. (Regs., § 9-2-5.212.) In general, individuals are considered "unemployable" if they are 64 years of age or older, or if they have a physical, mental, or emotional incapacity, either permanent or temporary, that prevents them from working.⁵ An employable recipient must have received or been offered job services before the agency may impose the six-month time limitation and discontinue benefits for the remainder of a 12-month period. (Regs., § 9-2-5.32.)

The employability program took effect on January 1, 2008, meaning that employable recipients who were receiving benefits as of that date would have their benefits discontinued beginning on July 1, 2008.⁶ (Regs., § 9-2-5.) However, on June 6, 2008, Ronnie Watkins and five other individuals⁷ (collectively referred to herein as Watkins) filed a verified petition for a writ of mandate challenging the County of Alameda's time limitation on GA benefits and naming as defendants the County of Alameda, the Board of Supervisors of Alameda County, the agency, and Yolanda Baldovinos, in her official capacity as interim director of the agency (collectively, the county). The writ petition contains three causes of action. The trial court ultimately denied the relief sought in the first and third causes of action.⁸ Those rulings are not challenged on appeal.

Watkins alleges in the second cause of action that the county's definition of "employable" is overbroad and contrary to several provisions of the Welfare and Institutions Code. According to Watkins, "Section 11000 mandates that the provisions of law pertaining to the GA program, including section 17001.5(a)(4) authorizing time limits only for an `employable individual,' be `fairly and equitably' construed to effectuate the objectives and purposes of the GA program. A fair and equitable construction of `employable individual' is that the individual be actually, not theoretically, employable and that, in determining employability, such factors as the individual's education, skill level, work history, advanced age, and opportunity to obtain employment in the relevant labor market, be considered by the [a]gency."

Following a hearing on June 10, 2008, the trial court issued an alternative writ of mandate and a "temporary restraining order" prohibiting the county from discontinuing assistance to any GA recipient based on a determination the individual is employable until "such time as the Court hears and decides the issues presented."

After a further hearing on July 15, 2008, the trial court determined the county abused its discretion in defining "employable" to mean "able-bodied and mentally competent." Although the court acknowledged that the "various conditions, limitations and restrictions" authorized by section 17001.5 are "exceptions to the broad mandate of Section 17000," it nonetheless determined that a county's discretion in defining "employability" under section 17001.5 "does not exclude consideration of Sections 10000, 11000, and 17000." Relying on case law interpreting and applying the broad mandate of section 17000, the court reasoned that the county could not "substitute for `employability' a wholly different concept like `able-bodied and mentally competent,' because to do so excludes people who are not employable by virtue of their lack of skills, lack of experience, lack of language fluency, age or other factors." The court issued a writ of mandate directing the county to "comply with [its] duty to construe the term `employability' or `employable individual' in Welfare and Institutions Code Section 17001.5(a) fairly and equitably based upon practical employability factors, as required by the state's interest in providing [GA] benefits to indigents."

The county timely appealed from the judgment.⁹

DISCUSSION

This appeal requires us to consider whether the county's regulations imposing a time limitation upon the receipt of GA benefits by recipients deemed "employable" are consistent and not in conflict with section 17001.5(a)(4), which allows a county to limit GA relief to as few as three months in any 12-month period for an "employable individual" who has been allowed to participate in job skills or training sessions. In order to understand how section 17001.5(a)(4) fits within the statutory scheme, we first provide some background on the relevant statutes, their interpretation by the courts, and legislative developments driven by fiscal realities.

I. The Statutory Framework and Its Evolution

(2) "Section 17000 imposes upon counties a mandatory duty to `relieve and support all incompetent, poor, indigent persons, and those incapacitated by age, disease, or accident,' when those persons are not relieved and supported by some other means.<sup>10</sup> [Citation.]" (Hunt v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 984, 991 [90 Cal.Rptr.2d 236, 987 P.2d 705].) Although the Legislature has enacted various specialized relief programs over the last several decades to aid indigent individuals, section 17000 provides the residual fund to sustain indigents who do not qualify for other specialized aid programs. (Ibid.) Commonly referred to as "general assistance," "general relief," or "GA," the program mandated by section 17000 is one of "`last resort.'" (County of San Diego v. State of California (1997) 15...