City & County of San Francisco v. San Francisco Police Officers Ass'n

621 F. Supp. 1221, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1477, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21750, 36 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 35,074
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 14, 1985
DocketNo. C-84-4045 RFP
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 621 F. Supp. 1221 (City & County of San Francisco v. San Francisco Police Officers Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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City & County of San Francisco v. San Francisco Police Officers Ass'n, 621 F. Supp. 1221, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1477, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21750, 36 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 35,074 (N.D. Cal. 1985).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

PECKHAM, Chief Judge.

INTRODUCTION

On February 28, 1985, this court heard oral argument on the issue of whether the Supremacy Clause, and the provisions of the Consent Decree and Title VII, authorized the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to violate Civil Service rule 5.07, when faced with the adverse impact resulting from the promotional examinations. The court granted partial summary judgment on this issue in favor of the City and County of San Francisco (the City) and the CSC. The court in this Memorandum sets forth the reasons for its order granting partial summary judgment.

The facts pertaining to the issue discussed below were set forth in detail in the court’s Memorandum and Order of December 31, 1984, which held that the removal of this case was proper and preliminarily enjoined the City from using the revised weighting system for the Q/50 and Q/35 examinations. Therefore, the court does not find it necessary to restate the facts in this Memorandum.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

Civil Service rule 5.07 prohibits the CSC from reconsidering matters previously decided by it more than 30 days after notice of the decision of the original vote. The POA, therefore, claims that the CSC did not have the power to change the weights in the manner in which it did — by a reconsideration vote taken on an issue which had been decided and closed eight months earlier. The POA contends that, if the September 12 weights were invalid, the CSC should have explicitly passed an exception rule to cover this one matter or promulgated a new rule covering examinations which are given to effectuate federal Consent Decrees.

In Smith v. City and County of San Francisco, 11 Cal.App.3d 606, 89 Cal.Rptr. 878 (1st Dist.1970), a licensed vocational nurse appealed her discharge from her position to the CSC. The Commission affirmed the discharge. In affirming the trial court’s decision denying her petition for a writ of mandate to compel the Commission to reopen her appeal, the court of appeal stated that “[b]y its order, the jurisdiction of the commission over the matter ceased, and it may not of its own volition reopen the matter.” Id. at 610, 89 Cal. Rptr. at 879.

The POA maintains that Smith bars the CSC from reopening or revoting a matter of its own volition. Therefore, once the CSC’s September 12, 1983 vote became final, the CSC lost jurisdiction over the weighting of the exam components.

The City formulates the issues in the case somewhat differently. According to it, the central issues are whether the Q/50 and Q/35 examinations were valid under federal law and whether the parties were obligated to assure compliance with the promotional goals of the Consent Decree. The City easily distinguishes Smith because conflicting provisions of federal law and state law were not involved in that case. The City’s decision to reweight the exams was a result of the perceived violation of the commands of Title VII and the Consent Decree. This perceived violation invokes the Supremacy Clause.

The Supremacy Clause provides that “[t]his Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in [1223]*1223Pursuance thereof ... shall be the Supreme Law of the Land ... any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” U.S. Constitution, Art. VI, cl. 2. Thus, a state law which conflicts with federal law or “stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the full purposes and objectives of Congress” is void under the Supremacy Clause. Lawrence County v. Lead-Deadwood School District, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 695, 698 (1985).

In United States v. City of Chicago, 549 F.2d 415, 438 (7th Cir.), cert. denied 434 U.S. 875, 98 S.Ct. 225, 54 L.Ed.2d 155 (1977), the court recognized that the application of Illinois Municipal Code provisions had to be suspended under the Supremacy Clause to the extent that the provisions violated the command of Title VII. The Seventh Circuit then warned the district court that, despite the conflict of state law with federal civil rights legislation, the district court did not have an unbridled license to replace the state’s method for selecting police officers with its own. “When a state statute is assailed because of alleged conflict with a federal law, the same considerations of forbearance, the same regard for the lawmaking power of States, should guide the judicial judgment as when this Court is asked to declare a statute unconstitutional outright.” Id., quoting Farmers Union v. WDAY, Inc., 360 U.S. 525, 546, 79 S.Ct. 1302, 1314, 3 L.Ed.2d 1407 (1959) (Frankfurter, J. dissenting).

The court in Sarabia v. Toledo Police Patrolman’s Ass’n, 601 F.2d 914, 918 (6th Cir.1979), was faced with a civil service rule that conflicted with the stated goal of a consent decree. The goal of the decree was to attract sufficient numbers of minority applicants to the Toledo police force so that within five years the ratio of minorities within the force would reasonably reflect the ratio of each minority group to the total population of the city. The Division of Police had traditionally followed a “rule of three” which required the civil service commission to certify the names of the three candidates standing highest on the eligibility list for each position to be filled. The appointments were then made from the group of three. The district court suspended the rule of three and directed the city defendants to certify for appointment the names of all black applicants who had passed the last examination, without regard to their positions on the eligibility list. The district court stated that the only effect of its order was to suspend the civil service rule to the extent it impeded the operation of the consent decree. The Sixth Circuit, in affirming, construed the order as merely expanding the eligibility list. The additional eligible applicants did not replace or “bump” an otherwise eligible white applicant. Id. at 919.

Pursuant to the Supremacy Clause, it appears that this court also could have suspended application of civil service rule 5.07 to the extent it impeded the operation of the Consent Decree. The Consent Decree states that:

[t]he city shall ... make no further use of tests or other selection qualifications, standards or procedures for hiring or promotion within the San Francisco Police Department ... which have a disproportionately adverse impact against minorities or females, unless and until such standards have been shown to be valid, pursuant to the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, 43 Fed. Reg. 38290, August 25, 1978, or any superseding federal guidelines.

Consent Decree at 114. The Consent Decree specifically forbids the City from using the tests or other selection qualifications which demonstrated adverse impact “unless and until” they have been shown to be valid. The City believed that the examinations as weighted were invalid. Therefore, if it continued to use them, it would be in direct violation of the Consent Decree.

' Both City of Chicago and Sarabia concerned the authority of the district court to suspend the application of state or local law.

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621 F. Supp. 1221, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1477, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21750, 36 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 35,074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-county-of-san-francisco-v-san-francisco-police-officers-assn-cand-1985.