Opinion
ROGERS, C. J.
The issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court properly concluded that the employees of the named plaintiff, the department of public safety (department),1 in the job classifications of state police lieutenant and state police captain (employees), are not managerial employees under Gen[596]*596eral Statutes § 5-270 (g)2 and, therefore, have the right to bargain under the state employee collective bargaining law. General Statutes §§ 5-270 through 5-280. The named defendant, the state board of labor relations (board), concluded that the employees were not managerial employees and, accordingly, granted the petition of the defendant Connecticut State Employees Association, SEIU Local 2001 (union), seeking certification as their exclusive bargaining representative. The department appealed from that decision to the trial court pursuant to General Statutes § 4-183 and the trial court dismissed the appeal. The department then filed this appeal.3 We reverse the judgment of the trial court on the ground that the trial court applied an improper legal standard in determining that the board properly had determined that the employees were not managerial employees.
The record reveals the following procedural history. The union filed a petition with the board seeking certification as the exclusive bargaining representative of a new bargaining unit consisting of state police lieutenants and state police captains. The board ordered an election among those employees, to which the department objected on the ground that the employees did not have the right to bargain under the state employee [597]*597collective bargaining law because, among other reasons, they met at least two of the criteria set forth in § 5-270 (g) and, therefore, were managerial employees. After the employees voted in favor of union representation, the board conducted a hearing on the department’s objections. The board concluded that the employees met the criterion set forth in § 5-270 (g) (1), but did not meet any of the other three statutory criteria. Specifically, with respect to subdivision (2) of § 5-270 (g), the board concluded that “[t]he evidence clearly supports a conclusion that the responsibility for the development, implementation and evaluation of goals and objectives consistent with the [department’s] mission is placed at a level above that of captain. While these employees may be asked for their opinions and in select cases, individual majors and other superiors may rely heavily on them, they simply do not have and cannot exercise the level of independent judgment and involvement necessary to meet this criterion.” With respect to subdivision (3) of § 5-270 (g), the board concluded that “no evidence or testimony established that these employees are involved in any way, other than the occasional suggestion, in the formulation of [department] policy.” With respect to subdivision (4) of § 5-270 (g), the board concluded that “[t] here is no question that none of the . . . employees has any role in the administration of collective bargaining agreements.” Accordingly, the board concluded that the employees were not managerial employees, dismissed the department’s objections and certified the union as the employees’ representative.
Thereafter, the department refused to bargain with the union4 and the union filed an unfair labor practice [598]*598complaint with the board. The board ruled in favor of the union and ordered the department to negotiate with it. The department then appealed to the trial court. The trial court concluded that the language of § 5-270 (g) was plain and unambiguous and that the board properly had determined that subdivisions (2) and (3) of § 5-270 (g) require that “the employees at issue exercise a level of independent judgment . . . .”5 Accordingly, the trial court dismissed the appeal. This appeal followed.
On appeal, the department claims that the trial court improperly deferred to the board’s interpretation of § 5-270 (g) (2) and (3) and concluded that the employees were not managerial employees because the statute provides that managerial employees must exercise independent judgment in carrying out the enumerated functions. The board and the union contend that the trial court properly interpreted the statute and properly applied it to the facts of this case. We conclude that the trial court improperly construed § 5-270 (g) to include a requirement that the managerial employees exercise independent judgment in carrying out the principal functions listed in subdivisions (2) and (3).
At the outset, we set forth the standard of review. “According to our well established standards, [r]eview of an administrative agency decision requires a court to determine whether there is substantial evidence in the administrative record to support the agency’s findings of basic fact and whether the conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable. . . . Neither this court nor the trial court may retry the case or substitute its own judgment for that of the administrative agency on the weight of the evidence or questions of fact. . . . Our ultimate duty is to determine, in view of all of the [599]*599evidence, whether the agency, in issuing its order, acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, illegally or in abuse of its discretion. . . . [A]n agency’s factual and discretionary determinations are to be accorded considerable weight by the courts. ... It is well settled [however] that we do not defer to the board’s construction of a statute— a question of law — when . . . the [provisions] at issue previously ha[v] e not been subj ected to judicial scrutiny or when the board’s interpretation has not been time tested.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Christopher R. v. Commissioner of Mental Retardation, 277 Conn. 594, 603, 893 A.2d 431 (2006). A conclusion that an agency’s interpretation of a statute is entitled to deference, however, “does not end [our] inquiry. We also must determine whether the [board’s] interpretation is reasonable. ... In so doing, we apply our established rules of statutory construction.” (Citation omitted.) Curry v. Allan S. Goodman, Inc., 286 Conn. 390, 407, 944 A.2d 925 (2008); see also Vincent v. New Haven, 285 Conn. 778, 784 n.8, 941 A.2d 932 (2008) (“rule of deference applies only when agency ‘has consistently followed its construction over a long period of time, the statutory language is ambiguous, and the agency’s interpretation is reasonable’ ” [emphasis in original]).
“When construing a statute, [o]ur fundamental objective is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature. ... In other words, we seek to determine, in a reasoned manner, the meaning of the statutory language as applied to the facts of [the] case, including the question of whether the language actually does apply. ... In seeking to determine that meaning, General Statutes § l-2z6 directs us first to consider the [600]*600text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes.
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Opinion
ROGERS, C. J.
The issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court properly concluded that the employees of the named plaintiff, the department of public safety (department),1 in the job classifications of state police lieutenant and state police captain (employees), are not managerial employees under Gen[596]*596eral Statutes § 5-270 (g)2 and, therefore, have the right to bargain under the state employee collective bargaining law. General Statutes §§ 5-270 through 5-280. The named defendant, the state board of labor relations (board), concluded that the employees were not managerial employees and, accordingly, granted the petition of the defendant Connecticut State Employees Association, SEIU Local 2001 (union), seeking certification as their exclusive bargaining representative. The department appealed from that decision to the trial court pursuant to General Statutes § 4-183 and the trial court dismissed the appeal. The department then filed this appeal.3 We reverse the judgment of the trial court on the ground that the trial court applied an improper legal standard in determining that the board properly had determined that the employees were not managerial employees.
The record reveals the following procedural history. The union filed a petition with the board seeking certification as the exclusive bargaining representative of a new bargaining unit consisting of state police lieutenants and state police captains. The board ordered an election among those employees, to which the department objected on the ground that the employees did not have the right to bargain under the state employee [597]*597collective bargaining law because, among other reasons, they met at least two of the criteria set forth in § 5-270 (g) and, therefore, were managerial employees. After the employees voted in favor of union representation, the board conducted a hearing on the department’s objections. The board concluded that the employees met the criterion set forth in § 5-270 (g) (1), but did not meet any of the other three statutory criteria. Specifically, with respect to subdivision (2) of § 5-270 (g), the board concluded that “[t]he evidence clearly supports a conclusion that the responsibility for the development, implementation and evaluation of goals and objectives consistent with the [department’s] mission is placed at a level above that of captain. While these employees may be asked for their opinions and in select cases, individual majors and other superiors may rely heavily on them, they simply do not have and cannot exercise the level of independent judgment and involvement necessary to meet this criterion.” With respect to subdivision (3) of § 5-270 (g), the board concluded that “no evidence or testimony established that these employees are involved in any way, other than the occasional suggestion, in the formulation of [department] policy.” With respect to subdivision (4) of § 5-270 (g), the board concluded that “[t] here is no question that none of the . . . employees has any role in the administration of collective bargaining agreements.” Accordingly, the board concluded that the employees were not managerial employees, dismissed the department’s objections and certified the union as the employees’ representative.
Thereafter, the department refused to bargain with the union4 and the union filed an unfair labor practice [598]*598complaint with the board. The board ruled in favor of the union and ordered the department to negotiate with it. The department then appealed to the trial court. The trial court concluded that the language of § 5-270 (g) was plain and unambiguous and that the board properly had determined that subdivisions (2) and (3) of § 5-270 (g) require that “the employees at issue exercise a level of independent judgment . . . .”5 Accordingly, the trial court dismissed the appeal. This appeal followed.
On appeal, the department claims that the trial court improperly deferred to the board’s interpretation of § 5-270 (g) (2) and (3) and concluded that the employees were not managerial employees because the statute provides that managerial employees must exercise independent judgment in carrying out the enumerated functions. The board and the union contend that the trial court properly interpreted the statute and properly applied it to the facts of this case. We conclude that the trial court improperly construed § 5-270 (g) to include a requirement that the managerial employees exercise independent judgment in carrying out the principal functions listed in subdivisions (2) and (3).
At the outset, we set forth the standard of review. “According to our well established standards, [r]eview of an administrative agency decision requires a court to determine whether there is substantial evidence in the administrative record to support the agency’s findings of basic fact and whether the conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable. . . . Neither this court nor the trial court may retry the case or substitute its own judgment for that of the administrative agency on the weight of the evidence or questions of fact. . . . Our ultimate duty is to determine, in view of all of the [599]*599evidence, whether the agency, in issuing its order, acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, illegally or in abuse of its discretion. . . . [A]n agency’s factual and discretionary determinations are to be accorded considerable weight by the courts. ... It is well settled [however] that we do not defer to the board’s construction of a statute— a question of law — when . . . the [provisions] at issue previously ha[v] e not been subj ected to judicial scrutiny or when the board’s interpretation has not been time tested.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Christopher R. v. Commissioner of Mental Retardation, 277 Conn. 594, 603, 893 A.2d 431 (2006). A conclusion that an agency’s interpretation of a statute is entitled to deference, however, “does not end [our] inquiry. We also must determine whether the [board’s] interpretation is reasonable. ... In so doing, we apply our established rules of statutory construction.” (Citation omitted.) Curry v. Allan S. Goodman, Inc., 286 Conn. 390, 407, 944 A.2d 925 (2008); see also Vincent v. New Haven, 285 Conn. 778, 784 n.8, 941 A.2d 932 (2008) (“rule of deference applies only when agency ‘has consistently followed its construction over a long period of time, the statutory language is ambiguous, and the agency’s interpretation is reasonable’ ” [emphasis in original]).
“When construing a statute, [o]ur fundamental objective is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature. ... In other words, we seek to determine, in a reasoned manner, the meaning of the statutory language as applied to the facts of [the] case, including the question of whether the language actually does apply. ... In seeking to determine that meaning, General Statutes § l-2z6 directs us first to consider the [600]*600text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of such text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered. . . . When a statute is not plain and unambiguous, we also look for interpretive guidance to the legislative history and circumstances surrounding its enactment, to the legislative policy it was designed to implement, and to its relationship to existing legislation and common law principles governing the same general subject matter . . . .” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Vincent v. New Haven, supra, 285 Conn. 784-85.
In the present case, the department contends that, because the board’s interpretation of § 5-270 (g) has not been time-tested and previously has not been subject to judicial scrutiny, the board was not entitled to deference and our review is plenary. Specifically, the department points out that the board has interpreted § 5-270 only twice; see In re Connecticut State Employees Assn., SEIU Local 2001, Conn. Board of Labor Relations Decision No. 4070 (August 17, 2005); In re Protective Services Employees Coalition, AFL-CIO, Conn. Board of Labor Relations Decision No. 3145 (October 27,1993); and that neither decision was subject to judicial review. The board and the union contend that, because the board concluded in these two decisions that certain police lieutenants who worked for various agencies and captains in the department of correction were not managerial employees under § 5-270 (g), and because the department was the employer in both decisions and did not challenge the board’s decisions, the board’s interpretation of the statute is time-tested and is entitled to deference.7 We agree with the department.
[601]*601In Vincent v. New Haven, supra, 285 Conn. 783-84 and n.8, this court concluded that the compensation review board’s inteipretation of General Statutes (Rev. to 1989) § 31-306 was not entitled to deference because it had applied the interpretation in only two cases, the oldest of which had been decided in 1999, and neither decision had been subject to judicial review. See also Christopher R. v. Commissioner of Mental Retardation, supra, 277 Conn. 603 n.9 (“[t]wo isolated cases do not indicate a time tested interpretation”); cf. Curry v. Allan S. Goodman, Inc., supra, 286 Conn. 405-407 (when commission on human rights and opportunities had consistently interpreted General Statutes § 46a-60 in thirteen decisions over twelve years, several of which had been adopted by various trial courts, interpretation was entitled to deference); Hartford v. Hartford Municipal Employees Assn., 259 Conn. 251, 268, 788 A.2d 60 (2002) (deferring to interpretation of board to resolve possible ambiguity when board had presented evidence of consistent interpretation of statute for more than twenty-five years). In the present case, the board has interpreted § 5-270 (g) only twice and neither decision was subject to judicial scrutiny. We conclude, therefore, that, as in Vincent and Christopher R., the board’s interpretation is not entitled to deference.8 Accordingly, our review is plenary.
[602]*602We begin our analysis with the language of § 5-270 (g), which provides: “ ‘Managerial employee’ means any individual in a position in which the principal functions are characterized by not fewer than two of the following, provided for any position in any unit of the system of higher education, one of such two functions shall be as specified in subdivision (4) of this subsection: (1) Responsibility for direction of a subunit or facility of a major division of an agency or assignment to an agency head’s staff; (2) development, implementation and evaluation of goals and objectives consistent with agency mission and policy; (3) participation in the formulation of agency policy; or (4) a major role in the administration of collective bargaining agreements or major personnel decisions, or both, including staffing, hiring, firing, evaluation, promotion and training of employees.”
Thus, under § 5-270 (g) (2) and (3), employees in a particular position are managerial employees if the enumerated functions constitute the position’s “principal functions . . . .” Although the phrase “principal functions” is not statutorily defined, we conclude that no reasonable interpretation of the phrase carries the connotation that employees in a managerial position must exercise independent judgment in carrying out the enumerated functions. Rather, the phrase connotes that the enumerated functions must be the position’s most important, consequential or influential functions. See Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed. 1993) (defining “principal” as “most important, consequential, or influential: CHIEF”); see also Black’s Law Dictionary (9th Ed. 2009) (defining “principal” as “[c]hief; primary; most important”).9 Thus, contrary to [603]*603the board’s suggestion that, if the phrase principal function is to have any meaning, it must mean that managerial employees exercise independent judgment,10 it is reasonable to conclude that the legislature intended that the board could consider the amount of time that the employees in the position devote to each function, whether an employee’s ability to carry out an enumerated function is a prerequisite for being hired to the position and whether the failure of an employee in the position to carry out an enumerated function would have important consequences to the employer.* 111 We conclude, therefore, that although the application of the phrase principal functions to any particular position will require an exercise of judgment as to which functions of a particular position are the most important, consequential and influential, the phrase clearly and unambiguously does not mean that the employee must exercise independent judgment in carrying out the enumerated functions.12
[604]*604Similarly, nothing within the language specifically describing the principal functions of managerial employees connotes that such employees must exercise independent judgment in carrying out those functions. Subdivision (2) provides that the position’s most important, consequential or influential functions may include the “development, implementation and evaluation of goals and objectives consistent with agency mission and policy . . . .” General Statutes § 5-270 (g) (2). The development, implementation and evaluation of the goals and objectives may be an important responsibility of an employee in a particular position even if the employee does not exercise independent judgment in carrying out that responsibility. For example, one of the principal functions of an employee may be to present a range of options for implementing the employer’s goals and objectives, with the final choice to be made by a higher ranking employee. Subdivision (3) of § 5-270 (g) merely provides that a principal function of a managerial employee may be “participation in the formulation of agency policy . . . .”13 Participation, by its very nature, does not require independence.14
[605]*605Moreover, if the legislature had intended to impose a requirement that managerial employees exercise independent judgment in carrying out the activities described in § 5-270 (g) (2) and (3), it could have done so expressly, as it did in § 5-270 (f).15 “We are not permitted to supply statutory language that the legislature may have chosen to omit.” (Internal quotation marks [606]*606omitted.) Connecticut Light & Power Co. v. Dept. of Public Utility Control, 266 Conn. 108, 119, 830 A.2d 1121 (2003).
The board and the union raise numerous policy arguments in support of their claim that managerial employees must exercise independent judgment in carrying out the principal functions described in § 5-270 (g) (2) and (3), and also point to the legislative history of the statute. We have concluded, however, that the language of § 5-270 (g) plainly and unambiguously does not require that managerial employees exercise independent judgment in carrying out their principal functions.
We conclude, therefore, that the trial court improperly dismissed the department’s appeal after concluding that the board properly had determined that the employees did not meet the criteria for managerial employees set forth in § 5-270 (g) (2) and (3) because the department had not proved that the employees exercised independent judgment in carrying out the functions described in those subdivisions. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case to that court with direction to remand the case to the board so that it may apply the proper standard.16
The judgment of the trial court is reversed and the case is remanded to that court with direction to sustain the department’s appeal and to remand the case to the board for further proceedings according to law.
In this opinion NORCOTT, ZARELLA and McLACHLAN, Js., concurred.