United Steelworkers v. City of Frankfort

395 N.W.2d 318, 153 Mich. App. 352, 123 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3094, 1986 Mich. App. LEXIS 2771

• Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
• Decided: July 21, 1986
• Docket: Docket 79593
• Status: Published

Opinions

Allen, J.

The facts of this case are sufficiently set forth in the concurring opinion, and will not be repeated herein. Because Margaret Sanders spent the greater share of her employment time as a secretary and only served as a city assessor on a part-time basis, we agree with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission’s order including the city assessor position in the collective bargaining unit. Accordingly, we affirm.

However, had Margaret Sanders been a full-time city assessor, we would not hesitate ”to rule as a matter of law,” that she should "be excluded from a bargaining unit as an executive.” In our opinion, a person occupying a full-time position of assessor and responsible for performing the statutory and charter duties of city assessor is an "executive” under § 9e of the public employment relations act. MCL 423.9(e); MSA 17.454(10.4). No position in city government is more intimately related to policy-making than the assessor’s. Anticipated revenues are largely based on the assessments of real and personal property made by the assessor’s office. In turn, the revenues become the base upon which a city budget is made.

Accordingly, we disagree with Berlin Twp, 1983 MERC Lab Op 1054, to the extent that it stands for a rule that the exercise of the statutory duties of an assessor will not make an employee an executive under pera. In situations where the position is a full-time position, we believe that the exercise of such statutory duties, whether personally performed or performed by others under the supervision of the assessor, does make the assessor an "executive.”

Affirmed.