Walker v. County of Los Angeles

361 P.2d 247, 55 Cal. 2d 626, 12 Cal. Rptr. 671, 1961 Cal. LEXIS 243
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 20, 1961
DocketL. A. No. 26039
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 361 P.2d 247 (Walker v. County of Los Angeles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walker v. County of Los Angeles, 361 P.2d 247, 55 Cal. 2d 626, 12 Cal. Rptr. 671, 1961 Cal. LEXIS 243 (Cal. 1961).

Opinion

DOOLING, J.

— This is a representative suit by five county employees seeking declaratory relief and a writ of mandate to compel the board of supervisors first to ascertain and declare the prevailing salary or wage for the same quality of service rendered to private employers under similar employment; and then, in the light of such ascertainment, to adopt an ordinance providing for salary payments to all persons in the classified civil service equal at least to such prevailing wage scale. Specifically, petitioners attack a salary ordinance passed by the board on May 27, 1958, fixing salaries and wages for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 1958. They claim that the board, in adopting said ordinance, did not follow the required procedure under section 47 of the Los Angeles County Charter and by such failure, the board has evaded its mandatory duty. Section 47 provides: “In fixing compensation to be paid to persons under the classified civil service, the Board of Supervisors shall, in each instance, provide a salary or wage at least equal to the prevailing salary or wage for the same quality of service rendered to private persons, firms or corporations under similar employment in case such prevailing salary or wage can be ascertained.”

The record discloses that a salary ordinance had to be adopted by the board of supervisors before July 1 of each year.so that a fiscal year’s budget could be established. In line with the provisions of charter section 47, it was the administrative practice of Los Angeles County during February of each year to participate with other political entities in the area in a joint survey of wage, employment and other economic conditions then prevailing in that area. This prac[630]*630tice had been consistently followed and hearings were held each year from 1942 to 1958 in order to determine the prevailing wage for comparable work in private industry. It apparently was the common understanding of the board that such procedure satisfied the precepts of section 47.

In 1958 the situation was altered. The customary annual survey was made as of March 1 but the board declined to apply it in fixing salaries for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and adopted an ordinance continuing the wage scale of the preceding year. This action on May 27, 1958, followed two public hearings earlier in the month at which various persons, including the supervisors, county counsel and the chief administrative officer, expressed their views. The discussion and comments centered primarily upon the application of the annual joint survey as the basic criterion for the next fiscal year’s salary scale. One of the five supervisors on the board was recently deceased and his successor had not yet been appointed. Twice it was moved that the salary survey be adopted and “declared to be prevailing wages of private industry as prescribed by the County Charter” and twice on different days the motion lost by a tie vote of 2-2. Finally the required ordinance was passed by a vote of 3-1 continuing the preceding year’s wage schedule. Supervisor Ford, upon changing his vote to break the tie, stated that he was doing so only for the purpose of having some salary ordinance passed in order that the fiscal year’s budget could be established, and that he retained his original contention that the board was “in serious error in not recognizing the prevailing salary and wage survey and not applying it to the salary ordinance.” Supervisor Hahn, who had previously voted for the adoption of the annual survey as a finding on prevailing wages in private industry, likewise voted for the continuation ordinance so as to have some salary schedule for the coming fiscal year. The third vote for the continuation ordinance was cast by Chairman Chace consistent with his original position against adoption of the joint annual survey. Supervisor Dorn, who likewise had voted against adoption of the joint annual survey, cast the single “no” vote against passage of the continuation ordinance, observing that in his opinion the information before the board was insufficient to justify the making of any prevailing wage finding and therefore no salary ordinance should be passed.

■ During the hearings on the proposed salary ordinance the board had before it the report of its chief administrative [631]*631officer recommending against application of the joint salary survey data at that time. Reference was made to the “economic and unemployment picture in the community,” the fact that “turnover in County service ha[d] been reduced” to an appreciable degree, and “ [f]ull consideration must be given to the financial position of the County and the overall burden of taxation. ...” The report specifically recommended that the board “make a finding that present rates of compensation for County . . . employees represent salaries or wages at least equal to prevailing salaries or wages for the same quality of service rendered to private firms or corporations under similar employment. ’ ’ It was expressly stated that the ‘ ‘ recommendations [were] not in any way to be considered as questioning the findings of the Salary Survey” but were “presented on the basis that the normal application of the survey data [was] not warranted at [that] time because of the overall economic condition of the community, the unusual unemployment situation and the impracticability of a further increase in the general County tax rate to meet the requirements of salary adjustments.” It was finally recommended that the chief administrative officer be instructed “to further analyze the economic and employment situation between now and the end of the calendar year to the end that, if [the] Board feels that salary adjustments are then warranted and finances permit, they can be placed into effect on January 1, 1959.” In amplification of his report and recommendations during the salary hearings before the board, the chief administrative officer estimated that “minimum application” of the salary survey taken as “prevailing wage report” would run “in the neighborhood of four million dollars” and would affect “approximately forty per cent” of the county’s employees. It indisputably appears that the board at no time made a formal finding of “prevailing wages” before adopting the May 27, 1958, salary ordinance.

In November 1958 the matter was reconsidered by the chief administrative officer and the board, and a new ordinance was then passed making an across-the-board wage increase of 5% per cent, effective January 1, 1959, largely in the light of the March 1 joint salary survey. Apparently the chief administrative officer in November 1958 had altered his position with regard to acceptance of the March 1 salary survey and regarded the survey as consistent with a stabilized economy in indicating an upward trend in salaries so as to be appropriately applicable.

[632]*632The trial court found, among other things, that the board of supervisors, in adopting the May 27, 1958, salary ordinance, had not ascertained prevailing wages as required by section 47 of the Los Angeles County Charter, and that such action of the board was done “arbitrarily and capriciously and was so palpably unreasonable as to demonstrate an abuse of discretion as a matter of law.” Accordingly, the court rendered a declaratory judgment setting forth the rights and duties of the parties and interpreting said section 47 as follows:

“(a) Section 47 of the Charter of the County of Los Angeles is constitutional.
“(b) The duties to be performed by the Board of Supervisors under Section 47 are mandatory.

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Bluebook (online)
361 P.2d 247, 55 Cal. 2d 626, 12 Cal. Rptr. 671, 1961 Cal. LEXIS 243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-v-county-of-los-angeles-cal-1961.