City of Los Altos v. Board of Administration

[1051]

Opinion

LOW, J.

*

The Board of Administration for the Public Employees’ Retirement System (hereafter PERS) appeals from a ruling that the City of Los Altos need not pay retirement contributions for 19 persons hired as “temporary seasonal employees.” “Full-time employees” must be members of PERS.

A single question is presented. In the absence of a statutory definition, whose definition of “full-time employment” is to be used in determining compulsory membership in PERS? We conclude that the board of administration’s definition is reasonable and is necessary for a uniform statewide standard. The City of Los Altos must pay the retirement contributions.

Despite the abundance of definitions of other terms, the Government Code does not define the basic term “full-time” employee. It does delegate considerable administrative power to the board of administration, and, according to Government Code section 20103, management and control of the PERS system is vested in the board. Government Code section 20124 states that “The board shall determine who are employees and is the sole judge of the conditions under which persons may be admitted to and continue to receive benefits under this system.”

The temporary seasonal employees involved in this case, did not meet the city’s criteria for “full-time” status but did qualify under the PERS definition as set forth in its Manual for Procedures section 23.1(a). The trial court determined that the city’s standards defining “full-time” employment were controlling. Since the city had classified the employees as part-time, they were thus excluded from membership in the PERS under Government Code section 20334.

We believe that the PERS Board of Administration, and not the contracting public agency, is to establish the standards for defining full-time and part-time employment. There is a strong policy favoring statewide uniformity of interpretation as between the PERS and all of its contracting agencies. We do not suggest, however, that local public agencies cannot establish their own employment guidelines for purely local matters—those which do not affect state agencies or require