Andersen v. Civil Service Commission

Opinion

LANGFORD, J.

*

Corinne Andersen, Joe Morgan, Max Newbold, and Carole Sanford, employees of the San Diego County Department of Public Welfare (employees), appeal from an order of the superior court denying their petition for a writ of mandate directed against the San Diego County Civil Service Commission. We affirm the judgment.

Employees are members of Social Services Union, Local 535, San Diego Chapter, Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, an employee organization as defined by Government Code section 3501, subdivision (a). They, along with 77 other welfare department employees, were suspended without pay by the director of the department for participating in a job action during July 1978. All 81 appealed to the

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civil service commission. Hearings were conducted before a hearing officer, who made findings and recommendations which were approved and adopted by the commission.

The general findings of the hearing officer adopted by the commission were to the effect that an appropriate penalty in each of the 81 cases would be 8 working hours suspension for each day of participation in the job action, whether or not the employee was a full time or a part time employee. The hearing officer found that in most cases the application of this formula would result in a reduction of the penalty set by the appointing authority. In a few cases, however, the penalty would be increased, as the hearing officer found was authorized by section 916.1 of the Charter of the County of San Diego, which permits the commission to “modify” the order of the appointing authority. The petitioners for writ of mandate in the court below and the appellants here are the four employees whose penalties were increased. Two employees had their penalties increased from 24 hours to 40 hours suspension, while the others were increased from 16 to 24 hours, and 24 hours to 32 hours.

Employees contend the commission, by increasing the penalties imposed on appeal from the suspensions issued by the Department of Public Welfare, exceeded its jurisdiction, abused its discretion, and denied employees a property interest without due process of law. The crux of all these contentions is employees’ argument that the provision of section 916.1 of the San Diego County Charter which authorized the commission to “affirm, modify, or revoke” the discipline imposed by the Department of Public Welfare, permitted a decrease, but not an increase, in the employees’ suspension.