Personnel Commision v. Board of Education

Opinion

BOREN, J.

May the governing board of a merit system school district reduce the workweek of the district’s personnel director? After rehearing this question, we conclude that the district’s personnel commission alone, rather than its governing board, has the authority to appoint, supervise and determine the workweek of the personnel director. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s judgment ordering the Lynwood Board of Education to restore the personnel director of its school district to full-time status.

Facts

On April 26, 1988, the members of the Board of Education of the Lynwood Unified School District (the Board) voted unanimously to reduce the position of the director of classified personnel to a half-time position, and transferred a portion of the duties performed by the director to another office in the district. At the time, the position of director of classified personnel was vacant.

Six weeks after the Board took this action, the Personnel Commission of the Lynwood Unified School District (the Commission) hired William Hartford to fill the still-vacant position of personnel director. The minutes of the Commission meeting held on June 2, 1988, indicate that Hartford was hired as a full-time employee. On June 14, 1988, however, the Board

[1466]

voted to approve/ratify the employment of Hartford as a half-time employee. When Hartford began work on June 20, 1988, he was informed that he would only be paid for 20 hours per week and not as a full-time personnel director.

The Commission then filed the petition for a writ of mandate at issue here, seeking to compel the Board to rescind its action reducing the personnel director to a half-time position. The Commission also sought a declaration stating that it alone is empowered to hire a personnel director on a basis which it determines is appropriate, and that the Board has no power to reduce that position. The grounds for the petition were that the statutes governing the operation and duties of the Board and the Commission made the Board’s action illegal.

On June 30, 1988, the trial court issued an alternative writ commanding the Board to pay the personnel director a full-time salary until the court ruled on the merits of the petition. The Board filed a demurrer to the petition which was overruled by the trial court on September 9, 1988. The court granted judgment for the Commission on December 9, 1988, and issued a peremptory writ of mandate stating that the Board had abused its discretion by reducing the personnel director to half time, and ordering the Board to give full-time status and salary to Hartford.