Union of American Physicians v. Civil Service Commission

This appeal is from a judgment denying a petition for writ of mandate sought by appellant, Union of American Physicians, on behalf of physicians employed by the City and County of San Francisco. Respondents are the Civil Service Commission, its members, and the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco. Appellant contends that respondents failed to survey and fix salaries for such physicians for the fiscal year 1977-1978 in the manner and at the levels required by section 8.407 of the San Francisco Charter. Whether that contention is correct is the issue on appeal.

Background

The text of section 8.407, which was added to the charter by enactment of Proposition D in November 1976, is set forth in the appendix. In summary, section 8.407 provides a formula for determining the pay range for each “benchmark class.” A “benchmark class” is defined as “a ‘key class’ within an occupational grouping selected as the class for which a representative sample of data will be collected.” In this case, the benchmark class, as designated by the Civil Service Commission, is 2230 physician specialist. The prevailing rates for related job classifications are. computed…