San Bernardino Fire & Police Protective League v. City of San Bernardino

The primary issue on this appeal concerns an interpretation of a section of the charter of the City of San Bernardino which attempts to provide a method of fixing the amount of salaries payable to employees of the police and fire departments of that city.

By declaration, in the nature of a preamble, the charter section in question, i.e., section 186, states that it establishes “a basic standard for fixing salaries, classifications, and working conditions of the employees of the police and fire departments of the City of San Bernardino” and that the “Mayor and Common Council in exercising the powers and control over these departments vested in them by this Charter shall hereafter be guided and limited” by the provisions therein-after set forth.

Paragraph “First” of the section, which follows the foregoing declaration, contains a number of provisions:

Paragraph “Second,” which is the real source of controversy in this action,

(1) Prescribes a standard by which the Mayor and Council shall be “guided and limited” in fixing the salaries payable to fire and police department employees;

(2) Directs that, at the beginning of each fiscal year the monthly salaries of employees whose…