SACRAMENTO POLICE ASS'N v. City of Sacramento

At the behest of the plaintiff, Sacramento Police Officers Association (SPOA), the superior court issued a writ of mandate directing the defendants, City of Sacramento and Sacramento Police Department (collectively City), to "meet and confer" [1] about the implementation of a policy to hire retirees as temporary noncareer employees to remedy a short-term staffing shortage in its police department. The superior court denied the request of the plaintiff for reimbursement of its legal fees.

The parties cross-appealed. We consolidated the appeals for the purpose of consideration and argument.

We conclude that the proposal to hire annuitants in response to an abrupt shortage in the staffing of the police force, which could not be remedied through the ordinary processes of recruitment and hiring, is a fundamental managerial policy decision designed to maintain the existing level of public safety in the community. It thus was not itself subject to the City's duty to meet and confer even if it represented a change in the status quo with respect to the terms and conditions of employment. As the proposal included the principle that nothing in its implementation was to affect…