Southern California Underground Contractors, Inc. v. City of San Diego

I

Introduction

These appeals follow an administrative ruling by the City of San Diego (City) to permanently debar Southern California Underground Contractors, Inc. (SoCal), from contracting with City. The debarment was based on findings of the San Diego City Council (City Council) that SoCal engaged in corrupt practices while administering public works contracts it had entered into with City. The trial court granted SoCal’s petition for writ of administrative mandamus (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5), concluding that the decision to permanently debar SoCal constituted an abuse of discretion and an act in excess of City’s authority because SoCal had not engaged in any practices, corrupt or otherwise, involving the “administration” of its contracts with City, but rather had engaged in such practices only in the “performance” of the contracts. Accordingly, the court ordered City to adopt its proposed alternative resolution to debar SoCal for a period of three years. The court rejected SoCal’s claim that the debarment proceeding denied SoCal its rights to procedural due process and to a fair hearing before an impartial tribunal.

In its appeal, SoCal does not challenge the…