Lowe

Eleven supervisory land surveyors employed by the State of California Resources Agency (Resources Agency) filed a petition for writ of mandate in superior court to compel the Resources Agency and Department of Personnel Administration (DPA) to make salaries for surveyors in the land surveyor classification comparable to salaries for surveyors classed as boundary determination officers. The petition alleged DPA violated Government Code section 19826 which requires “like salaries ... be paid for comparable duties and responsibilities.” Plaintiffs also sought backpay, benefits, and attorney fees.

The court ordered DPA to conduct a quasi-legislative hearing on plaintiffs’ salary adjustment claim, and a quasi-adjudicative hearing on plaintiffs’ claim for backpay. It suggested the hearings be held in conjunction with a quasi-legislative hearing DPA had already scheduled on plaintiffs’ claim the job classifications were misallocated under section 19818.6. The court denied plaintiffs’ request for attorney fees.

Plaintiffs appeal, contending the court erred in (1) failing to rule on the merits of the section 19826 salary adjustment claim and remanding the matter to the DPA, (2)…