Cleary
Cleary v. County of Alameda
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Haerle, J.
I. INTRODUCTION
The trial court issued a writ of mandate which prohibits the County of Alameda (the County) 1 from implementing a change to its General Assistance (GA) program. That planned change, which we will refer to herein as the “W-9 policy,” would reduce the amount of a GA recipient’s monthly grant by an amount equal to his or her housing allowance when the landlord of that recipient fails or refuses to provide the County with a taxpayer identification number (TIN) on an Alameda County Substitute Form W-9.
The trial court found that the W-9 policy is unlawful because it denies GA recipients a minimally acceptable level of care, it is arbitrary and inhumane, and it constitutes an improper sanction. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 17000, 17000.5, 10000, 17001.5, subd. (a)(5).)
On appeal, the County contends that the W-9 policy does not violate any statute and that it is neither arbitrary nor capricious because the County is required to report landlord TIN information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in order to comply with federal tax law. (See 26 U.S.C. § 6041 .) We reject the County’s contentions and, therefore, affirm the judgment.