Brown

*1209 Opinion

Prompted by California’s unprecedented budget deficit, on December 19, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order directing the Department of Personnel Administration (department) to implement a mandatory two-day-a-month unpaid furlough of most workers employed in the executive branch. Our Supreme Court recently held this order was valid because it was ratified by the Legislature. (Professional Engineers in California Government v. Schwarzenegger (2010) 50 Cal.4th 989 [ 116 Cal.Rptr.3d 480 , 239 P.3d 1186 ] (Professional Engineers).) However the court left open the question of whether the decision extended to employees of elected constitutional officers. (Id. at pp. 1005, 1034, fn. 28.) We conclude it does.

State Controller John Chiang, as well as the Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and members of the Board of Equalization (hereafter collectively the officers 1 ), appeal from the judgment of the trial court granting the Governor’s petition for writ of mandate compelling the Controller to exercise his ministerial duty to comply with the furlough order. In a related case…