Duncan

I

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Housing Partners I, Inc. (HPI), appeals from a judgment denying its petition for writ of mandate against respondent John C. Duncan, the Director of Industrial Relations for the State of California (Director). In administrative proceedings, the Director determined that a low-income housing project developed by HPI was a “public work” within the meaning of Labor Code section 1720 1 and was not subject to a statutory exception to the usual requirement for payment of prevailing wages on a public works project. The Director’s determination could mean HPI would have to pay higher labor costs on its low-income housing project and possibly be “subject to a prevailing wage and penalty assessment, fines, lawsuits and disciplinary action, and . . . barred altogether from bidding on future public works projects.” (Fowler, Contractor Beware: The Fine Line Between “Public Works” and “Private Projects” Under California’s Prevailing Wage Law (2010) vol. 20, No. 4, Real Estate Newsalert.)

HPI’s appeal involves two statutory exceptions to the requirement for payment of prevailing wage on a public works project and concerns the interplay of two important public…