Boling v. Public Employment Relations Bd.

This case arose from a Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) finding that the City of San Diego (City) violated the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act when the City's mayor made a policy decision to advance a citizens' pension reform initiative without meeting and conferring with the affected employees' unions. The California Supreme Court upheld PERB's finding that the mayor's actions violated the City's meet and confer obligations, then remanded the matter to the Court of Appeal to "address the appropriate judicial remedy for the violation." The Court of Appeal declined the Unions' request to invalidate the Initiative as a judicial remedy because it concluded the Initiative's validity was more appropriately addressed in a separate quo warranto proceeding. Furthermore, the Court concluded it needed to modify PERB's compensatory and cease-and-desist remedies to prevent the remedies from impermissibly encroaching upon constitutional law, statutory law, and policy matters involving initiatives, elections, and the doctrine of preemption unrelated to the Act. As modified, the Court affirmed PERB's decision. View "Boling v. Public Employment Relations Bd." on Justia Law