California Court of Appeal

In a case involving a citizen-sponsored initiative, the Citizens Pension Reform Initiative (CPRI), which adopted a charter amendment mandating changes in the pension plan for certain employees of City of San Diego, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) determination -- that the City was obliged to 'meet and confer' pursuant to the provisions of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), Gov. Code, section 3500et seq., over the CPRI before placing it on the ballot -- is annulled where: 1) under relevant California law the meet-and-confer obligations under the MMBA have no application when a proposed charter amendment is placed on the ballot by citizen proponents through the initiative process, but instead apply only to proposed charter amendments placed on the ballot by the governing body of a charter city; and 2) PERB erred when it found Sanders and the San Diego City Council committed an unfair labor practice by declining to meet and confer over the CPRI before placing it on the ballot.

Appellate Information

• Published 2017/04/11

Judges

• McCONNELL

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel