Agenda #: 5.5
Meeting Date: April 1, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Daniel Fox, City Manager
TITLE: AMENDMENT TO EMPLOYER EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATION
RELATIONS PROCEDURES.
STRATEGIC
GOAL: Open, Engaged & Responsive Government
RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt Resolution No. 2025-08 Amending Employer-Employee Organization Relations Procedures and Repealing Resolution No. 2003-65.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
No financial impact.
BACKGROUND:
The Meyers-Milias Brown Act (MMBA) was passed in 1968 to provide a method of resolving disputes on wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between public employers and public employee organizations. The MMBA was the first law in California that gave public sector employees the right to collective bargaining. It provides a uniform basis for recognizing the rights of public employees to join labor organizations and be represented by those organizations in their employment relationships with public agencies. The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) is a quasi-judicial state agency that has jurisdiction over the implementation of the MMBA.
Public agencies are permitted to adopt reasonable local rules pertaining to employeremployee relations as long as they do not impair employee rights and conform with the overall purpose and principles described in the MMBA. The City Council adopted local rules on November 18, 2003 and were documented in Resolution 2003-65 establishing Employer-Employee relations procedures. Section 5 of Article II of the current local rules require an organization seeking to represent a unit of employees to certify that it has in its possession proof that a majority of employees in the unit have designated the organization to represent them. After receiving a petition, the local rules establish a 30-
day open period during which competing organizations may seek to represent the unit seeking representation. After the 30-day open period, Section 6 of Article II of the local rules require a secret ballot election of the employees in the unit prior to the City recognizing the organization as the exclusive bargaining representative of the unit, even if no competing organization files a petition to represent the unit during the 30-day open period.
It is recommended that the City’s local rules be updated to include the following text at the end of Section 5 of Article II.
“If after the conclusion of the 30-day waiting period, no other employee organization submits a petition seeking to represent the same unit of employees, the Employee Relations Officer shall grant recognition to the only petitioning organization as the exclusive bargaining representative, without requiring an election (as set forth in Section 6 of Article II).” The proposed revision eliminates the need for an election in the event that only one organization petitions to represent a unit of City employees. An election will be required only in the event that two or more organizations seek to represent the same unit of employees.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed and approved the Resolution as to form.
PREPARED BY:
REVIEWED BY:
Attachments:
1. 5.5.a Resolution No. 2025-08