MOU Between County and Deputy Sheriffs' Association Gave County Unrestricted Authority to Reassign Deputies

The Fifth Appellate District held that an arbitrator's decision in favor of two county employees contradicted the express terms of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the county and the employees' association.

Two sheriff's deputies, through their employee organization, filed a grievance challenging their involuntary reassignment from their specialty assignments to patrol assignments.  They asserted the reassignments violated both the MOU between the County of Fresno and the Fresno Deputy Sheriff's Association, and an established past practice that deputies would not be involuntarily reassigned in the absence of disciplinary issues, documented performance issues, layoffs, or pending disability retirement.  The administrative hearing of the grievance resulted in a decision in favor of the deputies.

The trial court granted the county's petition for writ of mandate to reverse the decision, finding the arbitrator's findings were not supported by substantial evidence.

The court of appeal affirmed, holding that the arbitrator abused his discretion in issuing a decision in favor of the deputies.  First, the management rights accorded the county under the MOU expressly granted the county the right to assign and reassign deputies, without limiting the reassignment right to cases of discipline, poor performance, or similar circumstances.  Consequently, the sheriff's department did not violate the MOU by reassigning the deputies involuntarily, even in the absence of disciplinary issues, documented performance issues, layoffs, or pending disability retirement.

Further, given the clear and unambiguous language of the MOU, there was no need to consider past practice. The parties were bound by their written agreement, regardless of whether or not the county had exercised its rights under the agreement previously.

County of Fresno v. Fresno Deputy Sheriff's Association