CITY OF GAINESVILLE, APPELLANT,
v.
ALACHUA COUNTY POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1986-08-15
No. BF-350
BOOTH, C.J., and SMITH and WENT-WORTH, JJ., concur.
493 So. 2d 46 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1986)

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Synopsis

The City of Gainesville appealed a Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) order certifying the Alachua County Police Benevolent Association as the exclusive bargaining representative for police lieutenants and two sergeant positions. The court vacated and remanded in part, finding insufficient evidence in the record to support including the two sergeant positions in the bargaining unit without further evidence regarding their managerial or confidential status.


Holding

The court set aside the order to the extent necessary to permit evidence regarding whether the two sergeant positions should be included in the bargaining unit. The court affirmed PERC's determination that lieutenants are not managerial, finding competent and substantial evidence to support this conclusion. The court did not address the second issue regarding proposed findings of fact since the case was being remanded.


Headnotes

[1] A public employee relations commission must provide record evidence sufficient to demonstrate a conflict of interest or support a managerial or confidential designation b…

[2] A court may set aside an order of the Public Employees Relations Commission to permit evidence regarding the appropriateness of including specific positions in a bargaini…

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Key Quotes

“PERC has acknowledged that there is no competent, substantial evidence in this record to support the inclusion of the two sergeant positions in the lieutenants' collective bargaining unit.”

Establishes that the appellate court found the PERC's own acknowledgment that the record lacked sufficient evidence to support including the sergeant positions

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

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Facts & Procedural History

PERC certified the Alachua County Police Benevolent Association as the exclusive bargaining representative for police lieutenants and two sergeant pos…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

This cause is before us on appeal from an order of the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC), verifying the election results and certifying the Alachua County Police Benevolent Association as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for all police lieutenants and for two police sergeant positions in the Gainesville Police Department. Appellant has raised three issues: (1) whether PERC’s failure to give appellant notice of the inclusion of the two sergeant positions in the lieutenants’ bargaining unit is reversible error; (2) whether PERC failed to make explicit rulings on appellant’s proposed findings of fact as required under Section 120.59(2), Florida Statutes (1983); and (3) whether PERC erred in holding that personnel in the lieutenant classification in the Gainesville Police Department are not managerial.

After consideration of the oral arguments, briefs, and record, we must set aside the order to the extent necessary to permit evidence regarding whether it is appropriate to include the two sergeant positions in the bargaining unit. Referring to its order in Alachua County PBA v. City of Gainesville, 10 F.P.E.R. par. 15249 (1983), PERC states:

The stipulations which served as the evidentiary record in that case were directed at the possible conflict of interest with members of the rank-and-file bargaining unit, not members of the presently proposed supervisory bargaining unit. We there determined that this conflict of interest aligned the Training Officer and the Personnel Officer [sergeant positions] “with the Department’s Lieutenants.” Id. at 543. We noted that it might be necessary in the instant case to determine the managerial or confidential status of these employees. Unfortunately, the prior stipulations do not provide an adequate basis for making such a determination or for finding a conflict of interest between these two employees and the Department’s Lieutenants. In the absence of record evidence sufficient to demonstrate such a conflict of interest or to support a managerial or confidential designation, we modify the proposed supervisory unit description to include these two positions....

Thus, PERC has acknowledged that there is no competent, substantial evidence in this record to support the inclusion of the two sergeant positions in the lieutenants’ collective bargaining unit. See State, Department of Administration v. PERC, 443 So. 2d 258 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983).

Since we are remanding for further evidence regarding the managerial or confidential status of the two sergeant positions, it is not necessary for us to address appellant’s second point.

Regarding appellant’s third point, the evidence would support a decision either way regarding the managerial status of the lieutenants1 and their inclusion in the supervisory bargaining unit. We find there is competent and substantial evidence to support the final order, particularly in view of the paramilitary structure of the Gainesville Police Department. Cf. City of St. Augustine v. Professional Fire Fighters, 440 So. 2d 416 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983).

Accordingly, the final order is vacated in part, affirmed in part, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BOOTH, C.J., and SMITH and WENT-WORTH, JJ., concur. . Section 447.203(4)(a) and (b), Florida Statutes, prescribes the criteria for managerial employees.


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