Court Rejects Gov.’s Decree

Striking down a recent dictate of the Schwarzenegger administration, a judge ruled Thursday that political appointees can work from their homes instead of at government headquarters.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd G. Connolly’s decision was the second legal setback for Schwarzenegger in the last two weeks.

Connolly sided with Marcy Saunders, a member of the California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board who had been appointed by Schwarzenegger’s Democratic predecessor, Gov. Gray Davis.

Saunders sued to overturn the Republican administration’s decree in November that members of four boards and commissions, some of whom are paid more than $100,000 a year, show up at headquarters during working hours.

Connolly has not issued a written opinion but made his ruling in a court session, a state official said.

“We made it clear that we have expected these highly paid public officials to actually show up to their jobs,” said Rick Rice, undersecretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. “The court today has slapped us down.”

Another Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled earlier this month that the governor had no authority to overturn a state law requiring increased numbers of nurses in medical-surgical wards.

The Schwarzenegger administration and the California Hospital Assn., which has been fighting the new ratios as an unfair burden on its members, filed an appeal Thursday.

Rice said the administration is considering filing an appeal of Connolly’s decision or asking the Legislature and Schwarzenegger to change the law and require board members to work at their central offices.

Until the Schwarzenegger administration issued its decree in November, Saunders would have material for twice-a-month board meetings delivered to her apartment in the Bay Area town of Foster City.

The Schwarzenegger-appointed chairwoman of the board, seeking to end that practice, directed that board members review material at the Sacramento headquarters, more than 100 miles away.

“The law does not say how Marcy is to do her job,” said her attorney, John J. Davis Jr., “It is up to her to figure out how to do it.”

Davis added that when Saunders was appointed in 2000, she established a home office because there was insufficient room in state offices in San Francisco.

The administration contended that some appointees failed to do their jobs effectively. But some Davis appointees viewed the directive as an effort to pressure them into resigning.

The boards handle thousands of appeals from people who have been denied workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance benefits, or are pressing complaints about workplace safety and labor issues involving farmworkers.

Some board members have held outside jobs, including working as political consultants. Others have worked from their homes in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego rather than work in board offices, most of which are in Sacramento. In most instances, governors appoint friends, political supporters or campaign donors to the posts.

Saunders “doesn’t have a plum job,” attorney Davis said, adding that she works hard and is always prepared. “She works at it, and it obviously is an important position.”

Rice said that allowing board members to work wherever they want increases the cost of doing the state’s business because staff members must prepare materials to send to the board members.

“When the board members are the highest-ranking executives overseeing a function,” Rice said, “like for example the Cal-OSHA Appeals Board, it doesn’t help the process when they are not there to oversee it.”