Facts

The Cities of El Centro, Carlsbad, El Cajon, Fresno, Oceanside and Vista filed a complaint against state officials Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary David Lanier, Director of Industrial relations Christine Baker, Labor Commissioner Julie Su, and the State of California. The State Building and Construction Trades Council intervened as a defendant.

The dispute concerned the validity of several state statutes that affect the eligibility of charter cities for state funding.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiffs filed a writ of mandate to prevent defendants from implementing and enforcing Senate Bill No. 7 (2013), SB 829 (2012) and SB 922 (2011). Those statutes provide that charter cities are not eligible for discretionary state construction funding if they do not require payment of prevailing wages on public work and/or prohibit the use of project labor agreements. Plaintiffs argued that these statutes violate the rights of charter cities, as set forth in the California Constitution, and that they had the right to not pay prevailing wages on city-funded projects.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Defendants argued that the state was free to require recipients of discretionary state construction funding to pay prevailing wages on all public works construction.

Result

The court denied plaintiffs' petition for writ of mandate.