Am. Fed'n of State, Cnty & Mun. Emps. Local 923 v. City of Espanola

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AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 923, Petitioner-Appellee, v. CITY OF ESPANOLA and ESPANOLA POLICE DEPARTMENT, Respondents-Appellants.

No. A-1-CA-38804

Court of Appeals of New Mexico

January 19, 2022

Corrections to this opinion/decision not affecting the outcome, at the Court's discretion, can occur up to the time of publication with NM Compilation Commission. The Court will ensure that the electronic version of this opinion/decision is updated accordingly in Odyssey.

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF RIO ARRIBA COUNTY Jason Lidyard District Judge

Youtz & Valdez, P.C.

Shane Youtz

Stephen Curtice

James Montalbano

Albuquerque, NM

for Appellee

Bingham, Hurst & Apodaca, P.C.

Wayne E. Bingham

Albuquerque, NM

for Appellants

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KRISTINA BOGARDUS, JUDGE

{¶1} The City of Espanola (City) appeals the district court's denial of its motion to dismiss and order granting the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Local 923's (Union) petition to compel arbitration.^[1] The City argues enforcement of the arbitration agreement is governed by the Public Employee Bargaining Act (PEBA), NMSA 1978, §§ 10-7E-1 to -26 (2003, amended 2020), ^[2]and not the Uniform Arbitration Act (UAA), NMSA 1978, §§ 44-7A-1 to -32 (2001). We affirm.

DISCUSSION

{¶2} The City contends that the district court erred by denying its motion to dismiss because the PEBA controls over the UAA primary jurisdiction lies within the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board (the Board), and the proper avenue to seek relief for a violation of the collective bargaining agreement (the CBA) between the City and the Union was to file a prohibited practice complaint under Section 10-7E-19(H) of the PEBA.

{¶3} The issues in this appeal involve interpretation of the PEBA and the UAA. "We review questions of statutory construction de novo." State v. Smith, 2004-NMSC-032, ¶ 8, 136 N.M. 372, 98 P.3d 1022. Generally, "[i]n construing the language of a statute, our goal and guiding principle is to give effect to the intent of the Legislature." Grisham v. Romero, 2021-NMSC-009, ¶ 23, 483 P.3d 545. "In determining legislative intent, we look to the plain language of the statute and the context in which it was enacted, taking into account its history and background." Pirtle v. Legis. Council Comm., 2021-NMSC-026, ¶ 14, 492 P.3d 586. Moreover, "[w]e consider all parts of the statute together, reading the statute in its entirety and construing each part in connection with every other part to produce a harmonious whole." Dep't of Game & Fish v. Rawlings, 2019-NMCA-018, ¶ 6, 436 P.3d 741 (alterations, internal quotation marks, and citation omitted). Applying these principles of statutory construction, we conclude the Union was not required to file a prohibited practice complaint under the PEBA and the district court properly denied the City's motion to dismiss.

{¶4} We start by reviewing both the UAA and the PEBA. The UAA "governs an agreement to arbitrate." Section 44-7A-3(a). Under this statute, "[a]n agreement contained in a record to submit to arbitration any existing or subsequent controversy arising between the parties to the agreement is valid, enforceable and irrevocable except upon a ground that exists at law or in equity for the revocation of a contract." Section 44-7A-7(a). The question of whether parties agreed to arbitrate is decided by a district court, which shall "issue an order accordingly." Hunt v. Rio at Rust Ctr., LLC, 2021-NMCA-043, ¶ 13, 495 P.3d 634; see §§ 44-7A-7, -8. Arbitration is a "highly favored" form of dispute resolution, Luginbuhl v. City of Gallup, 2013-NMCA-053, ¶ 21, 302 P.3d 751 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted), because it promotes judicial efficiency and conservation of the parties' resources. Santa Fe Tech., Inc. v. Argus Networks, Inc., 2002-NMCA-030, ¶ 51, 131 N.M. 772, 42 P.3d 1221. "New Mexico has a strong public policy in favor of arbitration as a form of dispute resolution." Luginbuhl, 2013-NMCA-053, ¶ 21 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). "Parties contracting to resolve disputes by arbitration are bound by their agreement." Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

{¶5} The purpose of the PEBA is to "guarantee public employees the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employers, to promote harmonious and cooperative relationships between public employers and public employees[.]" Section 10-7E-2. The PEBA provides that a public employer shall not "refuse or fail to comply with a collective bargaining agreement[, ]" § 10-7E-19(H), and creates the Board that "has the power to enforce provisions of the [PEBA] through the imposition of appropriate administrative remedies." Sections 10-7E-9(F), -8(A).^[3]

{¶6} The City first argues that the PEBA was a comprehensive revision of the law regarding unionized public employees and public employers such that it supersedes the UAA. In support of its argument, the City relies on Landau v. New Mexico Attorney General, 2019-NMCA-041, 446 P.3d 1229.

{¶7} In Landau, this Court construed a conflict in the Personnel Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 10-9-1 to -25 (1961, as amended through 2014) and NMSA 1978, Section 8-5-5 (1988), to determine whether the appellants fired by the newly elected attorney general, were "classified" employees entitled to protections under the Personnel Act or "exempt" employees not subject to those protections. Landau, 2019-NMCA-041, ¶ 5. Section 8-5-5 was originally enacted to create the Department of Justice, and was amended to provide for appointment of employees "who shall hold office during the pleasure of the attorney general" making them "exempt." Landau, 2019-NMCA-041, ¶ 6. The relevant Personnel Act was enacted in 1961. Id. ¶ 8. The Personnel Act defined as "classified" most individuals employed by an elected official. No language in either statute resolved the conflict or addressed which statute should be applied in the event of such a conflict. Id. ¶¶ 5, 8. After a thorough examination of both statutes' legislative histories, including historical amendments, this Court determined that the Legislature enacted the Personnel Act as a comprehensive revision of the state's public employment system. Id. ¶ 13. This Court applied the rule of statutory construction set forth in NMSA 1978, Section 12-2A-10(D) (1997): "If a rule is a comprehensive revision of the rules on the subject, it prevails over previous rules on the subject, whether or not the revision and the previous rules conflict irreconcilably." Landau, 2019-NMCA-041, ¶ 4.

{¶8} Our holding in Landau was based on several factors. We based our conclusion on the intent of the Personnel Act, 2019-NMCA-041, ¶ 13, the Personnel Act's plain language, id. ¶ 14, the Legislature's failure to respond to attorney general opinions regarding their interpretation of the enactment of the state Personnel Act that stated, "the [a]ttorney [g]eneral's employees were no longer exempt from the coverage of the Personnel Act[, ]" id. ¶¶ 15-16, provisions of the Personnel Act that provided automatic coverage to employees who had served out a probationary period, id. ¶ 17, and a later enacted amendment that exempted certain members of the Office of the Attorney General from the Personnel Act. Id. ¶ 18.

{¶9} The indications of legislative intent in this case differ significantly from those described in Landau. The purpose of the PEBA, to "guarantee public employees the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employers, to promote harmonious and cooperative relationships between public employers and public employees," § 10-7E-2, is not impeded by allowing public employers and public employees to arbitrate per the agreements set out in their collective bargaining agreements and to enforce those arbitration provisions per the UAA. The plain language of the PEBA includes no language prohibiting parties from arbitrating per such agreements, and the City points to no legislative history that demonstrates legislative intent for us to conclude that the only or primary way to address breaches of collective bargaining agreements is under the PEBA.

{¶10} Finally, in Landau, this Court could not construe the statutes to give effect to each, because this Court was presented with an issue that required it to determine whether the employees in question were "exempt[, ]" pursuant to Section 8-5-5, or "classified[, ]" pursuant to the Personnel Act. Landau, 2019-NMCA-041, ¶ 2 (internal quotation marks omitted). Because the employees could only be one or the other, this Court could not construe the two statutes harmoniously. In this case, we can construe the statutes in harmony to allow the parties to seek a remedy for violations of the CBA under the UAA or the PEBA. See § 12-2A-10(A) ("If statutes appear to conflict, they must be construed, if possible, to give effect to each.").

{¶11} Here, the City cites no authority to support its view that the PEBA is a comprehensive revision of the law, except to cite the statute's conflicts provision and cite the purpose of the PEBA to "guarantee public employees the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employers." Section 10-7E-2. We see nothing in the language of these sections to support the City's position. First, the conflicts provision in the PEBA merely addresses "conflict[s] with other laws," § 10-7E-3, and neither states nor infers that the PEBA is a revision of an entire area of law. Next, while we agree the City accurately describes PEBA's purpose as set out in the statute, the statute's purpose does not necessarily support the City's claim that the PEBA is a comprehensive revision of disputes between certain public employers...