Title: VSEA v. VT Criminal Justice Training Council

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

VT State Employees' Assoc., Inc. v. VT Criminal Justice Training Council 
(96-576); 167 Vt. 191; 704 A.2d 769

[Filed 24-Oct-1997]

       NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press. 

                                No. 96-576

Vermont State Employees'                          Supreme Court
Association, Inc., et al.
                                                  On Appeal from
     v.                                            Washington Superior Court

Vermont Criminal Justice                          April Term, 1997
Training Council

John P. Meaker, J.

       Samuel C. Palmisano, VSEA Legal Counsel, and Mark Heyman, Assistant
  Legal Counsel, Montpelier, for plaintiffs-appellants

       Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Attorney General, and David K. Herlihy, Assistant
  Attorney General, Montpelier, for defendant-appellee

PRESENT:   Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ., and Allen, C.J.
          (Ret.), Specially   Assigned

       GIBSON, J.  The Vermont State Employees' Association, Inc. (VSEA) and
  five former state employees appeal the superior court's dismissal of their
  suit claiming that the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council violated
  the state classification plan and its merits system principles by laying
  off the five employees and contracting out their work to a private company.
  Because we conclude that plaintiffs have failed to show that the Attorney
  General clearly abused his discretion in approving the contract privatizing
  the work previously done by the employees, we affirm the superior court's
  dismissal of the suit.

       The Council operates the Vermont Police Academy, providing basic and
  advanced training to law enforcement officers and firefighters.  Until July
  1993, it ran a food service staffed by civil servants employed under the
  State Employees Labor Relations Act and the collective bargaining agreement
  in effect at the time.  In the fall of 1992, the Council submitted its
  proposed budget for fiscal year 1994 to the Department of Finance and
  Management, which

 

  works with state agencies in preparing the Governor's proposed budget for
  each fiscal year.  The Department questioned why the Council had a
  full-time cafeteria staff to service a part-time training facility.  Based
  on the Department's estimate of the savings that would be realized by
  privatizing the food service at the Academy, the Governor proposed that the
  Council's budget for fiscal year 1994 be reduced by $73,000.  The
  Legislature approved the budget, and the five food service workers were
  laid off.  The Council contracted with a private company to provide meals
  at the Academy beginning July 1, 1993.  On August 4, 1993, the Attorney
  General certified that the food-service contract was not contrary to the
  spirit and intent of the classification plan and its merit system
  principles.

       Plaintiffs filed two separate actions challenging the layoffs and
  ensuing contract.  In September 1994, they filed a grievance with the
  Vermont Labor Relations Board, alleging that the State had violated the
  collective bargaining agreement by failing to demonstrate that the
  contracting out of their work met the contractual criteria required for
  such action, and by failing to give the VSEA a meaningful opportunity to
  discuss cost-saving alternatives to the layoffs before taking the action. 
  In October 1994, in a 2-1 decision, the Board dismissed plaintiffs'
  grievance, and this Court affirmed the Board's action in September 1995. 
  See In re VSEA, 164 Vt. 214,