Opinion ID: 2399386
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hoage's Employment Status

Text: Under the CMPA, the Educational Service includes all employees of UDC except those employed in the following positions: (A) Clerical, stenographic, or secretarial positions; (B) Custodial, building maintenance, building engineer, general maintenance, or general engineering positions; (C) Bus drivers and other drivers involved in the transportation of persons, equipment, materials or other inventory; (D) Cooks, dieticians, and other positions involved in direct planning, preparation, service, and conditions of preparation and service of food; (E) Technicians involved in the operation or maintenance of machinery, vehicles, equipment or the processing of materials and inventory; or (F) Positions the major duties in which consist of the supervision of employees covered in subparagraphs (A) through (E) of this definition: Provided, however, that this subparagraph shall not be deemed to include heads of academic units at the School of Law or the University of the District of Columbia. D.C.Code § 1-603.1(6). UDC employees in these six categories are in the Career Service. See D.C.Code § 1-608.1(a). Hoage claims that, because of the duties he performed, his job description placed him in the Career Service as a matter of law. He asserts that he falls under subparagraph (F) of the statutory exceptions quoted above because of his supervisory duties over technicians, clerks, and secretaries. Hoage's four-page job description shows, however, that his duties consisted mainly of procurement planning and the supervision of approximately nineteen workers engaged in purchasing and procurement activities, as opposed to the supervision of workers in the categories which would bring him within the Career Service. See D.C.Code § 1-603.1(6)(A)-(E). According to the job description, Hoage's work involved him in the planning, development, coordination, execution and direction of the University's procurement and purchasing activities. One of his roles was to draft[] policies and procedures regarding procurement activities as well as the utilization and control of related items and equipment throughout the University. He had signatory authority on purchase orders up to $100,000, and he administered the execution of contracts for various commodities and services. He was authorized to conduct surveys or studies involving complex methods, procedures and systems problems that involve procurement activities and to establish[] different techniques to test proposed new or revised functions, procedures and regulations. He was required to maintain[] liaison with industry representatives to keep abreast of new items on the sources of supply and more effectively carry out procurement functions. His other duties included the preparation of procurement manuals, the review of applicable federal and District of Columbia procurement regulations, and the projection of future procurement needs for the university. The fact that he may have supervised a relatively small number of clerical employees in the course of these activities does not persuade us that he falls within the Career Service as a matter of law, as he maintains. We hold, accordingly, that Mr. Hoage has failed to demonstrate that, under the statute, he was a member of the Career Service as a matter of law. We further hold that the trial court did not err in concluding on this record that the university's determination that he was in the Educational Service was supported by substantial evidence.