Opinion ID: 1291026
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Should section 525.11 be given weight as an administrative interpretation?

Text: The board argues that, even if section 525.11 is invalid because of APA requirements, it still merits deference as an interpretation by the administrators of a rule that needs interpretation. A major aim of the APA was to provide a procedure whereby people to be affected may be heard on the merits of proposed rules. Yet we are here requested to give weight to section 525.11 in a controversy that pits the board against an individual member of exactly that class the APA sought to protect before rules like this are made effective. That, we think, would permit an agency to flout the APA by penalizing those who were entitled to notice and opportunity to be heard but received neither. Under sections 11371, subdivision (b), 11420 and 11440 of the APA, rules that interpret and implement other rules have no legal effect unless they have been promulgated in substantial compliance with the APA. Therefore section 525.11 merits no weight as an agency interpretation. To hold otherwise might help perpetuate the problem that more than 20 years ago was identified in the First Report of the Senate Interim Committee on Administrative Regulations, supra, as follows (at pp. 8-9): The committee is compelled to report to the Legislature that it has found many agencies which avoid the mandatory requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act of public notice, opportunity to be heard by the public, filing with the Secretary of State, and publication in the Administrative Code. The committee has found that some agencies did not follow the act's requirements because they were not aware of them; some agencies do not follow the act's requirements because they believe they are exempt; at least one agency did not follow the act because it was too busy; some agencies feel the act's requirements prevent them from administering the laws required to be administered by them; and many agencies ... believe the function being performed was not in the realm of quasi-legislative powers.... The manner of avoidance takes many forms, depending on the size of the agency and the type of law being administered, but they can all be briefly described as `house rules of the agency.' They consist of rules of the agency, denominated variedly as `policies,' `interpretations,' `instructions,' `guides,' `standards,' or the like, and are contained in internal organs of the agency such as manuals, memoranda, bulletins, or are directed to the public in the form of circulars or bulletins.