Opinion ID: 1295647
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The question whether the Mayor and Manager of Safety could seek review of an order of the Civil Service Commission.

Text: The basic purpose of civil service laws is to secure governments, local, state and national, efficient public servants. Such laws seek to promote the welfare of the individual civil servant but an overriding policy is promotion of the best interests of the public as a whole. Borough of Park Ridge v. Salimone, 21 N.J. 28, 120 A.2d 721 (Vanderbilt, J.). Accepting this basic principle and considering that our decisions have repeatedly held that certiorari is available on behalf of an aggrieved employee, it would seem to follow that the public, the City and County of Denver, acting through its proper officers in the public interest, may exercise the remedy extended to individuals even though specific provision is not made therefor in the Charter. The Rules of Civil Procedure are broad enough to cover this condition. Rule 106(a) (4) provides:    Where an inferior tribunal (whether court, board, commission or officer) exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions, has exceeded its jurisdiction or abused its discretion, and there is no plain, speedy and adequate remedy.   relief may be granted. It makes no distinction between an aggrieved individual and a municipal corporation which seeks review in the interest of the public as a whole. Board of Adjustment of the City and County of Denver v. Keuhn, 132 Colo. 348, 290 P.2d 1114, is not contrary. The holding in that case was that the City and County of Denver, not having been a party before the Board of Adjustment, was powerless to prosecute a writ of error. In the present case the city was represented before the Civil Service Commission and must be held to be within its rights in filing certiorari in the district court. Cf. City and County of Denver v. Redding-Miller, Inc., 141 Colo. 269, 347 P.2d 954.