Court Opinion

ID: 9544140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:52:23.520058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:12:04.816238
License: Public Domain

BURKE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Article X, Section 11 of the Constitution of the State of Alaska provides: “A home rule borough or city may exercise all legislative powers not prohibited by law or by charter.” Exercising a legislative power expressly conferred upon it by Section 4, Chapter 113, SLA 1972, the City of Petersburg, by resolution, rejected the application of the provisions of the Public Employment Relations Act. The majority now says that such action was improper since the city was aware of “substantial organizational activity” on the part of certain of its employees. I do not agree.
We are required to give a liberal construction to the powers of local government units.1 With that principle in mind I can find nothing in the language of the Public Employment Relations Act, or its legislative history, justifying the implied limitation suggested by the majority. Particularly where, as here, there has been an express delegation of legislative authority I believe that this court should act with the utmost restraint in placing any restriction on the exercise of that authority by a home rule city. In this case the legislature’s failure to impose a time limitation, in express terms, is simply too obvious to be without meaning. To me there is clear evidence of an intent that there be no such limitation.
But, even if some limitation was intended, as found by the majority, I oppose the adoption of a standard as uncertain as one based upon a political subdivision’s awareness of “substantial organizational activity” on the part of its employees. What level or awareness is sufficient? Is actual knowledge required? If so, whose knowledge? Does the term “substantial organizational activity” refer to the number of employees involved or the level of their activity? Does it mean substantial in relation to the size of the political subdivision’s total work force, the number of employees eligible for membership in a particular union, or those working at a particular facility, such as a municipal light and power plant?
Because of these and other questions I foresee grave difficulty in any future attempt to determine whether a political subdivision is entitled to avail itself of the protection afforded by Section 4, Chapter 113, SLA 1972. The only safe course of action for such an entity would appear to be the immediate enactment of an ordinance or resolution rejecting the provisions of the Public Employment Relations Act.

. Article X, Section 1, Constitution of the State of Alaska.