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PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION et al., Petitioners,
v.
EDMUND G. BROWN, JR., as Governor, etc., et al., Respondents; CALIFORNIA STATE EMPLOYEES' ASSOCIATION et al., Interveners.
Supreme Court of California.
*173 COUNSEL
Ronald A. Zumbrun and Robert K. Best for Petitioners.
John C. Wakefield, Larry C. Larsen, Gilles Attia, A.J. Weiglein, Roger A. Jeanson, Haas & Najarian, Thomas A. Farr and Rex Reed as Amici Curiae on behalf of Petitioners.
Tuttle & Taylor, Raymond C. Fisher, Barbara L. Stocker, Jeffrey M. Hamerling, J. Anthony Kline, Byron S. Georgiou, Barbara T. Stuart, Jerome B. Falk, Jr., Steven L. Mayer, Howard, Prim, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady & Pollak, Barry Winograd, Kristin Jensen, Robert Miller, William P. Smith, Terry Filliman, Gerald Becker and Ronald Blubaugh for Respondents.
Loren E. McMaster, Bernard L. Allamano, Gary P. Reynolds, Richard Lobel, Van Bourg, Allen, Weinberg & Roger, Stewart Weinberg and Robert J. Bezemek for Interveners.
Reich, Adell, Crost & Perry, Hirsch Adell, Charles P. Scully, Donald C. Carroll, Charles P. Scully II, Donald H. Wollett, Ronald Yank, Franklin Silver, Carroll, Burdick & McDonough, Bodkin, McCarthy, Sargent & Smith, Timothy J. Sargent, Kevin W. Horan, Gillin, Jacobson & Wilson, Ralph L. Jacobson and Cynthia T. Podren as Amici Curiae on behalf of Interveners.
OPINION
TOBRINER, J.
Over the past 20 years, the California Legislature has enacted a series of legislative measures granting public employees, at both the state and local level, a variety of organizational and negotiating rights somewhat analogous to the rights long afforded most employees in the private sector by the federal labor relation laws of the *174 1930's. In the instant mandate proceeding, petitioners have mounted a sweeping constitutional challenge to one of the most recent of these public labor relations measures, the State Employer-Employee Relations Act (SEERA), enacted in 1977 to regulate the state's labor relations with state employees. (Stats. 1977, ch. 1159, § 4, p. 3751, codified in Gov. Code, § 3512 et seq.)[1] Petitioners principally contend that SEERA is unconstitutional on its face because it allegedly conflicts with the "merit system" of employment embodied in the civil service provisions of article VII of the California Constitution, and, in particular, with the powers that article VII assertedly assigns exclusively to the jurisdiction of the State Personnel Board. On the basis of these constitutional contentions, petitioners seek a writ of mandate striking down the 1977 statute and compelling the various respondent public officers and agencies to conduct their operations without regard to the provisions of SEERA.
For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that SEERA is not unconstitutional on its face. First, we shall point out that the collective bargaining process established by SEERA does not conflict with the general merit principle of civil service employment established as a constitutional precept by article VII. As we shall explain, although the history and language of article VII demonstrate a clear intent to eliminate the "spoils system" in public employment by raising the principle of appointment and promotion on the basis of merit to constitutional stature, free from potential legislative encroachment, the provisions of SEERA do not conflict with this constitutionally enshrined merit principle. On the contrary, as we shall see, the Legislature carefully crafted the provisions of SEERA with the constitutional mandate of article VII firmly in mind, explicitly reaffirming the continued application of the merit principle in the preamble of the act and fashioning the major elements of the act in a manner calculated to minimize potential conflict with the merit principle.
Second, we shall explain that SEERA does not conflict with article VII in reserving the ultimate salary setting decision with regard to state civil service employees to the Governor and the Legislature, rather than assigning the matter of salary determination to the State Personnel Board. As we shall see, neither the current version of article VII nor its constitutional predecessor contains any language explicitly authorizing the State Personnel Board to set salaries. Although petitioners argue *175 that the State Personnel Board's designated authority to "classify" positions in the civil service necessarily carries with it the authority to set the salaries for such classifications, consistent legislative practice, judicial construction and, indeed, the State Personnel Board's own interpretation of its constitutional mandate, all refute the petitioners' position. While the State Personnel Board's classification of positions may well operate to constrain the discretion of the Governor and Legislature in establishing salaries, SEERA's provisions do not on their face pose any conflict with the Personnel Board's exercise of its constitutional classification authority.
Finally, we conclude that the provisions of SEERA granting the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) initial jurisdiction to investigate and adjudicate "unfair practices" are not rendered unconstitutional on their face by virtue of the State Personnel Board's authority, under article VII, section 3, subdivision (a), to "review disciplinary actions" against civil service employees. As we point out, whatever the scope of the State Personnel Board's authority with respect to disciplinary actions there is a substantial area in which PERB's unfair practice jurisdiction does not overlap with the State Personnel Board's jurisdiction at all. Accordingly, for that reason alone, the statutory provision could not properly be invalidated on its face in this proceeding.
Moreover, even in those cases in which the jurisdictions of the two agencies do overlap, the mere possibility of conflict does not call for a drastic or inflexible rule totally curtailing one agency's jurisdiction at the expense of the other's. Instead, we must harmonize the competing procedural schemes in a fashion that will best serve the policies underlying each agency's functions with least injury to the functions of the other. As we point out, our court has applied such a harmonizing principle in the face of similar, potential jurisdictional conflicts in recent cases, and other jurisdictions have adopted similar approaches in dealing with disputes between agencies with functions comparable to the State Personnel Board and PERB.
Thus, we shall conclude that SEERA is not unconstitutional on its face, and that the requested writs of mandate should be denied.
1. Background and description of the provisions of SEERA.
Prior to 1961, public employees in California enjoyed no formal rights to participate in the decision-making processes which determined *176 the terms and conditions of their employment. In 1961, the evolution of public employee rights in this state began with the enactment of the George Brown Act (Stats. 1961, ch. 1964, § 1, pp. 4141-4142, now codified in §§ 3525-3536). As originally enacted, the act applied to employees of the state, cities, counties, school districts and institutions of higher education, granting such employees the right to join employee organizations of their choosing, and requiring public employers to "meet and confer" with employee organizations prior to undertaking action on "all matters relating to employment conditions and employer-employee relations."
Although it represented a significant first step, the George Brown Act omitted a number of key elements that have proven to be important factors in formulating peaceful labor relations in the private sector. Thus the act did not provide any mechanism for recognizing an employee organization as the exclusive representative of a group of employees, and placed no obligation on either the employer or employees to attempt to reach an agreement on terms and conditions of employment, i.e., to negotiate in good faith. Moreover, the act afforded the parties no explicit authority to reach binding agreements and did not establish an expert labor relations agency with authority to oversee the process and devise appropriate remedies for improper conduct by employees or employers.
Subsequent legislative and gubernatorial actions over the past decade and a half have been aimed, in large part, in overcoming these deficiencies and in tailoring the labor relations process to the special conditions of different segments of the public labor force. In 1965, the Winton Act (Stats. 1965, ch. 2041, § 1, p. 4660) expanded the "meet and confer" rights of public school employees, and in 1968, the Legislature enacted the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) (Stats. 1968, ch. 1390, § 1, p. 2725, codified at § 3500 et seq.) to provide a more structured collective bargaining process for most local government employees. (See Glendale City Employees' Association, Inc. v. City of Glendale (1975) 15 Cal.3d 328, 334-338 [124 Cal. Rptr. 513, 540 P.2d 609].)
The early 1970's brought an increasing demand among state employees for a formal system of collective bargaining that would provide them with a more meaningful role in establishing the terms and conditions of their employment. (See King, Deliver Us From Evil: A Public History of California's Civil Service System (1979) p. 51.) In response, *177 Governor Reagan in March 1971 issued an executive order centralizing the "meet and confer" process by designating one state official, chosen by the Governor, to be responsible for meeting and conferring with employee organizations for the purpose of reaching an agreement on salary and employee benefits (Exec. Order No. R-25-71.)[2]
In 1972, following the first major state employee strike, the Legislature created the Assembly Advisory Council on Public Employee Relations, chaired by UCLA Professor Benjamin Aaron, to formulate recommendations "for establishing an appropriate framework within which disputes can be settled between public jurisdictions and their employees." (Assem. Res. No. 51 (1972 Reg. Sess).) In its 1973 report the Advisory Council recommended the enactment of a comprehensive state law, modeled on the National Labor Relations Act, which would afford formal collective bargaining rights to all public employees.
The Legislature, however, was unable to agree on a comprehensive bill covering all public employees and decided instead to draft separate collective bargaining statutes directed to the specific needs and problems of different categories of public entities. In line with this approach, the Legislature in 1975 first enacted the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA) (Stats 1975, ch. 961, § 2, p. 2247, codified in § 3540 et seq.); EERA repealed the Winton Act, established formal negotiating rights for public school employees, and created the Educational Employment Relations Board, an expert, quasi-judicial administrative agency modeled after the National Labor Relations Board, to enforce the act. In 1977, the Legislature adopted SEERA, the legislation challenged in the instant proceeding, to provide formal collective bargaining rights to state employees. Finally, the legislative sequence was completed in 1978 with the adoption of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) (Stats. 1978, ch. 744, § 3, p. 2312, codified in § 3560 et seq.), granting similar rights to employees in the state university and University of California systems. As this brief historical overview demonstrates, SEERA constitutes one significant component in a network of recent statutes affording collective bargaining rights to California public employees.
Although a detailed discussion of all of SEERA's provisions is not necessary for the purposes of this decision, it may be helpful to highlight *178 the major features of the statute. To begin with, the act modifies the George Brown Act in a number of respects in order to strengthen the role of employees and to increase the efficiency of the employer-employee negotiation process. First, the act establishes the principle of exclusive representation on matters of employment relations by employee organizations chosen by a majority of employees in administratively designated bargaining units. (§§ 3520.5, 3521.) Second, the act requires the Governor and the exclusive employee representatives to meet and confer in good faith for the purpose of reaching agreement on wages, hours and other terms and conditions of state employment. (§ 3517.) Finally, the act specifically directs that any such agreement that the parties do reach be set forth in a written memorandum of understanding. (§ 3517.5.)
Although the act thus affords state employees significant new rights, the Legislature at the same time placed definite limits on the scope of representation and retained substantial control over state employee compensation and many other terms and conditions of state employment. SEERA specifically precludes bargaining over "the merits, necessity, or organization of any service or activity provided by law or executive order." (§ 3516.) The act also provides that as to matters within the scope of representation, a memorandum of understanding requiring the expenditure of funds does not become effective unless it is approved by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act (§ 3517.6); under this provision, virtually all salary agreements are subject to prior legislative approval.
The act further provides that, except with respect to a number of specific statutes which the Legislature has expressly determined may be superseded by a memorandum of understanding, any provision of a memorandum of understanding in conflict with a statutory mandate shall not be effective unless approved by the Legislature. (Ibid.) In addition, the act provides that any terms of a memorandum of understanding in conflict with specified statutes relating to layoffs or demotions shall not be controlling if the State Personnel Board finds those terms to be inconsistent with the merit employment principles of article VII of the California Constitution. (Ibid.)
Finally, to protect the rights and enforce the obligations of employees, employee organizations and the state, SEERA expanded the jurisdiction and changed the name of the Educational Employment *179 Relations Board to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Under SEERA, PERB's principal responsibilities and duties include: (1) determining appropriate units of employees, (2) determining whether a particular item is within the scope of representation, (3) arranging for and supervising representation elections and resolving disputes relating to certification or decertification, (4) establishing a list of available mediators, arbitrators and factfinders, and (5) investigating unfair practice charges relating to alleged violations of SEERA, and taking such actions with respect to such charges as are necessary to effectuate the purposes of the act. (§§ 3513, subd. (g), 3541.3, 3514.5.)
The provisions of SEERA became operative on July 1, 1978, and PERB proceeded to implement the statute by promulgating regulations and holding hearings to determine appropriate units for bargaining. In January 1979, before this process was complete, petitioners Pacific Legal Foundation and Public Employees Service Association filed an original mandate proceeding in the Court of Appeal contending that SEERA was unconstitutional on its face; two weeks later, the Attorney General, acting on behalf of the People, filed a similar mandate proceeding in the same court raising comparable constitutional contentions.[3] The two proceedings were consolidated and, after extensive briefing and argument, the Court of Appeal, in a divided decision, agreed with petitioners' claims and struck down the statute in its entirety. In light of the obvious importance of the issue, we granted a hearing to resolve the significant constitutional questions presented.[4]
*180 2. Petitioners bear a heavy burden in attempting to demonstrate that SEERA is unconstitutional on its face.
In analyzing petitioners' challenge to the constitutionality of SEERA, we start from several fundamental principles of constitutional adjudication. (1) "Unlike the federal Constitution, which is a grant of power to Congress, the California Constitution is a limitation or restriction on the powers of the Legislature. [Citations.] Two important consequences flow from this fact. First, the entire law-making authority of the state, except the people's right of initiative and referendum, is vested in the Legislature, and that body may exercise any and all legislative powers which are not expressly, or by necessary implication denied to it by the Constitution. [Citations.] ... [¶] Secondly, all intendments favor the exercise of the Legislature's plenary authority: `If there is any doubt as to the Legislature's power to act in any given case, the doubt should be resolved in favor of the Legislature's action. Such restrictions and limitations [imposed by the Constitution] are to be construed strictly, and are not to be extended to include matters not covered by the language used.' [Citations.]" (Italics added.) (Methodist Hosp. of Sacramento v. Saylor (1971) 5 Cal.3d 685, 691 [97 Cal. Rptr. 1, 488 P.2d 161].)
(2) Moreover, our past cases establish that the presumption of constitutionality accorded to legislative acts is particularly appropriate when the Legislature has enacted a statute with the relevant constitutional prescriptions clearly in mind. (See, e.g., San Francisco v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1920) 183 Cal. 273, 279 [191 P. 26].) In such a case, the statute represents a considered legislative judgment as to the appropriate reach of the constitutional provision. Although the ultimate constitutional interpretation must rest, of course, with the judiciary (see Marbury v. Madison (1803) 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 176-180 [2 L.Ed. 60, 73-74]), a focused legislative judgment on the question enjoys significant weight and deference by the courts.
(3) Finally, in evaluating petitioners' contentions we must bear in mind that petitioners' instant challenge pertains to the constitutionality of the statute on its face. To support a determination of facial unconstitutionality, voiding the statute as a whole, petitioners cannot prevail by suggesting that in some future hypothetical situation constitutional problems may possibly arise as to the particular application of the statute, or as to particular terms of employment to which employees and employer may possibly agree. Rather, petitioners must demonstrate *181 that the act's provisions inevitably pose a present total and fatal conflict with applicable constitutional prohibitions.
As we shall explain, under these controlling constitutional principles we conclude that SEERA is not unconstitutional on its face.
3. (4) SEERA does not conflict with the general "merit principle" of civil service employment embodied in article VII of the California Constitution.
In challenging the constitutionality of SEERA, petitioners rely primarily on the asserted conflict between the act and several sections of article VII of the California Constitution, the article pertaining to the state civil service.[5] Although, as we discuss below, the principal thrust of petitioners' challenge relates to the legislation's alleged conflict with the duties and powers afforded the State Personnel Board by article VII, section 3, subdivision (a), petitioners apparently also assert more broadly that the entire collective bargaining process adopted by SEERA conflicts with the "general system" of merit appointment and promotion mandated by article VII, section 1, subdivision (b). Because a review of the origins of the constitutional civil service provisions sheds considerable light on all of petitioners' contentions with respect to article VII, we turn directly to the history of the constitutional provision.
In 1913, the California Legislature enacted a statute creating California's first civil service system in an attempt to combat the "spoils *182 system" of political patronage in state employment. (Stats. 1913, ch. 590, p. 1035.) By the early 1930's, however, the existing statutory civil service system was obviously failing in its primary task. The deficiencies in the system stemmed from several principal sources. First, acceding to political pressure, both the Legislature and the statutory civil service commission itself had over the years exempted numerous departments and positions from the civil service restrictions: indeed, by 1932 the exemptions had become so widespread that "[o]f the 23,222 full-time state employees, only 11,917 held permanent civil service positions." (King, Deliver Us from Evil: A Public History of California's Civil Service System (1979) p. 26.) Thus, fully one-half of the permanent state employees were exempt from the civil service law.
"A second abuse of the Civil Service Act was the gross misuse of authorizations for temporary employment [which was not subject to the civil service act].... Officially, temporary appointments followed the three month rule, but this had never been followed. By August 1931, temporary employees constituted more than a third of the entire state service." (Id.)
Finally, in the early 1930's considerable public attention was focused on the problem by widespread newspaper accounts of the allegedly numerous politically motivated appointments made by the incumbent Governor. (Id. at pp. 26-29.)
It was in this milieu and in response to the specific problems of the times that in 1934 the people adopted article XXIV of the state Constitution. The ballot argument accompanying the 1934 initiative measure sets forth in clear terms both the objectives and the limits of the proposed constitutional provision.
The ballot argument stated: "The purpose of this constitutional amendment is to promote efficiency and economy in State government. The sole aim of the act is to prohibit appointments and promotion in State service except on the basis of merit, efficiency and fitness ascertained by competitive examination. Appointments of inefficient employees for political reasons are thereby prohibited, thus eliminating the `spoils system' from State employment. [¶] ... [T]his constitutional amendment provides: (1) Employment in the classified service based solely on merit and efficiency; (2) a nonpartisan Personnel Board; (3) prohibition against exemptions from the merit system of employment; *183 (4) correction of the temporary political appointment evil. [¶] Having by constitutional mandate prohibited employment on any basis except merit and efficiency, thereby eliminating as far as possible the `spoils system' of employment, the Legislature is given a free hand in setting up laws relating to personnel administration for the best interests of the State, including the setting up of causes for dismissal such as inefficiency, misconduct or lack of funds." (Italics added.) (Ballot Pamp., Proposed Amends. to Cal. Const. with arguments to voters, Gen. Elec. (Nov. 6, 1934), argument in favor of Prop. 7, p. 12.)[6]
As this ballot argument demonstrates, the "sole aim" of the amendment was to establish, as a constitutional mandate, the principle that *184 appointments and promotions in state service be made solely on the basis of merit. Having established this "merit principle" as a matter of constitutional law,[7] and having established a nonpartisan Personnel Board to administer this merit principle, the constitutional provision left the Legislature with a "free hand" to fashion "laws relating to personnel administration for the best interests of the State."
From this description, we conclude that the collective bargaining process established by SEERA does not on its face conflict with the basic constitutional principles of article VII, section 1, subdivision (b).[8]*185 As we have seen, nothing in the history of the amendment suggests that the establishment of a general system of appointment and promotion based on merit proposed to prohibit the Legislature from adopting a labor relations policy affording employees a meaningful voice in determining the terms and conditions of their employment; instead, the amendment simply sought to eliminate the "spoils system" of public employment.
We recognize, of course, that theoretically the product of the collective bargaining process may possibly in specific instances conflict with the merit principle of employment embodied in article VII. Such a conflict would be most evident, for example, if the Governor and an exclusive bargaining representative agreed to a memorandum of understanding purporting to authorize hiring or promotion on a politically partisan basis. The provisions of SEERA, however, neither explicitly nor implicitly authorize any such encroachment on the merit principle of article VII through the collective bargaining process. On the contrary, in drafting SEERA the Legislature explicitly reaffirmed the primacy of the merit principle of employment and crafted the statute carefully so as to minimize any potential conflict with such principle.
Thus, section 3512, the preamble of SEERA, states in relevant part: "It is the purpose of this chapter to promote full communication between the state and its employees by providing a reasonable method of resolving disputes regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between the state and public employee organizations.... [¶] Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to contravene the spirit or intent of the merit principle in state employment, nor to limit the entitlements of state civil service employees ... provided by Article VII of the California Constitution or by laws or rules enacted pursuant thereto." (Italics added.)
Moreover, in designating the statutes that may be superseded by a memorandum of understanding without legislative approval, the Legislature excluded those statutes relating to classification, examination, appointment, or promotion, areas in which a potential conflict with the merit principle of employment would be most likely to occur. Finally, the Legislature's sensitivity to the preservation of the merit principle is additionally evident in the numerous legislative modifications contained in the 1978 "clean-up" legislation to SEERA, changes which were made *186 largely upon the recommendation of the State Personnel Board to avoid any potential clash with the merit principle.[9]
These numerous provisions demonstrate beyond question that the Legislature drafted SEERA with the merit principle of article VII firmly in mind, fashioning the statute specifically to avoid any conflict with that constitutional mandate. As noted earlier, under familiar principles the legislative judgment in this regard is entitled to great weight, and in light of our own review of the history of article VII, we find no conflict between the general collective bargaining process authorized by SEERA and the merit principle of civil service employment guaranteed by the California Constitution. (Cf. Los Angeles County Civil Service Com. v. Superior Court (1978) 23 Cal.3d 55, 62-66 [151 Cal. Rptr. 547, 588 P.2d 249] (local civil service charter provision does not conflict with county's statutory "meet and confer" obligation).)
4. (5) SEERA does not contravene article VII in authorizing the ultimate setting of civil service salaries by the Governor and the Legislature rather than by the State Personnel Board.
Petitioners additionally claim that even if the collective bargaining process established by SEERA does not conflict with the merit principle of civil service employment, SEERA nonetheless is unconstitutional because it assigns the task of setting the salaries of civil service employees to the Governor and the Legislature rather than to the State Personnel Board. In this regard, petitioners rely on section 3, subdivision (a) of article VII, the constitutional provision describing the powers and duties of the State Personnel Board, which provides: "The [State Personnel Board] shall enforce the civil service statutes and, by majority vote of all of its members, shall prescribe probationary periods and classifications, adopt other rules authorized by statute, and review *187 disciplinary actions." Although neither section 3, subdivision (a), nor its constitutional antecedent, explicitly endows the State Personnel Board with the authority to set salaries, petitioners argue nonetheless that the State Personnel Board's constitutional salary setting authority flows both from the Board's authority to "prescribe ... classifications" and from its duty to "enforce the civil service statutes." We address each of these contentions in turn.
(a) The State Personnel Board's constitutional authority to prescribe classifications does not encompass the power to set the particular salary for such classifications.
On its face, SEERA clearly does not conflict with the State Personnel Board's constitutional authority to prescribe classifications for the state civil service. No provision of the act purports to authorize any other agency to classify positions in the civil service, and the act excludes the numerous statutory provisions relating to the State Personnel Board's classification power (§§ 18800-18806, 18523) from the list of statutes that may be superseded by the terms of a memorandum of understanding. (§ 3517.6.) Furthermore, the act provides that the State Personnel Board's existing classification structure is one of the specific criteria PERB must consider in determining the appropriate units for the selection of an exclusive representative. (§ 3521, subd. (b)(2).)[10]
Petitioners argue, however, that an integral part of the State Personnel Board's authority to prescribe classifications is the power to establish salaries for the classifications so set. An almost identical contention came before the Colorado Supreme Court in Vivian v. Bloom (1947) 115 Colo. 579 [177 P.2d 541]. In Vivian, the plaintiffs contended that the Civil Service Amendment of the Colorado Constitution vested sole authority to set civil service salaries in the Colorado Civil Service Commission, the counterpart to California's State Personnel Board. Plaintiffs relied upon a provision of the constitutional amendment which provided in part that "the standardization of all positions ... and the determination of the grades of all positions in the classified service shall be vested in the commission." (177 P.2d at p. 543.)
*188 In Vivian, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs' contention, stating: "It is insistently urged that the power to classify carries with it by necessary implication the power to fix compensation. In this contention we cannot concur. Elsewhere, systems are set up with like divisions of authority.... [¶] We are constrained to conclude that the power to fix compensation within the classified service still abides in the [Legislature]. The [Legislature] has the burden of determining and providing for the amount of revenue to be made available for payment of salaries and is immediately responsible to the people's will therein, so it seems not improper that it should retain ultimate control of its ancient prerogative." (177 P.2d at p. 544.)
As the Vivian decision suggests, although the power to classify positions has frequently been lodged in civil service commissions or personnel boards, the actual authority to set salaries has traditionally been viewed as a legislative function, with ultimate authority residing in the legislative body. A host of California decisions demonstrate that this fundamental principle has long been followed in this state in jurisdictions operating under civil service provisions. (See, e.g., City and County of San Francisco v. Cooper (1975) 13 Cal.3d 898, 921 [120 Cal. Rptr. 707, 534 P.2d 403]; Los Angeles City etc. Employees Union v. Los Angeles City Bd. of Education (1974) 12 Cal.3d 851, 856 [117 Cal. Rptr. 537, 528 P.2d 353]; City and County of S.F. v. Boyd (1943) 22 Cal.2d 685, 692 [140 Cal. Rptr. 666]; Sonoma County Bd. of Education v. Public Employment Relations Bd. (1980) 102 Cal. App.3d 689, 694-697 [163 Cal. Rptr. 464]; cf. Miller v. State of California (1977) 18 Cal.3d 808, 813-814 [135 Cal. Rptr. 386, 557 P.2d 970] (terms and conditions of state civil service employment fixed by statute).)
Petitioners assert, however, that the classification authority granted the State Personnel Board by article VII, section 3, subdivision (a) should be interpreted to include the power to set salaries because under the civil service statutory schemes in force in California since 1913, the State Personnel Board or its predecessor, the Civil Service Commission, has continually been accorded the task of both classifying positions and also establishing salary ranges for the classifications it establishes. (See Stats. 1913, ch. 590, § 5, p. 1036; Stats. 1927, ch. 719, § 1, p. 1314; Stats. 1937, ch. 753, § 70, p. 2094; § 18850.) Petitioners insist that this long-standing practice demonstrates that the power to set salaries is part of the State Personnel Board's constitutional power under article VII.
*189 With the exception of one decision discussed below, however, judicial authorities have uniformly indicated that the State Personnel Board's authority to establish salary ranges rests simply on a delegation of legislative authority under the relevant statutes, and does not reside in the board by virtue of any constitutional mandate. Thus, in State Trial Attorneys' Assn. v. State of California (1976) 63 Cal. App.3d 298, 303 [133 Cal. Rptr. 712], for example, the court explicitly declared: "Setting compensation for public employees is a legislative function. [Citation.] Section 18850 delegates the function to the Personnel Board." (See also California State Employees' Assn. v. State of California (1973) 32 Cal. App.3d 103, 107-108 [108 Cal. Rptr. 60]; Raymond v. Christian (1937) 24 Cal. App.2d 92, 107 [74 P.2d 536]; cf. Proctor v. S.F. Port Authority (1968) 266 Cal. App.2d 675, 682-684 [72 Cal. Rptr. 248] (discussing specific statute delegating salary setting authority for certain civil service employees to the San Francisco Port Authority).)[11]
This view of both the source and the extent of the salary setting power exercised by the State Personnel Board in the past is directly confirmed by an examination of the actual legislative practice that has been followed in this state since the inception of the civil service system. If the State Personnel Board's salary setting duties flowed directly from the Constitution, as petitioners claim, the board's salary decisions would, of course, be binding on the Legislature. In cases of conflict, one would expect to find that employees have been paid in accordance with the board's rather than the Legislature's mandate. As we shall see, however, in actual practice precisely the opposite has been true.
First, in many years either the Legislature and/or the Governor (by virtue of his "line veto" power (Cal. Const., art. IV, § 10, subd. (b))) have refused to fund the salary increases proposed by the State Personnel Board. According to the brief of the State Personnel Board, its salary recommendations were not followed in 1955, 1958, 1959, 1969, *190 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978. In all of those years, employees received increases in accordance with the determinations of the Legislature and Governor, not the State Personnel Board.
Petitioners argue, however, that while these actions by the Legislature and Governor may demonstrate that the State Personnel Board does not have unlimited power to set salaries in excess of authorized appropriations, such actions do not conflict with a recognition of the board's constitutional authority over the setting of salaries and distribution of funds within appropriated limits. Although the actions noted above may not be inconsistent with such a view, a host of other legislative actions over the years clearly conflicts with even this more limited version of the State Personnel Board's constitutional authority.
Specific legislative directives affecting the manner of distribution of appropriated funds have taken a variety of forms. In some cases, the Legislature has prescribed, by statute, the method by which the State Personnel Board should set the salaries for particular categories of employees.[12] In other instances, the Legislature has directed that a fixed dollar or specific percentage increase be paid either to all state employees or to all employees who fall within a specified income bracket.[13] Finally, on still other occasions, the Legislature has prescribed either a fixed dollar or specific percentage increase for individual categories of *191 employees, without regard to the State Personnel Board's salary schedule.[14]
These numerous legislative actions, reaching back more than 40 years, demonstrate an unvarying legislative view that the salary setting authority for civil service employees has not been ceded to the State Personnel Board by article VII or its constitutional predecessors, but rather has been left with the Legislature. This consistent legislative interpretation is, of course, entitled to great weight, particularly since the constitutional civil service provision was revised and updated in 1970 without any indication that the drafters intended to alter this established interpretation. (See, e.g., In re Governorship (1979) 26 Cal.3d 110, 117-120 [160 Cal. Rptr. 760, 603 P.2d 1357].)
Moreover, the State Personnel Board itself has consistently concurred in the view that its constitutional authority to prescribe classifications does not encompass the ultimate authority to set civil service salaries. In a 1974 position paper, "A Perspective on Collective Bargaining in the State Civil Service," drafted by the State Personnel Board in response to the then-current legislative study of the issue, the board drew a sharp distinction between the classification power which it believed resided within its exclusive jurisdiction and should not be subject to negotiation, and the authority to set salaries which it concluded did not fall within its aegis and could properly be open to bargaining. Thus, with reference to salaries, the board proposed that "[s]alary and benefit negotiations should become a responsibility of the administration under collective bargaining. The Board staff currently provides the expertise in this area and should continue to perform the staff work related to salary and benefit matters, but administratively responsible to the Governor's negotiator. Salary and benefit data collection and application would be *192