City of Carlsbad (PERB 2276M)

STATE OF CALIFORNIA
DECISION OF THE
PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD
F
CARLSBAD CITY EMPLOYEES
ASSOCIATION,
Charging Party,
V.
CITY OF CARLSBAD,
Respondent.
Case No. LA-CE-736-M
PERB Decision No. 2276-M
June 27, 2012
Appearance: 	Hayes & Cunningham by Christopher H. Conti, Attorney, for Carlsbad City
Employees Association.
Before Martinez, Chair; Dowdin Calvino and Huguenin, Members.
DECISION
HUGUENIN, Member: This case is before the Public Employment Relations Board
(PERB or Board) on appeal by Carlsbad City Employees Association (Association) from
dismissal
of
its unfair practice charge filed on December 21, 2011, against the City
of
Carlsbad
under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA).1
PERB's Office
of
Generai Counsel dismissed the charge on May 8, 2012 and on
May 18, 2012, the Association filed its appeal. 	On June 1 	2012, the Appeals Assistant
notified the parties by letter that the filings were complete, and the case was placed onthe
Board's docket.
On June 8, 2012, the Office
of
General Counsel requested that the case be remanded for
further investigation. 	Office 	General Counsel indicates that the 	was
dismissed, prior to receipt of an amended charge, which was timely filed during an extension
of time which had been granted to the Association.
1 The MMBA is codified at Government Code section 3500 et seq.

The Board has adopted a procedure whereby the General Counsel reviews cases
dismissed by Board agents. As explained in similar requests from the General Counsel
(Santa Ana Education Association (0'Neil, et al.) (2005) PERB Decision No. 1776; California
School Employees Association and its Chapter #302 (Lauer) (1990) PERB Decision No. 809;
California State Employees' Association (Morrow) (1986) PERB Decision No. 568-S), the
purpose of the review is to minimize and reduce appellate litigation caused by inadequacies in
the processing of unfair practice charges.
2
We have reviewed the record in this case and considered the request from the Office of
General Counsel. Here, the Board agent provided the Association a time certain within which
to prepare and file an amendment, and the Association timely filed the amendment. However,
before the amendment was filed, the charge was prematurely dismissed. It is thus appropriate
to remand the case for further processing by the Office of General Counsel.
ORDER
Based on the entire record in the matter, the Public Employment Relations Board
(PERB) hereby REMANDS this case to PERB's Office of General Counsel for further
processing in accordance with PERB regulations.
Chair Martinez and Member Dowdin Calvillo participated in this Decision ..