SACKS v. OAKLAND







Filed 12/10/10





CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION*

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

MARLEEN SACKS, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF OAKLAND, Defendant and Appellant.	A126781 (Alameda County Super. Ct. No. RG08-380286)
MARLEEN SACKS, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF OAKLAND, Defendant and Respondent.	A126817

Following a bench trial, a judgment was entered that granted in part and denied in part the petition for writ of mandate filed by Marleen Sacks (petitioner or Sacks), in which she contested the allocation and use of tax revenue collected by the City of Oakland (respondent or the City) pursuant to Measure Y, an ordinance enacted by the voters to add neighborhood beat officers to the police department, among other purposes. The City has filed an appeal from part of the judgment that declared impermissible the use of Measure Y funds to hire and train new officers to replace those assigned to the neighborhood beat positions, and directed the respondent to refund Measure Y revenue allocated to the impermissible use. In her appeal from the judgment petitioner asks us to reverse the part of the judgment that denied relief in the nature of a declaration that the City is required to maintain a police staff of 802 officers, including six crime reduction team officers. In a second appeal petitioner claims that she was entitled to an award of attorney fees pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5 and the common fund doctrine.[1]
We conclude that the City did not make an impermissible use of Measure Y funds by indirectly hiring and training new officers to replace veteran officers who were assigned to the neighborhood beat positions added by the ordinance. We further conclude that the City was required to appropriate funds, but not actually staff the police force, with the minimum number of officers specified by Measure Y. Finally, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying petitioner an award of attorney fees. We therefore reverse the judgment in part, and affirm the denial of the award of attorney fees.
STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In 2004, the voters in the City enacted Measure Y, an ordinance which imposed a special parcel tax and commercial parking lot surcharge to be used for an “integrated program of violence prevention and public safety intervention.” One of the primary specified purposes for the tax proceeds raised by the Measure Y ordinance (the ordinance or Measure Y) was to “hire and maintain” at “least a total of 63 police officers” assigned to enumerated “community policing” activities: primarily, “neighborhood beat officers,” allocated one to each “community policing beat” solely to “serve the residents of that beat” by providing familiarity with the neighborhood, regular contact and prompt police response; supplemental police response to school safety and truancy; have at least six of the total additional officers assigned to investigate illegal narcotic transactions and violent crimes in identified violence hot spots; and, “additional officers” to “intervene in situations of domestic violence and child abuse.”[2] Other specified services to which at least 40 percent of the revenue was apportioned included youth outreach and after-school programs, domestic violence counselors, and fire services.
By its terms Measure Y directed the City to place the funds collected from the taxes into a “special fund” to be “expended only for the purposes authorized” by the ordinance. The special Measure Y revenue fund was maintained separately from the General fund, and the revenue sources in the Measure Y fund were “legally restricted to expenditures for specified purposes.” The City was also required to perform an independent audit annually to “assure accountability and the proper disbursement of the proceeds” in accordance with the stated objectives of Measure Y. An oversight committee was created to review the audits for compliance with the ordinance. Measure Y further provided: “No tax authorized by this Ordinance may be collected in any year that the appropriation for staffing of sworn uniformed police officers is at a level lower than the amount necessary to maintain the number of uniformed officers employed by the City of Oakland for the fiscal year 2003–2004,” which was then 739 officers. The taxes imposed by Measure Y were to “continue in effect for 10 years” following the effective date of the ordinance, January 1, 2005.
Before Measure Y was enacted the Oakland Police Department (the Department) already operated a community policing program staffed with neighborhood beat officers “sometimes referred to as problem solving officers or ‘PSO’s’.” The Department established “57 neighborhood beats,” 14 of which were staffed with PSO’s prior to the adoption of Measure Y. The Department had been involved in community-based police practices since 1994, and was considered a recognized leader in this approach to law enforcement.
Much of the revenue collected pursuant to the ordinance was not spent to directly add new officers to the neighborhood beat assignments. Even before Measure Y was enacted, for various identified reasons the Department assigned only veteran, experienced officers to neighborhood beat positions. Neighborhood beat officers provide a wide range of specialized community policing services which require advanced training and experience with members of the community. According to the Department’s pre-existing deployment policy (General Order No. B-4), newly sworn officers, even after completing academy training, must successfully engage in patrol duties for a minimum of three years to gain needed experience before any transfer to neighborhood beat positions; the Department thereafter determines if patrol officers are ready and suited for community policing positions or other “out of patrol” assignments. After Measure Y was enacted the Department continued to follow its considered practice of assigning new officers to patrol rather than directly to the specialized community policing positions funded by the ordinance. With this practice in place the City implemented a policy to use Measure Y funds to recruit, hire and train additional new officers, who were assigned initially to patrol duties “to backfill” the positions of veteran officers who were transferred to the neighborhood beat positions.
Also, the Department did not immediately assign veteran officers to fill all of the neighborhood beat positions funded by Measure Y. To do so, the Department decided, would adversely impact essential patrol, response and emergency services while new officers were hired and trained, particularly due to the high attrition rate that resulted in the continuing loss of veteran officers both before and after the passage of Measure Y.
The City expended the revenue obtained from Measure Y to undertake a program of recruiting, hiring and training new officers to increase the Department staff to levels mandated by the ordinance. However, due to an even greater loss of existing officers through injuries and retirement, as well as unusually high attrition from the police academies, Department staffing levels decreased and the neighborhood beat positions were not promptly filled to the extent specified in Measure Y. By the middle of 2005, the Department force was 116 officers below the minimum level authorized by Measure Y, and only five new neighborhood beat officers had been assigned.
In response, by September of 2005, the City adopted a “40 percent formula” to distribute funding to Measure Y objectives. The Department’s deployment strategy was to assign 60 percent of its officers to patrol and 40 percent to community policing activities. Veteran police officers were deployed to Measure Y community policing positions at a rate of 40 percent of the newly hired officers, and 40 percent of the Measure Y funds were allocated to the costs associated with recruitment, hiring and training of new officers.
Thereafter, the Department adhered to the 40 percent formula in funding and deployment of officers, in an attempt to fill the many neighborhood beat positions that remained vacant. In March of 2006, the Department obtained approval from the City to devote additional revenue from the general and Measure Y funds in accordance with the 40 percent formula to an “Accelerated Recruitment and Training Program.” As a result, more neighborhood beat positions were filled as new officers completed academy training and mandatory field training programs, although Measure Y positions remained unoccupied and Department staffing levels continued to be below authorized strength.
By March of 2008, the City passed Resolution No. 81104 (the resolution) to augment the recruitment and training program with supplementary resources to facilitate the addition of new police officers to the Department force at a higher rate than the loss from attrition. The resolution authorized the City to transfer appropriations in the amount of approximately $7.7 million from the accumulated balance in the Measure Y fund for use in the augmented recruitment and training program. The program approved by the resolution was designed to increase the Department staff and consequently add Measure Y positions. A condition in the resolution specified that to the extent “any Measure Y funds advanced for the recruitment are used for the hiring of non-Measure Y officers, the General Fund shall reimburse the Measure Y Fund the equitable and proportionate costs of the recruitment of the non-Measure Y officer.” According to the resolution, the City was also required to provide “monthly actionable reports” to track the implementation of the “recruitment plan including a tracking mechanism of the budget and balances and whether they are used for Measure Y or Non-Measure Y purposes.”
Following the enactment of this resolution the City engaged in an accelerated recruitment, hiring, training and deployment program that continued to conform to the 40 percent formula. By November of 2008, the total number of sworn officers in the Department was 768. As of February of 2009, a total of 164 trainees successfully completed the police academy and subsequent field training, and were assigned to patrol and other officer duties. Veteran officers were assigned to a total of 65 neighborhood beat and domestic violence intervention positions, along with supervising sergeants, to provide community policing in each of the 57 neighborhood beats, in addition to the 14 PSO’s previously assigned to neighborhood beat positions – who were not paid with Measure Y funds.[3] A total of 12 of the officers who were hired and trained by the Department following the enactment of Measure Y were ultimately deployed to community policing positions once they successfully completed patrol duties. The number of officers exceeded the minimum level of 739, plus 63 neighborhood beat officers, set by the ordinance.
The City also adduced evidence that the Measure Y fund was charged with 40 percent of hiring-related costs before the resolution, and 100 percent of the costs of the augmented recruitment program. Evidence at trial demonstrated the “new hires” following the resolution were deployed to “Measure Y duties,” and none of the funds authorized by the resolution have been spent “for non-Measure Y hiring.” The City’s professed policy is to reimburse the Measure Y fund for any “equitable and proportionate costs” of any officers not deployed to Measure Y duties, in accordance with the resolution.
The petition for writ of mandate and complaint for injunctive relief filed by Sacks in April of 2008, sought to prohibit further collection of Measure Y revenue by the City until proof of compliance with the conditions specified in the ordinance, specifically: the assignment of the “full complement of 63 Measure Y officers,” a total staff of 803 officers in the Department, and only “63 officers funded through Measure Y” funds. Sacks also requested reimbursement of all Measure Y revenue unlawfully expended for recruitment, training and duties performed by officers “not related to Measure Y.”
Following a hearing at which documentary evidence was considered, the trial court granted in part the petition for writ of mandate. The court found that use of Measure Y funds to hire and train officers “who were not placed into Measure Y positions” was “not permitted” by the ordinance. Specifically, the court determined that use of Measure Y funds pursuant to the 2008 augmented recruitment program to train officers who “backfill patrol assignments in order to free up veterans for Measure Y positions,” was an “impermissible use of Measure Y funds.” The City was directed to “refund all Measure Y monies” expended “for recruitment, hiring and academy training of officers not placed directly into Measure Y positions.” (Italics added.) The court further found that the City failed to complete the audits required by the ordinance and Government Code section 50075.1, and was ordered to “conduct independent audits for each year from January 1, 2005 through the present.”
The trial court denied petitioner’s request for a declaration that the City has a “ministerial duty to maintain a police staff of 802 police officers,” including 63 neighborhood beat officers and a “base staff of 739 officers,” as not mandated by Measure Y. The court found that although Measure Y imposes upon the City a duty to “appropriate funds for such positions,” those positions need not be actually filled by the Department with “a certain number of officers in order to collect the tax” imposed by the ordinance. Also, no ministerial duty on the part of the Department to assign the neighborhood beat officers to “spend 100% of their time working within their beat” was found by the court. The court declared that the City proved officers had been assigned to all of the neighborhood beat positions as of September of 2008, and those officers were not required by Measure Y to “remain within the geographic confines of the beat at all times.” Petitioner was denied relief in the form of a tax refund for herself or other taxpayers. Her subsequent request for attorney fees was also denied.
The City has filed an appeal from the part of the judgment that found Measure Y funds may not be used to hire and train new officers who are “not placed in Measure Y positions.” The City also filed an appeal from the order to complete the required audits, but subsequently performed the audits, and that portion of the appeal has therefore been rendered moot. (MHC Operating Limited Partnership v. City of San Jose (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 204, 214 [130 Cal.Rptr.2d 564].)
Petitioner’s appeal seeks review of the trial court’s order that the City has a duty to appropriate funds for a baseline police force of 739, but not a duty to actually staff that number of officers. In a separate appeal she has also challenged the trial court’s order that denied her an award of attorney fees.
DISCUSSION
THE CITY’S APPEAL
I. The Expenditure of Measure Y Funds by the City to Hire and Train Officers not Directly Assigned to Neighborhood Beat Positions.
The City argues that the trial court erred by finding the ordinance imposes a ministerial duty to allocate all revenue collected pursuant to Measure Y to hiring and training officers to be placed directly into Measure Y positions. The City’s position is that the mandatory duty stated in the ordinance to “hire and maintain” at least a total of 63 officers assigned to “community policing objectives” is not specifically delineated, and must be interpreted to mean that the neighborhood beat positions may be filled with “fully trained veterans,” not just “newly hired officers.” The City points out that according to recognized pre-existing hiring and deployment policies, newly hired and trained officers were not assigned to the neighborhood beat positions. With the ambiguous nature of the language of the ordinance, the argument proceeds, the voters did not express an intention to “affect the City’s exercise of discretion” to expend revenue “to recruit and train officers who backfill in patrol for veterans assigned to Measure Y positions.” Indeed, there is no express language in the ordinance that directs the department to change established and reasonable internal practices.
Petitioner responds that the text of Measure Y imposes a duty on the City to allocate revenue generated from Measure Y only to the addition of “Measure Y officers themselves, not other people, who may or may not ‘backfill’ for them.” Her position is that Measure Y authorizes the expenditure of the collected tax revenue on “recruitment or academy training expenses for officers placed directly into Measure Y positions.” She adds that “because the City spent Measure Y funds for officers who were not placed into Measure Y positions, the City’s actions were illegal.”
We are reviewing the trial court’s ruling that granted petitioner’s request for issuance of a writ of mandate. “ ‘Code of Civil Procedure section 1085 permits the issuance of a writ of mandate “to compel the performance of an act which the law specially enjoins.” [Citation.] The writ will lie where the petitioner has no plain, speedy and adequate alternative remedy, the respondent has a clear, present and usually ministerial duty to perform, and the petitioner has a clear, present and beneficial right to performance.’ [Citation.]” (Sacramento County Alliance of Law Enforcement v. County of Sacramento (2007) 151 Cal.App.4th 1012, 1020 [60 Cal.Rptr.3d 202].) “ ‘A ministerial duty is an act that a public officer is obligated to perform in a prescribed manner required by law when a given state of facts exists.’ [Citation.]” (Lewis v. Superior Court (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 70, 77 [86 Cal.Rptr.3d 565].)
While a writ may issue against a county, city or other public body or against a public officer, “ ‘the writ will not lie to control discretion conferred upon a public officer or agency. [Citations.] Two basic requirements are essential to the issuance of the writ: (1) A clear, present and usually ministerial duty upon the part of the respondent [citations]; and (2) a clear, present and beneficial right in the petitioner to the performance of that duty [citation]. [Citation.]’ [Citations.]” (Shamsian v. Department of Conservation (2006) 136 Cal.App.4th 621, 639–640 [39 Cal.Rptr.3d 62].) Our review of the City’s implementation of the ordinance “ ‘ “is limited to an inquiry into whether the action was arbitrary, capricious or entirely lacking in evidentiary support. [Citation.]” . . . “With respect to these questions the trial and appellate courts perform essentially the same function, and the conclusions of the trial court are not conclusive on appeal.” ’ [Citation.]” (Marshall v. Pasadena Unified School Dist. (2004) 119 Cal.App.4th 1241, 1253 [15 Cal.Rptr.3d 344]; see also Johnson v. City and County of San Francisco (2006) 137 Cal.App.4th 7, 12 [40 Cal.Rptr.3d 8]; Los Angeles Lincoln Place Investors, Ltd. v. City of Los Angeles (1997) 54 Cal.App.4th 53, 59 [62 Cal.Rptr.2d 600].)
To determine the propriety of the City’s expenditure of Measure Y funds, we must interpret the language of the ordinance. “ ‘When we interpret the meaning of statutes, our fundamental task is to ascertain the aim and goal of the lawmakers so as to effectuate the purpose of the statute.’ [Citation.] ‘We take a three-step sequential approach to interpreting statutory language. [Citation.] First, we will examine the language at issue, giving “the words of the statute their ordinary, everyday meaning.” [Citations.] If we conclude that the statutory meaning is free of doubt, uncertainty, or ambiguity, the language of the statute controls, and our task is completed. [Citations.] Second, if we determine that the language is unclear, we will attempt to determine the Legislature’s intent as an aid to statutory construction. [Citation.] In attempting to ascertain that intent, “we must examine the legislative history and statutory context of the act under scrutiny. [Citations.]” [Citation.] Third, if the clear meaning of the statutory language is not evident after attempting to ascertain its ordinary meaning or its meaning as derived from legislative intent, we will “apply reason, practicality, and common sense to the language at hand. If possible, the words should be interpreted to make them workable and reasonable [citations], . . . practical [citations], in accord with common sense and justice, and to avoid an absurd result [citations].” [Citation.]’ [Citation.]” (Cummings v. Stanley (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 493, 507–508 [99 Cal.Rptr.3d 284].)
Where, as here, the pertinent facts are undisputed and the issue of the City’s mandatory duty under the ordinance presents an issue of statutory interpretation, “the question is one of law and we engage in a de novo review of the trial court’s determination.” (Marshall v. Pasadena Unified School Dist., supra, 119 Cal.App.4th 1241, 1253; see also Shamsian v. Department of Conservation, supra, 136 Cal.App.4th 621, 631.) “ ‘ “As the matter is a question of law, we are not bound by evidence on the question presented below or by the lower court’s interpretation. [Citations.]” [Citation.]’ [Citations.]” (Cummings v. Stanley, supra, 177 Cal.App.4th 493, 508.)
We must also be guided by established principles that govern the enactment and interpretation of revenue measures presented by a municipality to the electorate. The relationship between the public entity and the electorate arising out of voter-approved revenue measures has been alternatively described “either strictly contractual or analogous to a contract.” (Committee for Responsible School Expansion v. Hermosa Beach City School Dist. (2006) 142 Cal.App.4th 1178, 1191 [48 Cal.Rptr.3d 705] (Hermosa Beach), citing Associated Students of North Peralta Community College v. Board of Trustees (1979) 92 Cal.App.3d 672, 676–677 [155 Cal.Rptr. 250] (Associated Students).) When discussing bond measures the cases aver that while a precise characterization of the relationship is unnecessary, “ ‘It is clear that proceeds of a bond issue may be expended only for the purpose authorized by the voters in approving issue of the bonds [citation]. Whether the limitation be deemed to be contractual [citation] or of a status analogous to such relation [citation] or a restriction implied by the requirement of popular approval of the bonds [citation], it does restrict the power of the public body in the expenditure of the bond issue proceeds, and hence in the nature of the project to be completed and paid for. The statutes and ordinances under which the public body acts in submitting the bond issue proposal to the voters must be considered with the ballot proposition in determining the extent of this restriction [citations].’ [Citation.]” (San Lorenzo Valley Community Advocates for Responsible Education v. San Lorenzo Valley Unified School Dist. (2006) 139 Cal.App.4th 1356, 1397 [44 Cal.Rptr.3d 128].)
Examining the language of the ordinance, Measure Y has several components, all of which focus on the rather broad articulated objective of financing “violence prevention and public safety intervention” programs. The declared primary target of the collection and expenditure of revenue under Measure Y, and the one at issue here, is to “hire and maintain” a minimum of “63 police officers” to be assigned as “neighborhood beat officers” in each existing “community policing beat.” The ordinance directs the City to place Measure Y tax revenue in a special fund, which must be maintained separately from the General fund. The City is authorized to expend the Measure Y funds “only for the purposes” approved and specified by the ordinance.
While Measure Y clearly compels the City to “hire and maintain” a minimum of 63 additional neighborhood beat officers with the collected tax revenue, the manner and timing of the obligation is entirely unstated in the ordinance. The ordinance neither prohibits the City from filling the neighborhood beat positions with newly hired and trained officers, nor does it provide that the City must do so. It also clearly does not preclude the City from assigning veteran officers to the neighborhood beat positions, and filling their former positions with inexperienced officers.
Also, the directive to hire and maintain is quite broad in its reach. The maintenance aspect of Measure Y cannot be ignored, as we are loathe to reach an interpretation which renders a part of the ordinance superfluous. (Chaffee v. San Francisco Public Library Com. (2005) 134 Cal.App.4th 109, 114 [36 Cal.Rptr.3d 1]; Baldwin v. City of Los Angeles (1999) 70 Cal.App.4th 819, 838 [83 Cal.Rptr.2d 178].) The City must not only recruit and employ the requisite number of neighborhood beat officers, but is further obligated by the language of the ordinance to appropriately sustain the force to promote the underlying public safety objective. How the City may or must do so, and how quickly, is the crux of the dispute before us. The ordinance is in all these respects ambiguous, even silent, apparently “drafted to leave the City significant flexibility” in carrying out the plan to add officers to the force. (Monette-Shaw v. San Francisco Bd. of Supervisors (2006) 139 Cal.App.4th 1210, 1221 [43 Cal.Rptr.3d 659] (Monette-Shaw).) As this court pointed out in Monette-Shaw, supra, at page 1221, when construing a bond measure issued “ ‘for the acquisition, improvement, construction and/or reconstruction of a health care, assisted living and/or other type of continuing care facility or facilities’ ” to replace Laguna Honda Hospital, “There is nothing improper in providing for such flexibility. ‘[T]he rule is that public bodies may submit bond propositions in broad and general terms. Such a body may make its order of submission “just as broad, and just as narrow[,]” or just as specific as it is willing to be bound by.’ [Citations.]” Indeed, it is reasonable under this ordinance to expect the voters had no interest in micro managing the Oakland Police Department. Courts should exercise a similar reluctance.
We thus consider extrinsic sources, including the ostensible objects to be achieved and the legislative history, with a view to promoting rather than defeating the general purpose of the statute, and reaching a workable interpretation that is in accord with practicality and common sense. (Estate of Griswold (2001) 25 Cal.4th 904, 910–911 [108 Cal.Rptr.2d 165, 24 P.3d 1191]; Marshall v. Pasadena Unified School Dist., supra, 119 Cal.App.4th 1241, 1254.) We must also “ ‘discern the sense of the statute, and therefore its words, in the legal and broader culture. . . .’ [Citation.]” (Hodges v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 109, 114 [86 Cal.Rptr.2d 884, 980 P.2d 433]; see also Garcia v. Superior Court (2006) 137 Cal.App.4th 342, 351 [39 Cal.Rptr.3d 902].)
We begin by observing that when Measure Y was enacted the City already had in place distinct policies governing the hiring, training and placement of its police officers. Specifically, the Department was bound by state law and its own operational standards that mandated an extensive course of 26 weeks of police academy training, followed by a 16-week field training program, before any officer was authorized to progress beyond probationary status to a patrol position or any other assignment. (Pen. Code, § 832, subd. (a).) The then-current deployment policies for neighborhood beat appointments also required that once officers completed academy and field training they were initially assigned to random patrol duties to gain the knowledge and experience considered necessary by the Department to properly perform the wide range of specialized community policing services required of neighborhood beat officers. After the ordinance was enacted the Department used Measure Y funds to recruit, hire and train additional new officers, and continued to follow its practice of assigning those officers to fill the patrol positions of veteran officers, who were transferred to the neighborhood beat positions.
Nothing in Measure Y manifests the slightest intent of the electorate to alter the Department’s defined, mandatory hiring and training practices. We assume the electorate, when enacting Measure Y, was aware of preexisting related laws and intended to maintain a consistent body of rules that harmonizes and gives effect to both. (Professional Engineers in California Government v. Kempton (2007) 40 Cal.4th 1016, 1048 [56 Cal.Rptr.3d 814, 155 P.3d 226]; Stone Street Capital, LLC v. California State Lottery Com. (2008) 165 Cal.App.4th 109, 118 [80 Cal.Rptr.3d 326]; People v. Vessell (1995) 36 Cal.App.4th 285, 289 [42 Cal.Rptr.2d 241].) “The voters are presumed to be aware of existing law (Horwich v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 272, 283 [87 Cal.Rptr.2d 222, 980 P.2d 927]), including the administrative enforcement provisions.” (Farmers Ins. Exchange v. Superior Court (2006) 137 Cal.App.4th 842, 855 [40 Cal.Rptr.3d 653]; see also People ex rel. Kerr v. County of Orange (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 914, 939 [131 Cal.Rptr.2d 274]; People v. Superior Court (Gevorgyan) (2001) 91 Cal.App.4th 602, 610 [110 Cal.Rptr.2d 668].) While we realize that the voters cannot be expected to have been specifically aware of the Department’s deployment policies before Measure Y became effective, we are persuaded that the electorate did not intend to alter existing state law and analogous Department rules like labor agreements and MOU’s that regulated the training and placement of officers in neighborhood beat positions. (See In re Summer H. (2006) 139 Cal.App.4th 1315, 1329–1331 [43 Cal.Rptr.3d 682].)
The use of Measure Y revenue to hire and train officers to replace those assigned to neighborhood beat positions – that is, to “backfill” patrol positions – rather than to directly add new officers to the neighborhood beat assignments, also promotes the fundamental legislative intent to improve public safety. The City presented persuasive, uncontradicted evidence before the trial court that experienced, proven officers more successfully provide the comprehensive, specialized services necessary in neighborhood beat assignments. Newly sworn officers also obtain knowledge and familiarity with “policing functions” if assigned to patrol duties before they are transferred to more focused neighborhood beat assignments. In addition, the Department has the opportunity to “assess the capabilities” of officers in patrol assignments prior to transfer to a neighborhood beat position. An interpretation of the ordinance that does not force the Department to depart from established, effective procedures in the deployment of officers better serves the intent of the voters and the legislative purpose of Measure Y stated in the legislation itself, the ballot arguments, and the analysis of the City Attorney. (Hodges v. Superior Court, supra, 21 Cal.4th 109, 115–118.) After all, this measure was designed to increase the effectiveness of the Oakland Police Department, not foster a redesign of it. This court may also “consider the impact of an interpretation on public policy, for ‘[w]here uncertainty exists consideration should be given to the consequences that will flow from a particular interpretation.’ [Citation.]” (Mejia v. Reed (2003) 31 Cal.4th 657, 663 [3 Cal.Rptr.3d 390, 74 P.3d 166]; Party City Corp. v. Superior Court (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 497, 508 [86 Cal.Rptr.3d 721].)
Without any indication in Measure Y that the imprecise obligation imposed on the City to “hire and maintain” police officers mandates immediate and direct assignment of officers to the created community policing positions, we find that a broad interpretation of the ordinance to authorize the City to fill those positions with veteran officers, who are in turn replaced with newly hired officers, is a reasonable, commonsense result that comports with the legislative intent. We cannot insert words or requirements into a measure that are not expressed to interpret the law in a way that does not conform to the apparent legislative intent. (Citizens to Save California v. California Fair Political Practices Com. (2006) 145 Cal.App.4th 736, 747–748 [52 Cal.Rptr.3d 17]; Tain v. State Bd. of Chiropractic Examiners (2005) 130 Cal.App.4th 609, 617 [30 Cal.Rptr.3d 330].) We are also not inclined to impose a requirement not expressed in the measure, where to do so makes compliance more burdensome, without necessarily furthering the objectives of the law. (See People v. Martinez (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 753, 760–761 [10 Cal.Rptr.3d 751].)
We are convinced that the expansive language of Measure Y disfavors any interpretation of the ordinance that would bind the City to implementation of novel, specific plans and procedures associated with addition of the neighborhood beat officers. (See Tooker v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Dist. (1972) 22 Cal.App.3d 643, 649–650 [99 Cal.Rptr. 361] (Tooker); Mills v. S. F. Bay Area Rapid Transit Dist. (1968) 261 Cal.App.2d 666, 669 [68 Cal.Rptr. 317] (Mills).)[4] In Monette-Shaw, supra, 139 Cal.App.4th 1210, 1221, the challenged ordinance title stated that bonds would be issued “ ‘for the acquisition, improvement, construction and/or reconstruction of a health care, assisted living and/or other type of continuing care facility or facilities to replace Laguna Honda Hospital.’ Section 1 of the ordinance authorize[d] the City to incur debt for the ‘Project,’ and section 2 define[d] the ‘Project’ to ‘include, without limitation, all works . . . necessary or convenient for the acquisition, improvement, construction and/or reconstruction of a new health care, assisted living and/or other type of continuing care facility or facilities to replace Laguna Honda Hospital.’ The ballot proposition itself use[d] the same broad language, stating that the debt will be incurred ‘for the acquisition, improvement, construction and/or reconstruction of a new health care, assisted living and/or other type of continuing care facility or facilities to replace Laguna Honda Hospital.’ ” This court affirmed the denial of a petition for writ of mandate which sought to prevent the City and County of San Francisco from diverting tobacco settlement revenues away from the project to replace Laguna Honda Hospital and to require the City to maintain Laguna Honda as a 1,200-bed skilled nursing facility. (Id. at pp. 1213–1214.) We found that the voters expressly “granted the City freedom to choose among a broad range of options for replacing Laguna Honda,” (id. at p. 1222) and did not “bind the City to any particular size, floor plan, or configuration of services based on the expectations of petitioner or any other individual who had an expectation different from the language of the approved proposition and ordinance.” (Id. at p. 1223.)
Here too, the broad language of the ordinance bound the City to hire and maintain a staff of neighborhood beat officers of the requisite size, but did not impose any requirement that the positions must be filled with newly hired officers trained with Measure Y revenue. (See Monette-Shaw, supra, 139 Cal.App.4th 1210, 1223; Associated Students, supra, 92 Cal.App.3d 672, 677–678.) Nothing in the ballot proposition or associated materials submitted to the voters manifests an intent to negate or constrain the Department’s discretion to follow existing administrative procedures in the expenditure of Measure Y funds to add a mandatory number of new neighborhood beat officers to the police force. The allocation of revenue by the City to hire and train new officers, who were then added to the force as other officers were assigned to neighborhood beat positions, was consistent with the voters’ intent. (See Hermosa Beach, supra, 142 Cal.App.4th 1178, 1191.)




TO BE CONTINUED AS PART II….


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