San Diego City Council Votes to Support MEA’s Effort to Invalidate and Remove Prop B Charter Language

After seven years of litigation and a unanimous California Supreme Court decision supporting MEA’s legal challenge to Prop B, the San Diego City Council on Monday voted 6-3 to end its defense of the illegal 2012 ballot measure and join the litigation seeking to strike the Prop B language from the San Diego City Charter.

This vote represents a remarkable shift in the City’s legal and political support of the failed Prop B.  MEA would like to thank City Attorney Mara Elliott and Councilmembers Bry, Campbell, Ward, Montgomery, Moreno and Gomez for their support of this clear path forward given Prop B’s disastrous impact on the City’s ability to recruit and retain employees.

We would especially like to acknowledge and thank MEA attorney Ann Smith for all of her work on the Prop B fight from the very beginning.  This result simply would not have been possible without her amazing advocacy, passion and expertise.  Click HERE to see a video of Ann’s 15-minute presentation to the City Council on Monday right before their vote to join her and MEA in the final stage of this legal fight.  Thank you Ann!

The City’s new litigation stance means that MEA and the City will together advocate for the invalidation and removal of Prop B from the Charter, which is the last stage of the litigation process and a necessary step to enable employees hired after July 20, 2012 to be eligible for the City’s defined benefit pension.  The “make whole” remedy ordered by the Courts cannot be determined and negotiated until the Courts make a final determination on invalidation of the City Charter language related to Prop B.

MEA will make the first filing in the Prop B invalidation process this month. Given the California Supreme Court decision, MEA strongly believes that invalidation by the Courts is inevitable, and the City’s move to join the effort will hopefully mean we will get to that result more quickly than we would have if the City continued to fight.

Thanks to the commitment of MEA’s leadership and membership through this long fight, we have secured three published appellate opinions that have fully strengthened the bargaining rights of public employees not only in San Diego but throughout California. So much has already been accomplished through this fight and we look forward to finishing the job on behalf of San Diego City employees impacted by Prop B.

As we have said in previous e-blasts after the favorable Supreme Court decision, we are in the late innings of this ball game but it is not over yet.   We will continue to keep you posted as things progress.  In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to MEA if you have questions about this or any other issue at 619-264-6632.