State ex rel. Robinson v. Dayton , 2012 Ohio 5800 ( 2012 )

[Cite as State ex rel. Robinson v. Dayton, 2012-Ohio-5800.]
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR MONTGOMERY COUNTY, OHIO
STATE OF OHIO, ex rel. ROBINSON, :
et al.
:
Plaintiffs-Appellants C.A. CASE NO. 25245
v. : T.C. NO. 11CV2392
CITY OF DAYTON : (Civil appeal from
Common Pleas Court)
Defendant-Appellee :
:
..........
OPINION
Rendered on the 7th day of December , 2012.
..........
JEFFREY M. SILVERSTEIN, Atty. Reg. No. 0016948 and JASON P. MATTHEWS, Atty.
Reg. No. 0073144, 627 South Edwin C. Moses Blvd., Suite 2-C, Dayton, Ohio 45417
Attorneys for Plaintiffs-Appellants
JOHN J. DANISH, Atty. Reg. No. 0046639 and JOHN C. MUSTO, Atty. Reg. No.
0071512, City of Dayton Law Department, 101 W. Third Street, P. O. Box 22, Dayton, Ohio
45401
Attorneys for Defendant-Appellee
..........
FROELICH, J.
[Cite as State ex rel. Robinson v. Dayton, 2012-Ohio-5800.]
{¶ 1} Adrienne Robinson and David Corbitt, individually and as relators, appeal
from a judgment of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, which granted
summary judgment to the City of Dayton on their claim that they were denied due process
when their civil service positions were abolished. For the following reasons, the trial
court’s judgment will be affirmed.
I.
{¶ 2} Robinson and Corbitt were employed by the City of Dayton as Program
Supervisors in the City’s Recreation and Youth Services Department. The position of
Program Supervisor is a classified civil service position under the Dayton City Charter.
{¶ 3} In 2009, the budget of the Recreation and Youth Services Department was
cut significantly. That fall, the director of the department scheduled meetings with all
department employees to explain and discuss budget cuts and her planned restructuring of
the department. Under the director’s proposed budget, every position in the department
(with the exception of the executive) was eliminated, supervisors were downgraded, other
positions below the supervisors were downgraded, and certain positions were turned into
part-time permanent positions. These changes included the abolishment of the Program
Supervisor position. Employees were encouraged by the Dayton city manager to provide
input on the proposed changes and budget reduction. Corbitt and Robinson worked with
other department employees and presented an alternative proposed budget to the city
manager.
{¶ 4} The director’s proposed budget was presented to the Dayton City
Commission and approved by ordinance on February 24, 2010. On July 2, 2010, Corbitt
and Robinson each received a letter notifying them to attend separate meetings with the
3
Dayton Civil Service Board and Human Resources Department on July 6, 2010 to discuss
the abolishment of their position. Corbitt and Robinson were permitted to have an attorney
present at their meetings, and Corbitt brought one to his meeting. At the meetings, Corbitt
and Robinson were each given the option of either accepting a Recreation Leader II position
in the Recreation and Youth Services Department or layoff. The Recreation Leader II
position was a union position with a lower salary than the former Program Supervisor
position. The employees were required to elect an option at the July 6 meeting. Corbitt
accepted the Recreation Leader II position; Robinson chose to be laid off. The Program
Supervisor position was abolished effective July 12, 2010.
{¶ 5} Robinson and Corbitt attempted to appeal the abolishment of the Program
Supervisor position to the Dayton Civil Service Board. On July 13, 2010, the Board
notified them that the Board “had no authority” to hear their appeals under Dayton’s Civil
Service Rules.
{¶ 6} In March 2011, Robinson and Corbitt, individually and as relators, filed suit
in the common pleas court, alleging that the City abolished their positions without affording
them due process, as required by Article I, Section 16 of the Ohio Constitution. They
sought reinstatement to their positions by means of a writ of mandamus, back pay, and
compensatory and punitive damages.
{¶ 7} The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. In their motion,
Robinson and Corbitt claimed that they had a property interest in their positions, but were
given neither a pre-deprivation opportunity to respond to the abolishment nor a
post-deprivation procedure to challenge the abolishment. They argued that they were
4
entitled to the protections provided by R.C. Chapter 124, which included a post-deprivation
evidentiary hearing before the Civil Service Board under R.C. 124.03. In response to these
arguments, the City asserted that Ohio law does not provide a right to a pre-abolishment
hearing, and that R.C. Chapter 124 does not apply to appeals before the Dayton Civil Service
Board.
{¶ 8} In its motion for summary judgment, the City further argued that a City may
abolish positions for budgetary reasons without providing affected employees a hearing. It
emphasized that the abolishment was conducted by legislative action of the Dayton City
Commission and that the Dayton Civil Service Board lacks the authority to overturn such
legislative actions. The City further asserted that, if Robinson and Corbitt had a right to an
appeal before the Civil Service Board, their claims were barred for failure to exhaust their
administrative remedies. Moreover, the City claimed that Robinson and Corbitt actually
received all of the protections of a pre-deprivation hearing, even though none was required.
{¶ 9} In a reply memorandum, Robinson and Corbitt asserted that they had no
administrative remedies to exhaust, because the Dayton Civil Service Board did not perform
any quasi-judicial function. They also reiterated that R.C. Chapter 124 applied to cities and
that the City denied them post-deprivation due process. (They did not reassert their argument
that they were denied pre-deprivation due process.)
{¶ 10} The trial court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment and denied
Robinson and Corbitt’s motion for summary judgment. First, the court found that the facts
established that the employees had been provided an opportunity to be heard prior to the
abolishment of their positions. Second, the court rejected the argument that the City was
5
required to comply with R.C. Chapter 124. The court reasoned that “[t]he City of Dayton
has adopted a charter which the Ohio Supreme Court has held to create a separate civil
service system which supersedes Ohio general state civil service Laws. * * * Dayton’s civil
service rules were adopted by legislative action and do not require a post-abolishment
hearing in this case at bar.” The court further agreed with the City that the Dayton Civil
Service Board did not have the jurisdiction to overturn the legislative acts of the Dayton City
Commission.
{¶ 11} Robinson and Corbitt appeal the trial court’s judgment.
II.
{¶ 12} Robinson and Corbitt raise one assignment of error, namely that “[t]he trial
court erred in finding that Appellants had no right to a post-deprivation due process
hearing.”
{¶ 13} Robinson and Corbitt’s argument is two-fold. First, they claim that they
had a property interest in their Program Supervisor positions, in accordance with Cleveland
Bd. of Educ. v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 105 S.Ct. 1487, 84 L.Ed.2d 494 (1985). They
assert that they therefore could not be removed from that position without being afforded
due process of law, and that the denial of such a hearing violated Section 16, Article I of the
Ohio Constitution. Second, they assert that they were entitled to appeal rights under R.C.
Chapter 124, which addresses the abolishment of positions held by classified civil servants.
Specifically, they state that they were entitled to a post-deprivation civil service hearing
under R.C. 124.03 and 124.321.
A. Constitutional Right to Due Process
[Cite as State ex rel. Robinson v. Dayton, 2012-Ohio-5800.]
{¶ 14} It is undisputed that the Program Supervisor position was a classified civil
service position. Classified civil servants in Ohio possess property rights in their continued
employment. Loudermill, 470 U.S. at 539; Ohio Assn. of Pub. School Emp., AFSCME,
AFL-CIO v. Lakewood City School Dist. Bd. of Educ., 68 Ohio St.3d 175, 624 N.E.2d 1043(1994).
{¶ 15} In Loudermill, two school district employees (a security guard and a bus
mechanic) from two different school districts in Ohio brought suit against their respective
boards of education, claiming that they were deprived of their civil service positions without
due process. After concluding that the employees had a property interest in their continued
employment, the Supreme Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the United States
Constitution requires “‘some kind of a hearing’ prior to the discharge of an employee who
has a constitutionally protected interest in his employment.” Id. at 542. The Court held
that “all the process that is due is provided by a pretermination opportunity to respond,
coupled with post-termination administrative procedures as provided by the Ohio statute.”
Id. at 547-48.
{¶ 16} While Loudermill establishes a general rule that classified civil servants in
Ohio have a constitutional right to procedural due process upon discharge, numerous federal
and state courts have recognized that the due process obligations articulated in Loudermill
do not apply when an employee’s position is eliminated as a result of a bona fide layoff,
reduction in force, or reorganization. E.g., Ditty v. Minneapolis, Civ. No. 11-109
(MJD/FLN), 2012 WL 3870573 (D.Minn. Sept. 6, 2012), citing Rodriguez–Sanchez v.
Municipality of Santa Isabel, 658 F.3d 125, 130 (1st Cir.2011) (“[P]re-termination hearings
are not required by due process where a bona fide government reorganization plan bases
7
dismissals on factors unrelated to personal performance.”) and Gunville v. Walker, 583 F.3d
979, 989 (7th Cir.2009) (“[D]ue process is not implicated when government employees are
laid off due to a reorganization.”). See also Dionne v. Mayor and City Council of
Baltimore, 40 F.3d 677, 685 (4th Cir.1994) (plaintiff “enjoyed no property right in the
continued existence of his job and consequently his position could be abolished by the
legislature without notice and a hearing.”); Perkimen Tp. v. Mest, 522 A.2d 516, 520
(Pa.1987) (abolishment of a municipal job is presumed to be in good faith; legislative action
is subject to judicial review only if abolishment was pretense or subterfuge); Kavakich v.
Bentleyville Borough, Case No. 06-1114, 2008 WL 2563377, *3 (W.D.Pa. June 24, 2008)
(“When a termination is directed at positions rather than individuals, the hearing mandated
by the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process protection need not be held.”); Franks v.
Magnolia Hosp., 888 F.Supp. 1310 (N.D.Miss.1995).
{¶ 17} Some federal and state appellate courts in Ohio have adopted this view.
See, e.g., Chaney v. Potsdam, 2004 WL 1532252 (6th Cir. 2004), fn. 6 (“Ohio law clearly
provides that a municipality may abolish positions for budgetary reasons without providing
the affected employees with a hearing.”); Graham v. Triway Bd. of Educ., 82 Ohio App.3d
34, 610 N.E.2d 1185 (9th Dist.1992). As stated by the Ninth District:
It is well settled that where an employee who possesses a property
interest in employment is dismissed for cause, due process requires notice and
an opportunity for hearing prior to the dismissal. Some opportunity for the
employee to present his side of the case is recurringly of obvious value in
reaching an accurate decision since dismissals for cause often involve factual
8
disputes.
Where such an employee’s position has been abolished, however,
different considerations apply. It has been held that due process does not
require a pretermination hearing in such a situation because the employee
does not need an opportunity to present evidence on job performance. The
employee’s conduct is of no relevance to the decision to abolish the position.
Furthermore, there is no risk that the employee will suffer stigma because
there has been no discharge for cause.
* * * An employee’s challenge to such an action * * * is more
appropriately addressed in a post-abolishment proceeding in court.
(Citations omitted.) Graham at 38-39.
{¶ 18} This position was also expressed in Ryman v. Reichert, 604 F.Supp. 467,
471 (S.D.Ohio 1985), a pre-Loudermill case cited by the City. In Ryman, the district court
recognized that, “[u]nder [Ohio] law, an appointing authority may abolish a position with the
concomitant result that an employee loses her job, subject to the one important limitation
that the appointing authority may not abolish a position as a mere subterfuge to rid itself of a
particular employee.” Id. at 468. Upon review of the parties’ evidence, the court
concluded, as a matter of law, that the abolishment of the plaintiff’s position as a desk
officer with a police department was not subterfuge by the township board of trustees. The
district court further concluded that Loudermill (which was then on appeal to the Supreme
Court from the Sixth Circuit) was distinguishable, because Ryman’s case involved an
abolishment, not a discharge. The court noted that there was no stigma attached to an
9
abolishment, that the defendants did not purport to act on the basis of Ryman’s job
performance, and that the decision to abolish Ryman’s job was done legislatively, i.e., it was
not an administrative decision. Id. at 471-472. The court determined that Ryman did not
suffer a property deprivation without due process of law.
{¶ 19} We find these cases to be persuasive. A civil service employee has a
property interest in his or her continued employment at a position, but not a property interest
in the existence of his or her position. E.g., Christian v. Cecil County, 817 F.Supp. 1279,
1284 (D.Md.1993). And unlike termination cases, where the employee’s personal qualities
and/or job performance are relevant and subject to questions of fact, bona fide job
abolishments are directed toward the position (not the employee), do not carry a stigma, and
are not administrative decisions. Absent evidence (or even an allegation) that the
abolishment of the Program Supervisor position was a pretext or sham to oust Robinson and
Corbitt from their positions, the City of Dayton was entitled to abolish that position without
affording them due process.1
1
At oral argument, the parties agreed that mandamus was an appropriate remedy if the abolishment of an employee’s
position was mere subterfuge to terminate the affected employee.
[Cite as State ex rel. Robinson v. Dayton, 2012-Ohio-5800.]
{¶ 20} In this case, Robinson and Corbitt did not allege subterfuge on the part of
the City and certainly did not create a genuine issue of material fact that the reorganization
of the Recreation and Youth Services Department was necessitated by budgetary and
economic circumstances. The record contains undisputed evidence that the City’s income
tax revenues declined drastically during the 2009 recession and, as a result, nearly every
department in the City was tasked with cutting its budget. Brent McKenzie testified in his
deposition that the Dayton city manager, along with the Office of Management and Budget,
determined how much each department could spend and then those numbers were given to
the departments, which had to comply; the Recreation and Youth Services Department was
informed that it needed to reduce its budget by $496,000. Although Robinson and Corbitt
disagreed with the department reorganization plan that was prepared in response to the
economic crisis and acted on by the City Commission, they have not alleged, argued, or
presented evidence to refute the existence of the economic hardship and the City’s need to
reduce its budget, including the budget of the Recreation and Youth Services Department.
Given the record, Robinson and Corbitt had no constitutional rights under Loudermill to a
pre-deprivation or post-deprivation hearing.2
{¶ 21} Robinson and Corbitt have claimed a constitutional deprivation under the
Ohio Constitution. The Due Process Clause of the Ohio Constitution is generally
coextensive with the due process rights provided under the Fourteenth Amendment to the
2
Robinson and Corbitt do not now claim that they were denied their right to a pre-deprivation hearing. Even if
they had raised that issue on appeal, we would agree with the trial court that the employees had been
provided an opportunity to be heard prior to the abolishment of their positions.
The November 2009 departmental meetings and the employees’ July 2, 2010 meeting with the Dayton Civil Service satisfied any
pre-deprivation due process responsibilities of the City.
11
United States Constitution. See Youngstown v. Traylor, 123 Ohio St.3d 132,
2009-Ohio-4184, 914 N.E.2d 1026, ¶ 8; State v. Gardner, 118 Ohio St.3d 420,
2008-Ohio-2787, 889 N.E.2d 995, ¶ 90, quoting Direct Plumbing Supply Co. v. Dayton, 138
Ohio St. 540, 544, 38 N.E.2d 70 (1941). Accordingly, Robinson and Corbitt’s rights to due
process under the Ohio Constitution also were not violated.
B. Right to Post-Deprivation Hearing under R.C. Chapter 124
{¶ 22} Robinson and Corbitt further claim that they had a right to a hearing on the
abolishment of their positions under R.C. Chapter 124.3
{¶ 23} Section 10, Article XV of the Ohio Constitution provides: “Appointments
and promotions in the civil service of the state, the several counties, and cities, shall be made
according to merit and fitness, to be ascertained, as far as practicable, by competitive
examinations. Laws shall be passed providing for the enforcement of this provision.”
Ohio’s civil service scheme is thus “embedded in the Ohio Constitution,” and R.C. Chapter
124 was enacted to effectuate the civil service system. Chubb v. Ohio Bur. of Worker’s
Comp., 81 Ohio St.3d 275, 277, 690 N.E.2d 1267 (1998).
{¶ 24} In general, “civil service” includes “all offices and positions of trust or
employment in the service of the state and in the service of the counties, cities, city health
districts, general health districts, and city school districts of the state.” (Emphasis added.)
R.C. 124.01(A). R.C. 124.11 divides employees into the classified and unclassified service,
and R.C. Chapter 124 provides different statutory protections depending on an employee’s
3
At oral argument, Robinson and Corbitt’s counsel focused on the employees’ right to pursue relief through a
mandamus action. For sake of completeness, we will address appellants’ argument regarding R.C. Chapter 124 as briefed.
12
classification.
{¶ 25} Ohio’s general civil service scheme recognizes that an appointing authority
may determine that it is necessary to reduce its workforce either through layoffs or the
abolishment of positions. R.C. 124.321. Under R.C. 124.321(D)(1), positions may be
abolished due to “reorganization for the efficient operation of the appointing authority, for
reasons of economy, or for lack of work.” Id. R.C. 124.321(D) further provides, in part:
(2)(a) Reasons of economy permitting an appointing authority to
abolish a position and to lay off the holder of that position under this division
shall be determined at the time the appointing authority proposes to abolish
the position. The reasons of economy shall be based on the appointing
authority’s estimated amount of savings with respect to salary, benefits, and
other matters associated with the abolishment of the position, except that the
reasons of economy associated with the position’s abolishment instead may
be based on the appointing authority’s estimated amount of savings with
respect to salary and benefits only, if:
(i) Either the appointing authority’s operating appropriation has been
reduced by an executive or legislative action, or the appointing authority has a
current or projected deficiency in funding to maintain current or projected
levels of staffing and operations; and
(ii) In the case of a position in the service of the state, it files a notice
of the position’s abolishment with the director of administrative services
within one year of the occurrence of the applicable circumstance described in
13
division (D)(2)(a)(i) of this section.
(b) The following principles apply when a circumstance described in
division (D)(2)(a)(i) of this section would serve to authorize an appointing
authority to abolish a position and to lay off the holder of the position under
this division based on the appointing authority’s estimated amount of savings
with respect to salary and benefits only:
(i) The position’s abolishment shall be done in good faith and not as a
subterfuge for discipline.
(ii) If a circumstance affects a specific program only, the appointing
authority only may abolish a position within that program.
(iii) If a circumstance does not affect a specific program only, the
appointing authority may identify a position that it considers appropriate for
abolishment based on the reasons of economy.
{¶ 26} A classified employee may appeal a layoff, or a displacement that is the
result of a layoff, to the State personnel board of review, R.C. 124.328, and the State
personnel board of review is expressly authorized to hear appeals by classified employees of
final decisions relating to job abolishments and layoffs, R.C. 124.03. The decision of the
State personnel board of review may be appealed to the court of common pleas in
accordance with R.C. 119.12. Id.{¶ 27} R.C. 124.40 provides for the creation of municipal civil service
commissions, which, as to that municipality, generally exercise the powers and perform the
duties of the State’s director of administrative services and the State’s personnel board of
14
review.4 Municipal civil service commissions have the authority to promulgate rules not
inconsistent with R.C. Chapter 124. R.C. 124.40; Dworning v. Euclid, 119 Ohio St.3d 83,
2008-Ohio-3318, 892 N.E.2d 420, ¶ 13.
{¶ 28} The City of Dayton asserts that R.C. Chapter 124 does not apply to it,
because it is a charter city under the “home rule” provisions of the Ohio Constitution.
Sections 3 and 7, Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution provide:
Municipalities shall have authority to exercise all powers of local
self-government and to adopt and enforce within their limits such local
police, sanitary and other similar regulations, as are not in conflict with
general laws. [Section 3]
Any municipality may frame and adopt or amend a charter for its
government and may, subject to the provisions of section 3 of this article,
4
Specifically, R.C. 124.40 provides, in part:
The municipal civil service commission shall prescribe, amend, and
enforce rules not inconsistent with this chapter for the classification of
positions in the civil service of the city * * *; for examinations for and
resignations from those positions; for appointments, promotions,
removals, transfers, layoffs, suspensions, reductions, and reinstatements
with respect to those positions; and for standardizing those positions and
maintaining efficiency in them. The commission’s rules shall authorize
each appointing authority of a city * * * to develop and administer in a
manner it devises an evaluation system for the employees it appoints.
The commission shall exercise all other powers and perform all other
duties with respect to the civil service of the city * * *, as prescribed in this
chapter and conferred upon the director of administrative services and the
state personnel board of review with respect to the civil service of the
state; and all authority granted to the director and the board with respect
to the service under their jurisdiction shall, except as otherwise provided
by this chapter, be held to be granted to the commission with respect to
the service under its jurisdiction. The procedure applicable to reductions,
suspensions, and removals, as provided for in section 124.34 of the
Revised Code, shall govern the civil service of cities.
15
exercise thereunder all powers of local self-government. [Section 7]
{¶ 29} Pursuant to these home rule powers, Dayton created a charter, which grants broad
powers to the City and includes provisions establishing the City’s civil service. Dayton City
Charter, Article X (Sections 93-107). Under Section 101 of the Charter, employees in the City’s
classified service who are “suspended, reduced in rank, or dismissed from a department by the
director of that department or the City Manager” may appeal the decision to the Civil Service
Board. The Charter does not expressly address reductions in force due to layoffs or the
abolishment of positions. Although Dayton’s Civil Service Rules are not in the record, the City
acknowledges that they do not provide an appeal for job abolishment.
{¶ 30} “Under the principles of home rule prescribed by Section 3, Article XVIII of
the Ohio Constitution, in matters of local self-government, when there is a conflict between a
municipal charter provision and a statute, the charter provision prevails where (1) the conflict
appears by the express terms of the charter, and not by mere inference, and (2) the charter clearly
and expressly states the areas where the municipality intends to supersede and override general
state statutes.” Blauvelt v. Hamilton, 12th Dist. Butler No. CA2008-07-174, 2009-Ohio-2801,
¶ 24, citing State ex rel. Bardo v. Lyndhurst, 37 Ohio St.3d 106, 524 N.E.2d 447 (1988) and State
ex rel. Regetz v. Cleveland, 72 Ohio St.3d 167, 648 N.E.2d 495 (1995). “As long as the
provisions made in the charter of any municipality with reference to its civil service comply with
the requirement of section 10 of article 15, and do not conflict with any other provisions of the
Constitution, they are valid, and under the cases referred to discontinue the general law on the
subject as to that municipality.” State ex rel. Lentz v. Edwards, 90 Ohio St. 305, 310, 107
N.E.768 (1914).
[Cite as State ex rel. Robinson v. Dayton, 2012-Ohio-5800.]
{¶ 31} “In the absence of express language in a charter showing that it conflicts with
the statutes, it is the duty of the courts to harmonize the provisions of the charter with the
provisions of the statute relating to the same matter.” Bardo, supra, limited by State ex rel.
Bednar v. N. Canton, 69 Ohio St.3d 278, 631 N.E.2d 621 (1994). Thus, “the general civil
service laws as codified within R.C. Chapter 124 et seq. will apply where the charter provisions
are silent or where the charter has adopted the language of the particular state statute.” Jacomin
v. Cleveland, 70 Ohio App.3d 163, 165, 590 N.E.2d 846 (8th Dist.1990). However, express
charter provisions will prevail over conflicting state civil service provisions as found within the
Revised Code. Id.{¶ 32} The City relies on several cases to support its position that Dayton’s Charter
provisions “establish a separate civil service system that supersedes and annuls the general state
civil service law.” In Lentz, appointed members of the Dayton Civil Service Commission who
were appointed under state statutory provisions claimed that other individuals appointed under
Dayton’s new City Charter had “usurped” their positions. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the
Dayton Charter provisions, recognizing that “[t]he manner of regulating the civil service of a city
is peculiarly a matter of municipal concern.” Id. at 309.
{¶ 33} In Fraternal Order of Police Captain John C. Post Lodge No. 44 v. Dayton, 2d
Dist. Montgomery No. 10703, 1988 WL 87608 (Aug. 18, 1988), we addressed whether the City
had to a duty to provide promotion examinations for police officers in accordance with R.C.
124.44. We held that R.C. 124.44 did not apply, stating: “It is reasonably clear from Sections 1
and 2 of the Dayton charter that the residents of Dayton granted the City of Dayton all possible
powers of local self government except as may be limited by other charter provisions. It follows
that the civil service provisions of the charter can only limit, and not expand, the powers of local
17
self government in the civil service area.” Id. at *4.
{¶ 34} Finally, the City emphasizes Fenton v. Enaharo, 31 Ohio St.3d 69, 509 N.E.2d
67 (1987), which addressed whether employees for the City of Columbus who were laid off from
their positions were entitled to procedural protections provided by R.C. Chapter 124. As in the
case before us, the Columbus City Charter conferred jurisdiction on the civil service commission
to hear appeals from employees who had been “suspended, reduced in rank or compensation or
discharged.” The Columbus Civil Service Commission concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to
entertain an appeal contesting a layoff, and the trial court affirmed. On appeal, the court of
appeals concluded that the Columbus City Charter was silent with respect to layoffs and, thus, the
civil service commission had jurisdiction to hear the appeal under R.C. 124.03(A) and R.C.
124.40(A).
{¶ 35} The Ohio Supreme Court agreed with the civil service commission and trial court
and reversed the court of appeal’s judgment. It stated that “the charter sets forth the jurisdiction
of the civil service commission and, as such, there is no occasion to apply any jurisdictional
provisions under the Revised Code as a result of the ‘absence of’ provisions.” Fenton at 73. It
further found that R.C. 124.03(A) and the charter conflicted, because “the former section
provid[es] for jurisdiction when an employee suffers a layoff while the latter section does not.”
Id. The supreme court thus concluded that the Columbus City Charter was not “silent” as to the
jurisdictional prerequisites for the civil service commission, and the Columbus civil service
commission did not have jurisdiction over the employees’ appeal of their layoffs. Id. at 73-74.
{¶ 36} We find F.O.P v. Dayton and Fenton to be dispositive. The Dayton City Charter
granted the City broad powers, including the power to establish its civil service. In setting forth
18
the Civil Service Board’s jurisdiction over appeals, the charter limited the Board’s jurisdiction to
appeals by employees “in the classified service who are suspended, reduced in rank, or dismissed
from a department by the director of that department of the City Manager.” Facing like
circumstances in Fenton, the supreme court has held that such a charter provision conflicts with
the statutory provision concerning appeals from layoffs and abolishment of positions, and that the
charter provision prevails over R.C. 124.03(A) and R.C. 124.40(A). In accordance with Fenton,
we conclude that the Dayton Civil Service Board did not have jurisdiction to hear Robinson and
Corbitt’s appeals from the abolishment of the Program Supervisor position.
{¶ 37} Robinson and Corbitt cite several opinions since Fenton, in which an appellate
court applied R.C. Chapter 124, despite the fact that the municipality at issue was a charter city.
See Manlou v. Cleveland Civil Serv. Commn., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 85213, 2005-Ohio-2850;
Zupp v. Columbus Mun. Civil Serv. Commn., 187 Ohio App.3d 614, 2010-Ohio-2614, 933
N.E.2d 281 (10th Dist.).
{¶ 38} In Manlou, the Eighth District concluded that Cleveland’s Civil Service Rule
8.20, which governs layoffs, did not conflict with R.C. 124.321. Id. at ¶ 17. It reasoned that the
rule “appears to adopt the spirit of R.C. 124.321 relative to layoffs, and remains silent in regard
to other actions, such as filing the statement of rationale. Thus, we reject the City’s argument
that R.C. 124.321 is inapplicable to this case.” Id. Because Cleveland’s civil service rules
included rules regarding layoffs and those rules followed the state statutory provisions, we find
Manlou to be distinguishable.
{¶ 39} Zupp is also distinguishable. In that case, classified employees sought to
exercise bumping rights after they were laid off; the City of Columbus concluded that, under the
19
collective bargaining agreement with the City, the employees could not bump less senior
bargaining-unit employees. The city charter provided for an appeal to the civil service
commission for classified employees who were “discharged or reduced in rank or compensation.”
The employees were entitled to an appeal because such employees, under Zupp, included
classified employees who were subject to layoff. We do not agree that a layoff is the equivalent
of a discharge or other disciplinary action. Fenton, 31 Ohio St.3d at 73, fn.2 (“a layoff is not the
functional equivalent of a suspension, reduction in rank or discharge”). We therefore disagree
with Zupp’s conclusion that a city’s appeal procedures for discharges and reductions in rank or
pay provide appellate rights for an employee whose position has been abolished.
{¶ 40} Robinson and Corbitt’s assignment of error is overruled.
{¶ 41} In short, we agree with the trial court that Robinson and Corbitt’s constitutional
right to due process was not violated when their positions as Program Supervisor were abolished
by the Dayton City Commission. Moreover, they did not have a right to appeal the abolishment
to the Dayton Civil Service Board as the Board did not have jurisdiction over appeals from
layoffs or the abolishment of positions. Accordingly, the trial court properly granted the City’s
motion for summary judgment and overruled the employees’ motion for summary judgment.
III.
{¶ 42} The trial court’s judgment will be affirmed.
..........
GRADY, P.J. and DONOVAN, J., concur.
Copies mailed to:
Jeffrey M. Silverstein
Jason P. Matthews
20
John J. Danish
John C. Musto
Hon. Barbara P. Gorman