GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION – General Principles

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PERB’s fundamental task in statutory construction is to ascertain the Legislature’s intent so as to effectuate the purpose of the law. (Regents of the University of California (2021) PERB Decision No. 2755-H, p. 20 (Regents); Region 2 Court Interpreter Employment Relations Committee & California Superior Courts of Region 2 (2020) PERB Decision No. 2701-I, p. 32 (Region 2).) In construing a statute, we first examine the statutory language, “affording the words their ordinary and usual meaning.” (Region 2, supra, PERB Decision No. 2701-I, p. 33.) If the statutory language is clear, we generally assume the Legislature meant what it said. (Ibid.; State of California (Office of the Inspector General) (2019) PERB Decision No. 2660-S, p. 15.) Moreover, we are to give statutes a “reasonable and common sense interpretation consistent with the apparent purpose and intention of the lawmakers.” (Regents, supra, PERB Decision No. 2755-H, p. 20, internal citation omitted.) In doing so, we interpret a statutory provision with “reference to the whole system of which it is a part so that all may be harmonized and have effect.” (Ibid., internal citation omitted; Skidgel v. California Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd. (2021) 12 Cal.5th 1, 14.) We turn to extrinsic aids such as legislative history and the wider historical circumstances of the statute’s enactment only when the plain meaning of a statute is unclear. (Santa Clara Valley Water District (2013) PERB Decision No. 2349-M, pp. 16-17.) (p. 13.)