GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION – General Principles

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The plain language of EERA and HEERA extends factfinding to negotiations over all matters within the scope of representation, not just to negotiations over new or successor CBAs. At the time AB 646 was passed, the Legislature is presumed to have known that PERB applied existing impasse resolution procedures to single-issue bargaining disputes, mid-term contract negotiations, and effects bargaining disputes, and that the duty of parties to meet and confer in good faith under MMBA covers more than simply the duty to meet and confer over the terms of an MOU. The Legislature did not intend that MMBA factfinding be limited only to bargaining disputes over comprehensive MOUs. Nothing in AB 646 interferes with the ultimate decision-making authority of public agencies to determine wages or manage its finances.