Justice Manuel Mendez

New York City Department of Education used civil service employees as custodians, represented by a union that negotiated collective bargaining agreements with another union for the hiring of cleaners. Custodians were not considered contractors under Labor Law §230, and cleaners hired by custodians were not entitled to a living or prevailing wage rate. Temco was the only private company hired by DOE to manage public school custodial care, and its cleaners were required to be paid a living or prevailing wage rate. Temco sought to have Comptroller Liu's decision, that cleaners hired by Temco were subject to the prevailing wage rates established for building cleaner and maintainer for both office and residential, be set aside as arbitrary. It argued Liu should have established a separate classification for public school cleaners based on the differences in work performed. The court found Temco failed to show Liu acted arbitrarily when he did not create a separate classification for public school cleaners, or that there was a basis for mandamus relief. It stated Temco failed to establish the prevailing wage rate determined by Liu for office building cleaner and maintainer was not the actual rate for public school cleaners. Thus, the Article 78 petition was denied.