The Third Appellate District affirmed a judgment granting a petition for a writ of mandate. The court held that the unpaid furlough program mandated by the Governor for executive branch employees applied to employees of elected constitutional officers.
Prompted by California’s fiscal crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008 issued an executive order directing the Department of Personnel Administration (Department) to implement a mandatory two-day-a-month unpaid furlough of most workers employed in the executive branch. The Controller, John Chiang, as well as the Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendant of Public Instruction, and members of the State Board of Equalization, (collectively, the officers), took the position that the furlough order did not apply to their employees.
