Erin Salcedo was a dispatcher at the California State University, Stanislaus. The California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) represented Salcedo.
Around December 2022, Salcedo submitted a formal complaint to the University alleging harassment, disparate treatment, and hostile work environment caused by the acts of a University Police Department (UPD) peace officer. The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department investigated the allegations, created a report, and shared the report with the University. The University informed Salcedo that her allegations were not sustained in February 2023.
In August 2023, CSUEU submitted a request for information seeking the report. The University declined, on the grounds that California Penal Code section 832.7 precluded the University from distributing copies of the report absent a court order. Section 832.7 generally shields a peace officer’s personnel records from disclosure and designates them as confidential. If a party to litigation or an administrative hearing wants the records, the party must file a Pitchess motion to have a judge determine whether there is good cause to grant limited access to the records.
CSUEU then demanded that the University meet and confer over confidentiality concerns raised by its request for the report. The University declined. CSUEU filed an unfair practice charge (UPC) concerning both the University’s denial to: provide the report; and to meet and confer. The PERB Office of General Counsel sent CSUEU a warning letter that it would dismiss the case unless CSUEU could timely amend the UPC to state a case for a violation of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA). CSUEU declined and appealed to PERB.
PERB upheld the dismissal. PERB found that despite a union’s general right to information, an employer is not required to provide confidential peace officer personnel records to the union outside of a legal or administrative proceeding in which the judge or hearing officer orders disclosure.
PERB noted that the safeguards afforded to these records include, but are not limited to: notification to the affected peace officer; the burden of establishing relevance and materiality of the records; and a hearing officer’s review of the records at issue. These safeguards are available in a legal, arbitration or unfair practice proceeding, not in a pre-dispute information request where no hearing officer has been assigned. Therefore, PERB reasoned that meeting and conferring over CSUEU’s request for information would have been futile in this case, and affirmed the dismissal of the UPC.
California State University Employees Union v. Trustees of the California State University Case No. SA-CE-427-H; PERB Decision No. 2940-H, January 31, 2025.