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Larsen v. Municipality of Anchorage12/23/1999
[No. 5220 - December 23, 1999]
Appeal from the Superior Court of the State of Alaska, Third Judicial District, Anchorage, Peter A. Michalski, Judge.
I. INTRODUCTION
Anchorage police officers Jack Larsen and David Cooper sued the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) for its failure to assign them to a task force jointly undertaken with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Larsen and Cooper alleged that under their collective bargaining agreement, their supervisor should have made the assignments based on seniority. The superior court granted summary judgment to MOA on the grounds that the officers had not timely challenged the assignments and that the collective bargaining agreement did not require MOA to award the assignments based on seniority. Because we conclude that the officers timely challenged the assignments and that a factual issue exists regarding the necessity of job assignment by seniority, we reverse and remand.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Jack Larsen and David Cooper are senior police officers in the Anchorage Police Department. They are employed under a collective bargaining agreement between MOA and the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association (APDEA). They work in the "Metro" unit, which specializes in undercover operations to apprehend drug dealers.
On January 3, 1991, Lieutenant Dan Loy, commander of the Metro unit, made staff assignments for that year. He assigned Larsen and Cooper to "work street corner " focusing on "crack house drug dealers." He assigned two officers with less seniority, Linda O'Brien and Wilbur Hooks, to an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force known as "Operation Valley Thunder." Loy assigned the junior officers to this joint investigation coordinated by the Anchorage Police Department and the federal DEA, ostensibly because he wanted them to "receive the additional training and expand their abilities as investigators."
Operation Valley Thunder lasted over a year, from January 1991 through February 1992. The assignment required O'Brien and Hooks to move to the Federal Building in Anchorage and to change from an afternoon shift to a morning shift. While assigned to Operation Valley Thunder, O'Brien and Hooks reported to a DEA supervisor.
After Loy made the assignments, Cooper complained to Loy that Loy should have made the assignments based on seniority under the collective bargaining agreement. Although Loy testified that he did not remember this complaint, O'Brien recalled that Loy told her within ten days of the assignment that Cooper and Larsen had objected to the assignment. According to O'Brien, Loy also told O'Brien that he would assign her to Operation Valley Thunder regardless of the senior officers' complaints.
On June 4, 1991, a representative of the police department management, Captain Tom Walker, and a representative of APDEA, Officer Alan Kraft, prepared and signed a memorandum stating that "any and all labor relations complaints of a grievable nature that may arise out of [Operation Valley Thunder] would be placed on hold." The memorandum further provided that the collective bargaining agreement's requirement that grievances be filed within ninety days would be waived and that " o complaint will be forwarded to the Executive Board of APDEA until the completion of this investigation." The purpose of this agreement was to preserve the confidentiality of Operation Valley Thunder. According to both Walker and Kraft, they drafted the memorandum shortly after they first heard oral complaints from Larsen and Cooper about the Operation Valley Thunder assignments.
On November 20, 1991, Larsen and Cooper
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