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plaint and that a determination of the issue presented will assist the parties
in resolving the complaint. The stipulated issue in this case therefore, is
whether an elected County official has the authority to override or amend
a collective bargaining agreement.
The Board first addressed this issue in Dubuque County, PERB Case No.
831 (1976), in which the Board found that Chapter 340 of The Code provides
that elected county officials must certify the salary levels for their
respective employees, and that the board of supervisors set the salaries
for all other county employees. The Board concluded:
Chapter 20, however, has been superimposed upon this division
of authority. As we said above, it is clear that Dubuque
County (as an entity) is the "public employer" within the
meaning of Section 3(1); neither the individual office holder
nor the board of supervisors can reasonably be classified as
a political subdivision. Further, it is also clear that the
governing body, as that term is used in Section 3(2), is the
board of supervisors and does not include other elected
officers. Hence, under Chapter 20 it is the responsibility
of the board of supervisors to direct negotiations with
county employees and to ultimately ratify any collective bar-
gaining agreement. Having done so, the board of supervisors
is bound to the terms of that agreement, and the agreement
itself is enforceable in the district courts. (Section 17(6)
of the Act).
* * * *
We find, therefore, that where deputies of elected county
officers are properly included in a bargaining unit and a
collective bargaining agreement is concluded pursuant to the
Act, the board of supervisors is legally bound to the terms
of that agreement and cannot certify salary levels for such
deputies which do not conform to that agreement. (Dubuque
County pp. 5 and 7).
The Board again addressed this issue in a recent decision. Scott County
Board of Supervisors, PERB Case No. 1849 (September, 1981). In Scott County
the Board reviewed Dubuque County and like Dubuque County, Scott County was
a declaratory ruling in which the Board addressed the following question:
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