State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, Afl-Cio, Plaintiff and Appellant v. City of Vista Et…

Summary

The court held that California's prevailing wage law does not apply to a charter city's locally funded public works projects because the wages paid to private contract workers on those projects concern a municipal affair, not a matter of statewide concern. Applying the state constitutional home-rule framework, the court concluded that the state law conflicts with Vista's ordinance but lacks the necessary extramunicipal justification to displace the city's fiscal autonomy. Justice Werdegar, dissenting, and Justice Liu, dissenting separately, would have found sufficient statewide interests in regional labor markets and apprenticeship training to uphold the state law's application.