BILL NUMBER:  S6966

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to positions in the
competitive class of the state


 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :
To amend the Civil Service Law to prohibit existing positions in the
State civil service competitive class from being reclassified into the
noncompetitive or exempt class.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :
This bill creates a new section 44-a of the Civil service Law to
prohibit any existing position in the competitive class from being
reclassified into the noncompetitive or exempt class.

 JUSTIFICATION :
The civil service system was created to protect the public by insuring
that public sector jobs are filled by qualified workers. It also was
intended to prevent cronyism and corruption by creating a fair process
for filling positions.  The bedrock of the civil service system is the
competitive class. The key elements of the competitive class are that
the applicant must meet minimum qualifications, that the applicant
must take an examination and get a passing score, and that the job
must be filled by one of the three highest scoring applicants. Most
              

State positions are in the competitive class.

The courts have found that "there is a significant constitutional
preference for competitive classification".  BRYNIEN V NEW YORK STATE
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE , (Supreme Court, Albany County, 2009).
"Exemption is the exception and is constitutionally permissible only
when it is established that competitive examination is not
practicable"  MCGOWAN V BURSTEIN 71 NY2ND AT 734 (1988 ).  This
preference for competitive examination is intended to insure that
hiring is based on competence not cronyism.

However, the New York State Department of Civil Service (DCS) recently
attempted to reclassify twenty-nine State job titles from the
competitive class to the noncompetitive class. If this
reclassification had been successful, these positions could have been
filled without any examination at all, opening the door to favoritism
in hiring. The reclassification was stopped by a court order when the
Supreme Court found that the Department had failed to show any
evidence that competitive examination was not feasible.

Although that particular reclassification has been blocked by the
Court, DCS retains the power to attempt to reclassify other job
titles. This bill is intended to follow the mandate of the State
Constitution by preventing such reclassifications.  The rationale for
this is simple- the bill would apply to currently existing positions
that are in the competitive class of the State civil service. Since
those positions currently exist it is obvious that it is feasible to
utilize competitive exams to fill them because they are currently
being filled through the competitive examination process. Any attempt
to reclassify such positions to the noncompetitive or exempt class is
likely to be an attempt to avoid the civil service merit process in
violation of the clear intent of the Constitution.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
New bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediate.