BILL NUMBER:  S7147

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the civil service law, in relation
to the creation of an annual report on the race and ethnic data of
individuals who have taken a civil service examination

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL :

This legislation requires the creation of an annual report on the race
and ethnic data of individuals who have taken civil service exams.
Department of Civil Service has failed to ensure diversity in state
government workforce. Their outreach methods to increase diversity
remain unquantifiable and attempts to create a matrix to measure their
efforts have been ignored.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Section 1: Section 7 of the civil service law is amended by adding a
new subdivision 7 to read as follows:

Sec 7. The president of the commission shall collect data on the
ethnicity and race of every individual who takes a civil service
examination issued or approved by the department and the president
shall prepare an annual report describing the data collected. Such
report shall be published no later than November thirteenth of each
year, beginning in two thousand sixteen, and shall report information
              

on the basis of the governor and the legislature and shall report
information on the basis of the last completed state fiscal year. The
report shall be delivered to the governor and the legislature and
shall be made available to the public via the department's website.

 JUSTIFICATION :

This legislation requires the creation of an annual report on the race
and ethnic data of individuals who have taken civil service exams.
Department of Civil Service has failed to ensure diversity in state
government workforce. Their outreach methods to increase diversity
remain unquantifiable and attempts to create a matrix to measure their
efforts have been ignored.

The Department of Civil Service continues to assert that they
advertise civil service exams via community based groups from diverse
communities. Yet when the exam is given, they do not collect any data
on the race or ethnicity of the text takers therefore there is no way
they can gauge of their pre-test outreach is working. Obviously based
on the appalling hiring of minorities documented below their outreach
needs a total revamping.

A 2005 report by the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic
Task Force, a subsequent public hearing and other meetings with
minority workers has yielded valuable suggestion that need legislative
action to remedy what the 2005 report called, an appalling
under-representation of minorities in civil service and policy making
positions in the Pataki Administration. This is one of five proposals
put forward by task force to address the problems.

The lack of workforce diversity now seen in New York State was created
because over the years affirmative action officers/administrators have
no job protection, and are marginalized by agency heads. In fact, many
of the current employees performing such duties are not AAOs. This
legislation reverses this situation and strengthens the role of these
employees by providing them with a variety of tools.

*In 2005, Hispanics made up over 16% of the entire state population
but accounted for only 3.8 percent or 6.515 of the 169.571 jobs in the
state government workforce. In real terms, this is a decline in close
to 1,000 jobs since 1991 or a 12.2% reduction in the number of
Hispanic state workers. This reduction came during a period when the
Hispanic population in New York grew by 33%.

*In 2015 Hispanics make up almost 19% of the entire state population
but account for 400 less jobs than they had in State government or
6,142 jobs out of 131,800.

*Since 1991, the African-American civil service workforce has seen a
dramatic decline. The 8,836 jobs lost by this group represent a 26.7%
decline in the African-American state workforce. This reduction came
during a period when the African-American population in New York grew
by 13.1%.

*For African-Americans, the loss of the 8,836 jobs at the average
state salary of $53,000 translates into a loss of over $468 million
dollars in annual salaries. For Hispanics their under-representation
translates into a loss of over $860 million in annual salaries.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New Bill. Priority Legislation for PR/H Task Force based on 2005
Report by same on lack of diversity in state government workforce.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT :

NONE

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.