Senate Bill S5255

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S5255

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the civil service law, in relation
to interdepartmental promotion lists

 PURPOSE OF THE BILL :

This bill would amend the Civil Service Law ("CSL") to authorize the
Department of Civil Service ("Department"), upon an agency's request,
to certify an interdepartmental promotion list and a departmental
promotion list without preference to the departmental promotion list.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of the bill would amend CSL § 52(4) to authorize the
Department, upon an agency's request, to certify an interdepartmental
promotion list and a department promotion list without preference to
the departmental promotion list.

Section 2 of the bill would make it effective immediately.

 JUSTIFICATION :

New York State's ability to effectively implement public policy and
provide critical services relies upon an effectively managed
workforce. To this end, this bill would allow agencies to consider
              

comparable or higher-scoring candidates - all of whom are already
State employees - on an interdepartmental promotion list.

Currently, a State agency must exhaust an eligible list limited to
employees of the agency before it can consider eligible candidates
from other state agencies - even those who attained a higher score
from an interdepartmental list. This bill would allow an agency the
option to select from a larger interdepartmental list consisting of
more candidates. Equally important, this bill would benefit employees
by providing them with potentially greater promotional opportunities
and options, particularly those candidates who work for agencies with
limited vacancies or promotional opportunities, thus better enabling
the State to retain needed talent.

Nothing in this bill precludes an agency from making promotions from
its own department list in the same manner as provided currently; it
simply provides an option to allow an agency to fill positions from a
broader talent pool if it doesn't have viable candidates within the
agency's existing talent pool.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

None.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.