Senate Bill S1766

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S1766

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to direct the president of the state civil service commission to
conduct a study on the current civil service examination process to
identify and provide recommendations to improve current methodologies
used regarding the examination process to ensure diversity in recruit-
ment and hiring in the public sector

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

Directs the president of the state civil service commission to conduct a
study on the current civil service examination process.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1. The President of the state Civil Service Commission shall
conduct a study on the current civil service examination process to
identify existing resources and provide recommendations on how to
              

improve current methodologies used regarding the examination process to
ensure diversity in the recruitment and hiring in the public sector.

Section 2. On or before 270 days after effective date of this act, the
President of the State Civil Service Commission shall complete the study
conducted pursuant to section one of this act. The results should be
reported with recommendations to the Governor, the temporary President
of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly.

Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION:

N/A

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This legislation intends to improve employment opportunities for quali-
fied minorities in the New York State civil service system. This system
oversees the employment of over 630,000 government (public) sector
employees. Based on the appalling hiring of minorities documented below,
it is necessary to examine other paths to employment that can help
diversify the state and municipal government workforces so that they
better reflect the great diversity of our State. Having the Department
of Civil Service examine and report on how a portfolio application
system would help improve diversity is a good start and this legislation
aims to initiate that process.

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 7 proposals put forward by task force to
address the problems.

*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 popu-
lation 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 more than 11,000 jobs lost by this group represent
an almost 30% decline in the African-American state workforce. This
reduction came during a period when the African-American population in
New York grew by 16.1%.

*For African-Americans, the loss of the 11,000 jobs at the average state
salary of $53,000 translates into a loss of over $550 million dollars in
annual salaries. For Hispanics their under-representation translates
into a loss of over $860 million in annual salaries never realized by
this community.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.8679 of 2018, referred to civil service and pensions
A.8041 of 2016, referred to governmental employees

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.