Newsline: December 2004
City Council Passes Bill to Monitor Civil Service Hiring Practices
 City Agencies will have to pay
closer attention to their hiring and
promotion practices following the
New York City Council approval of
a bill requiring the Department of
Citywide Administrative Services
(DCAS) to create and submit a written
report regarding eligible lists.
The bill, Intro 418-A, sponsored
by Civil Service & Labor Committee
Chair Council Member Addabbo, Jr.,
Council Members Clarke, Comrie,
Gennaro, Jennings, Katz, Monserrate,
Nelson, Perkins, Sanders,
Seabrook, Lopez, Jackson, Gonzalez
and Weprin, passed unanimously,
Oct. 27. The bill amends the section
of the New York State Civil Service
law that “mandates that appointments
and promotions in the civil
service be made according to merit
and fitness to be ascertained as far
as practicable, by examination,
which, as far as practicable, shall be
competitive.”
In the city, DCAS administers
civil service tests and creates eligible
lists of candidates who passed
the exam. The agency then distributes
these lists of eligible candidates
to each city agency with open positions
in corresponding titles. The eligible
list usually remains active for
four years.
According to the sponsors, the
legislation was necessary to ensure
that city agencies are correctly using
the “one-in-three” rule as well as
demonstrate that rules governing the
“eligible lists and promotions” are
being properly followed. The City
Council reports that “some agencies
hire provisional employees who have
never taken or passed a civil service
examination” instead of following
the law which requires that they hire candidates from the “eligible list.”
The Civil Service Law states
that: “Appointments or promotions
from an eligible list to a position in
the competitive class are made by the
selection of one of the three persons
certified as standing highest on such
list, a procedure commonly known
as the one-in-three rule. When an eligible
list contains fewer than three
names, a provisional appointment in
the competitive class may be made
by an agency, pending the establishment
of a new eligible list.”
“This legislation is long due,”
said Local 237 President Carl
Haynes. “The issue has been a longstanding
one for municipal unions.
Some city agencies have been working
around the law, bypassing qualified
candidates for provisionals
who have no rights or union protection
on the job. We will be glad to see the end of that practice.”
The Council’s bill requires the
commissioner of DCAS to submit a
detailed annual report of eligible
lists, beginning in 2005, to the
mayor, comptroller, public advocate
and Council by the first day of June,
for the previous calendar year. The
report is expected to include, but is
not limited to:
- Each eligible list established
during the reporting year by DCAS;
- The dates such eligible lists
were established;
- The number of persons appointed
or promoted from each eligible
list and the agencies to which
such appointments or promotions
were made;
- The number of persons appointed
or promoted on a provisional
basis during the reporting year and
the agencies to which such appointments
or promotions were made;
- The number of persons who,
during the reporting year, were considered
and not selected three times
from promotion lists;
- The number of persons removed
from eligible lists and the
number of persons removed from
promotion lists and the reason reported
to the department of citywide
administrative services by the
agency for such removal; and
- The number of persons restored
to eligible lists and the number
of persons restored to promotion
lists after having been removed.
If signed by Mayor Bloomberg,
the legislation would go into effect
immediately.
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