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THE CIVIL SERVICE STATUTES.

AN ACT to regulate and improve the civil service of the State of New York (Chap. 354), passed May 4, 1883, as amended by chapter 357, passed May 24, 1884, and chapter 410, passed May 29, 1884.

SECTION 1. The governor is authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, three persons, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of the same party, as civil service commissioners, and said three commissioners shall constitute the New York civil service commission. They shall hold no other official place under the State of New York. The governor may remove any commissioner; and any vacancy in the position of commissioner shall be so filled by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of commissioners. The three commissioners shall each receive a salary of two thousand dollars a year. And each of said commissioners shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty as a commissioner.

§ 2. It shall be the duty of said commission:

First. To aid the governor, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect; and when said rules shall have been promulgated, it shall be the duty of all officers of the State of New York, in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate, to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules, and any modification thereof, into effect.

Second. And among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows:

1. For open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character and, so far as may be, shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of that service into which they seek to be appointed.

2. All the offices, places and employments so arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by selections from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations.

3. There shall be a period of probation before any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid.

4. Promotions from the lower grades to the higher shall be on the basis of merit and competition.

5. No person in the public service is for that reason under any obligation to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and no person shall be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so.

6. No person in said service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body.

7. There shall be non-competitive examinations when competition may not be found practicable.

8. Notice shall be given in writing by the appointing power to said commission of the person selected for appointment or employment from among those who have been examined, of the place of residence of such persons, of the rejection of any such persons after probation, of transfers, resignations, and removals, and of the date thereof, and a record of the same shall be kept by said commission. And any necessary exceptions from said eight fundamental provisions of the rules shall be set forth in connection with such rules, and the reasons therefor shall be stated in the annual reports of the commission.

Third. Said commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the governor, make regulation for, and have control of such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve the records of the same; and said commission shall keep minutes of its own proceedings.

Fourth. Said commission may make investigations concerning the facts, and may report upon all matters touching the enforcement and effects of said rules and regulations, and concerning the action of any examiner or board of examiners hereinafter provided for, and its own subordinates, and those in the public service, in respect to the execution of this act; and in the course of such investigations, each commissioner and their secretary shall have power to administer oaths.

Fifth. Said commission shall make an annual report to the governor for transmission to the legislature, showing its own action, the rules and regulations and the exceptions thereto in force, the practical effects thereof, and any suggestion it may approve for the more effect tual accomplishment of the purposes of this act.

*§ 3. Said commission is authorized to employ a chief examiner, a part of whose duty it shall be under its direction to act with the ex*As amended by section 1 of chapter 357, passed May 24, 1884.

amining boards so for as practicable, whether at Albany or elsewhere, and to secure accuracy, uniformity and justice in all their proceedings, which shall be at all times open to him. The chief examiner shall be

entitled to receive a salary at the rate of thirty-six hundred dollars a year, and he shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty. The commission is authorized to employ a secretary, who may be one of its own number, who shall receive a compensation of one thousand dollars per annum, and who shall also be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty, and also a person to act as stenographer and copyist who shall be entitled to receive a compensation of one thousand dollars a year, or in its discretion may from time to time employ stenographers and copyists at an expense not to exceed in the aggregate the sum of one thousand dollars a year. The commission may appoint a messenger, to act also as clerk, at a salary not exceeding nine hundred dollars a year, and may dismiss him at pleasure. The commission may, at Albany and in any other part of the state where examinations are to take place, designate and select a suitable number of persons in the official service of the state of New York, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such person serves, or in its discretion, persons not in the official service, to be members of boards of examiners, and may at any time substitute any other person in or out of such service in place of any one so selected. Any person not at the time in the official service of the state, or of any political division thereof serving as a member of the board of examiners shall be entitled to compensation for every day actually and necessarily spent in the discharge of his duty as examiner at the rate of five dollars a day, but the aggregate compensation of any such examiner shall not exceed one hundred dollars in any year. It shall be the duty of the officers of the state of New York, or of any political division thereof, at any place outside of the city of Albany where examinations are directed by said rules or by said board to be held, to allow the reasonable use of the public buildings, and to light and heat the same, for holding such examinations and in all proper ways to facilitate the same.

*§ 4. It shall be the duty of the trustees of public buildings designated by chapter three hundred and forty-nine of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-three to cause suitable and convenient rooms and accommodations to be assigned or provided, and to be furnished, heated and lighted at the city of Albany for carrying on the work of said commission and said examinations, and said commission may order the necessary stationery, postage stamps, an official seal and other articles to be supplied, and the necessary printing to be done for its official use. And the cost and expense thereof, and the several salaries, compensa*As amended by section 2 of chapter 357, passed May 24, 1884.

tions and necessary expenses of the commission, upon the same being stated in detail and verified by affidavit as the comptroller may direct, shall be paid monthly from any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

*§ 5. Any commissioner, examiner, copyist, or messenger herein mentioned, or any other person who shall willfully and corruptly, by himself or in co-operation with one or more persons, defeat, deceive, or obstruct any person in respect of his or her right of examination according to any rules or regulations prescribed pursuant to the provisions of this act, or who shall willfully, corruptly, and falsely mark, grade, estimate, or report upon the examination or proper standing of any person examined pursuant to the provisions of this act, or aid in so doing, or who shall willfully and corruptly make any false representations concerning the same, or concerning the person examined, or who shall willfully and corruptly furnish to any person any special or secret information for the purpose of either improving or injuring the prospects or chances of any person so examined or to be examined, shall for each offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

§ 6. Within four months after the expiration of the present session of the legislature, it shall be the duty of the governor to cause to be arranged in classes the several clerks and persons employed or being in the public service, for the purposes of the examination herein provided for, and he shall include in one or more of such classes, so far as practicable, all subordinate places, clerks and officers in the public service of the state.

§ 7. After the termination of eight months from the expiration of the present session of the legislature, no officer or clerk shall be appointed, and no person shall be admitted to or be promoted in either of the said classes now existing, or that may be arranged hereunder pursuant to said rules, until he has passed an examination, or is shown. to be specially exempted from such examination, in conformity herewith. No elective officer, and no person merely employed as a laborer or workman, shall be required to be classified hereunder; nor, unless by the direction of the senate, shall any person who has been nominated for confirmation by the senate be required to be classified or to pass an examination.

§ 8. The mayor of each city in this state is authorized and is hereby directed to prescribe such regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service of such city as may best promote the efficiency thereof and ascertain the fitness of candidates in respect to character, knowledge and ability for the branch of the service into which they

*As amended by section 1 of chapter 410, passed May 29, 1884. As amended by section 2, chap. 410, passed May 29, 1884.

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