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The following positions have been included in the classified ser

vice since the original promulgation of those rules, and are addi

tional to the above:

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APPENDIX C.

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Honorable the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly: In response to the request of your Honorable Committee, the Civil Service Commission has the honor to submit the following suggestions in reference to a bill before your Committee, "defining and restricting the powers of the Civil Service Commission in regard to certain qualifications in receiving and considering applications for appointment to the Civil Service of the State.

I. The bill has been drawn under a misapprehension of the existing law, and the powers of the Commission under it. The Governor of the State alone has the power to establish a classification of the Civil Service, and to promulgate the rules to regulate it (§§ 2, 6 of the act).

The function of the Commission is to aid the Governor, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying the act into effect. 2. The Commission properly and necessarily perform the work, but the Governor's approval can alone give it vitality. This is similar to the National Civil Service in which the rules are established by the President.

The fixing of the rules by the chief executive officer instead of by a statute, seems wise. Flexibility in rules, and the power to speedily modify them to meet emergencies, and to correct mistakes, are indispensable in the early stages of an administrative reform like Civil Service. Like power has been conferred upon the Judges of the Court of Appeals with regard to rules for admission to the bar. The delegation of such a power is purely a question of policy and expediency.

II. The bill in question is not in harmony with the intent of the Civil Service Act, but is opposed to its principles, and if it should become a law would tend to defeat the object of that act, and embarrass its execution. It would substitute an arbitrary statute for mere rules which may be changed or modified in the discretion of the executive as the necessities of the service, justice to the people, and enlightened public sentiment, may seem to require.

III. The system of appointment to subordinate positions in the public service established by the Civil Service Act, which had nearly [Assem. Doc. No. 42.] 9

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the unanimous sanction of the Legislature, irrespective of party, is based upon two great fundamental principles-first, the right of the State to the highest attainable excellence in those who are to fill its positions of trust and second, the equal right of its citizens to compete for those positions upon the ground of merit. Civil Service is a practical application of the Jeffersonian test of honesty and capacity for public trusts. Rules are only instrumentalities for ascertaining with certainty and impartiality, these necessary qualifi

cations.

IV. Of the qualifications constituting fitness - physical, moral, mental and personal- the first especially, and others in some degree, depend upon age. The vigor of body and mind required for useful service do not ordinarily co-exist with the tenderness and inexperience of extreme youth, or with the feebleness of advanced age. Some limitations in respect to age of persons entering the service, therefore, are necessary. And rules in such matters must be founded upon the average or general experience of mankind, and not upon exceptions or rare instances.

This has accordingly been done in respect to many offices both under the National and State governments. In the military service the maximum age is forty-five; in civil offices of an elective character the minimum age is twenty-one and in some cases higher. Under the Civil Service rules the minimum age is fixed at twentyone. It may be that for some unimportant positions, like messenger, the minimum might probably be lower. But a modification of the rules can readily adjust that. A maximum age has not, as yet, been fixed by any rule. In a synoptical statement, prepared for convenience, the maximum is tentatively stated as forty-five, in analogy to the military rule, but when a rule shall be authoritatively adopted and promulgated, it may be found expedient to fix it higher. Suggestions on that or any other subject would always be gladly received.

If the Legislature should see fit to prescribe limitations of age, it has the undoubted right to do so, but to admit as applicants persons of all ages or any age, would be inexpedient and calculated to encourage unreasonable aspirations, and unnecessarily increase the labors of examining boards and of the Commission.

V. The second section of the bill establishes a privilege as an exception to the general rule as to who may be admitted, not only without competitive examination, but without any examination whatever as to their present fitness for the service. It assumes that persons who have once held positions in the service to the satisfaction of a head of a department, have a right superior to the rest of the people to enter the service again. It is an assumption, at variance, both with the right of the State and the rights of the people at large. The fact that a former employe was certified to be satisfactory to a former employer, does not prove his fitness for the same post or a

similar post at the present time, or at some future time; and the fact that he has held office in the past gives him no superior right to hold it in the future. It introduces a new element entirely opposed to the principles of Civil Service, as a reason for appointment, viz. : reward for former service.

The great aim of Civil Service is to separate appointments from all connection with political affiliations, favoritism or patronage, and base them simply on fitness for the post with an equal right to every citizen of the proper character, age and qualifications to compete for them on grounds of absolute equality.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

By direction of the Commission.

ALBANY, January 28, 1884.

JAMES A. BETTS,
Secretary.

NEW YORK, February 4, 1884.

Z. R. BROCKWAY, Esq., General Superintendent New York State Reformatory, Elmira, N. Y.

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SIR Your communication of the 30th ult. to the Civil Service Commission has been referred to me for answer.

The varied character of the State Service, and the indefinable inter-relations of its parts, or, I might say, with more, cogency in regard to the greater portion, the absolute lack of relations between its parts, have inade the immediate establishment of the new system at all points simply impossible. Thus the general relations to be enforced through the Superintendent of Prisons fails as to your institution, which is outside of his department. But there is no apparent reason why similar regulations should not be made directly applicable to the Reformatory.

In regard to the prisons the points now established are, that the original appointment shall be to the position of guard, the keepers to be selected from the guards, and the higher paid keepers promoted from the ordinary grade of keepers. It is unnecessary to explain to you the reason for this course of gradual training, since I may presume that it will accord with the views of one so experienced in the service as you are.

The guards are selected by competitive examination of those who have perfected their applications in the form prescribed by the rules. I have directed a copy of the blank application to be sent to you; and I believe it will explain fully to you the requirements as to physical condition and vouchers for character and temperament. The age is not to be less than twenty-five, nor more than forty years.

The educational test is confined to the ability to write legibly matter dictated, to spell tolerably and perform accurately problems in elementary arithmetic. The physical test is severe as you will see by the blank forms.

Persons employed in all the State institutions in any of the positions below the grade of prison guard are examined at present by provisional boards at the various asylums, etc., selected by the Commission from such of the higher officials in these institutions as are recommended by the Superintendent as competent to act as examiners. There are seven such boards, besides the central examining board at Albany.

Please inform me if you consider your guards and keepers as of the same class as those in the prisons, and whether they should be subjected to the same conditions.

Our act is entitled "An Act to regulate and improve the Civil Service, etc." In many of the State institutions the service has been reputably rendered and administered through the high character of those intrusted with the responsibility. But there was absent such a regulation as would make the system of selection for employment uniform and formal, with ample records, and which would tend to give it permanency and protect it from the abuses arising from that purely partisan interference, which has long tended to reach every public concern.

The system leaves the power of removal unrestrained as it should be to insure subordination and discipline.

The high reputation you have as an administrator would give great value to your suggestions on any point connected with the general service, while as to matters in your own institution I would respectfully request your opinion in full.

I am, sir, with great respect,

Very sincerely yours,
SILAS W. BURT,
Chief Examiner.

NEW YORK, March 21, 1884.

Z. R. BROCKWAY, Esq., Sup't State Reformatory, Elmira, N. Y.; DEAR SIRI have yours of the 18th instant. The Civil Service Commission meets on the 24th, when the persons recommended by you will, without doubt, be approved as a board of examiners for positions in Schedule D.

I have mailed you to day a copy of the rules, regulations, etc., for the use of the Board and would like to have its attention particularly directed to rules 27 to 29 and to general regulations 9 and 31.

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