Region 8 Civil Service

Our committee has discussed the Department of Civil Service’s new Strategic Direction 2004. The plan is viewed as a mixed bag. To have electronic access to Civil Service information for PEF members is a good idea and we would be in favor of this change especially promotional lists, however the "Shared Stewardship Model" is way too misunderstood at this point. We will have to wait to see if the devil indeed is in the details.

A polling of members from several of Albany’s agencies show that some agencies cannot wait to get their autonomy from Department of Civil Service to have their own form of Civil Service. Other agencies want no part of the "Shared Stewardship Model". MC Staff turnovers and the hiring freeze have caused some agency Human Resource Divisions to consider this another shift of the DCS workload. Tasks done centrally by the Department of Civil Service will now be done by each agency. Some agencies consider this new "Shared Stewardship Model" more of a burden then a blessing. Some PEF stewards feel there will be more agency abuses of the Civil Service System under this decentralized strategy.

One thing must be clear: no matter what authority the Department of Civil Service relegates to state agencies such as testing or classifications, the responsibility for consistent enforcement of the Civil Service Fitness and Merit System lies with the Department of Civil Service.