BILL NUMBER: S179A

SPONSOR: JACKSON
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to the appointment
and promotion of supervisors of the fire alarm dispatcher service

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 adds a new Section 59-E to the Civil Service Law to provide
that vacancies in the supervisory personnel of the fire alarm dispatcher
service in the title of Supervising Fire Alarm Dispatcher level 2 and/or
positions with equivalent duties and responsibilities, shall be filled
by promotion from among employees holding competitive class positions in
a lower grade in the department, and that such promotions shall be based
on merit and fitness examination. This bill also provides that any
employee holding a provisional on an affected position in the superviso-
ry personnel of the fire alarm dispatcher service on the date of enact-
ment shall be given the opportunity to participate in a competitive
promotional examination for the next higher title. Finally, this bill
provides that other than as provided in this section, the remainder of
the civil service law shall apply to employees serving in an affected
              

title.

Section 2 is the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This legislation is necessary to provide essential services workers who,
due to the failure of the City of New York to provide a means to obtain
a permanent appointment, hold provisional supervising fire alarm
dispatcher level II appointments with the ability to compete for a
permanent competitive class appointments to that title. The City of New
York and the employee's representative have reviewed the process by
which these essential services employees were hired, from announcement
of a vacancy, through the methodology used to assess each candidate's
experience and skills, and are satisfied that this methodology did and
will assess candidate's merit and fitness for the position, as required
by Article 5, Section 6 of the New York State Constitution.  This proc-
ess would take the place of the qualified incumbent examination ("QIE
Exam") that the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative
Services ("DCAS") obtained authorization to begin administering in 2016,
but has yet to include the supervising fire alarm dispatcher level II
title among the titles for which it has sought authorization to adminis-
ter the QIE Exam.

In Chapter 5 of the Laws of 2008, the Legislature expressed its concern
with the number of provisional appointments maintained by the City of
New York and other entities whose civil service appointments are manages
by DCAS and required the creation of a plan, subject to the approval by
the State Civil Service Commission, to reduce the number of provisional
employees. This plan was supposed to be implemented within five years.
It was not fully implemented in five years.

By 2014, the DCAS plan had not been fully implemented. In Chapter 285 of
the Laws of 2014, the Legislature provided DCAS until 2016 to revise the
plan and have the plan approved. Chapter 467 of the Laws of 2016 author-
ized DCAS to administer a Q1E.: Exam for 195 titles.  Supervising fire
alarm dispatcher level II was not one of the titles listed despite the
fact that these employees are essential workers and that every person
appointed to that title held a provisional appointment. While it is
certainly easy to understand why DCAS would select titles such as
accountant or police attendant that probably had hundreds of provisional
employees, the list also included titles that are not essential workers
and probably had few provisional employees.

The QIE Exams did not alleviate the requirement that DCAS have a revised
approved plan. In 2018, DCAS was still working on a revised plan. Chap-
ter 419 provided DCAS with the ability to continue to work on revising
the plan while adding 122 titles to the Q Hi Exam list. Supervising fire
alarm dispatcher level II was not among the 122 titles. DCAS had until
2021 to revise and obtain approval for the plan.

Chapter 386 of the Laws of 2021 gave DCAS yet another extension. DCAS
was required to have a new revised and approved plan by December 31,
2023. This chapter also included 33 titles that were eligible for QIE
Exams. Supervising fire alarm dispatcher level II was not among those
titles.

The City of New York stated in its Memo in Support of A.7935/S.7100 of
2021 that in 2008, the number of provisional employees exceeded 20,000
and that on February 28, 2021, the number of provisional employees was
13,873. They do not say what percentage of the reduction of approximate-
ly 7,200 provisional appointments was due to their planning or efforts
to reduce the number of provisional employees.

What we do know is that DCAS has been working on this problem for almost
16 years and can show reduction of less than 500 provisional employees
every year. Our essential workers who held competitive class positions,
applied and competed for promotions, and received provisional appoint-
ments because DCAS failed to provide an examination for the position
should not be punished. The methodology agreed upon by both labor and
management has been examined by both parties prior to agreement and both
parties concluded that the methodology is a fair assessment of candi-
dates merit and fitness for the position of supervising fire alarm
dispatcher level II. Similar to the QIE Exams, only employees who
currently hold the title supervising fire alarm dispatcher level II as a
provisional appointment would be eligible for the examination.

This bill accomplished what DCAS has been unable to accomplish in 16
years. We should not force these essential services workers to wait any
longer.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2022: S.8685 - Vetoed Memo 103/A.9133 - Vetoed Memo 103

2021: S.6015 - Vetoed Memo 80/A.6873 - Vetoed Memo 80

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.