2l4
A STUDY OF  THE CITY CHARTER
leadership for certain personnel functions. On the other hand, the City
Administrative Officer and the operating departments have a responsibility
to the Mayor and the Council for efficient performance of the city's work
and effective utilization of employees.
It therefore is recommended that the City Administrative Officer be
made responsible for (i) undertaking all personnel classification work in
the city governmenr, that is, dividing positions into classes on the basis of
the duties to be performed, job requirements, and salary to be paid, (2)
deciding upon interdepartmental transfers of personnel, (3) reviewing
proposed leaves of absence, and (4) undertaking evaluations of the over-
«nanagement needs of the city government and providing training,
ry, employee relations and evaluation, and placement programs.
Continuance of Civil Service Department
Why should a separate Civil Service Department continue to exist? The
main reason is to have an agency that is independent of the mainstream of
management vested with the responsibility for conducting examinations
for potential and existing personnel. (There is no evidence the CAO's
office could not conduct the tests with equal competence and integrity
and, of course, an independent agency, as revealed in the earlier history of
this city, is not always a guarantee of competent, honest examinations.
However, there is no disadvantage to management activities to endowing
an independent board with this examination responsibility. In addition,
placing the power to examine with such a board establishes a check point
in the ciry government that at some time could be impottant.) Preparing
«dministering tests to determine the relative ability of candidates to
rm the duties of a position in the classified civil service and certifying
ames of qualified candidates on the basis of the examination thus
should continue to be the tesponsibilities of the Civil Service Commission.
The Civil Service Commission also should be responsible for recruiting
personnel, that is, carrying out efforts to interest qualified candidates to
come to work for the city, and hearing appeals on dismissals and suspensions of persons within the city's classified civil service. On dismissals the
commission (and, in the case of firemen and policemen, a special departmental board of rights) should have the power, after a hearing, to order
reinstatement of such a person up to, but not including, the two chief
subordinates (first and second deputies) and the general manager or apr
pointed department head. The conmiission or board should have the
power to hold a hearing on a dismissal action involving a chief subordinate
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: CITY ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
*'5
or department head in the classified civil service and to make findings and
recommendations and forward them to the appointing authority." Upon
reviewing the commission's material, however, the appointing authority
should have the right to affirm or revoke his original action and his decision
at this time should be final. The Civil Service Commission (and, in the case
of firemen and policemen, a special departmental board of rights) should
have the right to review and overrule the suspension of an employee by
a general manager or department head only after an initial total period of
thirty days of suspension time in any fiscal year has expired.
Finally, the Civil Service Commission should have the authority to adopt
rules pertaining to personnel activities that lie within its jurisdiction.
In line with the belief that certain personnel functions, particularly examinations, should remain with an agency independent of general management it is recommended that the methods of selection and removal of
the Board of Civil Service Commissioners and the composition of the board
should remain unchanged. The Board of Civil Service Commissioners
should continue to consist of five members appointed for five-year staggered terms by the Mayor and removable by him, but subject in both appointment and removal to the approval of the Council. In addition, in
order to protect the independence of the operation, the Board of Civil
Service Commissioners should continue to appoint and remove the general
manager of the Civil Service Department under the charter's classified
civil service provisions. Furthermore, other than the secretary and the
chief accounting employee of the department, who should continue to be
appointed by the Civil Service Commission, the general manager of the
Civil Service Department should continue to appoint, suspend, and remove, subjecr to the charter's civil service provisions, all other employees
of the department. These employees will engage in preparing recruitment
materials and conducting recruitment interviews, preparing and conducting examinations, preparing eligible lists, aiding in hearing procedures, and
drafting rules relative to personnel functions within the board's jurisdiction.
The recommendations made here about the allocation of personnel
functions between the City Administrative Officer and the Civil Service
Department will constitute a major aid to more effective management of
the city government while at the same time providing the best possible
safeguards against the infiltration of a spoils system at some future time.
"The Civil Service Commission would hold the hearing when either the Chief of Police
or the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department was involved. A departmental board of rights
would do so in the case of a chief subordinate to either of these two general managers.