SECOND REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. STATE OF NEW YORK, To his Excellency, the Governor of the State of New York: The number of persons subject to Civil Service regulations to be made or approved by this Commission is as follows: The duties of the Commission have largely expanded by the discovery, from time to time, that numerous and important public employees, who were at first believed to be in municipal or other local service, have been judicially declared to be in the State service. These adjudications the Commission has deemed controlling for Civil Service purposes, and has consequently taken the necessary action to apply the State Rules to all such positions. Those brought under the State Rules by the decisions referred to, are the persons employed by Excise Boards; the officers and employees of the various courts, both of general and local jurisdiction, [Assem. Doc. No. 42.] 2 in cities; and the physicians required to be appointed under the general health laws of the State, designated as "Health officers." Classification, methods of examination, and the selection of special Boards of Examiners, for these added positions became necessary, and have received appropriate action by the Commission. The Commission has been conscious at all times that the change introduced by Civil Service methods must necessarily be gradual, and cannot with propriety progress faster than the changes can be supported by intelligent public sentiment. An instantaneous change from the license of the patronage system to the highest conceptions of Civil Service methods, was not always practicable. The transition period demands wise and prudent action, and a discreet_recognition of the fact, that the opinions and prejudices that have grown up under a different system of long standing, cannot at once be supplanted, but will yield as the evidence of better modes accumulates. With this conviction the Commission has sedulously aimed to secure the co-operation of public officers, and of persons holding positions of authority and influence. It has conferred with and invited expressions from the heads of departments in the State government; the officials in charge of the asylums, reformatories, and prisons of the State; the mayors and other officials of cities; the members of the judiciary; the various associations of the bar; the medical profession and civil engineers; the State Board of Health, and other boards; the principals of normal schools; the presidents of colleges, and numerous others, whose experience and standing rendered their views desirable. The Commission has received valuable suggestions and assistance from these various sources, and in the main has met a fair degree of co-operation on the part of public officials, and acquired important and useful information. In April the Commission, in view of decisions by which the employees connected with the courts of the City of New York have been adjudged to be in the service of the State, and not of the Municipality, asked from the Judges information and advice; and the full and valuable responses of Chief Judge Daly of the Common Pleas, and of Chief Judge Sedgwick of the Superior Court, will be found in the Appendix. Judge Daly remarked, in concluding his letter: "I beg leave to say that the Commission may always feel assured, to use your own language, of the co-operation and moral support of the judges of our Court;" and Judge Sedgwick said, in closing: "You will have perceived that what legal questions may be involved in the matter that may have been referred to, there is none that has a practical bearing, or which, as we think, should now delay you in proceeding under the act of 1883, according to your own opinions as to the application of the provisions of the act." The Commission next asked the Bar Association of the city, through its President, James C. Carter, Esq., to appoint a com mittee of conference, with a view to the adoption of a scheme of classification and examinations, with the assistance and approval of that body. The Bar Association, after the summer recess, acted upon this request, and appointed as their committee of conference, Cephas Brainard, Esq., chairman; Elial F. Hall, Esq., Charles W. Dayton, Esq., and a conference was held in the City of New York, attended by this committee of the Bar Association and the Board of Examiners appointed for the Court officials headed by the Hon. Wm. H. Arnoux, two members of the Board of examiners for the Court officials of Brooklyn, two of the State Commissioners and the chief examiner; and a basis of action was agreed upon, and the work of preparation is now in progress. CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINERS. The fee allowed by the Act to examiners not in the service of the State, is five dollars per day, a sum which is generally quite inadequate to require those whose services it is important to secure, gentlemen of high character and accomplishments, whose impartiality is free from the slightest suspicion. The conferring of certificates of eligibility to office is a judicial act, and the position of examiner is one of great dignity and importance. Happily the magnitude and importance of the competitive examinations have been properly understood by those whose assistance as examiners has been asked, and that assistance has been promptly rendered in nearly every case without compensation, but solely from motives of patriotism and honor which are entitled to acknowledgment, The Boards of Examiners in the State and Municipal Service are as follows: |