REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, January 1, 1898. Hon. ROBERT A. VAN WYCK, Mayor of the City of New York: SIR.- The New York City Civil Service Commission, pursuant to the requirements of the New York City Civil Service Regulations, submit their report for the year 1897, being their Fourteenth Annual Report. Examinations for the purpose of ascertaining the qualifications of persons seeking or named for positions in the departments and offices of the municipal government, have been conducted throughout the year under the direction of this Commission. By means of these examinations the Commission has aimed to have constantly ready a list of persons competent both in point of character and ability, for the many and various positions in the government of the City of New York. The variety of these can best be observed by a perusal of the enumeration of them in the schedules annexed to this report. They include every variety of clerk, from a firstclass bookkeeper to an office boy. They include the Engineers who have charge of the storage reservoirs connected with the Croton Aqueduct, and have the supervision and management of the Aqueduct itself, and the distribution of water from it throughout the City of New York. They include the Inspectors of Buildings, Iron and Steel, Masonry and Carpentry, and Inspectors of Plumbing, Light and Ventilation. They include the Physicians and Surgeons, Matrons and Nurses in the City Hospitals, and the Super intendents, Inspectors and Orderlies in prisons. They include the uniformed force of the Fire Department, and the Park Police, and, under the new Charter, will include the uniformed force of the Police Department, and they include a great number of skilled mechanics and laborers. In short, there is hardly any kind of employment that does not come under the general supervision of the New York City Civil Service Commission. Our aim has been in the conduct of the examinations for admission to the various branches of the service to specialize them as far as possible. We have in the first place consulted with the heads of departments, and ascertained, as far as practicable, the duties of the office for which an examination was to be held, and we have then taken great pains to see that the examinations should be as required by the Civil Service Law of 1883, which in this respect has never been changed. "Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and, so far as may be, shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of that service into which they seek to be appointed." The requirement of Section 4 of Chapter 428 of the Laws of 1897 is but another form of stating this original requirement of the Civil Service Law of 1883. "All examinations shall be competitive, so far as practicable, and shall be practical in their character, and shall relate to those matters which shall fairly test the intelligence, competency, suitability and character of the applicants to discharge the duties of that service for which they seek to be appointed." The actual conduct of these examinations in the City of New York, with the exception of those for Examiners in the Civil Service Board itself, has been intrusted (as required by the Civil Service Regulations) to Examiners selected for their special qualifications, and who are assigned to those examinations for which they are especially qualified. Two of them are Physicians, two of them are Civil Engineers, one a Mechanical Engineer, and one an Architect. One of them is assigned solely to the examination of the testimonials as to the character of the different candidates. |