Prior to 2009 the City’s Civil Service Boards were an intricate part of the City’s employee’s personnel system. The boards participated in such assignments as assisting in recruitment by aiding in examinations or in settling employee’s grievances. With the institution of the labor unions, employees have elected to utilize the labor unions rather than the civil service boards to settle their grievances. As a result, the Civil Service Boards have not been use to settle an employee grievance since prior to 2009. Today the Civil Service Boards only function is to certify the Eligibility List.
It became more efficient for the Human Resources Department to administer and process the civil service examinations, thus reducing the reliance upon the Civil Service Boards. Consequently, the boards were only meeting to sign eligibility lists. Eventually, the boards stopped meeting and the chairpersons were called as needed by the Human Resources Department to sign the eligibility lists.
If an employee chose to utilize the civil service board to settle a grievance the board was assembled to address the grievance. The last time a Civil Service Board was assembled was in 2009 when the General Employees’ Civil Service Board was called upon to hear a grievance. The grievance was dismissed because it had gone through the Union Grievance Process.
The Human Resources Department surveyed 8 surrounding municipalities and two (2) (West Palm Beach and Boca Raton) are utilizing Civil Service Boards. One municipality (Delray Beach) is in the process of eliminating their Civil Service Boards. Five (5) municipalities have eliminated their Civil Services Boards and administer competencies based examinations to determine an applicant’s qualifications or skill set. We recommend that you accept and approve the proposed restatement of the Civil Service Boards Ordinance which simplifies, updates, and clarifies the Ordinance in accordance with the law, City’s practices, and changes in the City Administration.
In addition, this item was presented to the City Council as an Ordinance on First Reading on June 21, 2017. However, it was pulled for Deliberation and Discussion.