BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS No. 378 MUNICIPAL RESEARCH SERIES NO. 5 DECEMBER 20, 1914 A Model Civil Service Code For Texas Cities BY HERMAN G. JAMES, J. D., Pb. D. Director ol tbe Bureau of Municipal Research and Reference Published hy the University six times a month and entered as second class matter at the postoffice at Austin, Texas VON" DOECKUA ~~-JONES CO., PRINTERS, AUSTIN, TEXAS 1914 PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE W. J, BATTLE KILLIS CAMPBELL A. CASWELL ELLIS J.C. TOWNES F. W. SIMONDS R.A.LAW w. s. CARTER E. C. BARKER J. A. LOMAX The public11.tions of the University of Texas are issued six times a month. They are arranged in the following series: Official Humanistic General Scientific Press Medical Extension Municipal Research For postal purposes the publications are numbered consecutively as bulletins without regard to the arrangement in series. With the exception of special numbers, any bulletin will be sent to a citizen of Texas free on request. All communications about University publications should be addressed to the Editor of University Publications, University of Texas, Austin. 646-1114-15h BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS No. 378 MUNICIPAL RESEARCH SERIES NO. S DECEMBER 20, 1914 =========================================-:-:-·~-­ A Model Civil Service Code For Texas Cities BY Published by the University six times a month and entered as seeond class matter at the postoflice at Austin, Texas VON BOECKM., NN-JONE8 C0,0 PRINTERS, At:8TIN, l'EXA8 1914 The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally dift'used through a community, are essential to t~e preserva­tion of a free government. Sam Houston. Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy. • • . It is the only dictator that freemen acknowledge and the only security that freemen desire. Mirabeau B. Lamar. PREFACE In a previous bulletin entitled, "A l\fodel Charter for Texas Cities," issued in revised form on March 1, 1914, the Director of the Bureau of Municipal Research and Reference attempted to outline a frame-work of government for the municipalities of this State. One of the articles of the Model Charter provided for a civil service board which was to formulate and administer rules and regulations for the appointment, promotion, discipline and removal of the municipal administrative officers and employes. It was not deemed desirable in a general instrument of that kind to enter into details with regard to these rules and regulations, for they belong more properly to the jurisdiction of the ordinance power than to that of the charter-making power. This bulletin, however, at.tempts to indicate what provisions ~hould go into the ordinance creating the civil service board and defining its duties and powers. Of course, a certain power of regulation must still be left to the board itself even after the general principles have been laid down in this way, for the needs of the various cities will vary considerably with regard to minor details, but the principles governing the exercise of powers by the board should be virtually the same for all. It is with the purpose of facilitating the application of these principles to the civil service in 'l'exas cities that the following civil service code is clrawn up for enactment by the governing bodies of the larger Texas cities, which conception may for this purpose be considered to include all cities of more than five thou­sand inhabitants, in accordance with the line of division made by the home rule amendment. In preparing the present civil service code, free use has been made by the author of the best sources of information available on the subject, including among others, "The Model Civil Service Law," proposed hy the committee of the National Assembly of Civil Service Commissions; "The Draft of a Civil Service Law for Cities," prepared by a special committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, and the clraft of a sub-committee, of which the author was a member, of the committee on municipal Bulletin of the University of Texas program, appointed by the National Municipal League. Acknowl­edgment is, therefore, especially due these sources, the very lan­guage of which has frequently been employed, although they axe not the only ones used by the author in attempting to combine what seemed to him the most valuable features of prior attempts to codify civil service merit provisions for cities. H. G. J. INTRODUC'J'I ON Few devices of reformers in American governmental matters have demonstrated their practicability and efficiency to the same extent ns have the so-called civil service merit rules. But it had required one hundred years of experience in governmental prac­tice in this country before the need of a properly regulated system of filling adminit::trative offices in the public service became ap­parent. It is well known that the doctrine of the spoils system and that of rotation in office have been the mainstays of power for political organizations and thP chief stumbling block in the way of efficient administration of public positions in national, State, and munici­pal service. The benefits to be derived from these doctrines by the party or faction in power were so evident that each organiza­tion, as it came into power and could have changed the vicious system, was afraid to take what was deemed a suicidal step. For at least thirty years past, however, the agitation for a regulation by law of the whole matter l)f filling public offices has been car­ried on with continually increasing momentum, until now in the national service the merit system is very widely applied, and there are few States in which some rules and regulations in the interest of non-political filling of administrative offices have not been applied either to the State administrative 5ystem or to that of the citit*I or both. Now, it is true that in England the civil service, particularly in cities, has been put on a much higher plane as regards the char­acter of the men appointed, the motive for their appointment, and the permanency of their tenure, than is the case in this country, and that, too, in face of the somewhat remarkable fact that there is nothing there in the nature of our civil service merit rules gov­erning such appointment and removal. Just why England should be able to get along without. an elaborate system of rules and regu­lations on the subject while in this country practically all students of governmental affairs agree that such rules and regulations are indispensable, is not clear. The explanation that public opinion on the subject is in a healthier state in England than in this Bulletin of the University of Texas country of course only throws the query back one step further and leads us to ask why the public opinion in England is so different from the public opinion in the United States. We are not able here to answer this query or even to enter upon a critical examination of the causes operative in England. We may start out with the hypothesis that, for the present at least, civil service merit rules are indispensable in this country, whether they will forever remain so, or will succeed in developing a public opinion akin to that in England, which makes them superfluous. A •;ommittee of the N11tional As...~mbly of Civil Serv­ice Commissions, in working out a model civil service law, has recently well expressed the purpose of the!:'e civil service rules in enumerating the following principles which in their opinion underly the merit system: "First, That Government Should Be Controlled by the People.­ From this principle it follows that the use of public employes as a species of standing army for defeating the will of the people at the polls i;hould be prohibited. '.rhe common practice of mak­ ing a public employe's continuance o-r standing in the service dependent upon the number of votes he can deliver to candidates, favored by the political leader who secured his appointment, is subversive of popular control. So, too, the practice of multiply­ ing elective offices for the purpose of confusing the voter dissi­ pates popular control. If offices, other than general policy mak­ ing offices, are elective, the voter has presented to him at the polls a ballot so long and complicated that any real judgment upon the relative merits of candidates becomes impossible. The voters are necessarily de!ivered into the power of the 'bosses' and popular control becomes a fiction. It is therefore imperative that the number of elective offices should be held within a reasonable compass so that the people may have a fair chance to decide intel­ ligently upon candidates and issues. All offices and places in the service, except general policy making offices, should be taken out of the elective or exempt class and included in the service under the provisions of a civil rervice law, if we are to remove the bureaucratic menace which the spoils system offers to popular control of the government. A Model .Cfoit Se1·vice Code for Texas Cities 7 "Second, That Public Offices and Places Which, Are Not Di­rectly Oharged with the Conduct of General Political Policies Belong of Right to All of the People.-It follows, therefore, that the civil service should be kept out of politics and opened to all citizens alike according to their relative ability and :fitness to perform the duties of the particula1· office or place to be :filled. 'l'here should be entire equality of opportunity for appointment and tenure of office on the basis of merit only. Victory at the polls confers no right upon the victors to seize the non-political offices or to interfere with the efficient conduct of public business. The civil service is the people's and nothing but the elective offices and the political policy making offices should be won or lost at an election. Merit or efficiency should be the only test for place in the civil service. The public employe is the servant of all the people and not of part of the people. "Third, That the Civil Service Shall Be Efficient.-As it is important that only fit men should be appointed to office after a thorough and impartial test of merit, so is it important that in their subsequent daily work the same standard of merit should be maintained, so that the public may derive the benefit of the merit system. Where public employes deteriorate through their own fault, they should be removed. If they deteriorate because of conditions of employment which make good work impossible or unnecessarily difficult, these conditions should be corrected. The prompt and certai.n removal of incompetent employes, the correction of defective organization and defective conditions of employment, the training of employes, the task of getting com­petent men into the public service and of keeping them there, the correlation of their pay with the results achieved, the prep­aration of the buclget in its employment, as distinguished from its financial features, and the maintenance of standards of effi­ciency are all employment problems which do not change with changing administrations, and which require constant expert treat­ment. The work of government under all political policies and parties should be well done. 'l'he people are entitled to it. "Fourth, That the Go-uernment in Its Capacity as an Employer Should Be Just a·nd Fair to Its Own Employes.-It follows, there­ Bulletin of the Urdversity of· Texas fore, that a civil £tervice law should protect the public employes ' from demoralizing and improper influences, should recognize the moral and social dignity of their work, reward efficient service, create for them proper conditions of employment and by main­taining reasonable standards of employment set an example to private employers of how to be fair and just. "To render these four principles of the merit system effective, it is obvious that the body charged with their administration, usually known as a civil service commission, must be composed of experts in the science of employment, that for the purposes of the merit system they must haVG jurisdiction over the whole subject of employment from the point where it. is proposed to create a position through to the point where the position is abolished, and the employe in it pensioned, removed or laid off; that the civil service commission should be responsible to the people and re­movable by any citizen for causes analogous to those which may result in the removal of any other civil servant and that the com­mission should not be controlled by or responsible to any political offirer." A Model Oivil 8e1"!1ice Oode for Texas Cities AN ORDIN ANOE CREATING A CIVIL SERVICE BOARD AND DEFINING ITS POWERS AND DUTIES SECTION 1. 'l'here is hereby created a civil service board to comist of three members and to be appointed within thirty da:ys by the CODJ.miS11ion,* the members of the board being appointed for two years, t and being eligible for reappointment indefinitely. Two members of the board shall be unsalaried and the third, to be called the secretary, shall receive a salary, to be determined by the commission, of not less than fifteen hundred dollars a year. In the first appointment the secretary and one of the unsalaried members of the board shall be appointed for two years, the other for one year, thereafter all appointments to be for two years. Members of the civil service board shall not hold any other office of trust or profit in the service of the city. The members of the civil service board shall be removable for neglect, incapacity, or malfeasance in office, by a three-fourths voie of the appointing body after written charges have been presented and an opportunity for a public he:tring before the appointing body has been given with at least ten days notice. Vacancies in the board shall be filled for the unexpired terms in the same manner as the positions are originally filled. SECTION 2. The board shall employ such technical and clerical assistance as may be found necessary, and provision shall be made in the budget of the rity for the expenses of the board. SEC'l'ION 3. The board shall make all nece~sary rules and reg­ulations for improving and regulating the service classified and graded by this ordinance, for grading, classifying, and establish­ing_ uniform salades in each grade, for examinations, appoint­ments, probationary periods, removals, promotions, transfers, lay­offs, reinstatements, suspensions, leaves of absence, changes in com­ *In cities having the mayor and council form of government, the ap· pointment of this board should be in the hands of the city council. tOwing to the constitutional provision in this State limiting the tenns of officers not otherwise designated in the Constitution to two years; it is impossible to give to members of the civil service board a term of office long enough to give anything approaching satisfactory tenure. However, it is to be presumed that such members will be reappointed as long as they are efficient and care to serve. Bulletin of the University of Texas pensation or title, for promoting efficiency and economy in the service so classified and graded, for defining what shall be cause for removal from the service. so classified and graded, and for maintaining 0Jld keeping records 0£ the eftlciency of persons, both as individuals and in groups, holding positions which this ordi­nance provides shall be classified and grou~d. All such rules and regulations and all changes therein shall be adopted only after a public hearing of which the board shall give five days public notice and such rules and changes shall be printed for distribu­tion by the board. The rules and regula.tions adopted by the board shall be in execution of and in conformity with the follow­ing provisions : (a) Standardization and GlaBsification. All positions in the service of the city shall be classified as hereinafter provided, except the following:* ( 1) Officers elected by the people; (2) judicial officers; (3) officers specially here­inafter exempted from some or all of the provisions of this ordi­nance. All positions in the civil service of the city not exempted as above, shall be classified by the board in groups and subdivii:iions ba&ed upon and graded according to the duties and responsibili­ties of such positions. 'l'he board shall determine the maximum and minimum salaries for each grade and the minimum periods of service in the grade as well as the minimum &ta.ndard of efficiency required before a salary may be increased. (b) Examinations and Appointments. Original Examination.-All appointments to positions in the classified service of the city as herein designated shall be made only by reinstatement, promotion, or by selection from eligible lists made up of candidates who have shown their fitness by the pBRsing of original competitive examinations. The original com­ *Where the school system is under the jurisdiction of a school board distinct from the city government, it would not ordinarily be possible to bring the positions in the public school service under the jurisdiction of a city civil service board. A Model Oivil Service Gode for Texas Cities 11 petitive examinations to be provided for by the board shall be open and free to all persons who may be lawfully appointed to any position within the grade for which the examination is held, subject to reasonable disqualifications to be established by the board with regard to age, sex, residence, physical condition, and moral character. All examinations shall be practical in their character and reiate to matterR which will fairly measure the rela­tive capacity of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the positions to which they seek to he appointed. All such exami­nations shall be publicly advertised for ten days in advance in at least one pa.per of general circulation and by posting a notice in the city hall. No questions which are misleading or unfair or which relate to political or religious opinicn or affiliation shall be asked in such examinations. The board shall control all examinations and designate the examiners. From the report. of the examiners the board shall prepare a list of eligibles for each grade of persons who shall attain such minimum mark llS may be fixed by the commission and who may be lawfully appoipted. Such persons shall be ranked upon the list in the order of their relative E•xcellence as deter­mined by examination and shall remain on the eligible list for two years thereafter. The markings and examination papers of each candidate shall be open to his own inspection and the mark­ings and examination papers of all persons upon any list of eli­gibles shall be open to public inspection within ten days after an eligible list has been prepared. Adequate notice of the time, place and general scope of each examination and of the duties, pay, and experience advantageous or requisite for all positions in the grade for which the examination is to be held shall be given by the board. Whenever a position classified and graded under the provisions of this ordinance becomes vacant, the appointing authority desir­ ing to rlll it shall make requisition upon the board for the name and address of a person eligible for appointment thereto. The bo11rd shall certify to the appointing authority the name and address of the verson standing highest upon the list of eligibles resulting from an examination for positions in said grade. All appointments shali be made on p1·obation for a period of not more than six month:; before the appointment shall become complete. Bulletin of the Unitiersity of Teg;as At or before the expiration of the period of probation, the appoint­ing authority with the consent of the board may discharge an appointee who is on probation upon assigning in writing to the board the reasons therefor. Rein.~tatement.-Any persons previously examined for a position in a grade and separated from the service without fault or delin­quency on their part for not more than two years and not employed at the time in the said grade shall be certified to the appointing authority in the order of their efficiency ratings in that grade and shall be preferred to persons taking original entrance examina­tions for that grade. Proinotion.-Whenever vacancies Rhall occur in a. grade de­clared by the board to involve the performance of duties for which previous service in a lower grade tend to fit the incumbent and there is no applicant entitled to reinstatement in the vacant posi­tion, on the conditions laid down above, promotion examinations shall be held for said vacancy. 'l'he&e examinations shall be pub­lic, competitive and free to all persons holding, for a specified period, positions in the lower grade. Efficiency and seniority in service shall form a part of such examination not to exceed one­fourth of the maximum marks attainable in such examination. If less than two persons apply or if no applicants attain a general average in such :promotion examination of not less than the mini­mum standing fixeuch officer or employc from becoming or continuing to be a member of a political club or organization or from attend­ance upon political meei:ings, from enjoying entire freedom from all interference in casting his vote and from seeking or accepting election or appointment to the office of public school director or of member of a hoaTd of education or of member of a library board. Any person w!10 shall wilfully or through culpable negligence violate any of the provisions of thi~ ordinance or of the rules of the board shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall on conviction thereof 1e punished by a fine of not le::;s than $50 and not more than $100, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding fifteen days, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.* SECTIOX 5. Any person hoiding an office or place in the class­ified service on the date of the passage of this ordinance shall hold the same as a temporary appointee only until such time as a regular appointment under the provisions of this ordinance can be made. But if the board herein provided for shall upon inves­tigation find that any 8Uch person has been efficient in the per­fonnance of the duties of such office or place and has served con­tinuously for a period not less than the probationary period herein prmvided for, he shall become a mernbt>r of the classified civil service without original examination. *The maximum penalty imposable by any city under it~ charter should be provided for. The limits here given are prescribed bv Title 22, Chap­ter 4, Article 817, of the Revi;oed Civil Statutes, 1911. •