Civil service commission

“ The present single-headed Civil Service Commission will be converted into a three-man Commission to serve primarily as a standard-setting and enforcing agency, while personnel functions will be decentralized to line agencies and regional offices. The career civil service will be reinvigorated primarily through (a) a single career undersecretary for each department, and (b) a career executive service composed of well-selected and development-oriented administrators to provide administrative leadership while serving as catalysts for administrative efficiency, innovation and, development. ”

“ The creation of a Civil Service Commission has drawn a broad line of demarkation between the abuses of the past and the reforms of the future. It would be difficult to over-estimate the good already accomplished. In the first place, it has destroyed the incentive for removal, since the vacancy can no longer be filled save by the wholly disinterested and impartial Commission. Secondly, an employe may now indulge a reasonable expectation, if his services warrant it, of advancement from grade to grade as opportunities occur ”

“ The mere fact that appointment to so many offices has been taken from the discretion of the executive means that so many the fewer friends can be rewarded. The successive reports of the Civil Service Commission show that, although every campaign brings to light new methods of circumventing the law, assessments are really becoming much less common ”

“ For the administration of the Act a Civil Service Commission is created, consisting of two members appointed by the Governor in Council, who are to have no other office or employment, and who may employ necessary assistance for the examinations they conduct. ”

“ Everybody says there must be reform, so that the Government in all its branches shall be above suspicion. The cry for reform is everywhere,—from New York to New [Pg 7] Orleans. Within a few days we hear of a great meeting, amounting to ten thousand, in the latter city, without distinction of party, calling for reform; and the demand is echoed from place to place. Reform is becoming a universal watchword.
In harmony with this cry is the appointment of a Civil-Service Commission, which has proposed mild measures looking to purity and independence in office-holders. ”

“ The Civil Service Commission, under men like John McIlhenny and Garfield, rendered service without which the Government could have been conducted with neither efficiency nor honesty. The politicians were not the only persons at fault; almost as much improper pressure for appointments is due to mere misplaced sympathy, and to the spiritless inefficiency which seeks a Government office as a haven for the incompetent. ”

“ The President may receive or refuse to receive ministers and other agents of foreign governments. To receive a minister is to recognize the nation which he represents. He may also dismiss foreign ministers who do not prove acceptable to our government.
He commissions all officers of the United States. The power to make appointments of office is called his patronage. A civil service commission, consisting of three commissioners, has been established by act of Congress, to secure efficiency in the public service, and to prevent the appointment of men to office as a reward for party work. ”

“ Further than this, the payment of salaries is made dependent upon the certificate of the commission that the appointments of the recipients were made in accordance with the civil service law and rules. Thus these commissions have absolute power to prevent irregular or illegal appointments by refractory appointing officers. Their powers being so much greater than those of the national commission, their action can be much more drastic in most cases, and they can go more directly to the heart of an existing abuse, and apply more quickly and effectually the needed remedy. ”

“ Civil service reform.—The interference of partisan influence in the appointment of subordinate officers of the government, and clerks in the departments, attracted a good deal of attention and censure during General Grant’s administration, and he sought to effect a reform of some of the abuses, by appointing a commission to devise a system of competitive examinations, and by conferring appointments and promotions on those who proved competent in such examinations, and to those whose service in office entitled them to be advanced to better positions. ”

“ The question of politics in the appointment and retention of the men engaged in merely ministerial work has been practically eliminated in almost the entire field of Government employment covered by the civil service law. The action of the Congress in providing the commission with its own force instead of requiring it to rely on detailed clerks has been justified by the increased work done at a smaller cost to the Government. ”

“ Upon the request of the chairman of the commission, the head of any department or agency of the Federal Government may detail, without reimbursement, any personnel of the department or agency to the commission to assist in carrying out its duties. The detail of an employee shall be without interruption or loss of civil service status or privilege. ”

“ It provided for three commissioners to be appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a chief examiner, state boards of examiners, and minor officers. The commissioners were to aid the president in preparing rules to carry out the provisions of the law, which called for the classification of clerks and for open competitive examinations of a practical nature; if there were no competition, the commission should arrange for a non-competitive examination. ”

“ Civil service commissions were heralded as agencies that would usher in the millennium of efficient governmental service, but the result of their work has been quite largely to fasten upon the payroll hundreds of employes who contribute little to the public service and many of whom are guilty of indifference and insubordination. ”

“ During the years 1897 and 1898, no less than seven different persons were selected as civil service commissioners, until a board was found willing to act upon the Mayor’s interpretation of the statute. One instance of the abuse of the law will suffice to show the methods resorted to, for the purpose of selecting a party man to fill a vacancy in office. An examination was held of applicants for the position of “foreman of street lamps repairs.” The man who passed at the head was a sixty day man. ”

“ If “occur” were taken, the provision obviously referred merely to cases in which the vacancy was one newly arising during the recess for which the appointment was to be made. As an actual fact, the official practice had been to take the other interpretation, and this had the support of a number of attorneys-general. [13]
The deductions from the “happen to exist” reading were far-reaching. If the president issued a commission to a man for a certain post, the appointee would under any circumstances be secure therein until the end of the next session of Congress ”

“ We are all familiar with brilliant amateurs in administration, who know their work far better than those trained to the business from their youth. The Commission was thus a composite body, probably not so supremely excellent as that which undertook the settlement of the Punjab under John and Henry Lawrence, but full of ability and zeal. The Civil Service, the Army, and what were then called the Uncovenanted Services, furnished officers of con [Pg 158] spicuous merit, who in the years immediately succeeding the annexation and in later times did invaluable work. ”

“ Let me make it clear that I have no objection to the method of control through a public service commission. It is the proper way for the people themselves to protect their interests. In practice, however, it has in many instances departed from its proper sphere of action and also from its theory of responsibility. It is an undeniable fact that in our modern American practice the public service commissions of many states have often failed to live up to the high purpose for which they were created. In many instances their selection has been obtained by the public utility corporations themselves. ”

“ In determining the functions of the Public Services Commission, we feel, as was stated in the London Report, that the broad principle should be that the Legislature and Government are necessarily responsible for fixing establishments and terms of employment, while the Public Services Commission is charged with the internal administration of the service as a professional body and with the responsibility for public service matters including appointments, promotions, and the application, when necessary, of disciplinary provisions in respect of members of the public service. ”

“ The Public Service Commission shall have power to act notwithstanding any vacancy in its membership, and no act or proceeding of the Commission shall be, or be deemed to be, invalid by reason only of any such vacancy or any defect in the appointment of a member. ”

“ The Chairman should be a person who will command the respect both of government and of the Service and should be given the authority and standing necessary to establish the Commission as an important and respected national institution, 45.⁠ We have agreed that the Public Service Commission should exercise its responsibilities in respect of all branches of the service other than the Judiciary and the Police. ”

“ The Commission is independent and must be impartial, and must exercise its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour or prejudice in the interest of the maintenance of effective and efficient public administration and a high standard of professional ethics in the public service. The Commission must be regulated by national legislation. ”