Public Employee Press

Garrido: city must repair civil service


DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido pressed for long overdue improvements in the city's use of the civil service system Jan. 29 at a forum sponsored by the Citizens Union, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

With a new mayoral administration presenting an opportunity to correct past errors, Garrido pointed out that the city's recent reliance on outside contractors had undermined the civil service principles of merit and fitness. He called on the city to repair the damage by giving more tests and hiring more workers from the resulting lists. He also criticized the contractors for installing expensive new systems without training the continuing workforce to operate them.

Moderated by Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey, the panel discussion held at the New York Law School also included Communications Workers Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes and Carol Kellerman, president of the so-called Citizens Budget Commission, a business-oriented pressure group.

The forum on civil service reform coincided with the release of the Citizens Union's report, "Recommendations Toward an Equitable, Efficient, and Effective Civil Service System," which calls for more collaboration between the city and unions to address the challenges facing the system.

New York City established the first municipal civil service system in the nation in 1884, quickly following the 1883 creation of the federal civil service. The city currently has more than 30,000 provisional (non-civil service) employees, and reducing that number is a priority for the union, said Garrido. "But you can't talk only about the numbers, because then you miss talking about the value of the service that city employees provide," he added.

Cheliotes, too, recommended that the city change how it views municipal employees. "The administration usually views the city employee as an expense instead of an asset, and you have to invest in that asset," he said.