CCRB investigators fight for competitive civil service status

The creation of the Civilian Complaint Review Board in 1988 generated a storm of public controversy that has followed it throughout its highly politicized history. Less well known is another critical issue that is as old as the CCRB itself: the status of the Investigators who do much of the actual work there.

Initially, the agency resisted unionization for its employees, arguing that the positions were managerial and confidential. After the neutral Office of Collective Bargaining ruled against that position in 1989, the jobs then became temporary, pending classification.

Since then, the agency has kept the positions in temporary, non-competitive status, denying long-term employees the benefit of civil service protections.

Now, if the agency gets its way, the CCRB titles of Investigator and Supervisory Investigator will be officially classified as non-competitive, keeping them provisional. Employees will have no opportunity to take competitive tests. Job security will remain non-existent.

DC 37 is strongly opposing this course of action. Local 1113 President John Cummings, who represents the CCRB Investigators, and Evelyn Seinfeld, associate director of the union’s Research and Negotiations Dept., testified against the move Aug. 5 at a hearing before the state Civil Service Commission.

President Cummings said, “The hearing, mandated by the Civil Service Law, gave us an opportunity to testify and make the arguments that these positions should be given permanent status.”

While the agency offered no reasoning for keeping the titles non-competitive, Ms. Seinfeld marshaled an impressive and lengthy list of logical arguments for the union’s position.

She pointed out that non-competitive appointments are intended to be the exception, rather than the rule, and that various Investigator titles at other agencies are in the same collective bargaining unit as those at CCRB and all of them are in the competitive class. The lengthy decision-making process must conclude within a year, when the CSC will issue a decision.