Passage slated for
civil service reform
Cayetano's bill will revamp
By Craig Gima
laws concerning promotions, hiring
and firing for government work
Star-Bulletin
Gov. Ben Cayetano's centerpiece civil service reform bill is scheduled for final passage tomorrow in the Legislature.
"Our hope is that it is going to be real historic that we'll have the opportunity to comprehensively modernize the whole civil service system," said Human Resources director Mike McCartney.
The bill creates a process that McCartney hopes will lead to a major reform of the decades-old laws that govern hiring, firing, promotions and other aspects of government work.
"There's about 15 different points that we're supposed to look at, everything from the overlap in collective bargaining/civil service to classification to benefits," he said.
Under the measure, the public worker unions and the Legislature will be working together to come up with a bill to be introduced next year.
The bill also contains a deadline to end civil service by June 30, 2000, if the Legislature can pass new laws to replace the civil service process.
McCartney said the bill contains two provisions that will actually lead to some reform this year. The bill allows the state and counties to hire people at mid-point salaries instead of entry-level salaries and will allow the state to start demonstration civil service modernization projects.
Another proposal to give workers voluntary separation bonuses or early retirement incentives did not make it through conference committee, McCartney said.
"We wanted to create another tool for downsizing government," he said. But McCartney said the House had concerns about the cost of the voluntary separation, so it was dropped from the bill.
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