Mayor Hawkins Urges Civil Service Reforms

 Testimony by Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. , Orange, NJ at a Hearing of the Assembly State Government Committee on Civil Service Bumping Rights. October 13th, 2010, the State House, Trenton

Chairwoman Stender and members of the committee:

I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss with you the urgent need for municipalities to have the tools to reduce spending in the aftermath of the 2% tax cap and the devastating cuts in aid to municipalities.

I use the word “urgent” because with the 2% cap and the loss of $3 million in various forms of state aid, Orange faces an unprecedented fiscal crisis. If there are no basic changes in the rules governing local government, especially with regard to civil service and arbitration, the cap in combination with the state cuts, will cause a reduction in municipal services so severe that even our police and fire protection will not be spared.

The Governor immediately took away our aid, and two months ago, we were limited in our ability to make up the difference with taxation. Now, the state is moving at a snail’s pace to give us a toolbox with powers to make the spending reductions we need while running a cost-effective government.

Under the civil service system, management has little control over layoff decisions. We have a so-called merit system that does not truly measure merit.  In today’s economic crisis, government must become leaner, smarter and more cost-effective if we are to continue to protect the safety and health of our citizens and provide other basic services. Civil service rules make this nearly impossible. Civil service rules make it nearly impossible to fire an incompetent employee. They make it extremely difficult to reward and promote a very competent employee. And they make it harder to recruit the best-qualified employees.

As for the bumping rules, I suggest that they be eliminated altogether. In Orange, unless our unions agree to significant salary and benefit reductions, it will be necessary to layoff a large number of employees. In a rational world, a manager faced with the necessity of layoffs would chose to get rid of the least competent and most expensive workers. In making layoffs, we want to retain our best, least expensive, and most highly motivated employees. Civil Service rules make it impossible to reduce municipal employment with the least possible damage to services.

All municipalities have long time employees with high titles and high salaries who abuse the public and do not work hard or well. Because of their titles and seniority, they have bumping rights. So to save money in laying off employees, we must keep some of the worst employees and get rid of our best. This reduces the savings to taxpayers as well as our ability to preserve the quality of our services.

With appeals and the bumping rules, the layoff process can take up to six months after it is initiated with the Civil Service Commission. This means that in order to achieve the savings needed to balance its budget, a municipality would have to layoff twice as many employees as originally required without the civil service rules.

Let us offer modern part-time work, job sharing, flextime, and the other work arrangements that the private sector is able to offer. Let us keep our best employees and layoff our worst. Why should intelligent and capable people want to work for a municipality knowing that civil service rules could bump them at any time and replace them with someone lazy and less capable at a higher salary? 

Thank you again for listening to the anguished voice of the property taxpayers and other citizens of Orange.