MOTION FOR THE BOARD MEETING OF DECEMBER 16, 2010
Title
MOTION, with respect to Agenda Item #59, File ID #10-1597, to adopt Legislative Initiative #6
Body
I move to amend Section 4.1 of the District’s Act to incorporate “Passing of Tests Required” language as it applies to promotional exams.
Section 4.1 of the District’s Act provides in part that “In promotional examinations, efficiency and seniority in service shall form part of such examination, but combined shall not carry a weight of more than 25% of the total examination points.”
District Personnel Rule 6.47 “Passing of Tests Required” provides that whenever an exam requires candidates to pass one or more tests separately, as part of the entire exam, each separate test must be passed. If not, the candidate shall be removed from participating further in the overall exam process.
It has recently been considered, as the result of arguments in a civil service case, that Section 4.1 of the District’s Act and Personnel Rule 6.47 can conflict when an employee whose most recent performance evaluation of “requires improvement” is the basis for failing the efficiency and seniority component of the exam and, according to rule, the employee is removed from further participating in the exam process. An affected employee might then argue that his efficiency rating and score derived from his performance evaluation became 100% of the exam score rather than the 25% maximum provided for in Section 4.2 of the District’s Act.
In order to clarify this discrepancy between the District statute and Personnel Rule, the Law and Human Resource Departments recommend that Section 4.1 of the District’s Act be amended as follows (changes underlined):
“In promotional examinations, efficiency and seniority in service shall form part of such examination, but combined shall not carry a weight of more than 25% of the total examination points. Although efficiency and seniority shall not carry a weight of more than 25% of the total examination points, the Director may require candidates to separately pass the efficiency and seniority tests on the examination in order to continue competing in subsequent tests of that examination. When the Director requires candidates to separately pass the efficiency and seniority tests on the examination, every candidate who does not pass the efficiency and seniority tests on the examination, shall also fail the entire examination.“
Date: December 16, 2010
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Commissioner