Wants Rank-Order Picks
Roberts: 1-in-3 Rule Should Be Scrapped

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts is campaigning to get rid of a long-standing civil service rule that she says leads to favoritism and discrimination.

LILLIAN ROBERTS: Opposes agency cronyism.

The much-derided "one-in-three" rule has been securely in place since 1974, but Ms. Roberts said last week that Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Martha Hirst had agreed to meet with her to discuss its reform.

Rule 'Demoralizes'

"The effect of the rule is that you can't move up if someone doesn't like you," said Ms. Roberts. "It creates a form of demoralization, patronage and cronyism."

A DCAS source confirmed there had been informal conversations on the subject between Ms. Hirst and Ms. Roberts but declined further comment.

City workers and their unions have complained for decades about the inequity inherent in the rule, which allows agencies to choose from among the three highest-scoring eligibles on a list when making appointments. An addendum to the rule allows agencies to remove candidates from further consideration after they have been considered but not selected (CNS-ed) three consecutive times. Candidates who are knocked off the list by one agency can still be appointed by another.

The unions cannot grieve the failure to place an employee unless they allege some form of legal discrimination, based on age, race or gender. Ms. Roberts argued that the rule should be amended so that it is strictly merit-based, giving the available jobs to test-takers in rank order.

Too Much Latitude

"If for some reason management feels that an employee shouldn't be promoted or get a job," said Ms. Roberts, "there should be some kind of way of sitting down with the union. Otherwise, we can never know what the problem is or how they can be improved so they can be placed." She also noted that employees pay to take the exam and can be knocked off a list based on one person's opinion.

Agencies have the ability to request that an employee be placed back onto a list even if she or he has been denied three times.

Last year, DCAS reported that the number of people who had been "CNS-ed" by city agencies under the rule rose from 709 in Fiscal Year 2004 to 1,240 in FY 2005. DCAS officials contended at that time that the increase was due to greater use of eligible lists, calling more people for interviews and therefore creating more opportunities for employees to decline a job or fail to show up for an interview.