Stern's Anti-Merit Regime

Even after the city agreed to pay $21 million to the plaintiffs and their attorneys to settle a lawsuit accusing the Parks Department of racial bias regarding both salaries and promotions, there will be debate about whether the policies of former Commissioner Henry Stern were willfully racist.

For those who care about the civil service merit system, such conversations are almost beside the point. Mr. Stern ran roughshod over that system, preventing veteran city employees from advancing through methods that included not holding exams for long periods and not posting job vacancies until after the positions were filled.

The Bloomberg administration made no admission of wrongdoing in settling the case, but it clearly wasn't about to take a chance on going before a jury to explain why black managers were paid less than white counterparts with the same job duties, or why a black woman who got strong evaluations as head of the agency's Work Employment Program was never interviewed for a higher position that was created in that area. For any fair-minded juror presented with that kind of evidence, the only issue would have been how high the settlement.

Mr. Stern, who at his best was a good manager, acted like a feudal lord rather than a commissioner. In doing so, he blemished his own record over 35 years in city government, the agency where he spent much of that time, the Giuliani administration that permitted his abuses, and a job system in which qualifications and experience are supposed to count for something.