The History Of Civil Service In Louisiana
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Prior to 1940, state employees
were hired and fired based on the “spoils system”. Obtaining and keeping state employment
depended on political influence, who one knew, and one’s cooperation in
contributing to political campaigns, either through a percentage deduction from
the employee’s salary, or through the sale (or purchase) of “subscriptions” to
political publications of the party in power.
In the 1956
Tulane
University
publication “Tulane Studies
in Political Science, Volume 3 – Civil Service Development in
Louisiana
”, by L. Vaughan Howard of the
Tulane University Department of Political Science, the process in the highway
department was described as follows:
On the
fifteenth of every month some departmental official would enter the office and
say “the ducks are flying,” which meant that “the word has gone down the line
to pay off.” Collections were either by
check or in cash and were paid to a collector for the department. Since “the ducks” obviously referred to
salary deductions which employees were required to return, the term “de-ducts”
quickly came into general use in the state.
Employees who failed to
participate through “de-ducts” or by volunteering their time during campaigns
could have little hope of remaining employed.
It’s clear that such a system,
where the employee’s primary focus was to do what was necessary to remain
employed, and the potential for excessive rates of turnover if the chosen
candidate did not win the election, would not necessarily produce an effective,
efficient workforce.
In 1940, Charles Dunbar, a
New Orleans
attorney,
wrote the first state legislation for a Civil Service system, introduced as
administration bills.
The State Civil Service law established a Civil Service Commission of five
members, who were to be appointed by the Governor from lists of nominees
prepared by the presidents of five
Louisiana
institutions of higher learning –
Louisiana
State
University
,
Tulane
University
,
Loyola
University
,
Centenary
College
and
Louisiana
College
.
This system prohibited the use of
political pressure in connection with any appointment or promotion or for the
purpose of influencing the vote or political action of any employee, and
forbade the participation in political activities by employees. The system provided for the preparation of a
classification and pay plan for state employees, competitive exams for jobs, a
probationary period, a requirement for documented cause for disciplinary
action, and some appeal rights to the Commission in the event an employee was
disciplined.
This system was tweaked and
watered down by successive legislative sessions, but the basic system remained in
place until 1948, when the law was repealed by the legislature during the term
of Governor Earl Long.
Through the continued efforts of Charles
Dunbar and the Civil Service League, the present system became part of the
State Constitution in 1953 (and was continued in the 1974 revision of the State
Constitution), thus making it impossible for the legislature on its own to change
or abolish the Civil Service system as it did during the 1940’s.
Today, the Civil Service
Commission consists of seven members. One is a classified employee elected by classified employees. The others are appointed by the Governor
after being nominated by the President of one of the following
institutions:
Centenary
College
at
Shreveport
,
Dillard
University
at
New
Orleans
,
Louisiana
College at
Pineville,
Loyola
University
at
New Orleans
,
Tulane University of Louisiana at
New Orleans
,
and
Xavier
University
at
New Orleans.
The purpose and benefits of the
current system are:
- To eliminate waste and inefficiency that comes with
having large numbers of political patronage jobs
- To create a personnel system that encourages a
stable, qualified, efficient and politically neutral workforce that will
deliver quality services
- To govern personnel practices for the state’s
classified workforce (the Civil Service rules).
- To require appointments based on qualifications
- To ensure pay equity through a uniform classification
and pay system
- To protect employees from politically motivated or
discriminatory employment actions
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