General Circular No. 1253

General Circular No. 1253 General Circular No. 001253

To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: Revision Of Rules 8.4 And 14.1(m)

Issue Date: September 27, 1996

The State Civil Service Commission will hold a public hearing on November 20, 1996 to consider the following rule proposals. The hearing will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will be held in the Department of Civil Service Second Floor Hearing Room, DOTD Annex Building, 1201 Capitol Access Road, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Proposed Revision of Rule 8.4(e):

CURRENT RULE

8.4 Certification of Eligibles

(a) ........................................

(b) ........................................

(d) ........................................

(e) An applicant who has obtained a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with an overall grade-point average (GPA) of 3.5 or higher may be probationally appointed under the provisions of this rule to any professional level job for which possession of the baccalaureate degree alone is sufficient to meet the Minimum Qualifications. Jobs for which the applicant needs additional experience beyond the baccalaureate degree are excluded from this rule. The applicant must provide an official transcript to verify the GPA prior to appointment. The transcript should be submitted with the SF-1 (personnel action) effecting the appointment. Applicants appointed under this rule need not take the Professional Entry Test (P.E.T.) or other written exam to be appointed.

PROPOSED REVISION
8.4 Certification of Eligibles

(a) ........................................

(b) ........................................

(d) ........................................

(e) An applicant who has obtained a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with an overall grade-point average (GPA) of 3.5 or higher may be probationally appointed under the provisions of this rule to any professional level job for which possession of the baccalaureate degree alone is sufficient to meet the Minimum Qualifications. An applicant may also be appointed under provisions of this rule to a job requiring experience beyond the baccalaureate degree when the job to which the applicant is appointed is a professional level journeyman or advanced journeyman job requiring up to but no more than three years of professional level experience beyond the degree.

In all cases, applicants appointed under this rule must meet the full Minimum Qualifications including the required degree plus any professional level experience required beyond the degree. However, applicants appointed under this rule do not need to take the Professional Entry Test (P.E.T.) or other written exam. They do not need a numerical score or need to have their names appear on a certificate.

When making an appointment under this rule, the hiring authority need only submit a personnel action form making a probational appointment and citing this rule as authority. For the appointment to be approved, the SF-1 must be accompanied by an official college transcript to verify the degree and 3.5 GPA and by an up-to-date application form (SF-10) to verify any required experience.

THIS RULE APPLIES ONLY TO PROBATIONAL APPOINTMENTS AND MAY NOT BE USED TO AUTHORIZE PROMOTIONS.

EXPLANATION

In November, 1992 the Department proposed the original version of this rule to facilitate hiring of the best qualified college graduates directly into entry-level professional positions without the need for testing and issuing certificates. In the latter part of 1995, the Department met with Focus Groups of Agency managers to obtain their recommendations on actions the Department can take to improve the system in key areas. One of the recommendations of the group dealing with improving the hiring process was to extend this rule to cover probational appointments to journeyman and advanced journeyman jobs as well as entry-level. (Jobs requiring more than three years experience beyond the degree are excluded from the rule because the goal of the rule is to recruit talented recent graduates to beginning level jobs. Also, the value of basic educational achievements in relation to experience decreases as more experience is gained or required so we did not feel it appropriate to extend coverage of the rule to jobs requiring more than three years experience beyond the degree). The Department supports the recommendation and is therefore proposing this revised rule.

PROPOSED NEW RULE 8.4(f):

Applicants who possess a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) Certificate may be probationally appointed to any job using test series 1000 (Professional Accountant Test) or test series 1500 (Professional Auditor Test) without taking a Civil Service test. The CPA Certificate will be deemed an acceptable substitute for the Civil Service test score. However, persons appointed under this rule must meet all Minimum Qualification requirements of experience and education for the job to which they are appointed. In order to appoint someone under this rule, the hiring authority must submit:

1) a personnel action form (SF-1) citing Rule 8.4(f) as the authority

2) a current and complete application form (SF-10) to verify experience

3) an official transcript to verify required college semester hours in accounting

4) a copy of the CPA Certificate

THIS RULE APPLIES ONLY TO PROBATIONAL APPOINTMENTS AND MAY NOT BE USED TO AUTHORIZE PROMOTIONAL APPOINTMENTS.

EXPLANATION

The Louisiana Society of CPA's has requested that we consider exempting applicants who possess CPA certificates from Civil Service testing. The basis is that the CPA exam is a comprehensive exam at least equivalent if not more thorough in its measurement of accounting knowledge. We agree to the extent that we are willing to allow passing the CPA exam to substitute for competing on the Civil Service exams for probational appointments. This will facilitate recruiting CPA's into state service at the entry and lower levels as initial hires. We are excluding promotions from the rule because in competitive promotional situations applicants must be ranked by scores on comparable tests. We cannot legitimately construct a register with some grades being from the Civil Service exam and others from the CPA exam. Nor are we willing in promotional situations to allow merely passing the CPA exam to substitute for competition.

PROPOSED REVISION OF RULE 14.1(M):

14.1 Prohibited Activities

(a) . . .
(b) . . .
(c) . . .
(d) . . .
(e) . . .
(f) . . .
(g) . . .
(h) . . .
(i) . . .
(j) . . .
(k) . . .
(l) . . .

(m) It shall be the duty of every classified employee to assist the Commission and the Department of State Civil Service in effectively carrying out the provisions of the Article and Rules, and to assist the State Police Commission in effectively carrying out the provisions of Article X, Part IV, and the Rules of the State Police Commission, and to answer truthfully, whether under oath or otherwise, all proper questions put to him by authorized representatives of the Department or the Commission, or of the State Police Commission.

(n) . . .
(o) . . .
(p) . . .

EXPLANATION

The State Police Commission has adopted a rule that requires members of the State Police Service to cooperate with an investigation being conducted by the State Civil Service Commission. This amendment would reciprocate by requiring that our employees cooperate with an investigation conducted by the State Police Commission.

COMMENTS

If you have comments or suggestions regarding these rule proposals, please contact Max Reichert, Assistant Chief of Examining at 504-342-8536.

Persons interested in making comments relative to these proposals may do so at the public hearing or by writing to the Director of State Civil Service at Post Office Box 94111, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70804-9111.

If any accommodations are needed, please notify us prior to this meeting.

Sincerely,

Allen Reynolds
Acting Director