Selection for appointment to part-time positions
PBA v Town of Ramapo, 283 AD2d 650, Motion for leave to appeal denied, 95 NY2d 957
The basic rule is that every position in the classified service is in the competitive class unless placed in a different jurisdictional classification by law or by a rule promulgated by a municipal civil service commission approved by the New York State Civil Service Commission.
The Rockland County Patrolmen's Benevolent Association [PBA] challenged the appointment of part-time police officers to positions that had been jurisdictionally classified as noncompetitive class positions.
As to the merits of the jurisdictional classification of these positions in the non-competitive class, Rockland County argued that placing part-time police officer positions in the noncompetitive class was appropriate because the “appointment of part-time officers through an examination is impractical.”
The Appellate Division said that the controlling law, the Rockland County Police Act, [Laws of 1936, Chapter 52] provides “in relevant part, that '[n]o person shall be appointed a member of such police force unless he [or she] shall have passed an examination, held by the state civil service department, and unless at the time of his [or her] appointment his [or her] name shall be on the eligible list of the state civil service department.” The Rockland County Police Act rather than the Civil Service Law controlled because, said the court, “the Act was intended to supersede any general statute with regard to the establishment, organization, and operation of police departments in Rockland County.”*
The court apparently viewed the County’s argument as intending to convey the idea that a “competitive examination for part-time police personnel was impractical” since candidates for a position in the non-competitive class must qualify for appointment by means of a “noncompetitive examination” as it returned the case to the Supreme Court, Rockland County, for a hearing and determination on the merits of the petition and the County's assertion that appointment of part-time police officers through a competitive examination is impractical.**
* Section 10 of the Rockland County Police Act sets out essentially the same requirements with respect to the appointment of “special police” officers.