Commissioner of Education does not have jurisdiction to consider classified service employee’s claims of alleged out-of-title work assignments

Commissioner of Education does not have jurisdiction to consider classified service employee’s claim of alleged out-of-title work assignments

Appeal of Robert Troeller from action of the New York City Department of Education regarding out-of-title work, Decisions of the Commissioner of Education, Decision #16,326

The New York City Department of Education [DOE] assigned school plant managers to supervise private sector contract employees. Robert Troeller, a plant manager, appealed, contending that requiring plant managers to directly supervise private sector contract employees constituted out-of-title work in violation of Civil Service Law §61(2). Troeller asked the Commissioner to direct the DOE to discontinue the practice.

The Commissioner dismissed Troeller’s appeal “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”

The Commissioner pointed out that Civil Service Law §17 vests jurisdiction to administer the provisions of the Civil Service Law with respect to the offices and employments in the Classified Service* of a political subdivision of the State in the responsible civil service commission, personnel officer or other form of civil service administration.** In the case of the City of New York, the City is empowered to administer the Civil Service Law through whatever form of administration it chooses to prescribe in its City Charter.

Under Civil Service Law §35(g), the Commissioner of Education has jurisdiction over the qualifications for appointment and duties and responsibilities of individuals employed in titles involving teaching and the supervising staff of school districts; i.e., individuals employed in positions in the Unclassified Service.

As the plant managers involved were not serving in positions that had been certified by the Commissioner of Education as being in the Unclassified Service pursuant to §35(g) of the Civil Service Law or otherwise so jurisdictionally by law, such positions were position in the Classified Service and the Commissioner did not have jurisdiction to consider the out-of-title claims advanced by the incumbents of those positions.

The Commissioner declined to exercise jurisdiction to review the matter pursuant to §310 of the Education Law and dismissed Troeller's appeal.”

* N.B. All positions in the classified service are in the competitive class unless placed in a different jurisdictional class by the responsible civil service commission or by statute. The Classified Service consists of four jurisdiction classes: the competitive class [CSL §44], the noncompetitive class [CSL §42], the exempt class [CSL §41] and the labor class [CSL §43].

** See, in particular, Civil Service Law §22.

The decision is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/volume51/d16326.html

Failure to satisfy all required procedural elements in an appeal to the Commissioner of Education is fatal to the Commissioner having jurisdiction to consider the matter

Failure to satisfy all required procedural elements in an appeal to the Commissioner of Education is fatal to the Commissioner having jurisdiction to consider the matter

Appeal of Brian M. Kelty seeking the removal of district clerk Concetta Carr, Decisions of the Commissioner of Education, Decision #16,325

Alleging numerous irregularities in the conduct of the election of various candidates seeking to become members of the school board, Candidate Brian M. Kelty claimed that any discrepancy in the recording of votes was due to district clerk’s incompetence and/or the mechanical failure of the voting machines.*  

The Commissioner dismissed the appeal, noting that Kelty had failed to join necessary parties; i.e., any  party whose rights would be adversely affected by a determination of an appeal in favor of a petitioner.

In this instance the annulment of the election results as demanded by Kelty would affect the four winning candidates. Accordingly, they are necessary parties to the appeal.

Also, said the Commissioner, “although Carr was served with the petition in her capacity as respondent’s district clerk, she was not named as a respondent in either the notice of petition or the petition itself.” The Commissioner explained:

1. Mere service of the petition does not accomplish joinder of the respondent. 

2. The notice accompanying a removal application must specifically advise a school officer that an application is being made for his or her removal from office.

3. A notice of petition which fails to contain the language required by the Commissioner’s regulation is fatally defective and does not secure jurisdiction over the intended respondent.

In light of this, said the Commissioner, “I need not consider the parties’ remaining contentions” and dismissed Kelty’s appeal.

* Kelty also challenged “the impartiality” of the district clerk and several trustees on the board because their names appeared on another candidate's petition and alleging that this constituted “improper electioneering.”

The decision is posted on the Internet at: http://www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/volume51/d16325.html

Both the New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Law and §§3020 and 3020-a of the Education Law apply to a New York City educator

Both the New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Law and §§3020 and 3020-a of the Education Law apply to a New York City educator

Rosenblum v New York City Conflicts of Interest Bd., 2012 NY Slip Op 00854, Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals held that the Conflicts of Interest Board of the City of New York (COIB) is authorized to enforce the Conflicts of Interest Law set out in the New York City Charter §§2600-2607, with respect to a public servant who is also subject to disciplinary action pursuant to §§3020 and 3020-a of the Education Law.*

Accordingly, said the court, the Appellate Division had improperly barred the City's Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) from proceeding with an administrative trial against a tenured educator employed in the City's public school system.

COBI alleged that the educator had violated §2604(b)(3) of the Conflicts of Interest Law, which prohibits a public servant from "us[ing] or attempt[ing] to use his or her position as a public servant to obtain any . . . private or personal advantage, direct or indirect, for the public servant or any person or firm associated with the public servant.” It served the educator with a copy of its petition asking OATH to find that the educator had, in fact, “violated the law and to impose a $10,000 fine (the maximum allowed at the time) and grant such further relief as might be just and proper.”

The educator asked OATH to dismiss COBI’s petition, contending that “Education Law §§3020, 3020-a and 2590-j (7),** as supplemented by the collective bargaining agreement between the New York City Department of Education and his union, the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, Local 1, AFSA, AFL-CIO (CSA), was the exclusive method for disciplining a tenured pedagogue.”
 

Noting that §2603(h)(2) of the Conflicts of Interest Law requires COBI to refer an alleged ethics violation to the public servant's employing agency before holding a hearing, and for that agency to consult with COBI before making a final decision, the court said “This certainly makes sense as the employing agency may not otherwise be aware of the circumstances underlying the alleged ethics violation and is free to pursue a wider range of penalties for misconduct than [COBI,]”

However, said the court, this requirement does not mean the COBI is precluded from proceeding if the agency decides not to pursue disciplinary charges against the public servant for an ethics violation. Further, noted the court, §2603(h)(6) of the Conflicts of Interest Law specifically provides that COBI “is not prevented from acting where the employing agency, in fact, decides to terminate or otherwise discipline a public servant.”

As COBI, explained the court, may still act when the employing agency has imposed discipline, there is no basis for interpreting the Conflicts of Interest Law as forbidding COBI from acting where the agency has elected not to pursue disciplinary action, especially since such a decision does not connote vindication.

* The court decided that the Conflicts of Interest Law was not inconsistent with §§3020 and 3020-a of the Education Law and did not address the educator’s argument that “in the event of a conflict” §§3020 and 3020-a would necessarily trump the Conflicts of Interest Law.

** Presumably the same would be true with respect to individuals subject to disciplinary action pursuant to §75 of the Civil Service Law or disciplinary procedures negotiated pursuant to Civil Service Law §76.4, as the court noted that over 90% of the City's workforce “is entitled to the civil service protections afforded by §3020-a or similar provisions of State law.”

The decision is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2012/2012_00854.htm