APPENDIX A REPORTS AS TO ADMINISTRATION OF THE CIVIL SERVICE LAW AND RULES IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK Report of Commissioners Milliken and Brown To the Governor of the State of New York: A regulation of the State Civil Service Commission provides that that body shall make an occasional official visitation of each city in the state for the purpose of inquiring into the method of the administration of the Civil Service Law in such city and of ascertaining whether the municipal commissioners and other city officials faithfully discharge their duties in respect to compliance with said law. In accordance with that regulation and for the purpose of investigating as to certain abuses alleged by the Civil Service Reform Association and by others to exist in the administration of the Civil Service Law in the city of New York, this Commission visited that city on the 18th of May, and instituted such an inquiry. It first directed its attention to the matters specifically referred to in the presentment of the Reform Association under date of April 6, 1905. An open session for the examination of witnesses in regard to these matters was continued through the 18th and 19th of May and was then adjourned to and concluded on the 22d of June. In the interim, the secretary and chief examiner of the State Commission, pursuant to instruc tions, and in the exercise of a privilege conferred by section 10 of the Civil Service Law, made an examination of the records of the Municipal Commission along the lines noted, but examined no witnesses. The presentment of the Civil Service Reform Association called the attention of the State Commission to certain specific instances of alleged abuses in the administration of the Civil Service Law under the Municipal Commission and its secretary, and to matters in which it was charged that heads of departments are responsible with the Commission for violation or evasion of the law and rules. In examination of witnesses and records, the State Commission has covered the matters set forth in the presentment, except that which called attention to the increased expenses of the Municipal Commission, and that which referred to the alleged exploitation of positions in the exempt class in the city service to subserve political purposes. The State Commission has not been able, in the time at its disposal, to make the extended compilation of data essential to an intelligent comparison of the cost to the city of the civil service administration under the present and former Commissions. The cost rose from $108,457.07, under the Ogden Commission, in 1903, to $114,781.81 under the McCooey and Coler Commissions in 1904. The appropriation for the present year, under the Baker Commission, is $115,000.00, the same as last year, though $10,000.00 has been added to the salaries of the commissioners. Whether this has resulted in any loss in efficiency in the work of examination and administration, or whether the earlier increase in appropriations was out of proportion to the growth of the city, so that the expenses could be cut in other directions without harm to the service, the State Commission does not, at present, feel able to judge. Neither has the State Commission yet had opportunity to study the conduct of the examinations, their practicality and the justice and impartiality of the ratings. As to the alleged abuse in the matter of appointments tɔ positions in the exempt class, that is an offense to be established by inference rather than by oral or documentary evidence. At tacks of whatever nature upon the merit system of appointment and promotion to public office presuppose a political animus. Violations of the constitutional rule requiring that such appointments and promotions shall be made through competitive exami. nations open to all point to some underlying political consideration. Evasions of the Civil Service Law and rules irresistibly argue political interference. There are 696 positions in the munic. ipal service which are classified as exempt from competitive examination, not a great number when compared with the total of 40,000 persons on the pay roll of the city in the classified and labor service, but it goes without the saying that the exempt class affords, in the city service, as it undoubtedly does in the state and county service, the favorite, because the safest, ground for the commission of this sort of offense. The positions classified as exempt are as clearly within the prohibition of the law as to the consideration of political opinions or affiliations as are those in the competitive class, but in the case of the former the appointing officer, as was pointed out in the last annual report of the State Commission, becomes the sole judge of the qualifications of the person selected, and upon his conscientious regard for the constitution and the law is practically the only dependence for protection against consideration of improper influences. CHARGES AGAINST SECRETARY BERLINGER. The charges preferred by the Reform Association against the secretary of the Municipal Civil Service Commission under date of November 22, 1904, should have been made the occcasion of a searching investigation by the last mentioned body. It is true. that the irregularities charged occurred under a previous municipal commission, but they were of serious consequences as bearing upon Mr. Berlinger's fitness for the office. From the testi |