Title: New York City's Approach to Civil Service Reform: Implications for State and Local Governments
Abstract: Changes in the federal personnel management system are central to President Carter's program of reorganization. Reform measures adopted at the national level will undoubtedly be studied with great interest by state and local governments. Indeed, several of the specific reform provisions found in current federal legislation have counterparts in local programs which, in some cases, predated the federal initiatives. New Jersey, Wisconsin, Vermont, Massachusetts, Chicago, and New York City are among the jurisdictions that have undertaken major service reform efforts. ' The motivation for reform has stemmed from a general dissatisfaction with the way that service systems operate, as well as from frustration with specific features of existing structures. Taxpayers are unhappy with the constantly increasing costs of government and concomitant tax burdens; minority groups are dissatisfied because they believe the system is not responding to what they perceive to be their legitimate needs; civic groups see service workers as unproductive drones; the public at large tends to view service workers as overpaid, underworked, self-serving, and unresponsive; and agency executives see the system as limiting their freedom to manage by imposing rigid rules and regulations. For example, one former federal appointee recently charged that civil service today is designed to insulate federal personnel practices from the claims of merit. You learn very rapidly in government that if you want to get, or hold onto, good people and avoid being stuck with the lemons, you must learn how to thwart the service commission and its regulations.2 The problems associated with these systems are not really new; what is new is a climate that is conducive to fundamental change. The public has increasingly come to expect efficient and effective delivery of services from governmental institutions that are playing progressively greater roles in their lives. 3
Publication Year: 1978
Publication Date: 1978-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 5
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