Plunkitt’s Return?

Robert Croghan, the chairperson of the Organization of Staff Analysts.

Courtesy Organization of Staff Analysts

Adam Orgel, the vice-chairperson of the Organization of Staff Analysts.

Courtesy Organization of Staff Analysts

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AUTHOR BIO:

Robert J Croghan is chairperson and Adam Orgel is vice-chairperson of The Organization of Staff Analysts, a union representing 5,700 active and 3,200 retired City workers.

The Feb. 20 edition of The Chief has a long article reported from New York Focus. The article argues for a quick return to the days of yore when a young worker went straight to his or her district leader to apply for a government job.

The author apparently finds a system testing for merit and fitness to be too slow and he favors one that can speed hiring.

Oddly, they had a system in 1965, over three-score years ago, that not only tested for merit and fitness but gave walk-in exams, once every two weeks, for the title of Social Investigator (Welfare).

If you passed, you were physically examined that day and assigned to a training class shortly thereafter. You could find yourself on the job in a week or two, and an investigation of your credentials was completed soon after.

We know this is true because OSA Chair Bob Croghan took the test in May 1965 and chose his start date as June 6, 1965. The nice man processing his application gave him a choice of a June or July start date. If we (the City or State) could do this in 1965, why on Earth can we not do this in 2026?

The answer, it seems obvious, is that we do not want to.

Thus, we understaff and underfund the personnel branch of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). This leads to us being “unable” to do what we regularly did in 1965 – give tests.

The underfunding and understaffing of our personnel department was started by former Mayor Ed Koch and has not been reversed. The result, as he desired, was to give him the opportunity to appoint and maintain tens of thousands of provisional employees.

Today, the new idea is to use “Education and Experience” exams to replace competitive exams. Of course, when thousands of candidates are all supremely qualified, that still begs the question of who gets the job.

This is where your local district leader comes in.

You may be selected because you are a loyal Democrat or Republican (as used to happen), or even because you are a loyal Democratic Socialist of America (in the current era), but under the proposed system, only loyal people will be selected.

All of a sudden, our staffing crisis can be easily relieved by the 70,000 resumes sent in by “would be” government workers following the recent mayoral election.

The only problem will be that workers hired due to their loyalty to those who appoint them will not be loyal to you and me or citizens and taxpayers in general.

We will be paying for political patronage.

The “patrons” will be happy; we citizens and taxpayers, not so much.

Henry Garrido, Executive Director of District Council 37, has pointed out that the civil service system seeks to avoid discrimination. If you get the higher score on the exam, no one looks at your race, creed, color, politics or who is your relative.

They don’t even ask how much you are willing to pay to get the job. In times gone by, they did.

Joe Colangelo, leader of Service Employees International Union Local 246 and the Municipal Labor Committee Chair for Civil Service issues, has stated, “In my opinion, we're going back over 100 years to the spoils system.”

Exactly.

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall was a book written in 1905. It is the story of a corrupt but candid and open political boss, George Washington Plunkitt, written by Plunkitt with William L. Riordan of The New York Post.

Boss Plunkitt would feel very much at home with today's talk of an “easy” way to give out government jobs -- quick, efficient, cheap and ever so open to corruption.

Why do unions care? After all, we can help and assist members no matter how they got their jobs.

We care because, if the City at least attempts to test for merit and fitness, we can hope to hire better workers from the start. We also care because once you stop hiring this way, politics will be used to determine promotions and salaries and also service to the public.

We do know that you can run a government staffed by workers appointed entirely through the “spoils system.” Boss Plunkitt tells of such a City and the opportunities it offered.

However, the unions, leaders and members alike, are also citizens and taxpayers. A government staffed entirely through a “spoils system” is not likely to be an honest or effective one.

We live here too.

Preserve and defend the Civil Service Law.

If you'd like us to send you a copy of the original 1905 version of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, email plunkitt@osaunion.org to request one.