The Genesee County Legislature, acting upon a recommendation from its Genesee County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, has drafted a resolution to support the New York State Department of Civil Service in the implementation of several reforms designed to promote a more diverse and inclusive law enforcement workforce.
The legislature’s Public Service Committee on Monday passed the resolution, which is expected to be considered by the entire governing body next Wednesday.
Prior to that action, the PSC voted in favor of adopting the final report from the reform and reinvention committee, a 19-member group that met nine times over the past six months in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 203 on community policing reform.
Former Legislator Robert Bausch reviewed the 12-page document for the committee, reporting the findings and recommendations on four specific areas:
- What Functions Should Police Perform?
- Employing Smart and Effective Policing Standards and Strategies;
- Fostering Community-Oriented Leadership, Culture and Accountability;
- Recruiting and Supporting Excellent Personnel.
It was the fourth topic that elicited the most comments from legislators and prompted them to compose the civil service reform resolution.
Bausch pointed out that New York State civil service laws, which control most of the employment process, create problems in recruitment through its “list” process and in the time it takes to fill vacant positions.
The Genesee County report indicates that “this is a significant barrier to recruitment and deters those from underserved populations from applying.”
Legislator Marianne Clattenburg agreed, stating “we need to address the way we hire, the Civil Service system. Students with Criminal Justice degrees can’t get on the list. I hope that at some point we can revise the procedures.”
Julie Carasone, consultant and certified implicit bias trainer, reiterated what others have said in recent weeks.
“The Civil Service system is antiquated,” said Carasone, who served on the Genesee County (and City of Batavia) reform committees and helped Bausch write the county’s report.
She then went a step further by imploring the legislators to do something about it.
“That’s where you guys come in as legislators,” she said “We can’t do that without your help … to change the laws and classifications. Just because someone is the most educated, it doesn’t mean he or she is best for the job.”
The legislature’s resolution on Civil Service reforms – which is being sent to the governor, state senators and assembly members -- seeks the following changes:
- Ease the “rule of three” for appointments. The state should consider a simple pass/fail test for deputy sheriffs, correction officers, public safety telecommunicators, and police officers. If this is unachievable, the state should consider band-scoring to a wider band than 5 points to allow for a more robust pool of eligible applicants.
- Ease or suspend the restrictions on hiring former police officers as it applies to Section 58 (4) CSL.
- Ease the restrictions on hiring part-time police officers, especially retired members or retired troopers on a noncompetitive basis. Forcing retired state troopers to have to take a civil service test is unreasonable, especially for a 209-V GML peace officer position.
- Reform civil service rules and regulations to ensure reasonable probationary periods for all transferees of at least six months.
- Reform civil service rules and regulations to ensure that a previous test disqualification should prevent an individual from retaking a test for a period of time.
- Grant counties the authority to enact “continuous recruitment” options for correction officers. The state already has continuous recruitment for state correctional officers at DOCCS facilities.
As far as the status of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office is concerned, Bausch said the committee concluded that the agency is of “high quality” and is “not something that just happened, but has been built over a number of years and the current staff is keeping it going.”
“The problems that others are talking about, we did not find. Not that the Genesee County Sheriff's Office is perfect, but it’s well ahead of many others.”
