Report on Civil Service Diversity

Sec 7. The president of the commission shall collect data on the ethnic- ity and race of every individual who takes a civil service examination issued or approved by the department and the president shall prepare an annual report describing the data collected. Such report shall be published no later than November thirteenth of each year, beginning in two thousand sixteen, and shall report information on the basis of the governor and the legislature and shall report information on the basis of the last completed state fiscal year. The report shall be delivered to the governor and the legislature and shall be made available to the public via the department's website.

Justification

This legislation requires the creation of an annual report on the race and ethnic data of individuals who have taken civil service exams. Department of Civil Service has failed to ensure diversity in state government workforce. Their outreach methods to increase diversity remain unquantifiable and attempts to create a matrix to measure their efforts have been ignored.

The Department of Civil Service continues to assert that they advertise civil service exams via community based groups from diverse communities. Yet when the exam is given, they do not collect any data on the race or ethnicity of the text takers therefore there is no way they can gauge of their pre-test outreach is working. Obviously based on the appalling hiring of minorities documented below their outreach needs a total revamping.

A 2005 report by the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, a subsequent public hearing and other meetings with minority workers has yielded valuable suggestion that need legislative action to remedy what the 2005 report called, an appalling underrepresentation of minorities in civil service and policy making positions in the Pataki Administration. This is one of five proposals put forward by task force to address the problems.

The lack of workforce diversity now seen in New York State was created because over the years affirmative action officers/administrators have no job protection, and are marginalized by agency heads. In fact, many of the current employees performing such duties are not AAOs. This legislation reverses this situation and strengthens the role of these employees by providing them with a variety of tools.

*In 2005, Hispanics made up over 16% of the entire state population but accounted for only 3.8 percent or 6.515 of the 169.571 jobs in the state government workforce. In real terms, this is a decline in close to 1,000 jobs since 1991 or a 12.2% reduction in the number of Hispanic state workers. This reduction came during a period when the Hispanic popu- lation in New York grew by 33%.

*In 2015 Hispanics make up almost 19% of the entire state population but account for 400 less jobs than they had in State government or 6,142 jobs out of 131,800.

*Since 1991, the African-American civil service workforce has seen a dramatic decline. The 8,836 jobs lost by this group represent a 26.7% decline in the African-American state workforce. This reduction came during a period when the African-American population in New York grew by 13.1%.

*For African-Americans, the loss of the 8,836 jobs at the average state salary of $53,000 translates into a loss of over $468 million dollars in annual salaries. For Hispanics their under-representation translates into a loss of over $860 million in annual salaries.

Priority Legislation for PR/H Task Force based on 2005 Report by same on lack of diversity in state government workforce.

Prior legislative history

2017: S.4985 - REFERRED TO CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS 2016: S.7147 - REFERRED TO CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS/A.8039-referred to governmental employees 2015: A.8039 -referred to governmental employees

Fiscal implications for state and local government

NONE

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.