What's happening
This bill directs a study on how using career portfolios instead of exams would affect diversity and minority hiring in New York's public sector.
Why it matters
The bill mandates a comprehensive analysis of the career portfolio application process. including its use in other states and countries—to determine if it leads to more inclusive and equitable hiring compared to traditional exam-only practices.
By defining "career portfolio" in detail, the bill signals an interest in evaluating broader measures of candidate potential,. such as skills, accomplishments, and experiences, which could benefit applicants whose abilities are not fully captured by standardized exams.
The study could influence future hiring policies across New York’s public sector,. potentially shaping how public jobs are accessed and opening doors for underrepresented groups who may be disadvantaged by current testing methods.
The required report may include legislative recommendations,. giving lawmakers actionable insights and possibly prompting significant changes to civil service hiring to address diversity and minority underrepresentation.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Study Public Sector Diversity Hiring
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 32
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to civil service and pensions
- Referred to civil service and pensions
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1768
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 16, 2019
Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
AN ACT to direct the president of the state civil service commission to study and report upon how the use of a career portfolio application process would impact diversity, recruitment and hiring of minorities in the public sector
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The president of the state civil service commission shall cause a study to be performed to analyze how the use of a career portfolio application process, rather than an exam-only process, would impact diversity, recruitment and hiring of minorities in the public sector. Such study shall consider the account portfolio application process in other states or in other countries and it shall examine how such process impacts minority recruitment and hiring. A career portfolio application shall be defined as a visual representation of a job candidate's abilities, skills, capabilities, knowledge, qualities, experiences, accomplishments, education, interests, professional goals and objectives and it represents a candidate's work potential. Such career portfolio application is a collection of tangible materials that represent work-related events and accomplishments in a candidate's life.
§ 2. On or before two hundred seventy days after the effective date of this act, the president of the state civil service commission shall complete the study conducted pursuant to section one of this act and shall thereafter deliver a copy of the findings of the study and any legislative recommendations he or she deems to be necessary to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07270-01-9
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to direct the president of the state civil service commission to study and report upon how the use of a career portfolio application process would impact diversity, recruitment and hiring of minorities in the public sector
Purpose or general idea of bill
Directs a study to examine how a career portfolio application process would impact diversity, recruitment and hiring of minorities in the public sector which includes state government workforce and municipal level workforce.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1. The President of the state Civil Service Commission shall cause a study to be performed to analyze how the use of a career portfo- lio application process, rather than an exam-only process, would impact diversity, recruitment and hiring of minorities in the public sector.
Read the full memo (611 words)
This section also defines the composition of a career portfolio applica- tion.
Section 2. On or before 270 days after effective date of this act, the President of the State Civil Service Commission shall complete the study conducted pursuant to section one of this act. The results should be reported with recommendations to the Governor, the temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly.
Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
Justification
This legislation intends to improve employment opportunities for quali- fied minorities in the New York State civil service system. This system oversees the employment of over 630,000 government (public) sector employees. Based on the appalling hiring of minorities documented below, it is necessary to examine other paths to employment that can help diversify the state and municipal government workforces so that they better reflect the great diversity of our State. Having the Department of Civil Service examine and report on how a portfolio application system would help improve diversity is a good start and this legislation aims to initiate that process.
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 under-representation of minorities in civil service and policy making positions in the Pataki Administration. This is one of 7 proposals put forward by task force to address the problems.
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 3345.
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 more than 11,000 jobs lost by this group represent an almost 30%decline in the African-American state workforce. This reduction came during a period when the African-American population in New York grew by 16.1%.
For African-Americans, the loss of the 11,000 jobs at the average state salary of $53,000 translates into a loss of over $550 million dollars in annual salaries. For Hispanics their under-representation translates into a loss of over $860 million in annual salaries never realized by this community.
Legislative history
S.8644 of 2018, referred to civil service and pensions A.4101 of 2018, advanced to third reading cal.784 A.8041 of 2016, referred to governmental employees
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.