GUILDERLAND — Town workers are feeling pressure from a county Civil Service crackdown.

At least one Town Hall worker is losing her job because of the crackdown.

Caitlin Frederick, who became Albany County’s director of Civil Service a year-and-a-half ago, is taking a hard line on enforcement. She is following state mandates that dictate what each county must enforce.
"It’s not fair and it’s not right," said Thadeus Ausfeld, who runs the town’s water plant.

He’s concerned that qualified state-certified workers who know how to run the plant will be replaced with inexperienced newcomers if they fail the Civil Service exam, which is now being required of them.

When asked if an employee with over a decade of experience should be fired if he fails his Civil Service exam, Frederick responded with a concrete yes. She did say some rare exceptions could be made through the state’s authority and re-tests are possible with certain positions, depending on the number of applicants and candidates who have successfully passed the exam on the county’s Civil Service lists.

If none of these stipulations are met or the employee fails the exam multiple times, they must be removed from their position according to Frederick.
"I have to deal with these issues all the time," Frederick said.

The problem

Some town employees in Guilderland have simply never taken the Civil Service exam or have had their jobs reclassified by the state and are now required to take the test, no matter how many years of service they may have. A variety of factors have caused the problem, including administrative oversight, poor communication between municipalities, and lax enforcement.
Albany County was audited by the state in 2004, which may have prompted some of the increased enforcement. The audit occurred before Frederick took over as director, and she called it procedural. Albany County’s last audit before that was in 1984 and, even though Frederick did not know how the state chose counties for audit, she said, "We were about due."

Guilderland’s town supervisor, Kenneth Runion, believes the changes in Civil Service examinations are because of the state’s audit and the county’s new director, Frederick. The county has reexamined and reclassified several positions for taking Civil Service exams, including animal-control positions which Runion says caught the town by surprise.

Frederick says the state audits are used only as administrative tools to help identify areas that need improvement and are not used to punish or investigate counties that are not up to par.
"It [the audit] didn’t reverse anything we were trying to do. It helped us to move forward," Frederick said.

In the past, Frederick said, the county’s smaller municipalities did not report their entire lists of employees, and the Civil Service Department had been slow in sending out exam notices; there were other administrative problems as well, she said. These are problems which Frederick says she is working hard to stamp out, to prevent future incidents.

The town’s position
"This is the first time I’ve seen something like this happen in 20 years of town politics," Runion said about the Civil Service changes. Runion believes the county may be going overboard with some of the testing it now requires, where previously no testing was required for a position.

The superintendent of the transfer station was an exempt position previously, but now requires a Civil Service exam. Guilderland’s transfer station superintendent did pass the exam and is now set in that position, according to Runion.

He also told The Enterprise that a town fire inspector had failed an exam, but, because there were not enough applicants on the waiting list, he was able to take the exam again and is currently waiting for the results. New York State requires a minimum of three applicants on the Civil Service waiting list and a failing exam grade before an employee can be removed from a position.

The appointee for Guilderland’s newest position, deputy police chief, has to take the Civil Service exam as well. Reunion said that Carol Lawlor, who filled the position last week, will have to take the exam in February.

A letter was recently sent from the Albany County Civil Service Department to the Guilderland Town Hall asking for a job description for the position of one of the town’s bookkeepers. Runion said that he sent a letter back to the county saying the position was created by the State Legislature and town-appointed positions are not testable; they are appointed positions.
"I kind of joke around that they will have a test for my position some day," said Runion, who is an elected official.

Who’s affected

Town Clerk Rosemary Centi said she has had no problems with the Civil Service examinations and the town clerk’s office has not been affected. But that is not true with some of the other town departments.

The town assessor’s office is losing a staff member because of a failed examination.
"A position had been replaced because they failed the exam," said Town Assessor Carol Wysomski, who did not want to reveal the name of the employee being let go.

Pamela Conti, the worker losing her job, did not want to comment to The Enterprise. She replaced an employee of three years and would have held the position for one year in March. Conti took the exam in September, failed the test, and was supposed to be replaced in January, but was given an extension until March 1. Wysomski said she is now starting the interview process to replace Conti from the Albany County Civil Service list.
At the water and wastewater management department, Superintendent William West sees some inherent problems with the current Civil Service regulations. West does not believe the exams make an employee more qualified for a job. Calling the exams "procedure", West says the tests do not reflect jobs like water treatment in small towns.
"The exams are so generic in nature, it’s hard to pertain to certain jobs," West told The Enterprise.
West said he has a long-term employee who, because of a switch in job title, now has to take a Civil Service exam. He said, "It won’t really affect him as long as he passes the exam."
"It’s tough to take a trainee or a laborer and move them up, and they have years of experience for the job, and now they have to take an exam," said West.
He continued, "There’s some pressure on people who have been here a number of years and who are more than qualified, but still have to take the exam."
When asked where the changes on Civil Service exams are coming from, West responded by saying his employees are more than qualified for their jobs and "They made some changes down there [Civil Service department], and they’re trying to get everyone under their wing."

Another town employee who is concerned with the Civil Service changes is Ausfeld. Speaking only for himself and not for the town of Guilderland or its other departments, Ausfeld said he is worried about his employees’ job security. One of his employees has been working there for 12 years.
"All of a sudden Albany County wants everyone to take exams," Ausfeld said, recalling when suddenly all three of his employees were required to take the exam.
"I believe there is some type of problem with this system, when I have someone with 12 years’ experience who never took the exam, and all of a sudden has to when they should have done so in the first two years of training if they were going to test them," said Ausfeld.

The employees at the water plant are all certified by New York State to run the plant, he said. If they are forced to be replaced because of possible failed examinations, it would take at least two years for new employees to be trained and certified, according to Ausfeld. This is a waste, says Ausfeld, of town resources and taxpayers’ money.
"I don’t know who’s at fault, but I can see it’s a lot of wasted tax-payer money," Ausfeld said.
Ausfeld does not believe the Civil Service system is working in these situations and said a new trainee off the Civil Service list would not be qualified to run his plant. "There’s not anyone on that list who can run this plant. I’m not comfortable having someone with no experience run this plant," said Ausfeld.

Starting in his own position back in 1981, Ausfeld himself did not take a Civil Service exam until he was there for five or six years. He believes that the exam should be given during the first two-year training period, if an examination has to be given.
When asked what would happen to a town employee who could not pass a Civil Service exam, Runion said, "Unless another position opens up ... they wouldn’t be allowed to be employed by the town according to Albany County Civil Service." All employees that are removed from a position are notified in writing by the Albany County Civil Service Department.

About the future of Civil Service examination, Frederick said she did not want to see people lose their jobs, but examination regulations would have to be enforced.
"We’re doing the best we can to retain them [civil servants], but we’re not 100-percent successful," said Frederick.