GUILDERLAND — As the Albany County Civil Service crackdown continues, with numerous exams currently being given throughout the county, town hall and municipal workers are not the only ones affected.

The county’s public libraries have also found themselves struggling with the county’s new stance on examination enforcement.
No study guides or practice exams are available for many library posts.

At least two employees at the Guilderland Public Library and one employee at the Voorheesville Public Library are losing their jobs, and more replacements may be on the way. (Free libraries, like the one in Altamont, that have no taxing powers, do not come under Civil Service jurisdiction)

Every school district library and public library in Albany County is now faced with having each of its employees take a Civil Service exam. This includes workers in entry-level positions, such as a clerk, and those in higher positions who have not taken the exam, like librarians and library directors.
"It started last January.... Before that, nothing had been done for a number of years in Albany County," said the director of the Guilderland Public Library, Barbara Nichols Randall, about the new strict regulations on Civil Service exams.

Randall said that, prior to the 2004 Albany County audit by New York State, no Civil Service exams were offered to her library workers by the county. Now all library employees are required to pass the exam, or they will be fired in accordance with the rules of Albany County’s Civil Service Department.

Two Guilderland library employees have failed exams and a few employees have refused to take the exam, which means replacements will have to be found, according to Nichols Randall. Out of 55 employees, two employees are being removed, an undisclosed number of employees refused the exam, and seven more workers still need to be tested, so the number of replacements needed in Guilderland is unknown at this time.

Civil unrest

Caitlin Frederick, director of the Albany County Civil Service Department for the past year-and-a-half, told The Enterprise, the exams must be passed by employees if they are to retain their positions as public servants.
"With other counties in the state, this is business as usual. Now Albany County has caught up," said Nichols Randall, who thinks that Albany County is behind the rest of the state in exam enforcement.
"Up until now, with the libraries, there hasn’t been any test or exam," said Gail Sacco, director of the Voorheesville Public Library. She also said that her library has, "fallen under the scrutiny of Albany County." That includes Sacco herself, who must take an upcoming Civil Service exam.
"We have had some test failure here," said Sacco, referring to an employee with over 15 years’ experience at the Voorheesville library, who must now be removed.
"I believe it’s a consequence of the audit," Sacco said. She said she believes the state audit is at the root of the new Civil Service enforcement throughout the county.

Frederick, however, said the new enforcement is the result of years of lax reporting on job descriptions and titles by local municipalities, administrative oversight by the county, and poor communication between both.

Studying

Many of the employees who are about to take a Civil Service exam, have no study guides or practice exams to prepare with, according to Sacco.
"We don’t have any solid study guides for the exams," she said. There are study guides and practice exams distributed by some state unions, but they do not always match up with what is on the actual exam, Sacco said.

About the possibility of attaining some kind of study guide, Frederick told The Enterprise this week, "We don’t have a lot of those."

Frederick went on to describe the limited types of study guides the county offers, which are mainly for entry-level positions. Furthermore, Albany County Civil Service does not endorse study guides put out by state unions like the Civil Service Employees Association, said Frederick.

She went on to say that union study guides are good, but they should not be completely relied on by applicants. Many employees can prepare for the exams from the experience they gain at their work, said Frederick.

Several civil servants in the town of Guilderland disagree with this sentiment, including water plant supervisor, Thadeus Ausfeld, and the water and wastewater management supervisor, William West, as well as others. They told The Enterprise last week that a Civil Service examination does not make a person more qualified for a job, and that the tests do not pertain to any particular job or skill necessary to performing the job in question.
"I can’t really recommend much, to be perfectly honest.... it’s up to them to find some resources to help themselves out," said Frederick this week, when asked what an employee should do about preparing for the exam.

When exams are announced, the test description will say whether there is a study guide or not. If there is no study guide, a general description of the exam is given so applicants will know what to expect, said Frederick.

The workers who replace those who failed exams will have to start from the beginning and be trained.

Sacco says, it takes at least three months to be trained for a job, and experience can only be gained over time.
"There is quite a bit of training always involved," said Nichols Randall. "It’s harder with our library clerks, who learn a lot and gain a lot of skill through their location," she said. All librarians, Nichols Randall noted, are required to have a master’s degree in library science.

Nichols Randall does believe that Frederick has tried her best to help the local towns learn the new regulations, and to make a smooth transition.
"Civil Service Law is Civil Service Law. You have to follow the laws," said Nichols Randall.