City staffers up in arms over new system requiring them to compete for their jobs
CITY HALL — Hundreds of city workers literally will be put to the test in the next few months, if they want a chance to keep their jobs.
Officials earlier this month mailed a letter to nearly 500 temporary and seasonal city employees, informing them that starting this summer all jobs will be filled through a competitive, merit-based process.
The idea is to make each position available to the most qualified applicant. But the process has raised concerns among some long-time temporary workers who worry they may be edged out of their jobs in the push for equal access.
Karen Bancroft, human resources director at City Hall, said at any given time there are between 300 and 400 temporary and seasonal employees working for City Hall. They work, among other places, in the police department as cadets, in city libraries as pages, and at pools as junior lifeguards during busy summer months.
“Under the city charter and the Santa Monica municipal code, we’re supposed to be using a merit system recruitment procedure for all positions, whether they’re as-needed or permanent,” Bancroft said this week. “Also, federal law... requires that jobs be open and accessible to any qualified person.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re doing things correctly,” Bancroft added. “(In the past) people have gotten in without having to compete. It doesn’t mean that they can’t compete for these jobs and still have them.”
Under the competitive process, workers must turn in new employment applications and, if qualified, undergo a civil service exam, which may include a written test, oral interview and performance test, according to city documents. An eligibility list then is established, and managers are given the authority to choose between the top three ranked applicants for any given position.
Many of the temporary or seasonal workers have been employed by City Hall for years and worry they may lose their jobs because of the changes.
“I have worked for the city for almost a decade as an as-needed employee, and have dedicated my time and efforts to provide the best possible job performance to my employer, so (I) was shocked and dismayed” by the letter announcing the changes, said one worker, who asked not to be named.
“It’s a lot more than a job,” added the worker, who said his supervisor had advised him to keep a low-profile during the transition to a competitive process.
“It’s an investment that I made years and years ago, and it’s really quite a loss to me. It’s not just the money, it really meant a lot to me to be working for the city.”
Bancroft said workers need not fret. Though employees must follow procedure to retain their positions, the city is holding workshops to help the workers with interviews and tests. What’s more, because many of the temporary and seasonal jobs are not complex managerial positions they often require only an oral examination, and not a written test or performance review, Bancroft added.
To illustrate her case, Bancroft pointed out that when City Hall made permanent 16 concession sales and parking attendant positions at the Civic Auditorium last year, all but two of the workers held onto their jobs.
City Hall’s municipal code has required equal opportunity in the workplace since 1948. The city recently decided to reconsider the way temporary and seasonal workers were hired after realizing in the course of reviewing the civil service regulations it long had been out of compliance, Bancroft said.
“This is an issue that we discovered and we’re now fixing it,” she added.
The cost to re-test the workers will be nil, continued Bancroft, who said all the work will be done by existing workers, without any added hours. The benefits, however, may be noticeable to Santa Monica merchants and residents.
“It really sets forth a process where all positions are filled through an open, competitive process — so the best-qualified, based on their exam results, are the ones that are hired by a public agency,” Bancroft said. “So that a public agency isn’t just hiring friends, neighbors, doing it that way. It’s really to ensure that the taxpayer dollars are spent the way they’re supposed to be.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 29, 2005. Read the original PDF.