BILL NUMBER: S5255
SPONSOR: JACKSON
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to hearing procedures
for certain public employees
 
PURPOSE:
Provides for procedures to be followed in appointing a hearing officer
for removal and disciplinary action against certain public employees.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Sections I, 2, and 3 amend Section 75 of the Civil Service Law to
provide that disciplinary hearings against individual employees not in
the service of the City of New York shall be held by a hearing officer
who is a member of the American Arbitration Association, selected by the
mutual agreement of the parties involved. The decision of the hearing
officer will be required to be implemented by the employer. In addition,
this legislation provides that such employees may be suspended with pay
during such disciplinary action. The bill maintains current discipli-
nary hearing procedures for individual employees in the service of the
City of New York.
Section 4 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The purpose of this bill is to ensure an impartial and fair due process
hearing for permanent non-New York City government employees who are the
subject of disciplinary charges as outlined in Section 75 of the Civil
Service Law. The bill maintains existing disciplinary process for New
York City employees, however, due to the decades-long success that the
Trials Division of the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and
Hearings (OATH) has had in adjudicating these cases within its jurisdic-
tion and the corpus of case law it has established by its rulings.
Under the present provisions of Section 75 of the Civil Service Law,
individuals who have attained permanent appointment as employees under
the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Law may be removed from their
positions or have other disciplinary actions taken (i.e., suspension
without pay, demotion from grade and title) after a hearing held before
the officer or body who has brought the charges. The employing officer
or body therefore becomes both the prosecutor and the judge of the
permanent employees actions.
This bill would provide a more fair procedure in which the hearing is
before an impartial arbitrator selected upon mutual agreement of the
parties from a list maintained for this purpose by the public employment
relations board. The hearing officer would hear the case and determine
the appropriate penalty, if any. Such a system would give both the
employer and the employee a fair opportunity to present their respective
sides of the case and allow for impartial adjudication.
In addition, by protecting civil service employees from being suspended
without pay during such procedures, this bill conforms to disciplinary
hearing procedures brought against tenured teachers pursuant to Section
3020A of the Education Law, thus ensuring the same due process for civil
service employees.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S8230 - REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE/ A8915 - referred to
governmental employees
2023: S1039-A/ A3748A - Vetoed by the Governor - Memo 129
2021-2022: S.2891-A - Referred to Civil Service and Pensions/A.4784-A
Referred to Governmental Employees
2020: S.5205-B - Amend and Recommit to Civil Service and
Pensions/A.7624-B Amend and Recommit to Governmental Employees referred
to Civil Service and Pensions
2019: S.5205-A Passed the Senate/A.7624-A - Died in Assembly
2011-2012: A.5743 - Referred to Codes
2009-2010: A.9983 - Referred to Codes
2005-2006: S.1171 - Referred to Civil Service and Pensions/A.4369 -
Referred to Governmental Employees
2003-2004: S.5371 - Referred to Civil Service & Pensions/A.6957 -
Referred to Governmental Employees
 
STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S5255: 75 civil service law, 75(3) civil service law, 75(3-a) civil service law