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Administrative History

In 1937 the Court of Appeals decided in Palmer vs. Geddes (276 N.Y. 222, 1938) that the State Constitution's civil service article applied to county, town and village positions.

As a result of the decision, a twelve-member legislative Commission on Extension of the Civil Service was created in 1939 to study the problems of extending civil service to local governments (L. 1939, Ch. 862 and 961). Assemblyman Emerson D. Fite was the Commission's chairperson and Civil Service Commissioner Howard P. Jones was its secretary. The "Fite Commission's" investigation resulted in the "Fite Law" (L. 1941, Ch. 855) which provided for the administration of civil service law and rules in all of New York's civil divisions. The law gave counties (under whose civil service jurisdiction towns and villages fall), after a public hearing on or before July 1, 1942, one of the three following optional forms of civil service administration: an appointed county civil service commission; a county personnel officer; or administration of civil service by the State Civil Service Commission (C.S.C.).

The C.S.C. was given the administration of the civil services of school districts outside of a city and counties included in a city (New York City's counties). The Department of Civil Service was also mandated to provide advisory and other services to all local governments.