Chief Leader – September 30, 2014
by DAN ROSENBLUM
The gender gap between the city’s new hires widened over the past two years and the time between civil-service exams being given and lists being established jumped in recent years, according to statistics released by the de Blasio administration.
14% Rise in Test-Takers
Those were some of the takeaways from the annual Mayor’s Management Report, a report card of city performance in the fiscal year that ended June 30, which straddled the last six months of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration and the first six of Mayor de Blasio’s.
The number of candidates taking tests for city jobs rose by 14 percent over the previous year, a jump the report attributed to the rise of walk-in testing and applications.
The tests, administered by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, establish hiring lists of qualified candidates to be interviewed. Last year, DCAS gave 124 exams to 108,227 candidates and established 140 hiring lists, well above the average of 95 over the four previous years.
The median waiting time between a test being given to a candidate and a hiring list being established ballooned from less than eight months in 2009 to more than 14 months last year, longer than the one-year target set by the city. (For example, a list of qualified applicants from a Tower Operator promotion exam in May 2013 was established July 16, 2014.)
“The 28.2 [percent] increase in the median time from exam administration to list establishment (344 days to 441 days) was primarily due to the existence of multiple tests for the same title,” DCAS Deputy Chief of Staff Carmine Rivetti said in an e-mail, citing last year’s increase over fiscal 2013.
‘More-Strategic Approach’
For example, hiring for Police Officer, Environmental Police Officer, Correction Officer and Job Opportunity Specialist is still being done from older lists, preventing the establishment of a new list. But, she said, the department is taking a “more-strategic approach to exam scheduling and development” that includes reviewing hiring trends over the previous two years, the number of provisionals, the last time an exam was given, and projected attrition rates over the next several years.
“Our review of this data better informs our creation of the examination schedule for each fiscal year and allows DCAS to better utilize its limited resources to develop valid exams in a timely manner,” she said.
DCAS expected to collect $3.5 million this year in filing fees for tests, according to May City Council testimony by Commissioner Stacey Cumberbatch.
Though hiring between men and women was roughly even in 2012—the earliest year that statistic was provided—more than 57 percent of new workers hired in the 2014 fiscal year were men. While each agency coordinates its own hiring, the information is tracked by DCAS.
The agency spokeswoman could not immediately explain the trend.
Not Enough Jobs Yet
I. Daneek Miller, the City Council’s Civil Service and Labor Committee Chairman, said his Southeast Queens district is heavily populated with civil-service workers. He said he was excited more exams have been given, particular after a decade of attrition, but that doesn’t always translate to jobs.
“Right now we have, again, some exams that have been certified and a list has been established, and for close to a year no one’s been hired off those exams,” he said in a phone interview. “That’s something I’m investigating as to why that would happen. Obviously, you call for an exam when you need bodies.”
Mr. Miller worked at the city Department of Transportation before moving to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority where he became president of the bus-workers’ local. He said there have been conversations about whether DCAS has gotten enough resources or technical support, but is looking to expand beyond “initial conversations” with the agency’s commissioner.
‘Love to Work With DCAS’
“I would love to work with DCAS on this issue and I’ve reached out to them, so I’m waiting for the next meeting,” he said.
He speculated the gender gap could have resulted because of titles opening up that have been traditionally male-dominated.
“We’ve got Sanitation coming up and an estimated 50-60,000 people taking that exam, and I would suspect the majority of those candidates would be male,” he said, referring to a filing period opening this month for an early 2015 Sanitation Worker exam.
Renewed Value on Security
Arthur Cheliotes, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1180, speculated the rise in interest comes as recession-weary workers look for secure jobs.
“A civil-service job, while not necessarily being the highest-paid, there’s also a level of security,” he said. “It allows civil service to be an attractive position, especially for the unemployed.”
The MMRs, the first of the report cards issued under Mr. de Blasio, who has made income inequality a centerpiece of his tenure, provided a “focus on equity” statement.
“This MMR, though it reflects one-half of this administration’s first year, also begins to reflect our values and priorities, as we bring a focus on equity, equality and opportunity to our work,” said Mindy Tarlow, director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, in an announcement of the statistics’ release.
The compilation of more than 2,000 metrics also included new statistics on some of Mr. de Blasio’s initiatives, including units of affordable housing financed under the Housing New York program, the number of slow zones and speed bumps created under the Vision Zero initiative to reduce traffic deaths, and enrollment in pre-kindergarten seats and percentage of classrooms with certified Lead Teachers.
Firefighter Injuries Down
The Mayor’s Office said 59 percent of the indicators improved or remained neutral, compared to 53 percent the previous year. Among the other statistics in the report were:
• Last year, there were 8,663 Firefighter injuries reported, a drop of more than 20 percent from a recent high of 11,210 reported in 2011.
• More than 20,000 employees attended training sessions, a sharp rise from previous years, the report noted, because of the recent opening of the Citywide Training Center.
• The diversity of those hired in recent years has remained relatively unchanged, with 23 percent identifying themselves as white, 39 percent as black, 19 percent as Hispanic and 7 percent as Asian/Pacific Islander. Twelve percent of new hires didn’t specify a race.
• The Department of Investigation, which investigates criminal activity, corruption and conflicts of interest among city employees and contractors, has refocused investigations on “more-complex, systemic” reviews of agencies that take more time to complete, the report said. It received 12,622 complaints, issued 280 policy and procedure recommendations to city agencies and had 540 people arrested arising from its investigations. It collected $33.2 million, the vast majority of which was Federal forfeiture money stemming from the CityTime investigation.
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