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Civil Service Commission approves rule changes to allow open police and fire eligibility lists
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Summary
The Civil Service Commission approved editorial and procedural amendments to civil service rules that remove inconsistent pronouns and alter Section 609 language; the changes enable an ongoing open eligibility list for police to begin immediately under newly authorized procedures.
The Civil Service Commission voted to amend civil service rules governing police and fire hiring, approving mostly editorial corrections and a substantive change to Section 609 that removes prior "acceptance" language and leaves the provision focused on notice of rejection. The amendments were adopted unanimously on a verbal voice vote.
The changes follow a November charter amendment (section 27) that, according to Melanie Murray, the assistant law director, "allow[ed] the civil service commission to have, all the powers of local self government." Murray said the current package of edits was initiated by department chiefs and routed through counsel for cleanup and consistency.
A commission member who urged approval said the revisions were largely non-substantive fixes — noting places where gendered pronouns were inconsistent and where an extra conjunction appeared — but highlighted the deletion in Section 609, which now omits earlier acceptance-language and therefore focuses the section on rejection notices. The member moved to approve the amendments and the motion carried.
Representatives of the police and fire departments supported the change as a way to expand hiring flexibility. The fire department representative said the amendment will "give people that wanna work for the Sandusky Fire Department more of a chance because they can update their status in that list anytime, every 30 days, they can retake the test, get moved higher up." The police department representative said the department is at 52 full-time officers (budgeted for 53) and asked to open an ongoing eligibility list immediately; "we currently have, just a little bit update. We're at 52 full time. We're budgeted for 53," the representative said.
Commission members confirmed the amendments take effect immediately after the vote. The police department indicated it will begin the open testing process expeditiously under the new rules.
The commission did not provide a roll-call vote tally in the record; minutes show the motion carried on verbal "aye" responses. The commission also scheduled no immediate promotions; follow-up items on testing and lists will be discussed at a meeting to be set as promotion needs arise.
