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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
05/20/2024 04:38 PM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20130&cosponId=10665
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House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 8, 2013 02:16 PM
From: Representative David S. Hickernell
To: All House members
Subject: Appointment of Civil Service Employees to Fill Vacancies in Elective Offices (Former House Bill 771, 2011-2012 Legislative Session)
 
I intend to reintroduce legislation that will rectify what I believe to be an unintended consequence of the Civil Service Act. Pennsylvania’s Civil Service Act was adopted to curtail the influence of partisan politics over the hiring of civil servants. I believe that the law has served to create a wall of separation between activities relating to partisan elections and the work of civil servants. However, taken to its extreme, the law has prevented at least one civil service employee from filling a vacancy in a local public office, despite the fact that the vacancy was filled by appointment, not by partisan election.

In one of the communities in my legislative district, a state civil service employee was appointed to fill a vacancy in a borough council position. The borough council sought advice from the Civil Service Commission prior to making the appointment. However, subsequent to the appointment the individual was directed by the Civil Service Commission to resign from the appointed post or face enforcement action by the Commission. The Commission concluded that the employee’s appointment to borough council constituted a prohibited political activity under the Civil Service Act.

The purpose of this legislative proposal is not to weigh-in on the merits of the Commission’s decision in the above-mentioned case. Rather, the purpose is to make it clear that an appointment to fill a vacancy in elective public office is not to be considered a prohibited political activity under the Civil Service Act. Specifically, my proposal would establish the following:
  • That a person holding elective public office at the time he or she becomes a state civil service employee may continue to serve in that office;
  • That a state civil service employee may accept an appointment to fill a vacancy in an elective public office while concurrently serving as a civil service employee;
  • That a person holding an elective public office under either of the above-mentioned circumstances may not be a candidate for re-election to that office in a partisan election.

As you know, it is an ongoing challenge to retain and attract people to serve in local public office. This legislation will allow our communities to take advantage of the expertise and enthusiasm of some of our civil servants, in a very narrow set of circumstances, without tearing down the wall of separation between partisan politics and civil service.

Previous Cosponsors: Hickernell, Aument, Cutler, Denlinger, Fleck, Gabler, Gingrich, Grove, Hennessey, Millard, Moul, Rapp and Swanger

Introduced as HB557