Quirks of the County Blog

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Tuesday, Jan 31 2012 08:30 AM

Supervisors could send hiring changes to the voters

By The Bakersfield Californian

In their morning session Kern County Supervisors will contemplate action that would place changes to the county's civil service rules on the June ballot. The biggest of the three proposed changes, by far, is a proposal to change the "Rule of Three" to the "Rule of Seven."

Sound obscure? Pay attention, you could be voting on this in a few months.

The Rule of Three requires the County Personnel Department to interview and test potential county employees -- or current employees promoting to a higher position -- and deliver the top three potential candidates to the Department who would hire the new workers or award the promotion. Changing the "three" to "seven" would give county departments far more flexibility in deciding who works for them.

This could be controversial because, in general, civil service rules are strict and were placed there to prevent (or at least limit) favoritism and cronyism in hiring and employment.

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