Classification Division and Classification Board working files and minutes

Organized into four subseries: 1. Classification Board Minutes, 1938-1949; 2. Classification Division's Director's Files, 1938-1949; 3. Classification Lists, 1930-1938; 4. Classification Unit Files, 1930-1938.

Classification Board Minutes: chronological by meeting date.

Classification Lists: each list arranged alphabetically by department.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Classification of Positions in the Civil Service (J.L.C. on Classification) in its 1932 report proposed New York State government's first comprehensive position classification plan.

Beginning 1932, this plan was incorporated into law on a piecemeal basis by the annual appropriation acts. The Department of Civil Service (D.C.S.) established a Classification Unit within the Examination Division to carry out the plan. The 1938 Feld-Ostertag Law (L. 1938, Chap. 498) established, under the jurisdiction of D.C.S., a Classification Board and a Classification Division. The Board consisted of three members appointed as fellows: one competitive-class employee appointed by the Civil Service Commission who was to serve as Board Chairman and Classification Division director; one appointed by the Director of the Budget; and one appointed by the Commission and serving at its pleasure. The Board headed the Division and heard appeals for Division classification decisions. The Divison absorbed the old Classification Unit and was empowered to classify all positions in the classified State service. In 1949 the Division and Board were abolished and their functions transferred to the Classification and Compensation Appeals Board and the Classification and Compensation Division.

This series consists of four subseries described below:

Classification Board Minutes, 1938-1949. These are the Board's official minutes. Pre-1946 minutes contain descriptions of actions and discussions at Board meetings and are signed by the Board's members. They document Board and Division internal operations and staff activities, classification policy, final classification approvals, and classification appeals. Post-1946 minutes usually record the Division Director's and his staff's activities and only occasionally those of the Board. Entries are one or two sentences noting the date and occurence of Board meetings or meetings with officials or appellants. Little information is recorded on what occurred during these meetings and the minutes are unsigned. The final entries in the Minutes document the Classification and Compensation Division's activities between July 12, 1949 and October 6, 1949.

Classification Division's Director's Files, 1938-1949. This subseries consists mostly of loose files containing correspondence and reports concerning special jurisdictional and job classification problems or projects (e.g., use of scientific personnel by U.S. government during World War II, and the transfer of thousands of hospital attendants from non-competitive to competitive class). Also contained in the subseries are: lists of jurisdictional and other reclassifications recommended by the Board; bound job specification or duty descriptions for State, county, and local welfare positions; copies of proposed legislation; and memoranda and correspondence on general classification related topics.

Classification Lists, 1930-1938. This subseries consists of the 1930 and 1932 tentative job classification schemes or "class lists" for State positions drawn up by the J.L.C. on Classification and the 1938 scheme of the Classification Board and Division. Listed for each department are the proposed new titles and the names, present titles, and salaries of the individuals who would hold these titles.

Classification Unit Files, 1930-1938. This subseries consists of six binders containing the Classification Unit's Director's files. Binders contain press releases, forms, memoranda, correspondence, Civil Service Commission resolutions or classifications, Governor's veto messages on classification bills and lists of proposed job and jurisdictional reclassifications. These records contain information on job and jurisdictional classification policies and procedures and individual reclassifications.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.