State Commission on Extension of the Civil Service secretary's files

In 1937 the Court of Appeals decided in Palmer vs. Geddes (276 N.Y. 222, 1938) that the State Constitution's civil service article applied to county, town and village positions.

As a result of the decision, a twelve-member legislative Commission on Extension of the Civil Service was created in 1939 to study the problems of extending civil service to local governments (L. 1939, Ch. 862 and 961). Assemblyman Emerson D. Fite was the Commission's chairperson and Civil Service Commissioner Howard P. Jones was its secretary. The "Fite Commission's" investigation resulted in the "Fite Law" (L. 1941, Ch. 855) which provided for the administration of civil service law and rules in all of New York's civil divisions. The law gave counties (under whose civil service jurisdiction towns and villages fall), after a public hearing on or before July 1, 1942, one of the three following optional forms of civil service administration: an appointed county civil service commission; a county personnel officer; or administration of civil service by the State Civil Service Commission (C.S.C.).

The C.S.C. was given the administration of the civil services of school districts outside of a city and counties included in a city (New York City's counties). The Department of Civil Service was also mandated to provide advisory and other services to all local governments.

This series consists of Howard P. Jones' files on civil service extension both as Secretary of the Fite Commission and as Civil Service Commissioner.

The Fite Commission secretarial files contain the Commission's drafts and published reports, hearing transcripts, minutes, blank questionnaires to local officials, press releases, copies of proposed legislation, and correspondence with State and local officials. Also included in these files are a few Commission Chairman's routine correspondence conveying acknowledgments or thanks.

The Secretary's files document the development of legislation on local civil service administration and the attitude of local officials towards civil service extension and certain general information on local public employment.

Jones' files as Civil Service Commissioner contain copies of speeches explaining and supporting civil service expansion, C.S.C. hearing schedules, hearing transcripts, internal Civil Service Department memoranda, copies of the Fite Law, copies of C.S.C. minutes, correspondence with State and local officials, and records concerning the classification of school district positions. These files contain information on the implementation of the Fite Law on the State and local levels.

Fite and Civil Service Commission files are arranged separately but there is some overlap due to the difficulty in determining when Jones was acting as Secretary or as Commissioner.

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