New York State Senate Committee on Civil Service Comparative Appraisals of State Civil Service Positions

Appraisal sheets are are arranged by department or other major administrative division within each volume.

Senate Committee on Civil Service Chairman Clinton T. Horton introduced a resolution in April 1915 that authorized the committee to sit beyond the final adjournment of the Senate "for the purpose of continuing its investigation into the civil service of the State with particular reference to salaries, grades and duties of officers and employees and their respective titles." The goal of the investigation was to determine if changes in salaries and grades of employees, or titles of positions, were advisable. The committee also sought to determine if any positions should be altered or abolished "in the interest of public welfare." The resolution directed the committee to present its findings and recommendations to the legislature at the opening of the 1916 session. This resolution was adopted on April 20.

This series consists of two bound volumes of "appraisal sheets" used by the Senate Committee on Civil Service in its 1915 investigation of the state civil service system. These pre-printed forms bear the title "Preliminary Report: Comparative Appraisals" and contain side-by-side columns for comparison of existing position/salary schedules with classifications of work done according to standard specifications. Forms are arranged by department or other major administrative division.

"Existing" schedules are generally typed on forms and include data considered current as of November 1, 1915. Data includes employee name, position title, and annual salary or per diem pay rate. The "Classification of Work Done" section of forms is almost always handwritten in pencil. This section includes position code (typically blank), position title, salary limits (minimum and maximum), and appraisal of existing salary to nearest standard rate. There is also a separate column at the far-right of forms for remarks. Examples include "no card" (likely reference to state employee history cards compiled by the Dept. of Civil Service), "more information", "veteran", and "to be dropped", as well as various unexplained abbreviations such as "OG", "PR", "Ra", and "WT".

Sheets in one of the volumes appear to contain carbon copies of the typed, original "existing" schedules found in sheets in the other volume. Even so, the "Classification of Work Done" and "Remarks" sections of sheets in both volumes consist almost entirely of handwritten annotations in pencil. Annotations on sheets in the volume containing carbon copies of "existing" schedules are nearly identical to those in the volume containing the original, typed schedules. However, subtle differences can be found. The functional difference between the two volumes is unknown.

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