The Civil Service Commission shall be composed of three members appointed from among persons whose names are submitted to the Mayor by the Civil Service Panel. Civil Service Commissioners shall be in sympathy with the application of merit principles to public employment. No member of the Commission shall be a member of any local, state or national committee of a political party, or an officer or member of a committee or organization primarily devoted to partisan political purposes, or shall hold or be a candidate for any elective office.

Of the members first appointed, one shall be appointed for a term of two years, one for a term of four years, and one for a term of six years. Thereafter, all appointments shall be for terms of six years.

Unless and until the Council shall provide a higher rate of compensation, each member of the Commission shall receive a fee of one hundred dollars for each meeting of the Commission which he attends, but the total compensation payable to any member in any one year shall not be more than $6,000.

The Commission shall meet at least once each month. All meetings shall be open to the public unless the Commission shall otherwise direct.

ANNOTATION

Sources: A Model State Civil Service Law, Section 4.

Purposes: 1. Civil Service Commissioners are to be appointed from names suggested to the Mayor by a Civil Service Panel in order to make certain that Commissioners meet the qualifications specified in the Charter. These include the requirements that they be in sympathy with the application of merit principles to public employment and that in the exercise of their powers and fulfillment of their duties they be independent of partisan politics.

2. This is one of the few instances where staggered terms are fixed because it is not a function of the Civil Service Commission to effectuate the policies of any particular Mayor's administration.

3. Substantial remuneration is provided for Civil Service Commissioners because they will be required to devote considerable time to their duties even though they are part-time City officers. Council may increase the compensation fixed by the Charter but may not decrease it. This is another measure to safeguard the civil service system.

4. The Commission is permitted to have executive sessions because the quasi-judicial nature of its work will from time to time require that it be performed in private. However, Section 7-201 gives employees the unqualified right to request public hearings of their cases.