BOSTON (SHNS) – A bill is expected next week from the Joint Committee on Public Service proposing reforms to the state’s 140-year-old civil service law that governs how jobs at police, fire, and other public departments around Massachusetts are filled.
The bill, which is to be based upon a series of recommendations that were adopted by the Special Legislative Commission to Study and Examine the Civil Service Law, will be filed Thursday, Feb. 8, and will get a hearing on Feb. 26, committee and commission co-chair Rep. Ken Gordon said Monday. If the committee favorably reports the bill, he said “the full legislature will likely have an opportunity to vote, we’re hoping,” by the time the legislative session ends.
It is expected to create a way for municipalities that are part of the civil service system to fill up to half of their openings outside of the civil service system, expand residency guidelines so municipalities could give preference to residents of their town or nearby towns, tweak the formula that determines how many potential candidates a municipality gets for each civil service job opening, and propose the creation of a permanent standing commission on civil service.