Cities ignore civil service law at their own peril

Cities ignore civil service law at their own peril

The civil service system was born in response to a corrupt spoils scheme that placed a premium on political connections and a discount on merit. It has served American cities well, if not perfectly, for a century or so.

But the system has its flaws, and those flaws should capture the attention of the Ohio legislature and city fathers.

We have no confidence that the General Assembly — which showed itself to be in the thrall of public employee unions when it outlawed residency requirements for municipal workers — has any inclination to tinker with civil service law. So it will fall to the cities to do the best they can individually to protect themselves from abuse.

And we hope that cities will take a lesson from Warren, which dropped the ball so egregiously that it was forced this week to promote a police lieutenant to a captaincy — the second highest rank in the department — even though he admitted that last August he used a racial slur against two black bicyclists. Oh, and he was off-duty, behind the wheel of a city car and had consumed a couple beers. That same night, a security guard at a low-income apartment complex called police to report that then-Lt. Joseph Marhulik was behaving in a way that suggested he was intoxicated while wearing a sidearm. Any one of Marhulik’s alleged transgressions could have warranted some level of discipline. The combination should have resulted in severe action.

Instead. Warren Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin was sounding almost apologetic after swearing in Capt. Marhulik Monday. Franklin, who had attempted to get the Civil Service Commission to bar Marhulik’s promotion, said he was acting on the advice of the Law Department in effectuating the promotion. “I’ve pretty much exhausted all legal remedies and options and have to uphold the oath of my office to obey the law,” Franklin said.

And, indeed, by Monday he had. But if the city had responded more forcefully immediately after the Aug. 16 incident, Franklin could have been swearing in a different, untainted captain.

What might have been

Had Marhulik been demoted to sergeant for his transgressions, rather than given a 10 day suspension, which he burned off through the use of vacation time, he would not have been eligible for promotion to captain until he worked his way back up to lieutenant.

And it’s not as if the city couldn’t anticipate what was going to happen. By the time an investigation into Marhulik’s behavior began, the city knew that the promotion of Capt. Tim Bowers to chief opened a captain’s slot. Because only a sitting lieutenant could fill that spot and Marhulik held the highest test score, the city had painted itself into a corner.

And this isn’t the only corner the city finds itself in. Unless City Council acts, Warren is going to have to continue to make promotions within the department, even though it has become so top-heavy that there is now one supervisor — a sergeant, lieutenant or captain — for every 1.6 patrol officers. As long as there are supervisory openings on the books, those who have taken promotional tests will demand promotions under civil service law. One of the city’s 37 remaining patrolmen now says he’s entitled to promotion to sergeant. And based on what the newly promoted Capt. Marhulik said last year, another round of promotions isn’t far away. When Marhulik said he wasn’t going to seek the job of chief, he said it was because he intends to retire in 2010.

Living with civil service doesn’t have to be that bad. All it takes to create terrible examples of its potential dysfunction is for council and the administration to do nothing.