Conor Phillips, CSC Docket No. 2020-1773

Appellant's argumentConor Phillips requests that his application be accepted for the open- competitive examination for Fire Fighter (M9999W).

BackgroundThe subject examination was announced on July 1, 2018, and the closing date was August 21, 2018. Only on-line applications were accepted, and the petitioner did not submit one. Of the 14,057 applications received, 8,593 candidates passed the examination.

In a request postmarked January 6, 2020, the petitioner argues that he missed the application deadline date as he had military orders to deploy to Afghanistan, and he missed the deadline date as he was busy preparing to go. He does not provide any dates in his appeal, but submits a Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty which indicates a date entered of July 5, 2018, and a date of separation as June 15, 2019.

CONCLUSION

RuleN.J.A.C. 4A:4-2.1(e) provides, in pertinent part, that applications for open competitive and promotional examinations should be filed no later than the announced filing date for filing applications. N.J.A.C. 4A:4-6.6(a)1 states that an appeal shall be filed within 20 days of notice of the action, decision or situation being appealed.

AnalysisThe petitioner was not admitted to the subject examination since he did file an application by the August 21, 2018 closing date. While it is acknowledged that he may have been busy preparing for his deployment in the early days of July 2018, the petitioner provides no explanation of why he waited almost six months after returning to file his request of this issue. Under these circumstances, the request is clearly untimely and is dismissed solely on those grounds.

ORDER

Therefore, it is ordered that this request be dismissed as untimely.

ClosingThis is the final administrative determination in this matter. Any further review should be pursued in a judicial forum.