Amanda Basso, CSC Docket No. 2022-2050

Appellant's argumentAmanda Basso requests that she be permitted to submit an application for the open competitive examination for Police Officer (M0017D), Brick, after the application filing deadline.

BackgroundBy way of background, the announcement for the subject examination issued on January 3, 2022 with a February 28, 2022 closing date and all applications had to have been received by 4:00 p.m. on that date.1 The subject announcement, in the “Important Information” section, informed candidates:

If you are having difficulty submitting your application on-line, technical support and customer care are available during regular business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday, excluding holidays and emergency closings. Please email:

OAS.support@csc.state.nj.us or call (609)292-4144. Please note that application support requests received outside of regular business hours on the closing date will not change the application filing deadline, so please file early.

1 It is noted that titles that were included in the 2022 Law Enforcement Examination (LEE) testing cycle, e.g., Police Officer, were announced separately by jurisdiction. Thus, candidates were required to file separate applications to indicate their interest in an announcement for a particular jurisdiction and title. It is noted that online applications were available for each announced title via the Online Application System (OAS).

It is noted that the subject examination is scheduled to be administered on six dates in June and July 2022.

Appellant's argumentOn appeal, Basso explains that she is a “Special Two Officer” and “when I began my application and created my account [on February 28, 2022] late morning, all was fine and I successfully created an account though I came across mu[l]tiple difficulties. I had tried multiple times to click on the left hand side under the left hand side category of ‘SYMBOL’, then under was the magnifying class [sic] search along with the 5 digit code number (I.E. M0017D). With multiple attempts to reach the next page of where I would be able to add the exam to my ‘cart’ and pay for the registration fee of $45 [sic],2 I began to wait a numerous amount of times [sic] to see if I would be able to refresh my feed to try again, along with logging in and out of my OAS account.” Basso asserts that “various unsuccessful attempts later, I called the customer service line . . . [and was] unable to get through due to high call volume, after mistakenly being put on hold twice and hung up on. Ultimately I was unable to apply to the exam registration for [the subject test] due to the technical difficulties along with high call volumes.” Basso contends that she “tried sending an email earlier but it said I would not hear back for a few business days, if not sooner.”

In a subsequent submission, Basso indicates that she is “not sure how on our end you’d be able to see my attempts when none were successful or saved in any type of draft history. While attempting to do it in that hour before closing, that either could be a problem on your servers[’] end or mind [sic], otherwise you’d see my numerous attempts but how could it be documented from your end when it did not save or work on my end on the day I was registering?” She further presents that “the phone records won[’]t indicate much because it would not show from your end the amount of time I was on hold and unable to get through without being hung up on. The technical difficulties with the server is what needs to be examined, that[’]s where I stated that I had more of the problem when I was trying to add the exam to my cart.”

CONCLUSION

RuleN.J.A.C. 4A:4-2.3(b)3 provides that applicants for open competitive examinations shall submit an application on or before the announced application filing date. N.J.A.C. 4A:4-2.1(e) provides, in part, that applications for open competitive examinations shall be submitted no later than 4:00 p.m. on the announced application filing date. N.J.A.C. 4A:4-6.3(b) provides that the appellant in an examination appeal shall have the burden of proof.

Analysis2 It is noted that the application processing fee for each 2022 LEE testing cycle announcement was

$35.

With respect to the appellant’s concern that her attempts to file an application were not “documented from your end when it did not save or work on my end on the day I was registering,” it is noted that OAS logs all user activity, e.g., account creation, login attempts, application activity and payment activity. In this regard, the OAS Support Unit was contacted regarding this matter and indicated that a review of the OAS production database finds that the appellant created an OAS user account on February 28, 2022 at 3:55 p.m. and there was no evidence that the appellant started an application for M0017D. The OAS Support Unit further indicated that the appellant had contacted the Customer Service Unit through the “Comments and Questions” form on the Commission’s website on March 1, 2022. Specifically, on March 1, 2022 at 12:50 p.m., the appellant contacted the customer service unit with the following message: “I am a Police Officer . . . Due to shift work, I was unable to make the deadline for the Civil Service sign up for one of the police departments over in Ocean County. Do you know if there is a way to still submit a late application & fee? Or perhaps if there[’]s a possibility of a deadline extension. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.” It is further noted that although provided with the opportunity during the appeal process, the appellant did not submit any evidence of her attempts to file an application or contact OAS support, e.g., browser history or phone records, prior to the application filing deadline. Furthermore, the appellant does not provide an explanation as to why she was unable to file an application during the entire 8 week filing period.

As such, there is no evidence in the record that the appellant attempted to file a timely application or contacted OAS support prior to the application filing deadline. Accordingly, the appellant has failed to meet her burden of proof.

ORDER

Therefore, it is ordered that this request be denied.

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