Shanee Dawkins, CSC Docket No. 2025-269
NJ Civil Service Commission decision of February 5, 2025, CSC Docket No. 2025-269: working test period, penalty upheld. Shanee Dawkins, Judiciary Clerk 3, Judiciary, Morris/Sussex Vicinage, release at the end of the working test period, effective July 2, 2024.
Commission decisions · Meeting of February 5, 2025
Shanee Dawkins, Judiciary Clerk 3, Judiciary, Morris/Sussex Vicinage, release at the end of the working test period, effective July 2, 2024.
- Matter
- Working test period
- Decided
- February 5, 2025, item A-2
- Outcome
- Penalty upheld
- ALJ's recommendation
- Uphold the release at the end of the working test period.
- What the Commission did with it
- Adopted the ALJ's recommendation
- Employer
- Judiciary
- Chair at the time
- Allison Chris Myers, Acting Chairperson
- Official decision
- CSC's PDF
Action recorded in the minutes: The Civil Service Commission affirmed the recommendation of the Administrative Law Judge.
Rules this decision applies
The decision
CSC published this decision as a scanned image. The text below was recognized by OCR, read twice and checked against the meeting minutes, but OCR can misread a word. The official document is the record.
BackgroundThe appeal of Shanee Dawkins, Judiciary Clerk 3, Judiciary, Morris/Sussex Vicinage, release at the end of the working test period, effective July 2, 2024, was heard by Administrative Law Judge Andrea Perry Villani (ALJ), who rendered her initial decision on January 17, 2025. Exceptions were filed by the appellant, pro se, and a reply was filed on behalf of the appointing authority.
AnalysisHaving considered the record and the ALJ’s initial decision, and having made an independent evaluation of the record, including the exceptions, which do not require extensive comment, the Civil Service Commission (Commission), at its meeting of February 5, 2025, accepted the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of the ALJ as well as her recommendation to uphold the release at the end of the working test period.
The Commission makes the following comment. The burden of proof in an appeal of a release at the end of the working test period is on the appellant. See N.J.A.C. 4A:2-1.4(c). In this regard, to be successful in such a challenge, the appellant would need to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the appointing authority effectuated the working test period in bad faith. See N.J.A.C. 4A:2-4.3(b). In this matter, as found by the ALJ, the appellant has clearly not satisfied that burden.
ORDER
The Civil Service Commission finds that the action of the appointing authority in releasing the appellant at the end of the working test period was justified. The Commission therefore upholds that action and dismisses the appeal of Shanee
Dawkins.
ClosingThis is the final administrative determination in this matter. Any further review should be pursued in a judicial forum.
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