N.J.A.C. 4A:4-3 Eligible Lists
Every section of N.J.A.C. 4A:4-3, Eligible Lists: 10 rules with full text, amendment history and citing decisions.
- 4A:4-3.1Types of eligible lists
Five kinds of list, and which one you are on decides a great deal afterwards. Open competitive lists carry all qualified eligibles who came through the examination process. Promotional lists carry permanent employees who meet the qualification requirements. Regular reemployment lists carry former permanent employees who resigned in good standing, received a general resignation, retired or were voluntarily demoted, who requested reemployment in time and whose return the appointing authority certifies is in the best interests of the service. Police, sheriff's officer and fire reemployment lists carry former permanent uniformed members of those departments who resigned in good standing, on that same certification. Special reemployment lists carry former and current permanent employees who were laid off, laterally displaced or demoted in lieu of layoff. A permanent sheriff's officer who resigned in good standing on or after 1 January 2002 may request placement on a sheriff's officer reemployment list, though nobody appointed before 2 February 2015 may be displaced by such an appointment. Which list wins when several exist for one title is settled at 4A:4-3.7.
- 4A:4-3.2Order of names on eligible lists
Rank order is not simply score order. On an open competitive list, names are first separated into sub-lists by residency requirement where the announcement was open to more than one local jurisdiction. Within each sub-list, eligibles entitled to disabled veterans preference come first in order of their scores, then eligibles entitled to veterans preference in order of their scores, then non-veterans in order of theirs. Promotional lists run the other way: everyone appears in score order regardless of veteran status, and veteran status enters only to break a tie, where veterans are listed first within the rank. What that ordering then means for who may actually be appointed is worked through with examples at 4A:5-2.1 and 4A:5-2.2. Special reemployment lists rank by the class code or class level of the title the eligible was displaced from, highest first, so a higher previous title outranks longer service. Regular and uniformed reemployment lists rank by seniority in the title resigned, retired or demoted from. Keeping a current address on file with the Commission is the eligible's own responsibility.
- 4A:4-3.3Duration and cancellation of eligible lists
Three years from the date of establishment for open competitive and promotional lists, unless the Chairperson or designee decides a shorter period fits the circumstances. A list may be extended for good cause before it expires, but no list may run more than four years in total. A name stays on a regular reemployment list no more than three years from the date of resignation, subject to that same extension. Special reemployment, police reemployment, sheriff's officer reemployment and fire reemployment lists have unlimited duration. Two dates are worth separating: a list is issued when candidates, appointing authorities and the public can review it, and promulgated when it can be certified to an appointing authority and appointments can be made from it. Before expiry the Chairperson or designee may cancel a list for fraud, illegality, test invalidity, Commission staff error or other good cause, by an order that provides for notifying eligibles, with affected appointing authorities notified too. Appointments after a list expires are dealt with at 4A:4-4.9.
- 4A:4-3.4Revival of eligible lists
An expired list is not necessarily finished with. The Civil Service Commission may revive one in five situations: to implement a court order in a suit filed before the list expired, to implement a Commission order in an appeal or proceeding instituted during the life of the list, to correct an administrative error, to effect the appointment of an eligible whose working test period was terminated by a layoff, or for other good cause. The timing in the first two is the part to notice. Both require that the case was already under way while the list was still alive, so revival follows the filing rather than creating a fresh opportunity to file.
- 4A:4-3.5Consolidation of eligible lists
When two successive examinations for the same title produce two lists, the Chairperson or designee may merge them by one or more of three methods: placing the first name on the later list after the last name on the prior list, supplementing an incomplete list with an eligible list for an appropriate title, or combining names of eligibles by scores. Which method is used decides where you land relative to everybody from the other examination, so the merge itself moves people. Consolidation buys nobody extra time. The part of the merged list that was promulgated first still ends on its own expiration date.
- 4A:4-3.6Additions to eligible lists
Names can be added to a list at any point during its life, but only for five reasons: a make-up examination was given and the candidate passed, an error by the Civil Service Commission needs correcting, an appeal decision needs implementing, a third party such as a college or the Veterans Administration has submitted documents correcting an administrative error, or placement is required under 4A:4-4.6A for certain persons returning from military service. What the addition does to appointments already made turns on why it happened. Where it corrects a Commission error, an appropriate representative of the Commission determines the retroactive certification and appointment rights. For any other reason, the Chairperson or designee determines the effect on certifications and prior permanent appointments. Conditional regular appointments are covered at 4A:4-1.4.
- 4A:4-3.7Priority of eligible lists
Where more than one current list exists for a title, the order is fixed, and special reemployment appears in it twice. First is special reemployment where the available position is in the department or autonomous agency the eligible was laid off, laterally displaced or demoted in lieu of layoff from. Then promotional. Then special reemployment where the position is anywhere else. Then regular reemployment together with police, sheriff's officer and fire reemployment. Open competitive is last. Two things sit above the whole order except a special reemployment list: reinstatement of a permanent employee following disability retirement, and reemployment of certain law enforcement officers and firefighters under 4A:4-3.9 and 4A:4-3.10. An existing open competitive or promotional list does not bar an intergovernmental transfer into that jurisdiction. Autonomous agency has a defined meaning here: in local service a body corporate with the powers of an appointing authority by statute, and in State service one that is by law in but not under the supervision of a principal department.
- 4A:4-3.8Correction of errors
Civil Service Commission staff may correct an error at any time during the life of an eligible list, and a correction can change where somebody ranks. Whether it disturbs certifications or appointments already made is a separate decision, and it belongs to the Chairperson or designee rather than to the staff member fixing the record. Adding a name that was never on the list, as opposed to correcting one that is, runs through 4A:4-3.6, which sets out the five circumstances in which an addition is permitted and who decides its effect.
- 4A:4-3.9Reemployment program for certain law enforcement officers and firefighters
A hiring route that runs outside the eligible lists, and it is local. A municipality or county with a police department under N.J.S.A. 40A:14-180 may appoint to an entry level police title anyone who served in good standing as a law enforcement officer, other than a special or seasonal one, in any State, county or municipal department or agency, who completed a working test period under Title 11A or a comparable documented probationary period outside it, and who was laid off or demoted out of a law enforcement title for reasons of economy, efficiency or related reasons within the previous 60 months. A municipality with a fire department under N.J.S.A. 40A:14-9.9, or a fire district under N.J.S.A. 40A:14-70, may do the equivalent for entry level firefighter titles. That branch also reaches civilian Federal firefighters at New Jersey military installations who completed the required training and were terminated because the installation closed within the previous 60 months. Procedures, preferences and what the appointment costs in seniority and rank are at 4A:4-3.10.
- 4A:4-3.10Procedures for reemployment program for certain law enforcement officers and firefighters
Getting on the list is on you. The Commission compiles lists of people eligible under the reemployment program at 4A:4-3.9, and a person who wants to be on one contacts Commission staff to apply; for terminated civilian Federal firefighters, placement depends on length of service in that job. A municipality, county or fire district interested in hiring asks the Chairperson or designee for the list, then verifies and certifies the eligibility of whoever it selects. Municipalities and fire districts give first preference to their own residents and second preference to county residents living elsewhere; counties give first preference to county residents. An appointment under the program outranks open competitive, promotional and regular reemployment lists, but cannot be made at all where a special reemployment list exists for that title in that jurisdiction. It is made without regard to seniority, age or veteran status, carries no working test period, and cannot go above an entry level title without Commission approval. The person appointed begins accruing seniority from the new appointment, keeps no superior rank held before, and is not removed from the special reemployment list they came from.