West Haverstraw has moved to make the head of its Department of Public Works an appointed position. Tomorrow that appointment is expected to go to current village trustee Joseph Denise. That would be a mistake. The village is essentially discarding the valuable screening process and qualifications threshold of the civil-service system. In its place, West Haverstraw would get an appointed commissioner post, one that would be filled at the discretion of the mayor with the approval of the village board. The switch shouldn’t be about Denise, a retired Stony Point police officer and 15-year trustee who has been a liaison to the DPW. Whether he is qualified for the position is not the point.
A person hired through the civil service system takes a test that is tailored to the kinds of duties that he or she is to perform. That gives some assurances the skills match the post.
If the issue is control, there are other alternatives than either a DPW superintendent who takes the mantle of superintendent of highways or an mayor-appointed DPW commissioner. In Nyack and some of the other river villages, the top DPW job is occupied by a worker whose has a civil service classification, but is not given a management rank. That way, the mayor would be the technical manager of the department and be kept abreast of road closings, etc. Yet, the DPW is run by a hands-on skilled worker who understands how to get the day-to-day duties done. In towns, the Superintendent of Highway job is an elected position.
The civil service system is hardly perfect — it locks municipalities into hiring from a small pool of top scorers and it can be argued that a skillfull test-taker doesn’t always equal a skilled manager or worker. But a somewhat flawed system is better than what could appear to be a popularity contest.