Friday, August 30, 2013

Come On In, Paddlers, the Water’s Just Fine. Don’t Mind the Sewage.

Come On In, Paddlers, the Water’s Just Fine. Don’t Mind the Sewage.

From Brooklyn to the Bronx by Rowboat: Members of the North Brooklyn Boat Club head up the East River aboard a 28-foot rowboat.
Summer Rituals
This series will explore how people in the New York City area interact with water and waterways during the summer.
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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Members of the North Brooklyn Boat Club recently spent an entire day rowing from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to the Coney Island Creek and back. More Photos »

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But such is the lure of water, even when sludge seems like a more fitting descriptor, that the North Brooklyn Boat Club emerged out of one of New York’s most-polluted estuaries, Newtown Creek.
Its docks sit just downstream from a sewage treatment plant and a recycling center. Its clubhouse is flanked by salvage yards and warehouses, not far from an area so contaminated by decades of oil spills that the soil resembles black mayonnaise. And, flashing a winking self-awareness, its logo features a rowboat in a stream gushing out of a sewer spout while a tin can and a dead rat drift alongside.
“There’s only so many times you can see a beautiful sunset or a nice little beach,” said Fung Lim, 52, a charter member who takes experienced and novice rowers out each week in a 28-foot skiff he helped build. “It’s more fun to poke around in a commercial waterway.”
Now in its second year, the boat club has more than 190 members paying the annual $40 membership fee, a testament that the best stretch of shoreline is your own. The resolute community of paddlers has embraced not just the opportunity for recreation but also a continuing crusade to clean up Newtown Creek, a commercial waterway that snakes between parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
“Once you realize you’re not going to die or get covered in toxic sludge,” Leif Percifield, 30, of Williamsburg, said after a row from Brooklyn to the Bronx, “it’s pretty relaxing.”
It was not long ago when New Yorkers kept a safe distance from the water, once so fouled by sewage and industrial waste that it was infamous for harboring cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. But in recent years, thanks to concerted rehabilitation efforts by environmental groups and government agencies, residents have taken to the waterways with a pent-up fervor.
They are paddle-boarding in the Hudson River, swimming in the Bronx River, canoeing in the Gowanus Canal. They are yanking up fish from Jamaica Bay, once declared a menace to public health, and having them for dinner. But perhaps the most unlikely site for recreation is Newtown Creek.
John Lipscomb, who has spent more than a decade conducting harbor surveys forRiverkeeper, an advocacy organization that has led the push to clean New York’s waterways, said tremendous progress had been made around New York City. Newtown Creek, Mr. Lipscomb said, is among the worst places left, especially the eastern parts, which do not have circulating waters from the East River to flush out pollutants.
When the North Brooklyn Boat Club first dipped its vessels in Newtown Creek last year, the members knew well the history of industrial waste and neglect that had lasted centuries.
Millions of gallons of petroleum — up to three times as much oil as the 11 million gallons spilled in the 1989 Alaskan disaster — has leaked underground in Greenpoint from refineries and storage sites over the decades. An unknown amount has seeped into the creek’s sediment and mixed with heavy metals, PCBs and other contaminants left behind by the factories that once lined the commercial port.
Even though new environmental standards have ended many of those dumping practices — and Exxon Mobil committed to a more thorough cleanup of its spills — all it takes is a heavy rain to overwhelm the wastewater collection and treatment system and send raw sewage and polluted storm water into the creek.
Every week Willis Elkins, a canoe instructor and flotsam expert, dips a bare hand into the murky edges of the creek for a water sampling program that tests for microbes of enterococcus, a bacteria found in human and animal waste.
“It’s important to be knowledgeable about the waters you’re paddling in,” he said.
Sometimes the water is too dirty. But when the water quality is fair, he takes out groups of paddlers to explore the tributaries, passing the silvery digester eggs atop the largest wastewater treatment plant in the city, to Maspeth Creek in Queens, where they might be surprised to see egrets and cormorants instead of two-headed fish.
Before he sets off, Mr. Elkins carefully reviews safety issues with an occasionally skittish audience. No one has fallen in on his watch, he said. But the club has an outdoor shower, a convenient accouterment for such situations.
Dewey Thompson remembers the days when he and other paddlers would climb through holes in fences and cross parking lots and trash-strewn shores to put boats in the water. That changed in 2011, when an eccentric landowner who appreciated the idea of renegade kayakers in need of a dock cleared the rusting cars and machines from his lot on Ash Street in Greenpoint and offered it for their use.
Volunteers pulled weeds and raked up shards of glass and metal debris from the long narrow lot that opens up under concrete abutments of the Pulaski Bridge. Today, the space is bedded with mulch and has 22 kayaks and 8 canoes, a neighborhood composting center and a woodworking shop. This fall, they will host classes on environmental issues with LaGuardia Community College in an educational space dubbed the “Ed Shed.” There is also a stage constructed on top of a shipping container for its “Rock the Pulaski” benefit concerts.
“This isn’t just a bunch of boat nerds doing knots,” Mr. Thompson said.
Plans are under way to relocate the club to a larger site on Newtown Creek, using a several-million-dollar grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The new location is still being negotiated, but within the next two years the boat club plans to have a landing with storage for more than 100 boats, an environmental education center and a library dedicated to the history of the area. There are also discussions to include office space for Riverkeeper and the Newtown Creek Alliance, nonprofit organizations working in the area.
But for many club members, the core attraction remains the chance to leave the city’s street grid to engage with the water. “There are 600 miles of shoreline in New York City and not a lot of access points,” Mr. Elkins said.
So on a recent morning Mr. Lim, a Singapore native with long graying hair pulled into a ponytail, prepared the flat-bottom rowboat for a day out.
The plan was to head up the East River to the South Bronx, or as far as everyone’s arms could carry them.
The river was bustling. An oil tanker heading south hummed past an elegant sailboat. Grumbling ferries shuttled passengers between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Pleasure craft eyed the rowers with a mix of awe and pity.
“Row, row!” some shouted.
The crew passed the decaying timber docks and lush green overgrowth on North Brother Island, where herons and cormorants have replaced the typhoid victims who were once quarantined there. They anchored near Baretto Point Park, where teenage boys somersaulted into the salty water from a rusty bulkhead. The rowers wet their toes and ankles as a gull homing in on a catch plunged in beak first.
When the current turned in their favor, the boat made its long return.
Back on land, the group unloaded and scrubbed the boat, then retreated to the folding chairs and benches circling a crackling fire. As the sun disappeared behind the Manhattan skyline, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building twinkled in full view of the dock.
The boaters cooled their blisters on bottles of Brooklyn Lager and traded stories with another set of sunburned paddlers grilling hot dogs.
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to move my arms tomorrow,” one said.
A couple walking above on the Pulaski Bridge paused to make sense of the scene below. A bright blue tugboat chugged by, pushing a barge loaded with recycled plastics out to the East River.
An empty beer can, tossed from the window of a car crossing the bridge, tumbled into the black water below.

John Boehner Sends Obama Letter Demanding Answers On Syria

John Boehner Sends Obama Letter Demanding Answers On Syria

The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted:   |  Updated: 08/29/2013 9:44 am EDT
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday demanding more information on potential military action in Syria.
In the letter, Boehner acknowledged that he agreed with Obama on Syria's chemical weapons use being a "red line." With reports showing that line has been passed, Boehner insisted that Obama lay out a clear plan of action for a response.
Additionally, Boehner asked a series of questions of Obama, related to the president's strategy for military action, the legal justification of such a response and whether the president intends for action to be "precedent-setting."
The letter comes after Boehner's Monday request that the White House consult Congress before taking any action against the Syrian government.
"The speaker made clear that before any action is taken, there must be meaningful consultation with members of Congress, as well as clearly defined objectives and a broader strategy to achieve stability," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.
Read the full content of the letter below:
Dear Mr. President:
I deeply respect your role as our country’s commander-in-chief, and I am mindful that Syria is one of the few places where the immediate national security interests of the United States so visibly converge with broader U.S. security interests and objectives. Our nation’s response to the deterioration and atrocities in Syria has implications not just in Syria, but also for America’s credibility across the globe, especially in places like Iran.
Even as the United States grapples with the alarming scale of the human suffering, we are immediately confronted with contemplating the potential scenarios our response might trigger or accelerate. These considerations include the Assad regime potentially losing command and control of its stock of chemical weapons or terrorist organizations – especially those tied to al Qaeda – gaining greater control of and maintaining territory. How the United States responds also has a significant impact on the security and stability of U.S. allies in the region, which are struggling with the large exodus of Syrian refugees and the growing spillover of violence feeding off of ethnic and religious tensions. The House of Representatives takes these interests and potential consequences seriously in weighing any potential U.S. and international response in Syria.
Since March of 2011, your policy has been to call for a stop to the violence in Syria and to advocate for a political transition to a more democratic form of government. On August 18, 2012, you called for President Assad’s resignation, adding his removal as part of the official policy of the United States. In addition, it has been the objective of the United States to prevent the use or transfer of chemical weapons. I support these policies and publically agreed with you when you established your red line regarding the use or transfer of chemical weapons last August. 
Now, having again determined your red line has been crossed, should a decisive response involve the use of the United States military, it is essential that you provide a clear, unambiguous explanation of how military action – which is a means, not a policy – will secure U.S. objectives and how it fits into your overall policy. I respectfully request that you, as our country’s commander-in-chief, personally make the case to the American people and Congress for how potential military action will secure American national security interests, preserve America’s credibility, deter the future use of chemical weapons, and, critically, be a part of our broader policy and strategy. In addition, it is essential you address on what basis any use of force would be legally justified and how the justification comports with the exclusive authority of Congressional authorization under Article I of the Constitution.
Specifically:
What standard did the Administration use to determine that this scope of chemical weapons use warrants potential military action?
Does the Administration consider such a response to be precedent-setting, should further humanitarian atrocities occur?
What result is the Administration seeking from its response?
What is the intended effect of the potential military strikes?
If potential strikes do not have the intended effect, will further strikes be conducted?
Would the sole purpose of a potential strike be to send a warning to the Assad regime about the use of chemical weapons? Or would a potential strike be intended to help shift the security momentum away from the regime and toward the opposition?
If it remains unclear whether the strikes compel the Assad regime to renounce and stop the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people, or if President Assad escalates their usage, will the Administration contemplate escalatory military action?
Will your Administration conduct strikes if chemical weapons are utilized on a smaller scale?
Would you consider using the United States military to respond to situations or scenarios that do not directly involve the use or transfer of chemical weapons?
Assuming the targets of potential military strikes are restricted to the Assad inner circle and military leadership, does the Administration have contingency plans in case the strikes disrupt or throw into confusion the command and control of the regime’s weapons stocks?
Does the Administration have contingency plans if the momentum does shift away from the regime but toward terrorist organizations fighting to gain and maintain control of territory?
Does the Administration have contingency plans to deter or respond should Assad retaliate against U.S. interests or allies in the region?
Does the Administration have contingency plans should the strikes implicate foreign power interests, such as Iran or Russia?
Does the Administration intend to submit a supplemental appropriations request to Congress, should the scope and duration of the potential military strikes exceed the initial planning?
I have conferred with the chairmen of the national security committees who have received initial outreach from senior Administration officials, and while the outreach has been appreciated, it is apparent from the questions above that the outreach has, to date, not reached the level of substantive consultation.
It will take Presidential leadership and a clear explanation of our policy, our interests, and our objectives to gain public and Congressional support for any military action against Syria. After spending the last 12 years fighting those who seek to harm our fellow citizens, our interests, and our allies, we all have a greater appreciation of what it means for our country to enter into conflict. It will take that public support and congressional will to sustain the Administration’s efforts, and our military, as well as their families, deserve to have the confidence that we collectively have their backs – and a thorough strategy in place.
I urge you to fully address the questions raised above.
Sincerely
John Boehner

London women 'unable' to leave China


London women 'unable' to leave China

Two women from London have said a dispute over slippers has left them unable to leave a Chinese city.
Esther Jubril-Badmos, 48, and Mary Idowu, 59, claim a deal to buy 20 pairs of slippers in Guangzhou, south China, resulted in a violent dispute.
The pair said they were assaulted by store staff, but when they reported the incident they were detained by police.
The women were not charged, but because they overstayed their visas they are unable to leave the country.
They were detained by police in the city for 38 days and said the delay had left them in legal limbo.
"I just want to go home to my baby," said Ms Jubril-Badmos, who has a five-year-old daughter in the UK.
"My health is suffering. I am depressed and scared to leave the hotel."
No charges
Ms Jubril-Badmos and Ms Idowu arrived in Guangzhou on 16 June.
Ms Jubril-Badmos, a small business owner, paid 500 yuan (£50) as a deposit to buy 20 pairs of slippers from a shoe store in the city.
They returned to pick up the shoes on 21 June, but they claim they were offered a different design.
Ms Jubril-Badmos said she refused to take the shoes as she was concerned they could be seized by British customs officials as counterfeit goods.
She claims when she asked for her deposit back the women were beaten by four employees of the store.
After going to the police in Guangzhou to report the incident, the pair were detained for 38 days.
The women were not formally charged as Chinese prosecutors declined to file criminal charges, but they paid compensation to the shoe store in order to avoid civil charges.
A British consular official said they were aware of the case and the two women were receiving assistance.

Tax Cheats Need A New Place To Hide Their Money

Tax Cheats Need A New Place To Hide Their Money


Posted:   |  Updated: 08/29/2013 3:25 pm EDT
For the discerning American tax evader, there once was no more desirable location than Switzerland to stash cash.
Swiss banks were prized for their ironclad secrecy, and Swiss bankers for their impeccable English and reassuring manner. The country is easily accessible by air. The skiing is terrific.
But a long-running campaign by United States investigators to crack the famously secretive system -- an effort that will soon lead to additional fines and disclosures of American account holders -- has significantly eroded Switzerland's appeal, offshore experts say. More than ever, American tax evaders are choosing less familiar and potentially riskier locales to stash their money.
"Now you are looking at a 15-hour plane ride followed by a conversation with a guy with a parrot on his shoulder," said Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor who worked on the first criminal case brought by U.S. authorities against a Swiss bank for aiding tax dodgers.
John Christensen, the director of the Tax Justice Network, said that tax advisers are promoting Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands as alternatives to Switzerland. Deposits in these countries have increased significantly in recent years, though there is no firm data on growth.
All told, the nonprofit estimates that wealthy individuals are hiding between $21 trillion and $32 trillion in offshore accounts. This means that governments worldwide are deprived of hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue in an era of increasing austerity. The issue became fodder for debate during last year's presidential campaign, when then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's tax returns revealed investments through a blind trust in entities established in the Cayman Islands.
The Huffington Post recently reported that 82 of the top 100 U.S. companies, including banks like Citigroup, have stashed $1.2 trillion offshore to avoid paying taxes on it. These entities benefit from a friendly tax code, written in some instances by their own lobbyists, that allows money to be parked offshore indefinitely.
Individuals don't enjoy this same privilege. U.S. citizens are required to report and pay income and other taxes on all holdings, domestic and abroad.
While it is not illegal to have an offshore account, it is illegal to use those accounts to shield money from taxation. The hope of U.S. tax authorities is that Americans will eventually determine that the risk of sheltering their money overseas is not worth the risk of getting caught. There is some evidence that this strategy is working.
In 2009, UBS AG, a Swiss financial services company, reached a landmark deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. government and agreed to turn over the names of more than 4,000 American account holders. In the aftermath, the Internal Revenue Service has netted more than $5 billion from 38,000 Americans who came forward under a voluntary disclosure program.
Since then, U.S. authorities have aggressively pursued Swiss banks they suspect of sheltering American tax cheats. A pending deal described by Justice Department officials on Wednesday between U.S. and Swiss authorities could provoke another surge of recovered tax dollars, Nieman said. The agreement would require Swiss banks to disclose records showing outgoing transfers from American account holders. Authorities likely will use that information to pressure financial institutions in other popular offshore destinations, he said.
"Americans with overseas accounts are finding it continually more difficult to keep their money out of the global financial system," he said.
A U.S. tax law in effect since 2010 requires foreign financial institutions to report information on U.S. account holders, a measure that is leading some banks to conclude it simply isn't worth the trouble of accepting American deposits.
Yet many banking secrecy experts said it is too soon to conclude that the tide is turning in favor of tax authorities. Tax cheats have become incredibly sophisticated. Offshore banking centers like the Isle of Man, between England and Ireland, permit account holders to sock away holdings behind an endless maze of trusts. Offshore bankers for the most part have no interest in aiding U.S. authorities.
"It is a very difficult slog as an investigator without help from banks on the other side," said Paul Pelletier, a federal prosecutor for 25 years, now in private practice at the law firm Mintz Levin.
And even in those situations when U.S. investigators have been able to build persuasive cases, they've had trouble winning in court.
In 2010, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a damning 78-page complaint against the founders of the Michaels craft store chain, alleging the two men disguised their control of accounts on the Isle of Man and in the Cayman Islands.
Samuel Wyly and Charles Wyly, the SEC claimed, used these accounts to trade shares in public companies without disclosing their ownership -- a $550 million insider trading scheme. They used the proceeds from offshore stock sales to purchase tens of millions of dollars worth of art and jewelry, according to the SEC.
But a federal judge recently dismissed some of the claims, ruling that the agency had waited too long to bring its case.
For now, Swiss banks remain the destination of choice for people outside the United States, with an estimated $2.1 trillion in their vaults, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group. Hong Kong and Singapore banks combined hold roughly half that amount.
But with French and German investigators also probing Swiss banks, and the once-unthinkable disclosures to U.S. authorities now a reality, the Switzerland is undergoing something of an identity crisis, offshore experts said.
"Secrecy to the Swiss is what the First Amendment is to the United States," Neiman said. "This is a huge shock to their system. They are asking, 'what are we going to do now?'"

NC - HealthServe Closes Friday; 20,000 Patients Affected

HealthServe Closes Friday; 20,000 Patients Affected

2:22 PM, Aug 29, 2013   |   4  comments
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Friday is the last day of business for a Greensboro health clinic.
HealthServe Community Health Clinic - located at 1002 S. Eugene St. - announced in July that they will close its adult practice at the end of August. That day is Friday. At 3 p.m., the clinic will officially lock its doors for the last time.
HealthServe cited multiple reasons, in its July announcement, to close. They said in a statement, "The rising number of uninsured adults needing healthcare, coupled with North Carolina's decision not to expand Medicaid and the loss of historical community funding, has had a significant negative financial impact on the community's largest primary care safety-net provider, Triad Adult and Pediatric Medicine, Inc. (TAPM)."
The decision to close impacts about 20,000 patients, according to TAPM. 
It is not clear at this time how many employees will be affected. CEO Brian Ellerby said in a news release, "We will discuss options available to these individuals including placement into other open and appropriate positions within the organization as well as unemployment benefits," Ellerby says. "Staff has been loyal to the organization, to its mission and especially to our patients. We will work with them to evaluate their options."
TAPM was formed in 2010 after a merger among Guilford Child Health, HealthServe Community Health Clinic and High Point Adult Health Center.

States are trying to overhaul civil service rules

States are trying to overhaul civil service rules

By Melissa Maynard, Stateline


State civil service rules originated a century ago to prevent incoming governors from replacing state workers with their political supporters. Now a handful of governors are working to change those rules, saying they make it difficult to hire and retain the right employees and to fire anyone — even the worst underperformers.
"I've got a $20 billion operation I've got to run, and you can't run it with your managers' and your executives' hands tied,' North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said in an interview with Stateline.
McCrory, a Republican who worked for 28 years for Duke Energy, wants public sector employment to be more like employment in the private sector. But some experts say significantly altering the current civil service system may bring back the widespread cronyism of the early 20th century.
Rick Kearney, a professor of public administration at North Carolina State University's School of Public and International Affairs, worries the changes will make public employment a less attractive option for highly skilled workers. “The whole idea was to take politics out of the public bureaucracy and make it merit-based through job protections and objective performance appraisals,' he said. “To be successful, you have to insulate public employees from politics.'
Some Republicans, who are often at odds with public employee unions, also counsel caution. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is among them. “When you think about the powers
you'd like as governor or in any of these elected offices, you always have to imagine: 'Would you want your political adversaries to have those same powers?' That's a good check on how much power you can trust,' Jindal said.
Jindal said he benefitted greatly from the expertise of his state's civil service employees during his first job in state government, as head of the Department of Health and Hospitals. “I was very grateful for the continuity and the knowledge and the experience of the state civil service employees that I had there,' he said. “If the previous administration had gotten rid of that previous expertise and knowledge, we wouldn't have been able to hit the ground running.'
Private Practices
In Arizona, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer made shifting the state's workforce system to an “at-will' model the centerpiece of her 2012 legislative agenda. Florida, Georgia and Indiana all have “at-will' systems, which give state officials the discretion to hire, reward and fire workers.
“Our state employees were just stuck,' Brewer said. “You could never reward them for performance, so you take that natural instinct away from people because there's no place for them to really move up.'
Now new Arizona employees are now required to accept “uncovered' status, foregoing traditional civil service protections. Managers have the flexibility to reward or discipline such employees as they see fit.
Some current employees were automatically transitioned to “uncovered' status. Others were offered a 5 percent one-time bonus in exchange for voluntarily giving up their “covered' status, and 5,276 of 13,761 eligible employees chose to do so. In total, at least 71 percent of Arizona's state workforce is now uncovered.
Brewer said she isn't worried that future administrations will fire state employees who don't share their political affiliations and sensibilities. “Anybody that's in charge of any kind of people that are working and producing, you don't fire those people, you reward those people,' she said.
In North Carolina, McCrory signed a law last Wednesday that increases the number of positions exempt from civil service requirements from 1,000 to 1,500. Even under traditional civil service rules, governors are allowed to fill a number of high-level positions with political appointees. But as recently as two years ago, North Carolina had only 400 exempt positions.
The McCrory administration has come under fire in local media for appointing two 24-year-old former campaign aides to high-level positions in the Department of Health and Human Services with salaries that top $85,000.
Bureaucracy Busting
In Tennessee and Colorado, governors negotiated mutually acceptable civil service changes with state workers.
In Tennessee, a key result of months of difficult negotiations with the Tennessee State Employees Association was the elimination of the practice of “bumping.' Bumping allows employees whose positions are being eliminated to force others with less seniority into lower positions, or even out of the workforce altogether. Critics say the practice often pushes employees into positions that are a poor match for their skills, forcing the state to retrain them.
As a result of the changes, salaries and layoffs in Tennessee now are based on performance evaluations, rather than seniority.
Colorado is one of four states with personnel rules that are detailed in the state's constitution, so its personnel overhaul required both legislation and a ballot measure. The system hadn't been changed significantly in 92 years, despite at least four unsuccessful attempts.
Colorado is phasing out its bumping system by restricting it to senior employees who are close to retirement. It also is offering help to workers who are bumped from their jobs. State human resource teams either search for a suitable job for the displaced worker somewhere else in state government, or offer tuition help, severance pay, extended health benefits or placement on a re-employment list.
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper drew on his own experience in pushing for the changes, noting that early in his career he was laid off from his job as a geologist. “It turned out I wasn't as good a geologist as I thought, and I was forced to find something else,' he said, referring to his second career as a successful restaurant owner. “When I found that something else, the first day I opened my restaurant, I walked into that place and I was alive.'
“I realize not every story has a happy ending, but in many cases that disruption of your life often leads to good things if you're open to it and you have a little support,' Hickenlooper said.
Colorado also is relying less on tests in hiring state workers. Before a ballot measure was passed last November, the state had to hire applicants based on their scores on written or oral exams, a requirement that forced it to hire skillful test-takers instead of the best overall candidates, according to Kathy Nesbitt, executive director of Colorado's Department of Personnel and Administration.
Colorado still uses written exams to verify that certain job candidates possess specialized knowledge, but recruiters now have more flexibility. The average time it takes to fill positions has dropped from 61 days to 37 days.
Eliminating testing requirements has been more controversial in New Jersey. The Civil Service Commission there is considering a “job banding' system that would give managers broad discretion to promote employees within certain groups of positions. Currently, employees must take a test in order to be considered for promotion, and are put on a list of eligible candidates for managers to draw from.
The legislature has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, which the Civil Service Commission had proposed as an administrative rule change that would not require legislative approval.
"They are attempting to really gut the system, because this would change it from a system that is based on something very objective to something that could very well be based on patronage,' said state Sen. Linda Greenstein, a Democrat.