111 Wash. 340 | Wash. | 1920
The respondent seeks by mandamus to compel the city council of Seattle to appoint him to the position of auditor of appropriations in the legislative department, which position was created by ordinance approved the 23d of June, 1919. July 8, 1918, this position was defined by the civil service commission as “accountant, class B, grade 7.” At that time the respondent was the only one whose name was on the eligible list for appointment as “accountant, class B, grade 7.” This eligible list constitutes
The city charter, as it relates to civil service, contains no provision for transfers, but provides, in § 4, art. 16, that the civil service commission can make rules to carry out the purposes of the article and for “examination, appointment, promotions and re-v mováis,” in accordance with its provisions, and that it may from time to time make changes in the existing rules. The civil service commission, by rule 10, § 5, subd. B, has provided that transfers may be made
As was said in Jenkins v. Gronen, 98 Wash. 128, 167 Pac. 916, L. R. A. 1918A 839:
‘ ‘ The evident purpose of the framers of the charter was to make free and open the opportunity to enter*343 the public service, and to secure from the persons applying those shown by tests to be the best qualified for the service. These purposes are not accomplished if anything is left to the whim or caprice of the appointive power.”
It was not the intention that the city’s payroll should be added to by new employees if there were already on the roll those whose services could be used in some other department; thus securing trained men as well as preventing the increase of needless employees. Contrary to quite general results, the primary purpose of civil service is not to provide unnecessary permanent positions for theoretically competent incumbents.
The respondent bases his contention that Drake was improperly transferred for the reason that, in the new position, he received a compensation of $250 per month, whereas, in the old position, he received but $230. Under the facts of the case, we cannot agree with this contention, as we have come to the conclusion that neither the letter nor the spirit of the rule was violated in this instance. As we look at the rule, it, in spirit was in part intended for the protection of employees, and aimed to provide that, by the subterfuge of transferring from one department to another, a civil service employee was not to be subjected to a decrease of pay, but provided his new position must be of the same class and character as that in which he was then employed, and that he should receive no less compensation in the new position than he was receiving in the old. In other words, the rule was passed in conformity with the general spirit permeating the civil service theory of public employment, and was intended to prevent the accomplishment indirectly of what was prohibited directly. It was meant to forbid the demoting of employees or decreasing their pay, so
Nor do we think that the action taken by the heads of the departments in this instance violated the letter of the rule. Drake, at the time he was changed from the city comptroller’s department to the legislative department, was occupying a position in the former department which was listed as carrying a salary of from $230 to $250 per month, and was removed into a department which paid $250 per month. It is conceded that the change left him in the same “class, grade and character of work, ’ ’ and it would seem that the new position carried the “same pay.” The record shows that the work he was to perform in the new position was identically the same as that he had been performing in the old, that merely the authority over the position was transferred from one department of government to another, and had he remained in the city comptroller’s office, under the salary list, it would have been proper to have increased his pay there to $250 per month without the violation of any rule or regulation, and this increase might have been made by the city comptroller previous to the comptroller’s giving his consent to the transfer, and then there could have been no question but what the transfer could have been made without raising any question as to the “same pay.” The rule as to transfers is applicable for the reason that Drake was transferred from a position the pay of which had been fixed by ordinance at from $230 to $250 per month, to another position which paid $250 per month, and the transfer, therefore, took place to another position of the same “class, character of work and grade,” and having the
Holcomb, C. J., Parker, Main, and Mitchell, JJ., concur.