Section 1. Commission to Rule on Promotional Examinations: The term "Promotional Examination" signifies a test to determine the relative standing of applicants for positions in a specified class and is open only to employees in the classified permanent service who, at the time of the examination, are serving actively in other specified classes for such a period as may be prescribed by the Commission, or otherwise meet the qualifications established by the Commission. Vacancies above the lowest grade of any classification series shall be filled whenever practical by the promotion of employees in the classified permanent service. Promotions in every case shall involve definite permanent changes in duties and an increase in responsibilities and shall not be made merely to increase compensation. The Commission shall determine whether a promotional examination for employees whose experience would be preparation for the higher position shall be held or whether an open-to-the-public examination shall be scheduled. In the event there are no qualified applicants or an insufficient number of qualified applicants to take a promotional examination, or if a promotional examination is given and an insufficient number of applicants pass the examination to satisfy the certification requirements, then an open-to-the-public examination may be announced (See Rule 07, Section 7).
Section 2. Qualifications for Promotional Examinations: All classified permanent employees who meet the qualifications as established by the Civil Service Commission shall be eligible to take promotional examinations for the next higher or equivalent grade, but not the same class, except:
A. Employees for whom the last annual performance evaluation was less than satisfactory (for Police, 7.5 rating points or 6.5 promotion points); and
B. Employees who have been demoted to a lower classification as a result of a disciplinary action in the twelve month period preceding the examination.
The Secretary, subject to appeal to the Commission, may reject any application from an employee who had failed or withdrawn from an examination for the same or similar classification within the preceding six months. It is the policy of the Civil Service Commission that temporary transfer and/or temporary promotion time will not be counted for examination eligibility purposes. It is also the policy of the Civil Service Commission to consider requests for waiving the time in grade eligibility requirement only from those individuals who are within fifteen days of meeting such requirement. Experience must have been performed no more than five years prior to the examination. Time in grade requirements for examination eligibility shall be established by the Civil Service Commission and shall be those requirements as stated on the official classification specification. Furthermore, the specification for each classification shall be considered as an addendum to these Rules.
Applicants wishing to appeal the rejection of their application to the Commission must submit their appeal in writing no later than fourteen calendar days from the date on the rejection notice.
Section 3. Announcement of Examination and Application for Promotional Examination: Whenever a promotional examination is ordered, notice of such examination shall be published by the Commission and posted in the employing units in which qualified applicants are employed. It shall be the duty of the department head or division head to see that employees are notified of the examination. (Posting of notices on centrally located bulletin boards shall be considered to have met this requirement for employees who are not on leave of absence during any part of the filing period. For employees on leave of absence during the entire filing period, a notice sent to the employee by regular U.S. mail to the address of record shall be considered to have met this requirement. It is the responsibility of the employee to ensure that the address of record is up to date).
Each applicant must be responsible for the completion of his own application form. All applications shall be signed, and filed in the offices of the Commission unless otherwise specified in the examination announcement not later than the date specified in the announcement of examination in the Official Bulletin of the Commission.
Section 4. Selection of Promotional Examination Date for Police and Fire: Whenever a vacancy occurs in a promoted rank and no eligible list for such rank exists, the appointing authority shall certify the fact to the Commission, and the Commission shall within sixty days of such vacancy conduct a competitive promotional examination.
In order to compete for promotion in the Police or Fire Divisions, applicants must meet the time-in-grade eligibility requirements at the time of the examination as determined by a job analysis for the position.
Section 5. Contents and Grading of Examinations: Each promotional examination shall relate directly to the minimum qualifications and duties of the class of positions for which the examination is being held. The names of applicants receiving a passing score on a promotional examination shall be posted in the Commission's offices and entered on the appropriate eligible list. The grade of any applicant failing to qualify shall not be made public.
A. Examinations held to establish an eligible list for any class may consist of the following parts:
1. Written test - this part, when required, shall include a written demonstration designed to measure the degree to which an applicant possesses the minimum qualifications, or their education, training and experience as it relates to the minimum qualifications established for the class of positions to which they seek appointment. The Secretary may, in his discretion, investigate the truth of competitor's statements as to training and experience and govern his rating accordingly.
2. Performance test - this part, when required, shall include such tests of performance or trade as will determine the ability and skill of competitors to perform the work.
3. Physical ability tests - this part, when required, shall consist of tests of physical condition, muscular strength, agility, and physical fitness of competitors. This part may be given a weight in examinations or may be used in excluding from further examination applicants who do not meet the minimum required standards.
4. Medical/Physical fitness - this part, when required, shall include an evaluation conducted by a licensed physician authorized by the Civil Service Commission concerning job-related criteria as determined by the Commission.
5. Behavior Assessment tests - this part, when required, shall include written, oral, or performance tests which predict the suitability of candidates to perform the work involved in the classification.
The Secretary may designate various subject matter experts as special examiners to assist in preparing and/or grading examinations. Such special examiners are required to maintain strict confidentiality and security with regard to all examination matters.
The identity of all persons taking a promotional examination shall be concealed from the examiners by use of an identification number which shall, whenever feasible, be used on all examination papers and the candidate's application when he presents himself for examination. The number shall be used from the beginning of the examination until the papers have all been rated. Any papers bearing the name of the applicant or any other identification mark, or any candidate who reveals his identification number to any member of the Commission or its staff, directly or indirectly, may be disqualified and the candidate so notified. No candidate shall be permitted to take notes, copy or reproduce any portion of the examination questions or other examination materials. Any violation of this provision shall result in an applicant's disqualification from the examination.
Each part of the examination for each classification shall be graded separately. Scores for each part shall be continuous (e.g. 1 to 100 or discrete (e.g. pass/fail).
Weighting of the various parts of the examination shall be based upon the results of the job analysis. When supported by the results of the job analysis, part(s) of the exam may be used to determine eligibility to compete on a later part(s) of the exam, and such part(s) may either be weighted or not weighted in the computation of the final score. The Secretary may, at his discretion, determine a minimum grade for any part or parts of an examination. Any candidate who fails to attain at least this minimum grade shall be considered to have failed the examination, and shall not be examined on any further parts if any are planned. Passing scores will be determined after the examination by the Civil Service examiner together with the Secretary.
Determination of the passing score will be based on the results of the job analysis, analysis of examination results, consultation with subject matter experts, or other professional methods. The final grade for each candidate shall be a single score.
In promotional examinations, credit for seniority in service shall be added to the examination grade, but no credit for seniority or any other reason shall be added to an examination grade unless the applicant achieves a passing score on the examination without counting such extra credit.
B. Credit for Seniority. For those making a passing score on the examination, additional credit for seniority will be awarded.
1. Seniority credit on promotional examinations consists of credit awarded for continuous service which has not been broken by dismissal, layoff or resignation without reinstatement in the classified service of the City of Cincinnati, Board of Education and the University of Cincinnati (which includes University Hospital), except that credit for service with the University of Cincinnati shall be limited to City of Cincinnati and Board of Education employees in service as of July 1, 1977, and to University of Cincinnati service prior to July 1, 1977 when the University went under state control.
2. Seniority credit is given for service as a provisional or seasonal employee if such service led directly into permanent employment without a break in service. Seniority credit is also given for service as a seasonal employee made permanent within a year of the most recent layoff. An employee whose city service is interrupted only by military service shall receive credit for seniority on the basis of his combined city and military service.
3. A non-uniformed employee whose city service is interrupted only by a resignation under Rule 8, Section 4a, shall receive credit for his service prior to resignation. However, uniformed police and fire personnel are not entitled to seniority credit for service prior to a resignation. Additionally, in promoted fire ranks, credit is given only for service in the Fire Division. Seniority credit is not given for service as an unclassified, student, temporary, emergency, unclassified casual or federally funded (e.g., Emergency Employment Act, Public Service Employee, Comprehensive Employment Training Act, Model Cities, Pilot Cities, etc.) employee.
4. For non-uniformed employees and uniformed police personnel, credit for seniority shall equal, for the first four years of creditable service, one percent of the total grade attainable in the promotional examination and for each of the fifth through fourteenth years of creditable service, six-tenths percent of the total grade attainable.
5. For uniformed fire personnel, credit for seniority shall equal, for the first four years of creditable service, one percent of the total grade attainable in the promotional examination and for each of the fifth through tenth years of creditable service six-tenths percent of the total grade attainable. In computing the seniority credit for uniformed fire personnel, half of the credit set forth above will be given for each half year of service.
6. If two or more candidates receive the same final grade on a promotional examination, including any additional credit, the candidate with the greatest seniority will be ranked highest. If two competitors were appointed on the same day, ties will be broken by priority of the filing date on current applications as indicated by time stamp.
Section 6. Inspection of Examination Papers:
A. The Civil Service Secretary shall set forth reasonable regulations to govern the administration of the review period including the setting of dates, times, and location for review. Examination material shall be available for inspection only after the Commission has determined its availability will not threaten the security or reuse of the examination. Inspection shall not be permitted of standardized tests prepared by experts outside the city service, where such inspection is specifically prohibited by the preparer or where such inspection would tend to reduce the validity of the test results.
After the grading of such examination papers, any participant in the examination who deems his examination papers have been erroneously graded, shall have the right to appeal to the Commission.
B. Inspection of examination papers for uniformed fire positions are subject to the rules listed above in Section 6(A). However, in the case that the Commission finds an error in the rating key or answer, it shall publish a revised rating key or answer. The revised rating key or answer shall then be available to participants subsequent to such determination of error or errors. In addition, review of promotional examination materials for uniformed fire and police positions is restricted to one visit per day. Each visit is limited to a maximum of two hours. The number of visits during the entire review period shall not exceed a total of two.
Section 7. Duration of Promotional Eligible Lists: The term of eligibility of each list shall be fixed by the Commission at not less than one year nor more than two years.
Section 8. Certification of Promotions:
A. Uniformed Services: Whenever a vacancy occurs in a promoted rank in the Police or Fire services, except for the rank of Police Chief or Fire Chief, only the person having the highest rating on the appropriate eligible list shall be certified. Whenever a vacancy occurs in the rank of Police Chief or Fire Chief, the names of the three persons having the highest rating on the eligible list shall be certified.
B. Non-Uniformed Services: Whenever a vacancy occurs and a promotional eligible list exists for the classification in employing units of the city service, the three persons having the highest rating on the eligible list shall be certified. A single eligible list of all passers will be established when city-wide promotional examinations are given. Employing Unit lists will be used unless superseded by a collective bargaining agreement.
Section 9. Promotion Without Examination: The Commission recognizes the following situations in which it may authorize promotion of an eligible employee without competition:
A. If a vacancy exists in a classification requiring peculiar and exceptional qualifications of a scientific, managerial, professional or educational nature, and the appointing authority establishes in writing to the satisfaction of the Commission that only one employee of the department has such qualifications, promotion may be approved under Section 124.30(B) of the Ohio Revised Code.
B. If a classification has been established with advance approval of the Commission for the purpose of training an employee for promotion to a higher classification, and the selection of the employee has been made with due regard for the requirements of the higher classification, the Commission may, upon recommendation of the appointing authority, approve the promotion without examination upon completion of suitable job training and satisfactory job performance as prescribed in the class specification for the higher classification.
C. If a vacancy exists in a classification other than sworn police and fire classifications in a given employing unit where there is no eligibility list from which a certified appointment may be made, and there are three or fewer qualified and interested employees, the appointing authority may request and the Commission may approve a promotion without examination.
Section 10. Temporary Promotions: An interim or temporary appointment to a higher classification made necessary by reason of sickness, disability or other absence of a regular employee may be authorized without examination by the Commission upon the written request of an appointing authority. The employee recommended for temporary promotion must meet the qualification and eligibility requirements of the higher classification. All such temporary promotions shall be recorded in the minutes of the Commission. Temporary promotions may be made for a period not to exceed three pay periods (six weeks), after which the promotion must be rotated among all other interested and qualified eligibles in the employing unit. The Commission will consider requests for exception to the rotation requirement where it can be shown that a serious operational problem and/or serious inequity would result from the rotation. Requests for temporary promotion shall include:
A. The name of the vacant classification and number of vacancies;
B. Number of qualified and eligible employees for the promotion;
C. The plan for rotation, including designation of pay periods each nominee will serve, or plan against rotation; and
D. Justification (reasons) for the plan.
Section 11. Alternate Examination Dates and Special Arrangements: Whenever, because of illness or injury, an applicant for promotional examination is unable to sit for the exam on the scheduled date, time and/or location, he may request from the Commission an alternate schedule or special arrangement. Approval for an alternate schedule or special arrangement shall not be given if the security or integrity of the examination is jeopardized or substantial additional cost or time will be incurred in the judgement of the Commission.
Section 12. Examination Monitor: No persons other than authorized members of the Commission's staff or, in the case of the Board of Education, authorized members of the Civil Service Personnel Office staff, or other persons approved by the Commission or Secretary, shall act as monitors or spectators while an examination is being conducted.
