New Jersey Statutes Title 11A. Civil Service 11A § 3-2.1

a. the importance of fairness and impartiality in State employment is recognized in Article VII, Section I, paragraph 2 of the New Jersey Constitution which provides that, “Appointments and promotions in the civil service of the State ․․․ shall be made according to merit and fitness to be ascertained, as far as practicable, by examination, which, as far as practicable, shall be competitive ․․․”;

b. nevertheless, the framers recognized that appointments to certain types of employment are not readily made through a competitive examination process;

c. accordingly, in implementing the constitutional provision, the Legislature has provided in N.J.S. 11A:3-2 that the career service shall have a competitive division and a noncompetitive division;

d. it was the purpose of the Legislature, in making this distinction, to provide for positions which cannot properly be tested for, such as lower-level jobs which do not require significant education or experience, to be filled without the need of competitive examination but with civil service protection for the employee;

e. however, recent published reports suggest that the purpose of the noncompetitive division has been subverted by the transfer into that division of titles which properly belong in the unclassified service or in the competitive division of the career service, and the making of appointments thereto;

f. the apparent reason for this misuse of the noncompetitive division is to protect political appointees prior to the beginning of a new administration; and

g. in order to prevent this abuse of the civil service system, there is need for a statutory prohibition on the movement of job titles and political appointees to the noncompetitive division of the career service during the final six months of the Governor's term in office.