Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 12625. Civil service commission;  election;  organization;  oath of commissioners;  powers as to investigations

A. There shall be established and constituted in such city a civil service commission, consisting of three civil service commissioners, who shall be elected by the city council by a majority vote of all the members elected thereto, and shall hold office for a term of four years and until their successors are severally elected and qualified.  Vacancies in the office of civil service commissioner shall, in like manner, be filled for the remainder of the term.  The commissioners shall elect from among their own number a president and secretary.  Each commissioner shall qualify by filing with the mayor an oath to perform the duties of his office faithfully and without fear or favor.

B. The commission shall have power to administer oaths, subpoena and require the attendance of witnesses, citizens and residents of this State, and the production thereby of books and papers pertinent to the investigations and inquiries hereby authorized, and to examine them and such public records as it shall require in relation to any matter which it has the authority to investigate.  The fees of such witnesses for attendance and travel shall be the same as for witnesses before the courts of common pleas, and shall be paid from the appropriation for the incidental expenses of the commission.  All officers in the public service, and their deputies, clerks, subordinates, and employes shall, without fee, attend and testify when required to do so by said commission.  Any disobedience to, or neglect of, any subpoena issued by the said commissioners, or any one of them, to any person, shall be held a contempt of court and shall be punished by any court of common pleas of this Commonwealth as if such subpoena had been issued therefrom.  Any judge of any of said courts shall, upon the application of any one of said commissioners in such cases, cause the process of said court to issue to compel such person or persons disobeying or neglecting any such subpoena to appear and to give testimony before the said commissioners or any one of them, and shall have power to punish any such contempt.