The Oregon state employee., April 01, 1944, Page 32, Image 32

30
shows for the year 1939 the total ex­
penditures for civil service systems in
18 different jurisdictions together with
the number of employees covered. The
average cost of civil service in the
various jurisdictions ranges from $1.49
per employee in Maine to $11.28 in
Jefferson County, Alabama. The aver­
age cost per employee for the entire 18
systems is $5.03.
From this same book we quote the
following:
“Some twelve years ago Fred Tel­
ford of the former Bureau of Per­
sonnel Administration suggested that
an independent personnel agency
should have at least $5.00 per posi­
tion over whcih the agency had
jurisdiction.”
The California State Personnel Board
operates under a 1941-43 Biennial Bud­
get of $664,882 and has jurisdiction
over approximately 32,000 employees,
an average of $10.39 per employee per
year.
The State Highway Department
merit system expenditures during 1941
covering the operation of three full
time employees amounted to $5,366.23,
an average of $1.93 for the 2,777 de­
partment employees of that year.
The expenditures by the other state
departments and institutions in per­
forming personnel work for their ap­
proximately 4,000 employees is diffi­
cult to estimate inasmuch as all such
work is performed as a part of their
general administration. There is a cer­
tain unavoidable minimum of personnel
work which must be performed in
each department. Some of this work
would be taken over by a personnel
department and the present administra­
tive expenditures would be reduced an
equivalent amount.
Three state departments in Oregon
partly financed by federal funds are
now operating under civil service sys­
tems, each department maintaining an
independent system. The following
data as to their merit system costs was
furnished by the Budget Division in a
letter dated September 3, 1943.
Budget
for
Bien.
No.
of
Emp.
Annual
Cost per
Emp.
U. C. Comm. $24,537
Pub. WeL Com. 18,405
Board of Health 6,000
180
425
90
$68.16
21.65
33.33
$48,942
695
$35.21
Name
of
Dept.
No doubt there are explanations for
the apparently large per capita expense
of these three independent systems. No
inquiry has been made on our part and
we assume the explanation is the main­
tenance of independent systems for
such numerically small departments and
the duplication incidental to the main­
tenance of three complete organizations.
P.S. The U.C.C. Civil Service System
serves the U. S. Employment Service
with an additional 320 employees.
Summarizing the above, it appears
that the state is now spending approxi­
mately $25,000 each year for the three
independent civil service systems plus
an additional $5,000 by the Highway
Department plus such expenditures as
the other departments are making and
absorbing in their administration ex­
pense. The total, if known, would
probably lie somewhere between $30,-
00|) and $35,000 per annum.
The Budget Division advises that
there are approximately 7,000 state
employees. Those employees ordinarily
not included in the classified service
consisting of elected officials, members
of Boards and Commissions, Judges,
part time employees, etc., would prob­
ably equal 20 per cent of this total,
e