36
Report oi Interim Committee
(Continued from page 3$)
costs, but the time used in the 64
different departments would, in all
probability, consume the cost of a
merit system. In other words, we
are paying for, but do not have, a
merit system.
O ur Budget Director has performed
a creditable task in standardizing
pay according to types of work, but
this leaves the gate wide open for
favoritisims and bona fide errors,
i.e., the head of Department A, be
cause he doesn’t know better or be
cause he has taken a fancy to Jennie
Jones, classifies her as a senior steno
grapher. She types only 40 words a
minute, misspells, and is not too effi
cient, and she receives $166.67 a
month; yet the head of Department
B, either because he doesn’t know
better or has taken a dislike to Susie
Smith, classifies her as a junior
stenographer. She can type 60 words
a minute, spells correctly, and is
generally efficient, but receives only
$12 5.00 a month. Besides the re
duction of morale among employees,
this causes waste and inefficiency in
the State government.
This classification of positions and
salaries is part of any merit system,
and the fact that it has been done
will enable Oregon to more quickly
set a merit service law into opera
tion.
Citations from the publication "The
Business Value of a Merit System”
reveal that the police department of
Cincinnati, 72 square miles, operat
ed under merit system with 615 po
licemen at an annual cost of one
million dollars, whereas, St. Louis,
Missouri, with only 64 square miles
and without a merit system, uses
3000 policemen and spends five
million dollars. The post office de
partment, since its merit system,
works more effectively and saves
annually $60,000. Philadelphia re
ports a substantial saving w ith a
merit system. Akron, Ohio, saved
$29,800 its first year under merit
service. The small State of Maine, in
its first year under civil service,
saved many thousands of dollars and
eliminated 186 unnecessary posi
tions. St. Paul, Minn., Commission
of Public Works, by civil service,
was able to remove 50 percent of its
employees. In 193 8, an investiga
tion of the Citizen League of Cleve
land, found that without a merit
system, its cost of waste removal
was $7.94 per ton with 488 em
ployees, but in Cincinnati, with a
merit system, it was $3.98 per ton
wi th only 214 employees. The area
topography and other conditions fa
vored Cleveland. Michigan reports
an annual saving of $1,200,000 of
taxpayers’ money through the stan
dardization of salaries and the elim
ination of unnecessary positions.
“If th e 43rd L egislative A ssem bly passes
a m e rit system a c t fo r Oregon, it w ill
becom e law in Ju n e, 1945. T he m e rit
system w ill begin to op erate in th e spring
or sum m er of 1946. I t w ould ap p ear th a t
this w ould be a n ideal tim e fo r a n estab
lishm ent of a m e rit system because it is
som e tim e w ithin th e n e x t tw o years th a t
w e look fo rw ard to fin a l v icto ry and
reconversion of m anpow er to n o n -w ar
industries.
“As S tate funds a re now being set
aside and po st-w ar plans a re now being
m ade, w e w ill have th e m oney and b lu e
p rin ts read y to s ta rt S tate projects. M any
new em ployees w ill th e n be h ire d not
only fo r th e new w ork, b u t to replace
m any p a rtia lly capable te m p o ra ry em
ployees w ho a re now filling in, due to
m an-pow er shortage.
“To assure th e ta x p a y e rs th a t th e ir
m oney is being used as w ages only to
com petent em ployees, and to give th e
v eteran s of th is w a r a preference, th e
43rd L egislative A ssem bly should enact
a m e rit system law .”
LEO SMITH
EARL HILL