6
City and County Employees
By I. A. D e FRA N C E
State employees are not the only ones
interested in public employees legisla
tion. City and county employees are
also concerned and effected. The retire
ment system directly effects city and
county employees. The civil service act
effects will be felt indirectly. The mat
ter of working hours, vacations and sick
leave, holidays, classification plan, wage
rates, automatic pay increases as adopt
ed by the State Civil Service will auto
matically effect city and county em
ployment by pointing out the way
paid, setting the pattern for public
employment in Oregon.
We have seen how these employee
groups, brought together by the League
of Oregon Cities were able to integrate
their objectives into one state-wide
plan, and although each group had
sacrificed something to arrive at the
single plan, each group was loyal in its
support. This support was not organ
ized however, and where three large
groups bore the brunt of the cost,
there were several smaller groups who
expressed willingness to contribute to
wards the cost, but due to the lack of
a central agency were unable to do so.
When we are told that neither the re
tirement or civil service system will be
completely effective or irrevocivily
adopted before the next legislature con
venes, and that there are interests and
groups that would wipe both acts from
the statutes, we recognize the desir
ability of further cooperation.
The League of Oregon Cities may
again exercise the leadership necessary
to coordinate the public employee
groups of Oregon, still any other plan
that will serve to unite these groups in
behalf of public employee interests
should receive careful consideration. A
plan which would achieve some effect
in this direction has been discussed
more or less informally.
Some local groups have asked to
affiliate with the O.S.E.A., a procedure
which would require revision of the
O.S.E.A. constitution. This affiliation
should prove mutually advantageous,
however, providing all joint activities
were limited to objectives of common
interest.
Franklin Roosevelt and the Public Service
By LEO N A RD D. W H ITE
Leonard D. White in the Public
Personnel Review for July, 1945 dis
cusses "Franklin Roosevelt and the
Public Service.” Mr. White describes
Mr. Roosevelt’s views on the career
service concept as follows:
As a young man Roosevelt had trav
eled and studied abroad. He retained a
fluent Command of spoken French
throughout this life. In his early years
he bicycled through Germany and had
an unpleasant encounter with the Ger
man army, then on maneuvers. He
came to know Great Britain intimately
and during World War I saw a good
deal of British and French naval offi
cers. He was thus thrown into working
contact with navy and diplomatic
career men, and the civil service of
these countries also fell under his in
spection. He was impressed with the
integrity of the British service and its
capacity to maintain a high level of
public business. He also was acutely
conscious of its historic class structure
and what he called its inflexibility.
In this country he knew intimately
the navy career system and the diplo-