To amend section 124.23 of the Revised Code to eliminate the requirement that a veteran be a resident of Ohio to qualify to receive the veterans preference on civil service examinations.

Section 1. That section 124.23 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:

Sec. 124.23.  (A) All applicants for positions and places in the classified service shall be subject to examination, except for applicants for positions as professional or certified service and paraprofessional employees of county boards of developmental disabilities, who shall be hired in the manner provided in section 124.241 of the Revised Code.

(B) Any examination administered under this section shall be public and be open to all citizens of the United States and those persons who have legally declared their intentions of becoming United States citizens. For examinations administered for positions in the service of the state, the director of administrative services may determine certain limitations as to citizenship, age, experience, education, health, habit, and moral character.

(C) Any person who has completed service in the uniformed services, and who has been honorably discharged from the uniformed services or transferred to the reserve with evidence of satisfactory service, and who is a resident of this state and any member of the national guard or a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States who has completed more than one hundred eighty days of active duty service pursuant to an executive order of the president of the United States or an act of the congress of the United States may file with the director a certificate of service or honorable discharge, and, upon this filing, the person shall receive additional credit of twenty per cent of the person's total grade given in the regular examination in which the person receives a passing grade.

As used in this division, "service in the uniformed services" and "uniformed services" have the same meanings as in the "Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994," 108 Stat. 3149, 38 U.S.C.A. 4303.

(D) An examination may include an evaluation of such factors as education, training, capacity, knowledge, manual dexterity, and physical or psychological fitness. An examination shall consist of one or more tests in any combination. Tests may be written, oral, physical, demonstration of skill, or an evaluation of training and experiences and shall be designed to fairly test the relative capacity of the persons examined to discharge the particular duties of the position for which appointment is sought. Tests may include structured interviews, assessment centers, work simulations, examinations of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and any other acceptable testing methods. If minimum or maximum requirements are established for any examination, they shall be specified in the examination announcement.

(E) The director of administrative services shall have control of all examinations administered for positions in the service of the state and all other examinations the director administers as provided in section 124.07 of the Revised Code, except as otherwise provided in sections 124.01 to 124.64 of the Revised Code.

(F) No questions in any examination shall relate to political or religious opinions or affiliations. No credit for seniority, efficiency, or any other reason shall be added to an applicant's examination grade unless the applicant achieves at least the minimum passing grade on the examination without counting that extra credit.

(G) Except as otherwise provided in sections 124.01 to 124.64 of the Revised Code, the director of administrative services shall give reasonable notice of the time, place, and general scope of every competitive examination for appointment that the director administers for positions in the service of the state. The director shall send written, printed, or electronic notices of every examination to be conducted for positions in the classified civil service of the state to each agency of the type the director of job and family services specifies and, in the case of a county in which no such agency is located, to the clerk of the court of common pleas of that county and to the clerk of each city located within that county. Those notices shall be posted in conspicuous public places in the designated agencies or the courthouse, and city hall of the cities, of the counties in which no designated agency is located for at least two weeks preceding any examination involved, and in a conspicuous place in the office of the director of administrative services for at least two weeks preceding any examination involved. In case of examinations limited by the director to a district, county, city, or department, the director shall provide by rule for adequate publicity of an examination in the district, county, city, or department within which competition is permitted.

Section 2. That existing section 124.23 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.

Section 3.  Section 124.23 of the Revised Code is presented in this act as a composite of the section as amended by both Am. Sub. H.B. 1 and Sub. S.B. 79 of the 128th General Assembly. The General Assembly, applying the principle stated in division (B) of section 1.52 of the Revised Code that amendments are to be harmonized if reasonably capable of simultaneous operation, finds that the composite is the resulting version of the section in effect prior to the effective date of the section as presented in this act.