PDF Version

Fiscal Note & Local Impact Statement

127 th General Assembly of Ohio

Ohio Legislative Service Commission

77 South High Street, 9th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215-6136 ² Phone: (614) 466-3615

² Internet Web Site: http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/

BILL:

S.B. 218

DATE:

October 15, 2007

STATUS:

As Introduced

SPONSOR:

Sen. Schuring

LOCAL IMPACT STATEMENT REQUIRED:

No —

Permissive

 

CONTENTS:

To permit the legislative authority of a city to grant the mayor authority to appoint the chief of the police or fire departments and to provide alternative procedures for the appointments

 

State Fiscal Highlights

 

·        No direct fiscal effect on the state.

Local Fiscal Highlights

 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

FY 2008

FY 2009

FUTURE YEARS

Municipalities

     Revenues

- 0 -

- 0 -

- 0 -

     Expenditures

Potential increase in testing and hiring costs

Potential increase in testing and hiring costs

Potential increase in testing and hiring costs

Note:  For most local governments, the fiscal year is the calendar year.  The school district fiscal year is July 1 through June 30.

 

·        Permits qualified persons from outside the city police or fire department to take the competitive promotional examination for chief of the police or fire department, potentially increasing the number of persons taking the required examination and expanding the pool of applicants.  If this were so, it would increase the testing and hiring costs to fill those positions.

 

 

 

 

Detailed Fiscal Analysis

 

New appointment procedures

 

The selection process changes proposed in this bill result from the recommendations of the Civil Service Review Commission, which issued a report to the General Assembly detailing various civil service law recommendations on December 31, 2001.  The bill allows the legislative authority of a city, by a three-fourths vote of its membership, to adopt an ordinance that grants the mayor of the city authority to appoint the chief of the police or fire department, and provides procedures for the appointment of the chief of the police or fire department.  The bill also allows qualified persons from outside the city police or fire department to take the competitive promotional examination for chief of the police or fire department.  Current law states that a candidate must be selected from within the department.

 

Further, the bill makes a person ineligible to be appointed by the mayor as chief of the police or fire department unless the person has passed a competitive promotional examination for the position, but permits the legislative authority to adopt an ordinance allowing the mayor to appoint an otherwise eligible person who has not received the highest rating on the examination.  Current law states that the top score on the examination must be chosen, but recognizes that others could be chosen.  The current practice used is the "rule of three," in which any of the three highest scoring candidates can be selected for the position. 

 

Fiscal impact

 

            By allowing individuals outside of the police or fire departments to become qualified applicants, a municipality would potentially expand the pool of applicants for the vacant position.  This could result in more applicants taking the required examination, and possibly more applicants proceeding through the interview process.  This could potentially result in increased testing costs and increasing hiring costs for a municipality opting to use this new appointment authority.

 

 

 

LSC fiscal staff:  Terry Steele, Budget Analyst

 

SB0218IN/lb