The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-11-05
|NCOMPETENTSN NOT
KEPT IN OFFICE
BY CIVIL SERVICE
So Declares Head of State COM
mission Anent Orange Mayors
Veto of Ordinance.
SAYS SHOENTHAL SHOULD
HAVE EXAMINED FURTHER
Had Failed to Inform Himself on
Subject Sufficiently, Accord
ing to His Critic.

Criticism of the veto by Mayor Sheen
thai, of Orange, of the civil service
ordinance on Monday was given yester-
day in a letter sent the Mayor by Will
lis Fletcher johnson, president of the
State Civil Service Commission, who
regrets that the Mayor had not in
formed himself more fully on the sub
ject. The text of the letter follows:
November 4, 1908. =
The Hon. Isaac %Shoenthal, Mayor,
Orange, N. j.;
My Dear Sir-Perusal of the pub
lished reports of your message of No
vember 2 to the Council Of Orange,
vetoing its act adopting the civil service
law, leads me to regret that before
writing it you did not more carefully
examine the text of the Jaw and the
rules of the Civil Service Commission,
or obtain fuller information concerning
them. Had you done so you would
surely have been relieved from the
Uncertainty of which you complain,
and would have been saved from error.
Thus you say:
"If the act would keep in Office all the
officials of this city l would not APP
prove of it, because . " We
have officials who are incompetent. and
whose retention in office would be a
rank injustice TO the city"
There is, of course, as l have fire.
quently pointed out publicly, absolutely
nothing in the law which would keep
in office all the officials" or which
would keep in office for a single day
an incompetent official. On the con-
trary, the law very expressly and ex-
plicitly provides for and facilitates the
removal of such persons. Again, you
are reported as saying that under Sec
ton IS of the law at might be possible
to have all our offices filled in this city
by persons who reside in other sections
of the State" Permit me to call to
your attention rule 221 of the Civil
Service Commission, which says: Eek
aminations for the service of a munich
pality shall be confined to persons hav-
ing a legal voting residence in that
municipality, except in case of posi-
lions of a technical or other character
in which such restriction is impracti-
cable"
Once more, you say that:
Another uncertain feature of the law
is as to its application to the police
and fire departments"
There is no such uncertainty. Tho
law Enthusiastically does apply to them
just as much as to any other depart
ments of the public service, and a part
of rule 8 and the whole of rule 10
of the commission are devoted to those
services.
You will, of course, understand, my
dear Mr.. Mayor, that I nave no
thought Of criticising or questioning the
right or propriety of your action in
vetoing this or any other measure of
which you may disapprove. My desire
is merely to point Out certain Nerrors
into which you seem to have fallen.
doubtless through inadvertence, and TO
express regret that you did not more
accurately aequaint yourself with the
civil service system before vetoing it's
adoption by Orange. Very sincerely
yours,
WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON,
President of Civil Service Commission
of New Jersey.