Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-02-04
SETTLE TIE CIVIL SERVICE QUESTION

Mayor Fern has finally named d new civil
service commission. The supervisors have con
firmcl his nominations
The justifiable presumption is that the mayor
and the board of supervisors will give the new
board the support to which it is entitled. That
support was lacking for the previous board, par
ticularly on the part of the mayor.
During the short term of the first board arose
serious question that has been left as an un
welcome but necessary heritage for the present
commissioners. 1t is the question of jurisdiction
and it is Of such Importance as to be perhaps the
first big duty that confrOnts the new commits
sioners-tO settle it once and for all.
The first civil service board took the position
that under the Legislative act of 1913 by which
1t was created, it was given wide discretionary
powers OF administration over the police and fire
departments. The commission drew up rules for
the conduct and regulation of these departments
and proceeded to enforce them.
When the first bills for expenditures by the
commission reached the supervisors there was
row that is still unpleasantlysfr in memory.
The supervisors then raised the question of jur-
isdiction, taking the attitude that the civil
ice commission was no more than a board to
oversee examination of candidates for the two
departments. .ss....e,. as.ssrxs ssx-n-.,
The stand determinedly taken by the super.
visors, and the mayors easyegoing refusal to
take any definite position for himself, checked
the progress of civil service at once and effect
ually. Chairman Writ, and Commissioners
Doyle and Kupihea, all Of whom had given plen-
ty of hard work to the commission, were practi-
cally repudiated.
This was just prior to the close of the first
term of the commissioners. which ended Deem
Der 81 last. Now new commission has been
named
IL it is to be a civil service commission in any
thing more than name, it must have powers.
There is no question that the intent of the last
legislature was to create a board that would adj
minister the police and fire departments on an
efficiency basis, that would so far as possible,
take those departments out of petty and parti-
san politics Unfortunately the law is not clear
upon the extent to which the commission is Civ
en- powers At least it is not clear enough to
convince the supervisors legal adviser Deputy
Attorney Weaver, that the commission is more
than an examining board. Good legal author
ity differs with Mr.. Weaver on this point, but in
view OF his opinion, the supervisors acted rightly
in denying the commission's broader powers.
Until this serious question is settled by the
supreme court of Hawaii, the civil service COM
mission can do no valuable or permanent work.
Furthermore, if the decision of the supreme
court holds with the deputy city attorney, the
next Legislature must be asked to so amend the
act of 1913 to give the commission those rights
and powers necessary to make it a civil service
commission in substance as we'll as in name.
1t is clearly one of the first duties of the new
commissioner to carry this question to the SUI
rpreme court and have it settled, and then to get
to work on the basis of the supreme courts de-
cision,