Details about this story

• Source: Albany Times Union
• Date: December 03, 2006
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Rick Karlin
• Topics: State Government
• Data Types: State Data
• Description/Excerpt: But for more than a year, observers have noticed Pataki loyalists filling lower-profile jobs, rankling critics such as union officials who say it violates the spirit, if not the law, behind the civil service system, which is supposed to be based on merit, not patronage. According to a Times Union computer analysis of hiring trends since the start of 2005, more than 120 people moved from exempt jobs, which means they serve at the pleasure of the governor or their agency head, to civil service jobs. Of that, some three dozen went to "non-competitive" jobs for which a test is not required.