One of the issues discussed at the League of Municipalities annual conference this week includes civil service, and Millburn officials are leading the charge.

The league has proposed legislation that would allow communities that have civil service, like Millburn, to opt out of the program via a Township Committee ordinance or a petition from residents. Township Administrator Tim Gordon supports the legislation, and Mayor Sandra Haimoff and Deputy Mayor Thomas McDermott agreed to be sponsors to the legislation at the league conference.

After passing through the league, its leadership would find someone to sponsor the measure in the General Assembly. If it were to pass and receive the governor's signature, Gordon said he would pursue using it in Millburn-Short Hills. If there were serious reforms to civil service, including making it a local function, he would leave the civil service alone.

"It's difficult to reform civil service," he said. "It's fought back every time. It's a system that has its flaws."

Millburn voters decided to become a civil service community in 1934. "Millburn voters have always wanted good government," he said. "The problem is (civil service) is a state agency."

The state agency works at its own pace that is sometimes much slower than what local officials want, Gordon said. Additionally, sometimes local employees are not alerted to promotional exams in a timely manner or at all.

"Many times we're fighting more for our employees than against them (because of civil service," he said.

The exams themselves do not necessarily rank employees in the best way, he said. "Having the highest score does not mean you're the best person for the job," he siad. "We need to be able to consider past performance."

How people are ranked on the lists is also flawed, he said. Disabled veterans automatically go to the top of the list, and veterans also have some preference. Gordon said there should be a preference in how their test is scored—such as additional points—but they should not automatically go to the top of the list.

Also, do local officials need to test for every position? Gordon thinks in the cases of positions that receive state licenses—such as the tax collector—there should be no test. "They should be exempt," he said. "They've already passed an exam.

Gordon said unions typically favor civil service, a system that was developed before there were municipal unions. But the protections civil service provides to unions could be negotiated into the labor contracts, he said.

And there are issues that affect communities during the harsh economic times. Gordon said if a municipality elects to lay off staff, it takes six months to do so under the civil service process. If the layoffs could happen sooner, he said, perhaps less people would lose their jobs.

Additionally, there are different systems with how a community can share services, which is something Millburn officials have been exploring. If one town has civil service and the two decide to elect to combine or consolidate, the new department would need to be civil service, Gordon said.