For the first time in a decade, and at a loss of a few thousand dollars in revenue, Genesee County’s Ways & Means Committee adopted a move Wednesday to waive all Civil Service exam fees.
“I’m excited to see this come before us,” Legislator Marianne Clattenburg said during the Ways & Means meeting at the Old Courthouse.
A past review …
In 2011, it was determined that having no application fee meant less commitment on the part of applicants, and fees of $25 for all exams for police, sheriff, fire, probation and dispatch and $20 for all other competitive exams were established.
“When people don’t pay for exams, they don’t show up for exams either. And then we would still be responsible to pay that if they don’t show up,” Human Resources Director Anita Cleveland said of the rationale for charging fees. “So this is a resolution to temporarily waive the Civil Service exam fees … it’s something that several of the other counties are looking at as well. We’re hoping that since it’s free, we can get more people to take the exam.”
The present of no fees …
The number of applicants has been decreasing over the years since those fees were adopted, Cleveland said. She proposed dropping the exam fees for a trial period of June 1 to Dec. 31 of this year.
The lack of fees will mean an estimated loss of $3,000 in revenue but Genesee County officials hope that there will be a tradeoff with more exam applicants.
Newly inducted graduates are a prime population for these exams, Legislator Shelley Stein said. Civil Service jobs typically pay above minimum wage and include municipal benefits.
“So we find a way to get those kids interested, one way or the other,” she said.
Legislator Marianne Clattenburg encouraged Cleveland to “get the word out that this is happening.”
“And that we want people that are interested in these jobs to take the exam,” she said.
Cleveland's department has been reaching out to schools and trying to coordinate schedules for a job fair or similar recruiting effort, Cleveland said. The problem with recruiting at high schools, she said, is that “some or most of our exams require you to have a high school diploma already,” which leaves all students out until the end of their senior year. Genesee Community College has been a site for exams, she said.
Ways & Means will pass along the proposal for a temporary waiver of all Civil Service examination fees to the Genesee County Legislature for a final vote.
