A bill that will change the current hiring and firing processes of public employees passed the Senate Wednesday with a 19-14 party line vote.

Barry Burden, University of Wisconsin political science professor, said the new system might be the biggest change in about 100 years.

“It will lead to hiring and promotion based on merit rather than seniority,” Burden said.

While the Assembly passed the bill this past October, Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, opposed the included measure to ban a box on applications requiring ex-convicts to indicate their criminal background. He proposed a Senate version of the bill devoid of the requirement.

Challenges to employment after imprisonment incite movement to change application process

After months of fighting the Assembly version, Nass said in a statement the Senate would vote on it because the civil service reform effort as a whole would fail if it did not.

“Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke made it very clear that civil service reform would die if any amendments were added in the Senate,” Nass said in the statement. “It is a sad statement when the leadership of a house with 63 Republican votes is afraid to consider worthy amendments to improve an important reform.”

Donald Moynihan, associate professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, said one key change the bill would cause is that there will no longer be civil service exams. He said exams will be replaced with a resume-based system, which will centralize the hiring process away from agencies and into the Department of Administration.

Moynihan said the Department of Administration is historically the most political department in government and works to enforce the governor’s priorities.

“It is unclear if there is going to be a firewall between the political appointees who run the department and the people who are making those selection decisions,” Moynihan said.

Moynihan said a major concern with the bill is that it will promote cronyism. He said this is because a resume-based system is highly more subjective than an exam system. He noted that Democrats were never consulted on the bill.

Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, said in a statement the bill will allow Republicans to hire their supporters to positions of authority, without considering their qualifications.

“The result will be an increase in cronyism, corruption and the furthering of an agenda that rewards wealthy friends and donors at the expense of average Wisconsin families without their knowledge,” Hansen said.

But, Republicans believe the reforms will streamline the hiring process.

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, said in a statement the bill will make government jobs more fair and fill positions.

“It is imperative that Wisconsin state government be a fair and effective employer to ensure the state’s business is carried out every day by quality employees,” Stroebel said in the statement. “[This bill] modernizes hiring practices and will help fill vacancies more quickly.”

On the firing side, the probationary period for an employee will be extended from six months to two years, and is more explicit about what constitutes just-cause for firing, Moynihan said. 

Eric Bott, state director of Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin, said in a statement he believes the bill will provide positive reform and jobs in the public sector.

“Civil service reform gives government managers the tools they need to recruit and retain talented individuals in government service and to properly discipline poor performers and those abusing taxpayer resources,” Bott said in a statement. 

Burden said the “ban the box” provision is the one part of the bill that Democrats supported.

Stroebel said in a statement he thinks the “ban the box” provision would be detrimental for Wisconsin and unfair for employers and taxpayers.

“[A felony] is a fair and relevant factor when comparing a pool of job candidates,” Stroebel said in the statement. “We owe it to taxpayers and state employees to have as much information as legally and practically allowable so we make good hiring decisions.”

The bill is headed to Walker’s desk.

Margaret Duffey contributed reporting.