Year to date statistics published by the Commission

It's been clear for sometime now that appellants do not stand a good chance of winning a bypass appeal at the Civil Service Commission, and recent statistics published by the Commission confirm this. At the beginning of this month, the Commission published statistics on its caseload to date for the year, including information on the number of successful appeals. The results are not encouraging. So far in 2013, only ten percent (10%) of appeals challenging bypasses have been successful. This does not include those cases where the appointing authority and the candidate agreed to relief based on a mutual decision, which count for 40% of appeals. Out of the 29 cases that have gone to a full hearing and been decided by the Commission, only five (5) have resulted in victories for the appellant.

This continues a downward trend for civil service candidates appealing bypass decisions. The numbers are stark. Since 2007, the percentage of bypass appeals that succeeded and resulted in relief being granted by the Commission is as follows:

2007 - 10% 

2008 - 27%

2009 - 27%

2010 - 25%

2011 - 14%

2012 - 15%

2013 YTD - 10%

The years 2008 through 2010 stand out. What happened in those years that caused the Commission to grant such a larger percentage of bypass appeals? It's a combination of factors. First, the makeup of the Commission has changed, and commissioners who were more likely to vote in favor of an appeal have left. But more significantly, a number of decisions by the Commission granting bypass appeals were overturned by the Superior Court, generally on the basis that the Commission did not have the authority to second-guess the decision-making of appointing authorities. The statistics show that out of all 2008 decisions that were appealed, 35% were overturned, and for 2009 decisions that were appealed, the reversals increased to 38%. As a result, the Commission became more deferential to the decision-making of appointing authorities and now only grant bypasses (broadly speaking) when there is strong evidence of improper bypass, favoritism, or that the bypass resulted from a clearly unreasonable investigation into the candidate. It is probably not coincidental that of the 2010 and 2011 decisions that were appealed, the reversals dropped to 17% and 18%, respectively.