Section 36-26-15 (Amended by Act 2026-574) Tests for Establishment of Employment Registers for Positions in Classified Service; Preferences for Veterans, Etc.; Cooperation of Board with Federal Government, Etc., in Establishing and Administering Standards of Personnel Qualifications, Pay Plans, Etc.

AMENDED BY ACT 2026-574, EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2027. SEE ACT FOR REVISED LANGUAGE. (a) The director shall conduct tests to establish employment registers for the various classes of positions in the classified service. The tests shall take into consideration elements of character, reputation, education, aptitude, experience, knowledge, skill, personality, physical fitness and other pertinent matters and may be written or oral or any other demonstration of fitness as the director may determine. For a promotion test, the qualifications shall include the requirement that an applicant be employed in a position in such class and for such length of time, as the director shall specify, subject to the rules. Public notice of the time, place and general scope of every test shall be given. The director, with the approval of the board, shall determine the qualifications for admission to any test. Admission to tests shall be open to all persons who appear to possess the required qualifications and may be lawfully appointed to a position in the class for which a list is to be established, and no fee shall be charged therefor. The director may, however, reject the application of any person for admission to a test or may strike the name of any person from a list or refuse to certify the name of any person on a list for a position if he finds that such person lacks any of the required qualifications or is physically unfit to perform effectively the duties of the position in which he seeks employment or is addicted to the habitual excessive use of drugs or intoxicating liquor or has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or guilty of any notoriously disgraceful conduct or has been dismissed from the public service for delinquency or has made a false statement of a material fact or practiced or attempted to practice any fraud or deception in his application or test or in attempting to secure appointment. (b) All persons who have been honorably discharged from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard who have ever served in the armed forces of the United States at any time shall have five points added to any earned ratings in examination for entrance to the classified service. All persons who have ever served in the armed forces of the United States at any time who have been honorably discharged and who established by official records of the United States the present existence of a service-connected disability and because of disability are entitled to pension, compensation or disability allowance under existing laws and widows of such persons who shall have died in line of duty during any such period and widows of such persons who shall have been honorably discharged from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard and wives of such persons who shall have been honorably discharged from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard who, because of service-connected disability are not themselves qualified but whose wives are qualified, shall have 10 points added to any earned ratings. In entering upon registers the names of preference claimants entitled to five additional points, they will take the place to which their ratings entitle them on the register with nonveterans (the earned ratings augmented by the five points to which they are entitled) and will be certified when their ratings are reached. The name of a veteran with the augmented rating is entered ahead of the name of a nonveteran when their ratings are the same. The names of persons entitled to a 10-point preference, however, will be placed ahead of all others on the register with the same rating (ahead of veterans entitled to a five-point preference and nonveterans) and shall be then certified in the order of their augmented ratings. An appointing officer who passes over a veteran eligible and selects a nonveteran with the same or lower rating shall file with the director the reasons for so doing, which reasons will become a part of the veteran’s record but will not be made available to anyone other than the veteran himself, except in the discretion of the appointing officer. When reductions are being made in any part of the classified service, persons entitled to military preference in appointment shall be the last to be discharged or dropped or reduced in rank or salary if their record is good or if their efficiency rating is equal to that of any employee in competition with them who is retained in the service in their department. (c) The board shall, in establishing and administering standards of personnel qualifications, pay plans and tests both for personnel now in place as well as that later employed, cooperate with and avail itself fully of the advice and assistance of the appointing authorities involved and of the federal government in those departments administered in whole or in part with federal funds.