CWA 1180 - News

Administrative Manager test key posted

July 2007

A tentative answer key for the June 16 promotional exam for the City civil service title of Administrative Manager has now been posted on-line. You can find it on the website of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). If you wish to challenge the accuracy of the answer key, you may file a protest now through August 15. The instructions for filing a protest are on the back of the Candidate's Personal Record of Answers, a form that everyone who took the test completed and should have on file to check against the answer key.

Your final test score will be determined as follows: The exam had 100 questions, each worth one point. This point total is worth 85 percent of your final score. The other 15 percent is based on seniority, with two points awarded for each year you have served in a competitive class title for any City agency, up to a maximum of 15 points. (Seniority is credited only for the years you served with a permanent appointment, not as a provisional.) You must have gotten at least 70 correct answers on the exam to pass the test.

For example: If you got 75 questions right and have been appointed to a permanent title for six years, your score would be:

(75 points x 0.85) + (6 years x 2) = 64 + 12 = 76

If you got 75 questions right and have been in a permanent title for 10 years, your score would be:

(75 points x 0.85) + (10 years x 2) =
64 + 15 (the maximum seniority points) = 79

If you got 85 questions right and have been in a permanent title for six years, your score would be:

(85 points x 0.85) + (6 years x 2) = 72 + 12 = 84

Once DCAS reviews the exam key protests, the agency will create a final exam key, the exams will be scored, and lists will be established, by agency, that rank people by their final score. “In the past, this whole process has taken anywhere from a year to 18 months,” says Local 1180 first vice president Linda Jenkins. “By then, I hope Local 1180 will be representing the title.”

Local 1180 petitioned the City to represent the Administrative Manager title in February 2004, but the City claimed those in the title are considered managerial in the eyes of the law and are therefore ineligible for union representation. Local 1180 recently completed hearings with some 300 civil servants in the title to prove that in fact they are not performing managerial duties—such as hiring, firing, and setting budgets—and should have the right to a union. Briefs from the City and the union are due to a trial examiner in September, who will then make a recommendation to the board of the Office of Collective Bargaining.

If you have any questions about how to file a protest or how the exams will be scored, please call L inda Jenkins at 212-226-6565 ext. 4913.

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