Save Civil Service
SAY "NO" TO POLITICAL CORRUPTION & PATRONAGE
Governor Chris Christie is proposing to destroy NJ's Civil Service System. Gutting Civil Service will allow corrupt politicians to use good jobs providing critical public services as favors and rewards for fat cats, cronies and relatives. If you care about providing clean, honest government by having a public workforce that is protected from the corrupting influence of political coercion, call your elected representatives today and tell them to vote NO on destroying New Jersey's Civil Service System.
Save New Jersey's Civil Service From the Hands of Corruption and Patronage
TAKE ACTION! Click here to email your state legislators and Governor Christie, and...
Call Governor Chris Christie: 609-292-6000
Call Senate President Steve Sweeney: 856-251-9801
Call Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver: 973-395-1166
About NJ's Civil Service:
Civil service was first enacted in 1908 in the midst of huge government corruption scandals. The Civil Service replaced a personnel system based on spoils, patronage and corruption with one based on the principles of merit, fitness and testing to determine that government jobs go to those qualified to do the work. The original civil service principles of merit and fitness were considered so important to the promotion of good government that 40 years later, in 1947, the system was made part of the modern NJ Constitution.
Civil Service is necessary to protect public services and civil servants from politics and corrupt politicians. Christie and his Democrat allies want the public to believe that municipalities will save money and be able to hire better people if we eliminate the firewall civil service provides between unregulated partisan political interference with the services qualified civil servants provide. But they offer no concrete evidence to support these assertions. And believing history will not repeat itself and increase patronage and corruption is no different than believing that the deregulation of big banks and the adoption of an 'anything goes' attitude didn't play a major role in our country's recent economic meltdown.
The New Jersey Civil Service System has worked to give everyone an equal opportunity to serve the public. This system has guaranteed fair access to important jobs based on experience and expertise, not political connections. The Civil Service has offered thousands, including women and minorities, a fair shake into the middle class. We can't turn our economic future and the health and safety of our communities over to political corruption. Also download the Fact Sheet. And click here to download a postcard that will be sent to your leaders in Trenton. Please return all signed postcards to Lauren Townsend at 75 Raritan Avenue, Suite 200, Highland Park, NJ 08904.
For more information, contact Lauren Townsend at 732-246-4772, ext. 22, or lauren@njcitizenaction.org.
