August 6, 2026 — The history of choosing government workers via civil service examinations goes back as far as 605 C.E. in China, when officials were selected based on merit, not nepotism. In the mid-1800s, the British government adopted a system of merit-based civil service examinations. The U.S. Congress followed suit in 1883 and New York enshrined civil service exams in the State’s Constitution in 1894.
In 2023, New York State modified its standards with the introduction of the Hiring for Emergency Limited Placement Statewide (HELPS) program, which was rebranded as NY HELPS a year later.
HELP was proposed as a temporary measure to assist hiring direct care, health, and safety titles in the wake of the pandemic without the need for competitive examinations. Participation was limited to 12 agencies; DOCCS, DOH, OMIG, Justice Center, OCFS, NYSIF, OASAS, OMH, SUNY, DCS, OTDA and OPWDD.
The program was expanded in 2024 to include all agencies and is described on the DCS website as a “program that streamlines the appointment process to allow State agencies to hire diverse, qualified permanent employees quickly and without examination.”
PEF did not fully oppose HELPS or NY HELPS initially because the union was told it was a temporary response to a severe short staffing crisis which PEF members were feeling acutely coming out of Covid. PEF was also cognizant of the many members that were performing the jobs of two to three workers, due to multiple vacancies. PEF recognizes the program has attracted a new generation of civil service workers; it accelerated the hiring process and created additional opportunities for career advancement long unattainable to PEF members because of a lack of examinations. But now, as the program continues to extend year after year, PEF is questioning what the future of civil service in New York will look like.
“PEF President Spence has asked us to take this moment in time, three years after the program was created, to assess what success means,” said PEF Director of Civil Service Enforcement and Research (CSE/R) Veronica Foley. “Have we met those benchmarks and what does the modernization of civil service mean to the State?” PEF continues to monitor and assess the HELP’s program to make sure that the “spoils system” does not return to New York.
The PEF CSE/R team has released a report titled “NY HELPS and the End of the History of Competitive Examinations” that raises concerns about the legitimacy of the program under the State’s Constitutional mandate, the scope and limits of the power of the Civil Service Commission, the lack of accountability and transparency in the administration of the program, the lack of data to objectively evaluate whether NY HELPS is successful, and the absence of willingness for an open, responsible and productive dialogue with PEF about the future of NY HELPS and what systems and practices will replace it.
”Millions of dollars have been applied to the implementation of the State’s latest civil service modernization plan,” said Foley. “Yet it remains unclear to the union, its leaders and the public what this modernization is andwhether or not the State is hiring and retaining diverse and qualified employees while also upholding our democratic institutions.”
This report is the first of many that PEF CSE/R intends to publish, which will raise questions about the use of emergency hiring practices and how they align with modernization when discussed through the lens of democracy.
Mykolas Gudelis is a research associate with CSE/R. He emphasized that while there are benefits to NY HELPS, the program was not implemented through legislation, but via emergency powers claimed by DCS. When agencies want to stealthily change something to their advantage, they will use the New York State Register process, which in the minds of some, circumvents the legislative process. It is a publication where state executive agencies cleverly publish proposed and adopted rules. This little-known process, mandated by the State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA), allows agencies to establish binding regulations.
“The keyword here is emergency. The history of legal scholarship shows that in an emergency, the norms, rules and regulations that function in a normal state are suspended,” Gudelis said. “In the case of NY HELPS, we had a bleeding of the workforce (during Covid). Therefore, we had to do things that do not follow the regular norms. But the question is who has the power to suspend rules and declare an emergency?”
In order to gather evidence to answer the questions raised in the article, PEF CSE/R recently sent a letter to the Governor’s Office asking for data related to the retention rates of the tens of thousands of workers hired via the program.
“The NYS Department of Civil Service makes it clear every couple of months how many appointments they’ve made through NY HELPS, but that is the only data point they’re sharing,” said Foley. “In 2023, when the program’s first iteration was presented, PEF was told that this program would give the Department of Civil Service the space needed to administer examinations, open all 12 regional computer-based testing centers, and that we were going to have a total compensation study.”
As of July 31, 2026, DCS has opened five of the 12 computer-based testing centers that taxpayers have funded and plans to open seven more by the end of 2027.
The much-hyped total compensation study, first bought up by the Governor herself in 2022 as a way to look at how State workers’ compensation compares to their counterparts in the private sector, will be shared with PEF by Jan. 31, 2027, if the current 2026-2031 tentative agreement for the union’s PS&T unit is ratified by members on Aug. 18.