{"id":9375,"date":"2026-07-21T08:15:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=9375"},"modified":"2026-08-07T09:46:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:46:56","slug":"pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-44-no-6\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\/","title":{"rendered":"PEF raises questions about the success of NYHELPS\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NY<\/p>\n

August 7, 2026 —<\/em> 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\u2019s Constitution in 1894.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The program was expanded in 2024 to include all agencies and is described on the <\/span>DCS website<\/span><\/a> as a \u201cprogram that streamlines the appointment process to allow State agencies to hire diverse, qualified permanent employees quickly and without examination.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPEF President Spence has asked us to take this moment in time, three years after the program was created, to assess what success means,\u201d said PEF Director of Civil Service Enforcement and Research (CSE\/R) Veronica Foley. \u201cHave we met those benchmarks and what does the modernization of civil service mean to the State?\u201d\u00a0 PEF continues to monitor and assess the HELP\u2019s program to make sure that the \u201cspoils system\u201d does not return to New York.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The PEF CSE\/R team has released an editorial titled \u201c<\/span>NY HELPS and the End of the History of of Competitive Examinations<\/span><\/a>\u201d 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. \u202f \u202f \u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dMillions of dollars have been applied to the implementation of the State\u2019s latest civil service modernization plan,\u201d said Foley. \u201cYet 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.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This editorial 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span> 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<\/span>. This little-known process, mandated by the <\/span>State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA)<\/span>, allows agencies to establish binding regulations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Gudelis said. \u201cIn 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?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to gather evidence to answer the questions raised in the article, PEF CSE\/R recently sent a letter to the Governor\u2019s Office asking for data related to the retention rates of the tens of thousands of workers hired via the program.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe NYS Department of Civil Service makes it clear every couple of months how many appointments they\u2019ve made through NY HELPS, but that is the only data point they\u2019re sharing,\u201d said Foley. \u201cIn 2023, when the program\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The much-hyped total compensation study, first bought up by the Governor herself in 2022 as a way to look at how State workers\u2019 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\u2019s PS&T unit is ratified by members on Aug. 18.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 7, 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,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-9375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-44-no-6"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPEF raises questions about the success of NYHELPS\u00a0 - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-44-no-6\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PEF raises questions about the success of NYHELPS\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 7, 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,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-44-no-6\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PEF Communicator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-21T12:15:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T13:46:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/NY-Helps-Feature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"435\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-44-no-6\\\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-44-no-6\\\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ccanham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0677b03b1fcdadfe00f4e905b97b90e4\"},\"headline\":\"PEF raises questions about the success of NYHELPS\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-21T12:15:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-07T13:46:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-44-no-6\\\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":951,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-44-no-6\\\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/NY-Helps-Feature.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-44-no-6\\\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-44-no-6\\\/pef-raises-questions-about-the-success-of-nyhelps\\\/\",\"name\":\"PEF raises questions about the success of NYHELPS\u00a0 - 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