Town Fails Effectively to Withdraw Departments from Civil Service

Fairhaven officials are facing a difficult issue regarding their withdrawal from civil service. The Town became subject to civil service following a ballot vote in 1953. In 2023, the Fairhaven Town Meeting voted to remove its fire and police departments from civil service. It then appointed a Police Sergeant, bypassing two officers in 2024. Both of the bypassed officers appealed to the Civil Service Commission over the bypass. While employees with civil service status usually continue to retain their civil service rights in the position they are serving at the time of the withdrawal, they lose those rights with regard to promotions to a higher rank, so the Town understandably claimed that the Commission lacked jurisdiction to consider the bypass appeal based on the 2023 Town Meeting vote. The Commission held in an interim decision issued on December 18^th that the Town’s vote was flawed and ineffective and the departments remained subject to the civil service laws and rules. Darmofel v. Town of Fairhaven, No. G2-24-148, G2-24-156 (Civil Service Comm’n).  

The Commission noted that there are only two paths for a municipality to withdraw from civil service: (1) a ballot vote passed by a simple majority; or (2) a special act of the legislature. Although a Town Meeting vote is often a procedural step on both paths, Fairhaven’s Town Meeting vote alone was insufficient. Because the Commission determined the two departments have been and remain subject to civil service, the parties have been directed to fashion a proposed remedy to address not only the violation of the civil service rights of the two bypassed police officers but “what other or additional action, if any, may be required by the Commission to remediate the civil service rights of the Appellants and/or other Fairhaven police and fire sworn personnel or candidates for appointment” affected by the Commission’s decision in the two years the Town has been operating under the assumption that it had withdrawn both departments from civil service.  

In navigating a withdrawal from civil service, many officials focus on the bargaining obligations with most employees subject to civil service since that is often the most difficult hurdle to achieve. However, this decision illustrates the importance of ensuring that all the proper procedural requirements are identified and followed to effectuate the withdrawal once it is negotiated to avoid a similar issue from developing as the one which occurred in Fairhaven in this case.