8-30-309 - Appointment from employment list.
8-30-309. Appointment from employment list.
(a) (1) Whenever an appointing authority proposes to fill a vacancy in the career service, such authority shall submit to the commissioner a statement showing the position to be filled, the duties thereof, the official station, and the necessary and desirable qualifications of the person to be appointed thereto, and shall request the commissioner to certify the names of persons eligible for appointment to such position. If the official station of the vacancy to be filled is permanently located outside the geographic boundaries of the state of Tennessee, then the appointing authority may fill such vacancy without submitting such information to the commissioner and without regard to registers used to certify applicants.
(2) The commissioner shall thereupon certify to the appointing authority a list of eligibles which shall come from the register established as a result of competitive examinations for that class of positions. A promotion list shall consist of three (3) available eligibles scoring the highest grades (whole numbers) listed in rank order of examination scores, plus any available eligibles who have a grade equal to that of the third eligible, and an employment list shall consist of five (5) available eligibles scoring the highest grades (whole numbers) listed in rank order of examination scores, plus any available eligibles who have a grade equal to that of the fifth eligible.
(3) The appointing authority shall appoint, within twenty (20) work days after such names are certified, one (1) of those whose names are certified to fill the vacancy.
(4) When a given name has been considered and rejected for three (3) different positions, it need not again be certified to the same appointing authority.
(b) If the appropriate promotion list does not contain the names of at least three (3) available eligibles willing to accept appointment, or the appropriate employment list does not contain the names of at least five (5) available eligibles willing to accept appointment, the names of all persons on such list who are willing to accept employment shall be certified. The appointing authority is not required to appoint from the eligible list if less than three (3) names appear thereon.
(c) The names of persons who have been considered by the commissioner for certification three (3) times or who have expressed unwillingness to accept appointment may, at the discretion of the commissioner, be removed from a list.
(d) The commissioner may advise with the appointing authority as to the eligible registers to be used in the certification of eligibles. The commissioner, with the approval of the commission, may establish subregisters of the state list upon a geographical basis in order of standing on the state lists. Such subregisters are to be composed of eligibles who have legal residence in the geographical area for which the register was issued. Legal residence is defined as the county in which a person's home is located, and to which the person definitely intends to return even if temporarily absent.
(e) Any person securing a regular appointment under the provisions of this section, who was employed by a political subdivision, a quasi-governmental entity or a non-profit agency, exclusively administering a state program through a contract between the state and such agency, shall be granted all such time employed in the administration of the state program as creditable state service, if such person is to be administering the same program as a regular state employee. Such service shall be considered creditable for the purposes of the administration of the provisions of §§ 8-23-206, 8-50-801 and 8-30-320. The commissioner shall establish a certification procedure by which such service shall be deemed creditable under this subsection (e).
(f) Any person who falsifies legal residence or changes legal residence for the purpose of improving such person's standing on any eligible register shall have such person's name removed from such register and, if employed by the state, the person shall be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal. Any state employee who advises, encourages or instructs an applicant to falsify legal residence or to change residence for the purpose of improving the applicant's standing on any eligible register shall be disciplined, up to and including dismissal.
(g) The securing of waivers, or statements of the relinquishment of the rights of eligibles on promotion lists, is prohibited. No such eligible shall be required, forced or coerced to provide such a waiver or statement. A state officer or employee who violates the provisions of this subsection (g) commits a Class C misdemeanor. The commissioner shall comply with the provisions of § 8-30-207 in order to assure compliance with this subsection (g).
(h) The commissioner shall issue guidelines in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, which shall be specific relative to the manner in which:
(1) Civil service registers are used by appointing authorities;
(2) The manner in which applicants are interviewed relative to both conduct and content;
(3) The notification of applicants not selected for appointment or promotion; and
(4) The notification of applicants of their current status on civil service registers.
[Acts 1939, ch. 221, § 20; C. Supp. 1950, § 1034.42 (Williams, § 423.24t); Acts 1972, ch. 453; 1979, ch. 241, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 8-3209; Acts 1980, ch. 880, § 1; 1983, ch. 279, § 1; 1988, ch. 612, §§ 1, 2; Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 113; 1996, ch. 947, § 1.]