CIVIL SERVICE RULES

Definitions of Terms | Section Heading | Tenses, Gender, and Number

Rule One
DEFINITION OF TERMS

101. Definition of Terms.

The following words and terms used in these Rules shall have the meaning indicated in this section unless the content clearly indicates otherwise:

Advancement: A salary increase within the limits of the pay range established for a class.

Allocation: The official determination of the class to which a position belongs, and the assignment of a position to an appropriate class.

Anniversary Date: The date by which and from which employee benefits are computed including, but not necessarily limited to, salary increases, vacation, sick leave, and leaves-of-absence.

Appeal: Any written request for relief from disciplinary or alleged discriminatory action.

Applicant: A person who, according to the Rules, has made formal application for employment.

Appointing Authority: The Board, Commission, group of persons, officer, or person having the power by lawful delegated authority to make appointment to or removal from an established position in the County service. The terms Appointing Authority, Appointing Power, and Appointing Officer shall be construed to be synonymous.

Appointment: The offer to a person and the acceptance of a position, and his starting to perform work in accordance with these Rules.

Basic Salary or Basic Compensation: Each of the salaries established within each salary range in the compensation plan.

Board: When used alone, the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara.

Calendar Year: A year starting on January 1 and terminating on the close of the following December 31.

Candidate: A person who has been admitted to an examination.

Certification: The submission of names of eligibles from an appropriate eligible list or lists to an appointing authority by the Personnel Director.

Class or Class of Positions: A group of positions sufficiently similar as to duties and responsibilities that the same title, the same test of fitness, and the same schedule of compensation may be applied to each position in the group.

Classification or Reclassification: The judging of a position's contents and its allocation by the Board of Supervisors to a class in accordance with the duties performed and the authority and responsibilities exercised.

Classification Plan: The orderly arrangement and grouping of positions in classes according to duties, authority, and responsibilities.

Classified Service: All offices, positions, and employments in the Santa Barbara County service except those expressly designated as exempt from the provisions of the Civil Service System under Article II, Section 27-25 of the Santa Barbara County Code, unless they are otherwise required to be in the classified service because of State or Federal laws or regulations.

Class Series: A number of classes related to one another in terms of ascending difficulty and responsibility of work within the same occupational field.

Class Specification: The official description of a class adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

Commission: When used alone, the Santa Barbara County Civil Service Commission.

Compensation: The salary, wage, allowance, and all other forms of valuable consideration, earned by or paid to an employee by reason of service in any position, but does not include monetary reimbursement for necessary expenses incurred by an employee.

Compensation Plan: A schedule of salaries established by ordinance for the several classes of positions recognized in the classification plan, so that all positions of a given class will be paid the same salary range established for the class.

Continuous Service: Uninterrupted employment, except by authorized absence, as a regular employee in the County service.

County: The County of Santa Barbara, including special districts as may be determined by the Board of Supervisors.

County Service: The performance by employees of official duties for the County of Santa Barbara.

Day: Calendar day unless otherwise specified.

Demotion: The change of an employee from a position in one class to a position in another class with a lower salary, either on a voluntary basis or on an involuntary basis due to layoff or as the result of a disciplinary action.

Department: An administrative branch of the County government with a line of work, and with one or more employees under the charge of a specific individual who is known as the Department Head.

Director: The Director of Personnel.

Disciplinary Probation: A form of disciplinary action, as distinguished from probation for new employees.

Dismissal: The separation of an employee from the classified service for cause.

Eligible: Any person on a reemployment or eligible list for a given class.

Eligible List: An officially promulgated list of names of persons, ranked in order of their final examination ratings or as specially provided for reemployment and general eligible lists, who are eligible for certification for a specific class.

Emergency Appointment: A temporary appointment made in an emergency situation under conditions specified in these Rules.

Employee: A person who is legally occupying a position in the County service or who is on authorized leave-of-absence from such a position.

Examination: Any test or group of tests to determine the fitness and relative ability of persons seeking employment or promotion in the classified service.

Exempt: A position or employee exempted from the classified service.

Extra Help: Persons employed in non-regular, non-permanent positions in accordance with these Rules to meet a peak load or other unusual work situation, and including seasonal and recurrent or intermittent appointments.

Final Filing Date: The last date on which an applicant may apply for a given examination or position.

Flexible Staffing: A connection of classes in a series allocated as one position in which the same work is performed but at different levels of proficiency based on skills and the meeting of minimum qualifications.

Full-Time Position: A regular position established by a current salary ordinance or resolution and scheduled to provide services for the total number of hours in the County's established workweek(s).

Funded Position: A position existing in a salary resolution for which the Board of Supervisors has specifically provided monies; an unfunded position is one for which the Board of Supervisors has specifically not provided monies.

Hearing: A public meeting of the Civil Service Commission to consider personnel matters, appeals, or amendment to these Rules.

Investigation: An investigation which the Commission may consider desirable concerning the administration of personnel or conditions of employment in the County service.

Layoff: Involuntary separation of an employee from a regular position because of change in Departmental organization or displacement by another employee.

Leave-of-Absence: An authorized absence from duty for a specified period and for a specified purpose, with the right to return to the position at the end of the period.

Limited Term Appointment: An appointment to a regular position for a limited or temporary period as provided in these Rules.

Minimum Qualifications: The basic education, experience, training, ability, knowledge, license, and other requirements established for entrance to examinations, for appointment, or for promotion.

Officer: A person holding an elective or appointive office.

Open Examination: A competitive examination in which any qualified person may participate.

Original Appointment: The first appointment of an employee to a classified position.

Part-Time Position: A regular position established by a current salary resolution and scheduled to provide services for a specified fraction of the number of hours in the County's established workweek(s).

Permanent Employee: An employee in the classified service who has satisfactorily completed the probationary period in his present class.

Permanent Position: Any position in the classified service which has required, or which is likely to require, the services of a regular employee for more than six continuous calendar months.

Permanent Status: The status of an employee who is lawfully retained in his position after the completion of the probationary period as provided in these Rules.

Permanent-Probationary Status: The status of an employee who has permanent status in the classified service through satisfactory completion of a probationary period and who is serving a new probationary period in a different class.

Position: A specific office or employment provided by the salary resolution, whether occupied or vacant, temporary or permanent, part-time or full-time, calling for the performance of certain duties and the carrying of certain responsibilities by an employee.

Probationary Employee or Probationer: An employee who is serving a probationary period.

Probationary Period: The working test period required before a regular appointment is completed.

Probationary Status: The status of an employee legally holding a position but who has not completed the required probationary period.

Proctor: A person designated by the Personnel Director to conduct an examination.

Promotion: The advancement of an employee from a position in one class to a position in another class with a higher salary.

Promotional Examination: An examination limited to qualified permanent or probationary employees.

Protest of Disqualification: A request for an investigation to the Commission from an applicant who has been disqualified from examination under Rule Five.

Provisional Appointment: An appointment of a qualified person to fill a position for which no appropriate eligible list exists, pending an examination as provided in these Rules.

Provisional Employee: An employee holding a position under provisional appointment.

Public Notice: The announcement of examinations, meetings, hearings, and other actions of the Commission or Personnel Department as provided in these Rules.

Qualified: An applicant or appointee who meets the employment standards for a class.

Reallocation: Reassignment or change in the allocation of an individual position by raising it to a higher class, reducing it to a lower class, or moving it to another class at the same level, on the basis of significant changes in the kind, difficulty, or responsibility of the duties performed in such position.

Reassignment: Movement of an employee from one position to another position in the same class within the same department.

Reclassification: See Classification.

Reemployment: Appointment from a reemployment list after layoff.

Reemployment List: A list of persons who have been laid off from probationary or permanent status in a class and who are entitled to preference in appointments to any funded vacancies in that class as provided in these Rules.

Regular Appointment: Any appointment to a regular position.

Regular Employee: A person appointed through certification to a vacancy in a regular position.

Regular Position: Any permanent position in the classified service that requires filling through certification, or by provisional appointment.

Reinstatement: The appointment, as provided in these Rules, of a former employee who has resigned.

Resignation: The voluntary action of an employee which separates him from his position and severs his status as a classified employee.

Salary: See Compensation.

Salary Range: The range of compensation, minimum to maximum, normally five steps, A through E, established for a class by a salary ordinance or a resolution adopted by the Board of Supervisors. In a shortened salary range, i.e., one, two, three, or four steps, the top step shall be the counterpart of Step E of a five-step range and, in a descending order, the lower steps shall equate to Steps D, C, and B of a five-step range.

Separation: The termination of employment of an individual.

Series: One or more classes in the same occupational, professional, or functional field.

Service Credit: Continuous service in a regular position in a department, including all service in an affected class, plus all service in classes with the same or higher salary ranges, only.

Specification: See Class Specification.

Split-Off: The division of one class into two or more levels or kinds of new classes.

Standing: The order of priority on an eligible list of each candidate who passes an examination. All candidates who have the same final examination rating for the same examination shall be given the same standing.

State: The State of California.

Status: The condition of an employee's present employment, such as temporary, provisional, probationary, permanent, etc.

Suspension: An enforced leave of absence of an employee without pay for disciplinary purposes as provided in these Rules.

Temporary Appointment: See Limited Term Appointment.

Temporary Assignment Out of Class: A regular employee may be temporarily assigned the duties of a higher classification pursuant to Rule 418.

Title or Class Title: The official nomenclature given to a class of positions, or to each position allocated to the class, and to the legally-appointed incumbent of each position allocated to the class.

Transfer: Any of the following movements of an employee:

a. A change from one department to another department within the same class;
b. A change from one class to a different class with the same salary range, either within a department or to another department.

Vacancy or Vacant Position: Any unfilled position in the classified service.

Year: Three hundred and sixty-five (365) consecutive days.

102. Section Headings.

Section headings of these Rules shall not be deemed to govern, limit, modify, or in any manner affect the scope, meaning, or intent of any section hereof.

103. Tenses, Gender, and Number.

The present tense includes the past and future tenses; and the future, the present. Shall is mandatory and may is permissive. The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter. The singular number includes the plural; and the plural, the singular.