IN RE: SOCIAL SERVICES EMPLOYEES UNION LOCAL 371 (2019)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carmen Victoria St. George, J.), entered February 27, 2018, denying the petition brought pursuant to CPLR article 78 for, inter alia, a declaration that results of a civil service examination administered by respondent New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) were null and void, and dismissing the proceeding, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Petitioner failed to establish that DCAS's inclusion of 20 ungraded research questions in an examination administered for the position of Associate Fraud Investigator violated the merit and fitness clause of the New York State Constitution (art. V, § 6), the state's Civil Service Law § 50(1), or was otherwise arbitrary and capricious. DCAS is afforded considerable discretion in preparing and administering civil service examinations (see Matter of Gallagher v. City of New York, 307 A.D.2d 76, 81, 761 N.Y.S.2d 37 [1st Dept. 2003], lv denied 1 N.Y.3d 503, 775 N.Y.S.2d 779, 807 N.E.2d 892 [2003]). As long as the examination is “reasonable in testing for the skills identified for the position” and “ ‘competitive’ in the constitutional context,” courts should not “second guess the format or the methods of the examination” (Matter of Merlino v. Schneider, 93 N.Y.2d 477, 486, 693 N.Y.S.2d 71, 715 N.E.2d 99 [1999]; see also Gallagher, 307 A.D.2d at 81, 761 N.Y.S.2d 37).

DCAS provided reasonable bases for including the 20 ungraded research questions in the examination. Specifically, the inclusion of these questions allowed DCAS to develop alternate forms of an exam for a given title that would yield measurably equivalent outcomes. Research questions also provided a means for “pre-testing” the validity of exam questions, ensuring that these questions were valid across differing groups of test-takers, regardless of their racial or ethnic background (see Guardians Assn. of New York City Police Dept., Inc. v. Civil Serv. Commn. of City of New York, 630 F.2d 79 [2d Cir. 1980], cert. denied 452 U.S. 940, 101 S.Ct. 3083, 69 L.Ed.2d 954 [1981]). Moreover, the time for taking the examination was extended to provide adequate time to answer all questions.

Petitioner fails to sufficiently allege that the inclusion of these ungraded questions was arbitrary or capricious. Indeed, all candidates were scored the same way on the graded questions, and the test did not inherently disadvantage any one candidate. Moreover, candidates were evaluated only on the basis of questions that had already been validated as providing an accurate measure of merit and fitness for the role. DCAS is not required to adopt petitioner's preferred method of testing proposed examination questions, particularly where the method chosen meets the constitutional mandate (see Matter of Hughes v. Doherty, 5 N.Y.3d 100, 105–06, 800 N.Y.S.2d 85, 833 N.E.2d 228 [2005]).

We have considered the petitioner's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.