[HISTORY: Comes from L.L. No. 66-1969, adopted 12-16-1969, effective 1-1-1970.]
There shall be a Department of Civil Service, of which the head shall be the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission. The Commission shall consist of three members, appointed for terms of six years, except that the first appointments shall be for terms of six, four and two years, respectively. Not more than two members of the Civil Service Commission shall at any one time be members of the same political party. The members of the Civil Service Commission shall hold no other office under the United States, the State of New York, or any county, town, city, village, school district or special district; nor shall they serve on any political committee or take an active part in the management of any political campaign. They may be removed only as provided in the Civil Service Law of the state for municipal civil service commissions.
The Civil Service Commission shall annually elect one of its members chairman. It shall appoint an Executive Director, and such other officers and employees, within the appropriation therefor, as it shall deem necessary for the performance of its duties. Whenever practicable, the Executive Director shall be a person skilled in the principles and methods of personnel administration and shall perform such duties as may be required by the Commission.
Except as provided in this chapter, the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission shall have, with reference to the Civil Service of the Town of Hempstead, the powers and duties of a municipal civil service commission as provided in the Civil Service Law of this state, and shall be subject to supervision and control by the state Civil Service Commission as are municipal civil service commissions. The Supervisor shall have the powers and duties, with reference to the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission, of the mayor of a city, under the said Civil Service Law, except as provided in this chapter.
All officers and employees of the Town of Hempstead and of all departments, offices, institutions and agencies thereof shall be members of the classified service, except the following:
A. 
Elective officers.
B. 
Heads of departments, including the members of all boards and commissions, and including department heads as defined in the Suburban Town Law.
C. 
Election officers.
D. 
Employees of the Town Board.
The offices and positions in the classified service of the Town of Hempstead shall be arranged in classes and filled in the same manner as now or hereafter provided by the Civil Service Law of this state in the case of offices and positions in the classified service of cities; provided that the classification of offices and positions in force on the date on which this chapter becomes effective in the Town of Hempstead shall continue in force until modified by rules and regulations adopted in due course by the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission subject to the control and supervision of the state Civil Service Commission.
In addition to such provisions as may limit removal or disciplinary action with regard to employees, as set forth in the Civil Service Law of the State of New York, and the rules for the classified service of the Town of Hempstead as promulgated by the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission, no employee of the Town of Hempstead in the noncompetitive class or labor class of the Civil Service who has been in the service of the Town of Hempstead continuously for a period of six months from the date of his appointment shall be removed or otherwise subjected to any disciplinary penalty except for incompetency or misconduct shown after a hearing upon stated charges in the manner provided in Section 75 of the Civil Service Law of the State of New York. Nothing contained herein shall be deemed to limit removal of an employee at the end of or during the term of probation, as provided by rule of the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission.
The status of no person in the classified service of the Town of Hempstead on the date on which this chapter becomes effective in the Town of Hempstead, including pension rights, shall be affected by the taking effect of this chapter.
It shall be the duty of the Town of Hempstead Civil Service Commission to make investigations concerning the enforcement and effect of this chapter, and to do everything in its power to secure observance of the spirit and letter of the Civil Service Law.
[Added 4-26-2016 by L.L. No. 36-2016, effective 5-3-2016]
A permanent competitive class employee may be granted a leave of absence to serve in an exempt, unclassified or noncompetitive position. Such leave of absence shall expire at the end of his/her employment in such exempt, unclassified or noncompetitive class position, provided that such service shall not continue more than two years. The Civil Service Commission, in its discretion, may waive the time limitation in two-year increments, in cases where it finds such a waiver to be in the public interest.