Vacancies in higher positions in the classified service shall be filled insofar as practicable by promoting persons holding positions in the next lower grades in the service. Such promotions shall be based upon merit as ascertained where practicable by test, and as shown by the previous service and experience of the person promoted. When a vacancy occurs the Board shall determine, following consultation with the Human Resource Director and the appointing authority, whether promotion is possible and practicable, and if so, what classes of employees are eligible for such promotion and whether an examination or test shall be held to determine the relative fitness of eligible employees, or whether such relative fitness shall be determined by their seniority and efficiency records or by both such examination and records. Upon the joint recommendation of the Human Resource Director and the appointing authority, and with the approval of the Board, an employee may be promoted solely on the basis of a passing grade obtained on a qualification examination.
Promotion shall in every case involve a definite change in duties and an increase in responsibilities and shall not be made merely for the purpose of effecting an increase in compensation. Promotions shall not necessarily be confined to positions within a department but may be within a specific classification or closely related classifications or service of positions in different departments.
The length of service time required before employees shall be eligible for promotion shall be determined by the Board through the adoption of a job specification.
Certification to appointing officers of the names of persons eligible for promotion shall be made in the same manner as certification of persons eligible to original appointment, except with respect to the number certified. A member of any department failing to qualify for promotion shall retain his position and eligibility for future promotion.
The City Manager may, in the case of departments administered by him, transfer an employee from a position in one such department to a position in another such department, provided such transfer does not involve either an increase or a decrease in compensation, and further provided that seniority standing shall be the dominant factor in determining any such transfer. Other transfers, not involving either increase or decrease of compensation, may be made by the department heads concerned with the consent of the employee, but subject to the approval of the transferred employee shall be credited in his new job classification with the seniority in classification that such employee had in his old job classification.