San Francisco Civil Service Veterans' Preference

The Civil Service Commission's rules set the preference, in four nearly identical versions: Rule 111, Article III, for most City classes; Rule 211 for the Police Department's uniformed ranks; Rule 311 for the Fire Department's; and Rule 411 for Municipal Transportation Agency service-critical classes. Who is a veteran. Each rule adopts Government Code section 18540.4: a person who served full time in the armed forces in time of national emergency or state military emergency or during any expedition, and was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. A disabled veteran is one with a permanent service-connected disability of record with VA, at any rating. The credit, added once a candidate passes an entrance examination or process (Rule 111.42): A veteran, or the veteran's widow, widower or surviving domestic partner: 5% of the qualifying score. A disabled veteran, or the widow, widower or surviving domestic partner of one: 10%. The spouse or registered domestic partner of a 100% disabled veteran: 10%. It applies to entrance announcements and combined entrance and promotional ones, never to promotion alone. Claim it on the first application. It is used up on permanent appointment from a list and completion of probation, and claims on other examinations are then cancelled. Fire Department uniformed ranks. Rule 311 gives the 5% and the spouse's 10% but has no 10% credit for a disabled veteran, and none of the use-once or notice provisions. Where the City's own pages differ from the rules. The Department of Human Resources' exam page, which says the credit is 35 points (5%) and 70 points (10%) of the qualifying score, asks for service tests the rules do not: 30 days in a campaign or expedition with a medal, service from September 16, 1940 to January 31, 1955, or 181 consecutive days of active duty after January 31, 1955. It also bars anyone discharged "as a result of a court martial", where the rules bar only a dishonorable discharge, and says the credit ends when a candidate "accepts a position" rather than after probation. It does not mention the spouse's credit. The rules are the Commission's and govern. Rule 111's veteran article cross-refers to sections 111.36 and 111.37, which are now pilot-program sections, rather than to its own definitions in 111.40 and 111.41; Rules 211 and 411 have the same slip. The meaning is plain from the article.