Legislature approves changes to Anniston Civil Service System

The Alabama legislature has given final passage to  a bill that would allow Anniston to trim down the number of employees governed by its civil service system.  The legislation, passed by the Senate 21-0 Wednesday, will redefine "civil service employee" in Anniston to mean any employee of the police or fire departments. Employees now working in other departments would be covered by the Civil Service Board, but new hires in those departments would not.  Sen. Del Marsh, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said he brought the bill at the request of city leaders, who wanted more leeway to manage high-level positions in city government.

The original bill would have exempted 139 city employees from Civil Service Board coverage. City leaders later changed the proposal to grandfather in current city employees.

The bill heads to Gov. Robert Bentley's desk.