Marvin Mandel, Governor                         147

placed in the inactive group, and examinations for such classes shall
be held only when there is no eligible list and vacancies occur.

18.

(a) Examinations held by the [Commissioner] Secretary of
Personnel to establish lists of persons eligible for appointment may
be written or oral or in the form of a demonstration of skill or any
combination of these and shall be of a character fairly to test and
determine the relative [figures [fitness]] fitness and ability of
candidates actually to perform the duties of the class of positions
to which they seek to be appointed. Any investigation of training
and experience and any tests of technical knowledge, manual skill
or physical fitness that in the judgment of the [Commissioner]
Secretary serves to this end may be employed.

(c) Examinations shall be competitive, free and open to all
persons who may be lawfully appointed to any position within the
class for which the examination is held, with such limitations as
may be specified in the rules by the [Commissioner] Secretary as
to age, sex, health, habits, moral character, physical condition, and
other qualifications, except as hereinafter provided that are in the
judgment of the [Commissioner] Secretary prerequisite to the per-
formance of the duties of such positions; provided, however, that
the [Commissioner] Secretary may, from time to time, provide for
general rules exempting from competitive examinations, positions
to be filled by unskilled manual laborers, including positions for road
patrolmen under the State Roads Commission, and may, if he sees
fit, provide in lieu of said competitive examinations such system or
systems of registration for said laborers or otherwise as in its
judgment will best provide for such positions; and provide further
as to all positions that the [Commissioner] Secretary may by his
rules give preference in competition for higher classes of positions
to classified service employees or to classified service employees of
a certain class or classes by giving credit for experience and demon-
strated efficiency (not to exceed twenty per centum of all marks)
in determining the relative fitness for promotion of such employees.
Veterans of the military and naval services of the United States
who served sometime during the war with Spain (April 6, 1898,
to July 2, 1902) or the first World War (April 6, 1917, to November
11, 1918) or in the second World War (September 16, 1940, the date
on which the Selective Service Act became effective, to December
31, 1946, or between June 1, 1950 and June 1, 1953) or who served
sometime during 1965, 1966 and 1967 in a military area or zone
wherein there is conducted an active military policing operation
undertaken by the government of the United States in conjunction
with a foreign nation in combating an existing hostile force or
element without the continental limits of the United States, its
territories or possessions, or who have received, or who are eligible
to receive, any of the following medals: (1) the armed forces ex-
peditionary medal established by executive order 10977; (2) the
Vietnam service medal established by executive order 11231; or any
other service medal established by the President of the United States
and which he finds by executive order to be comparable to either
(1) or (2) above, who have either been honorably discharged or who
have received a certificate of satisfactory completion of such service,
and who have been bona fide residents of this State for five years