All applicants for offices or places in said classified civil service shall be citizens of the United States of America and residents of the State of Illinois and shall be subjected to examination, which shall be public and competitive with limitations specified in the rules of the board as to residence, age, sex, health, habits, moral character and qualifications to perform the duties of the office or place to be filled, which qualifications shall be prescribed in advance of such examination. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the position to which they seek to be appointed, and may include tests of physical qualifications and health and, when appropriate, of manual skill. No question in any examination shall relate to political or religious opinions or affiliations. The superintendent of employment shall control all examinations, and may, whenever an examination is to take place, designate a suitable number of persons to be special examiners; and it shall be the duty of such special examiners to conduct such examinations as the superintendent of employment may direct, and to make return and report thereof to him; and he may at any time substitute any other person in the place of any one so selected; and he may himself, at any time, act as such special examiner and without appointing other special examiners. The board shall, with reference to maintaining eligible registers, proceed by rule to divide the entire service into two divisions; in one of these divisions shall be included all offices and places of employment in the classified service whereto certification is infrequent; in the other shall be included all other offices and places in the classified service. Such rule shall distinctly designate in which division each of said offices or places falls; and as to all offices and places comprised under the first division above mentioned, examination shall be held only when a vacancy exists, and within sixty days thereafter, and an eligible list or register, so prepared, shall be in force only until permanent appointment has been made from such list or register; and as to all other offices and places said board shall, by rule, provide for and said superintendent of employment shall hold a sufficient number of examinations to provide a sufficient number of eligibles on the register for each grade of position in the classified civil service, and if any place in the classified civil service shall become vacant, to which there is no person eligible for appointment, he shall immediately hold an examination for such position and repeat the same, if necessary, until a vacancy is filled in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
Said board may, in its discretion, cancel such portion of any such register as has been in force for more than two years, but not while any vacancy exists for the filling of which a requisition has been made upon the civil service board, and which can be filled from said register. Examinations for an eligible list for each position in the classified service above mentioned shall be held once in two years, unless in the discretion of the board, such examinations are not necessary.
Every applicant who desires to take any civil service examination provided for by this Act shall, at the time of making application, pay to the Park District a fee, as hereinafter provided, to defray the expenses of such examination. Such fees shall be deposited in the general fund of the Park District. Fees to be paid shall be determined from the minimum announced salary for the positions to be filled, and shall be as follows:
Minimum salary of less than $1200 annually............................................$0.50 Minimum salary of $1200 or over and less than $2000 annually...................................1.00 Minimum salary of $2,000 or over and less than $3,000 annually..............................2.00 Minimum salary of $3000 or more annually..............................................3.00
The provisions of this section respecting examinations and payment of examination fees shall be inapplicable to employees transferred to the employment of a park district by virtue of "An Act in relation to an exchange of certain functions, property and personnel among cities, and park districts having coextensive geographic areas and populations in excess of 500,000," enacted by the 70th General Assembly.
70 ILCS 1210/6