§ 74-i. Transfer of personnel; county, city and town. 1. When, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter or of any other law, the functions, powers and duties exercised by a city or town in the administration of public assistance and care, are transferred or assigned, in whole or in part, to a county, provision shall be made for the county to employ so much of the staff employed by such city or town in the administration and execution of the functions, powers and duties so transferred or assigned as may be practicable and necessary. Officers and employees shall be transferred without further examination or qualification and they shall retain their respective civil service classification and status provided that, in determining the officers and employees to be transferred to a county, such officers and employees shall be selected within each grade of each class of positions in the order of their original appointment in the service of the city or town, as the case may be. Officers and employees in the competitive class of the civil service of the city or town who are not transferred to the county shall have their names entered upon appropriate city or town preferred lists, as the case may be, pursuant to section thirty-one of the civil service law. Temporary and provisional employees may be transferred and shall, thereafter, be subject to such examinations as are required by law. If the functions transferred are retransferred in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, upon such retransfer, the officers or employees who were transferred and who are employed by the county on the date of such retransfer shall likewise be retransferred; and, thereafter, they shall be deemed officers and employees of the city or town from which they were originally transferred, and they shall retain their civil service status, rights and privileges.

2. When, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, the functions, powers and duties exercised by a county in the administration of public assistance and care are transferred or assigned, in whole or in part, to a city, or are assumed in part by a city or town which elects, pursuant to this chapter or any other law, to constitute itself a public welfare district, provision shall be made for the city or town to employ so much of the staff employed by such county in the administration and execution of the functions, powers and duties so transferred, assigned or assumed as may be practicable and necessary. Officers and employees shall be transferred without further examination or qualification and they shall retain their respective civil service classification and status provided that, in determining the officers and employees to be transferred to the city or town, such officers and employees shall be selected within each grade of each class of positions in the order of their original appointment in the service of the county. Officers and employees in the competitive class of the civil service of the county who are not transferred to the city or town shall have their names entered upon appropriate county preferred lists, pursuant to section thirty-one of the civil service law. Temporary and provisional employees may be transferred and shall, thereafter, be subject to such examinations as are required by law. If the functions transferred are retransferred in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, upon such retransfer, the officers and employees who are transferred and who are employed by the city on the date of such retransfer shall likewise be retransferred; and, thereafter, they shall be deemed officers and employees of the county, and they shall retain their civil service status, rights and privileges.