For the purpose of making examinations of persons applying for offices or positions in the Fire Department, and prescribing rules for their conduct, the Council shall appoint three discreet persons, who shall not be members of Council, who shall act and be known as a Civil Service Board, and the City Treasurer shall be ex officio clerk of said Board.
The Civil Service Board, when appointed, shall adopt rules for its own government and cause the minutes of its members to be recorded in a book especially provided for that purpose, which shall be kept by the City Treasurer at his office, and open to public inspection. The Civil Service Board, at least every six months in each year and oftener if it deems it necessary, after ten days notice published in some newspaper of general circulation, in the City and giving the time and place of meeting, shall hold examinations for the purpose of determining the fitness and qualifications of applicants for offices and positions in the Fire Department, which examinations shall be practical and shall fairly test the fitness of the person examined to discharge the duties of the position to which he seeks appointment and such examination shall be made with the aim to secure and maintain an honest and efficient Fire Department. Said Board shall at once, after each of said examinations, place on record in the journal of the Civil Service Board the results of said examinations, giving the names of applicants and the positions sought by them and their respective percentages. In making such examinations, size, weight, intelligence, health, physical appearance, habits and moral standing and surroundings shall be taken into consideration.
All persons examined by said Civil Service Board and receiving a general average of seventy per centum shall be placed upon an eligible list, and thereafter all appointments, whether original or to fill vacancies therein from time to time, shall be filled by the appointment of the applicant who has the highest standing on the eligible list, provided that at the time any appointment is to be made from the eligible list, the Civil Service Board, in its discretion, may make another examination of such person before his appointment and may for good cause on such examination change the grade of such applicant.