This law section explains that all hiring decisions within the civil service system must focus on the qualities and capabilities that benefit the public service. These qualities include integrity, character, merit, fitness, and industriousness. To ensure fairness, hiring should be based on formal tests and should ignore any political or social influences. Candidates are selected from lists prepared by the general manager.

This section allows for temporary, six-month long noncivil service appointments when there isn't a list of eligible candidates for a position. However, someone cannot be paid for such a temporary appointment for more than six months within a year, either fiscal or calendar. Furthermore, no job can be filled with temporary appointments for more than six months total in a year. There's an exception for districts that have run an electric distribution system for at least eight years and have over 250,000 people.

If there's no list of eligible candidates for a job position, a district manager in charge of a long-running electric distribution system can hire someone temporarily for up to 12 months until a permanent hire is possible. This applies to districts with at least 250,000 residents and over eight years of operating history.

The general manager has the authority to promote employees to higher positions by conducting tests within lower ranks for promotional opportunities.

When someone is appointed to a permanent job, they typically have a six-month probation period. However, for certain roles like professional, scientific, technical, administrative, management, or executive positions, or jobs needing state certification under specific Water Code rules, the probation can be extended to up to 12 months. During the probation, the general manager can decide to end the appointment. If not ended, the job becomes permanent, following the rules in this section.