STAMFORD -- Disappointing results from the recent firefighters' exam -- where the top scorers were almost exclusively white men -- have city officials talking about changing the way they recruit and hire for the job.
Ninety-three percent of the 233 applicants who passed the written and physical tests are white, despite efforts to make the department more racially and ethnically diverse.
Three Hispanic men are the only minorities who scored high enough on the August exam to make it to the first tier on the city's hiring list. The other 117 are white men.
From that list of 120, the city is in the process of hiring four men -- two white and two Hispanic.
Only applicants who scored high enough to make it to the first tier, also known as a wave, are eligible to be hired in the next year. No female or black candidates made the cut.
Fire Chief Robert McGrath, who formed a recruitment committee last year charged with getting more minorities to apply, was disappointed by the lack of diversity on the hiring list. Stamford Fire & Rescue may hire applicants only from the list.
"I would have hoped it would have reflected the community better," said McGrath, who has a goal to make the department as diverse as the city.
Blacks and Hispanics account for about 31 percent of the city's population, yet represent 17 percent of Stamford Fire & Rescue's 232 firefighters. There are 29 black men, 10 Hispanic men, an Asian man and a white woman on the department roster. The first -- and last -- time the city hired female firefighters was in 1999, when Michele McEwen and Margaret Sammarone joined the department. Sammarone quit in 2002.
Stamford firefighters make about $38,000 in their first year and move to the top of the pay scale after five years. The average base salary for a city firefighter is $61,218.
Going forward, the Fire Commission, which is charged with interviewing and selecting new hires, will have to decide whether it wants to hire minorities from the bottom of the hiring list, or more white men who will further tip the racial imbalance.
Most of the minorities eligible to be hired are near the bottom of the list. There are 158 other applicants ahead of the highest-scoring black applicant on the list. He scored a 48 out of a possible 78, meaning he answered 62 percent of the questions right. The only woman on the hiring list scored a 43 -- lower than 197 other applicants.
Applicants needed to score at least a 37 to pass. They were able to score above 78 if they qualified for bonus points awarded to city residents and veterans.
Sources say the city lowered the passing score to ensure women and blacks would make it to the hiring list.
Had the city required applicants to get at least 60 percent of the questions right, as it did during the last firefighters' test in 2002, 160 would have passed rather than 233. Then there would have been one black man and no women on the list.
The hiring list is divided into two groups. The first tier of applicants with the 120 best scores are eligible to be hired during the first two years. The other 113 with passing grades are in a second tier that become eligible for employment in the second and third years.
When the first tier expires in September 2007, seven black men, four Hispanic men, one woman and one man who listed his race as "other" will become eligible for employment with the city.
Mayor Dannel Malloy said he has no qualms about hiring minorities who become eligible for hire in the latter two years of the list. He doesn't view it as passing over white men at the top.
"All of these people are eligible for employment and I want a work force that's representative of the community," Malloy said.
A new approach
Officials have been saying for years they want a more diverse fire department and some say it's time to replace the traditional pencil-and-paper exam.
Director of Human Resources Dennis Murphy said one option is to switch to an interactive format where participants are shown a videotaped segment of a situation a firefighter would face on the job and are asked how they would respond.
McGrath said the current exam focuses too heavily on reading comprehension, which is not as important as hands-on skills for entry-level firefighters. He supports alternate forms of testing that take a more practical approach.
"If I didn't study for the exam and I took it, I would have a problem with it," said McGrath, who has more than 20 years of experience. "It's not easy."
All the applicants were given a 162-page study manual before the exam and had the option of ordering practice exams from the test company.
Malloy wants to create a training program to prepare applicants for the physical agility test, which knocks out about half of the candidates. Only applicants who pass the Candidate Physical Ability Test are invited to take the written exam.
Not only did women have trouble passing, but 13 of the 24 eligible didn't take it. Two passed.
Getting black men to take the test was also a struggle. According to an analysis prepared by the city's Human Resources Department, 52 of the 80 black men eligible did not take the CPAT. Sixteen passed; 12 failed.
Malloy said a training program to get applicants in shape would be a worthwhile use of taxpayers' money if it increases the number of minorities eligible for hire.
Officials say they have tried reaching out to minorities and it's not working.
McGrath paid firefighters on the recruitment committee to go to churches, synagogues and colleges around Fairfield County, put up 10,000 posters and talk to young people about careers in fire service. But he said they saw no surge in applications from the targeted groups.
Of the 728 who applied, 77 percent were white men, 13 percent were black men, 6 percent were Hispanic men, 3 percent were women, and 1 percent were men of other ethnic backgrounds.
McGrath is focusing on another approach, working with the Police Department and the Board of Education to create a public safety academy next summer for teens interested in police and fire careers. The department has state funding that will cover a portion of the cost. The chief wants to model it after a similar program run through the Connecticut Fire Academy in Windsor Locks.
Malloy said he wants to encourage teens in the southern portion of the city, where there are more minorities, to join the volunteer departments that cover the middle and northern sections of the city. Volunteering might spark their interest in becoming career firefighters and increase the pool of minority applicants, he said.
"If we can help them, why not help them make the connections that lead to one fantastic career?" Malloy said.
The next class
Of the four new hires expected to enter a 10-week training program at the state Fire Academy in Windsor Locks in March, two were top performers on the written exam.
James Romaniello of Stamford, son of Fire Capt. James Romaniello, scored an 82 -- the second highest -- and Daniel Isidro of Stamford scored an 80, tying him with another applicant for fourth place. Romaniello is white; Isidro is Hispanic.
The other two new hires were picked from much farther down the list.
More than 100 other applicants scored higher than Scott Avalos of Stamford, son of Fire Capt. William Avalos, who got a 58. Avalos is Hispanic.
Alessio Corrente, who is white, scored a 60 -- putting him behind 88 other applicants on the list.
All of their scores include five bonus points for living in the city. Veterans also get bonus points, though none of the four qualified.
Applicants must live within a 30-mile radius of the city to be hired.
The commission also selected eight alternates: Kevin Connell, Craig Leonard, Peter Lyden, Joseph Terenzio, Christopher Brennan -- son of Fire Commissioner E. Gaynor Brennan -- James Doherty, Brien Malloy -- the mayor's nephew -- and Michael McGrath, the fire chief's son. The alternates would replace any of the four new hires should they drop out or become disqualified. They also are next in line to be hired.
The only applicant to get a perfect score, Shawn Sasser of Stamford, a volunteer with the Turn of River Fire Department, was not offered a job.
Asked how important the written test scores were in selecting the new hires, Fire Commission Chairman Richard Lyons said members made no distinction between the 120. All that mattered was that they made it to the hiring list, Lyons said.
He said the commission does not put much weight on the scores because they only see a list that separates the top 120 into three ranks.
"We don't see the raw scores," Lyons said.
Although they know applicants in rank 1 scored better than those in rank 2, Lyons said they have no way of knowing how applicants did against others within their rank.
The commission selected the four new hires, and the eight alternates, from all three ranks.
Isidro, Romaniello and Connell were all in rank 1. Leonard, Lyden, Malloy and Terenzio were in rank 2. Avalos, Corrente, Brennan, Doherty and McGrath were in rank 3.
Lyons said the commission put emphasis on the five- to 10-minute interviews they had with all 120 candidates.
"The interview process is a major factor," he said.
On the issue of the department hiring two candidates who scored lower than dozens of other applicants, McGrath said he could not comment because he was not involved in the selection process. McGrath recused himself because his son took the test. The fire commission typically gets recommendations from the fire chief and his assistants and deputy chiefs.
Lyons pointed out that he was on the commission in 1999 when the city's first female firefighters were hired. He said members would like to hire more women, blacks and Hispanics, but they don't have the option if they are not on the hiring list.
"This commission has gone out of its way to increase the minority and female population of the fire department," he said. "But if they are not on the list, we cannot get at them."
Spurring more interest in those groups is a problem for which there is no easy solution, Lyons said.
"We're open to suggestions," he said.
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