BRIDGEPORT — Several white firefighter candidates, already suing the city over the Fire Department's hiring practices, are trying to get three probationary firefighters disqualified from the job, claiming alleged city charter violations. But the city's Civil Service Commission this week rejected one of their challenges against rookie Charles Deer of Fox Street. Ralph Jacobs, the city's personnel director, would not disclose the three candidates' ethnic backgrounds. But most of the 16 rookies are black or Hispanic.

"It's business as usual," John Bolton, one of the plaintiffs, said after the commission's decision Tuesday.

He and two other candidates raised their complaints at Tuesday's commission meeting in City Hall.

Bolton, one of 19 white candidates already suing the city for alleged faulty grading on the entrance exam, claimed Deer was not living in the city when he applied for residency points, which boost entrance exam scores for Bridgeporters.

Jacobs said Bolton and the other candidates did not prove their charges against Deer.

The white candidates also challenged rookies, Pedro Gonzalez Jr. of Park Street and Franklyn Green of Wilmot Avenue, on similar grounds.

All three candidates' addresses were recorded by the Civil Service Department at the time they were ranked on the firefighter hiring list several years ago. The commission tabled Bolton's appeals involving Gonzalez and Green, and sent it to the city attorney's office for more study.

Deer and Gonzalez could not be reached for comment Thursday. A telephone message left for Green was not returned.

None of the three were home Thursday evening at the addresses listed by the Civil Service Department.

Since the hiring of the 16 rookies, allegations have circulated questioning their eligibility and citizenship.

One rookie is not a U.S. citizen, but Jacobs declined to identify that person. The city attorney's staff is studying the citizenship issue.

Jacobs agreed with Bolton the city's Civil Service rules and the city charter require U.S. citizenship for city jobs. He believes those rules were adopted as early as the 1930s. But federal law and the U.S. Constitution override those rules, except for police officers, Jacobs said.

"The city would have to have extremely good justification," to bar a non-U.S. citizen from being a city firefighter or working in a non-police job, he said.

However, non-citizens must follow the law and maintain their authorization to work in the United States, Jacobs noted.

The rookies, who were hired April 3 and are paid a base salary of $37,742, are training on a testing site in Fairfield. They are slated to start work in city fire stations on a rotating schedule in June after they are sworn in.

Meanwhile, the federal lawsuit brought by the white firefighters is scheduled to go to trial in summer 2007, Bolton said.

Bolton and four others are tied for the 192nd slot on the firefighter hiring list. They are the highest-ranked among the plaintiffs.

They seek to have the entrance exam scores tossed out and to halt further hiring. It could not be determined this week what would happen to the 16 rookies if the suit succeeds.

The hiring test being challenged in the suit was administered Sept. 14, 2002. The previous test was held in 1997.

Aaron Leo, who covers regional issues, can be reached at 330-6222.