| 06/24/2006 |
| Police, fire recruits sought |
| William Kaempffer , Register Staff |
| NEW HAVEN — The city is looking for a few good men and women to be police officers and firefighters, but finding them might not be as easy as it sounds. Today, the city will kick off a recruitment drive with an open house at John S. Martinez School, at 100 James St. in Fair Haven. It starts at 1 p.m. and officials hope to lure career-minded people to take a look at the tools of the trades and talk with professionals from both fields. It will be the first major recruitment event after months of planning and publicity, and city officials are keeping their fingers crossed for a big turnout. Across the country, police departments have been struggling to fill vacancies. In an effort to lure new hires, some municipalities are offering signing bonuses, extra vacation time, and even bounties to existing employees who refer successful candidates. In the city Fire Department, where jobs are scarce and competition is fierce, the primary concern is diversity. New court-ordered hiring practice has city officials especially concerned about minority representation in any incoming classes in either department. With that as a backdrop, city recruiters are casting a wider net than ever before. "We’re really trying to expand our efforts to look within this entire region, the Northeast region of the country," said John Buturla, the city’s chief administrative officer. Local residents, however, remain the preference, he said. "We want to go out and get people who are from the city, who know the city, or the best qualified and competent candidates outside of the city," he said. To that end, the Police and Fire departments will conduct joint recruitment for the first time in recent memory to maximize "our effectiveness and efficiency to create larger pools of candidates for both departments," Buturla said. The city is looking to seat classes in the two departments early next year. Earlier this month, representatives of the two departments filmed a segment for CTV and they have appeared on local newscasts to pitch their professions. Members of fraternal organizations like the New Haven Hispanic Firefighters Association have blasted out mass e-mails urging recipients to spread the word, and the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce sent out a mailing. "We’re trying to create some buzz. The more the better," said Bonnie Winchester, a public safety spokeswoman. In the coming months, recruiters also plan to visit places such as John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and other universities. A few years back, the New York Police Department held a recruitment drive at Yale. This recruitment is of particular importance for the city because the next police and fire classes will be the first under new stricter hiring guidelines imposed by a judge, who last month branded as illegal the city’s long-standing practice of holding pass-fail exams for prospective hires. The pass-fail exams gave the city administration wide — and the court said illegal — discretion in hiring and ensured diversity. Critics said that discretion was abused. Candidates now will be hired based on their actual rank and that has created some concern that the new policy could undermine the progress the city has made in racial diversity in its public safety agencies. "We are concerned about the new process," said city Firefighter Wayne Ricks, the president of the Firebird Society, a fraternal organization for black firefighters, who suggested a 10-point credit for city residents. "We don’t want to see the numbers go back to where they were in the ’50s and ’60s when it comes to African-American firefighters."
|