Hearing tonight on recent fire test

07/23/2007

Angela Carter , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — The Board of Aldermen's Public Safety Committee will hold a public hearing tonight on the Fire Department's most recent test for new hires. The recruitment process turned controversial when city administrators announced, well after it was underway, that a two-year hiring list would be scored 100 percent off the oral exam, rather than combining scores from both the written and oral portions.

Approximately 70 percent of the people who took the oral exam failed and the written test was tallied on a pass/fail basis.

Chris W. Hornick, president of CWH Research, Inc., the Colorado-based firm that administered the tests, informed the Public Safety Committee's staff in the Office of Legislative Services that he and the company's Vice President Kathy Fox would be out of the country this week and unable to attend tonight's hearing.

The committee meets in the Aldermanic Chamber at City Hall, 165 Church St.

Committee Chairman Alexander Rhodeen, D-13, of Fair Haven Heights, said the hearing would take place without the fire test consultants.

City Chief Administrative Officer Robert Smuts, who oversees the city's public safety departments, said he would make a presentation to the committee and members of the public who attend.

Rhodeen said he is committed to clarifying what the process was and "hearing testimony on how to improve the process so that we avoid the confusion and frustration that surrounded the last round of testing." Rhodeen also said he is supportive of holding an additional hearing, if necessary.

Smuts said there were approximately 1,300 applicants competing for about 25 openings in the Fire Department. That alone was going to lead to disappointment, but he said the city should have done a better job communicating its scoring mechanisms.

"When you have a project that large, things go wrong," Smuts said. "The biggest problem was communication, largely because of how quickly we tried to do the project."

He defended the test as one that was well constructed and yielded good candidates.

CWH made presentations back in May to the Board of Aldermen and the Civil Service Commission. The commission has since certified a list of about 200 people.

Angela Carter can be reached at 789-5614 or acarter@nhregister.com .