http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.racism3aug04,0,532544.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By Matt Breslow
Staff Writer
August 4, 2007
NORWALK - Members of a Common Council panel that probed the racial climate in the fire department yesterday released recommendations to the Board of Fire Commissioners.
The investigative panel - a subcommittee of the council's Health, Welfare and Public Safety Committee -Êheld hearings after a black firefighter publicized a video showing a colleague using two racial slurs in a workplace chat.
The firefighter showed the video to the media in November, when a discrimination complaint he filed with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities - now settled -Êwas pending.
No other Norwalk firefighter said racism was a problem in the department during hearings the investigative panel held this year.
However, the department's need to hire more minorities - acknowledged by Chief Denis McCarthy - was discussed at length during the hearings.
Recommendations from panel members largely involve increasing the number of minority firefighters. A few members suggested diversity training for all city employees.
The Rev. Phyllis Bolden, subcommittee chairwoman, yesterday gave Mayor Richard Moccia, a fire commissioner, recommendations she and three other panel members drafted individually. Moccia forwarded copies to the other two fire commissioners.
"I appreciate the effort that the committee put forward, and Rev. Bolden," Moccia said yesterday. "I appreciate the recommendations that have been made."
Moccia said he would ensure every Common Council member has a copy, "and we will hopefully put an end to this episode and now move forward."
Some panel members' suggestions already were being addressed, Moccia said. For example, he said, the city is revisiting its firefighter testing procedures in hopes of attracting more minorities and women.
Panel member Joanne Romano, who wrote she did not feel the fire department was a "racist or discriminating entity," recommended the city hold ongoing diversity training for all employees.
Moccia said he plans to meet with Adam Bovilsky, the city's new human relations director, to discuss implementing ongoing, citywide diversity training.
"We can't just single one department out," Moccia said.
He said he wants the city to conduct as much of the training as possible, as hiring an outside firm could be expensive.
McCarthy agreed diversity training should be continuous for his and other city departments.
"Those skills need to be refreshed as society changes, as issues come up, so that will be one of our primary objectives," he said.
Panel member William Krummel wrote the fire department should "significantly increase minority representation through active and imaginative recruiting" and encourage the advancement of minority members. He suggested the department "greatly increase (its) interaction with the minority community, with the emphasis on the community coming to see the (department) as theirs."
McCarthy said the department enjoys a good relationship with the community, noting two recent occasions on which firefighters helped blaze victims after the flames were extinguished. Firefighters found pro bono services for a family that lost everything, and helped pay funeral expenses for a victim in a fatal blaze, he said.
"Is there room for the fire department to expand . . . some of its services or have closer interaction with community groups? Absolutely," McCarthy said.
Carvin Hilliard, another panel member, wrote the department must recruit more women and minorities, and they must be part of the department's "leadership structure." The department has never had a female firefighter.
Hilliard recommended having McCarthy report quarterly to the Health, Welfare and Public Safety Committee on the department's progress in hiring more women and minorities.
McCarthy reiterated a sentiment he's repeated publicly: that the fire department should reflect the diverse community it serves.
The department examined "best practices" across the country for minority recruitment and employment. When tests for prospective firefighters and promotional exams are administered, the department wants to ensure there is no "built-in bias," McCarthy said.
Changes were made for the most recent entry-level testing process last year, attracting double the number of minority candidates it did in 2001, he said.
"That still didn't resolve the issue of increasing (minority) employment," McCarthy said.
While the results of last year's test will remain valid for two to three years, the chief said recruitment must be ongoing and not occur only in the months before the next test.
Bolden wrote that fire department attitudes toward "racial banter" were "much too passive;" Romano recommended city departments collaborate to create a code of conduct manual for employees.
The fire department plans to create such a manual in accordance with a recommendation from 3-D Seminars LLC, a firm hired to study race relations at the department after the controversy surrounding the firehouse video.
The manual, to be written with 3-D, will address appropriate language and behavior. It will outline ways that members of each level of the department's hierarchy should respond to inappropriateness, McCarthy said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.