Bridgeport firefighters buoyed by Scotus ruling
Posted: Jul 17, 2009 12:58 PM EDT
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A dozen white firefighters in Bridgeport are hoping that a recent Supreme Court decision in favor of their counterparts in New Haven will boost their own discrimination complaint against Connecticut's largest city.
The lawsuit by Bridgeport firefighters, which was transferred from state to federal court in May, alleges that the city should not have rescored a 2007 promotion exam because minority candidates performed poorly.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of 20 New Haven firefighters last month who made similar claims of reverse discrimination. The high court ruled 5-4 that the white firefighters were denied promotions unfairly because of their race, reversing a decision that that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as a federal appeals court judge.
The Senate is weighing Sotomayor's nomination this week.
Richard Albrecht, attorney for the Bridgeport firefighters, said the Supreme Court ruling will have a "dramatic" affect on the Bridgeport case and he is hopeful for a settlement. The Bridgeport firefighters filed their lawsuit in August 2008, about two months after Sotomayor and the appeals court ruled against the New Haven firefighters.
"It changed the whole ball game," Albrecht said.
City officials are evaluating the effect of the high court ruling on the Bridgeport case, said Ralph Jacobs, personnel director of the Bridgeport Civil Service Commission.
Bridgeport officials said the success rate for minority candidates in the 2007 test would have been "considerably less" than 80 percent of the success rate for white candidates, a federal rule local officials cited as they weighed whether the test was constitutional.
The city told firefighters in a letter last year that changing the scoring method by giving greater weight to the oral part of the test was the best solution.
"This is so because it avoids throwing out a valid examination, reasonably reduces the adverse impact on African Americans and Hispanic Americans, sustains the quality of the exam consistent with the job analysis and meets the city's obligations under federal law," Jacobs wrote.
The new test results led the white firefighters to have a lower ranking, decreasing their odds of getting promoted, according to the lawsuit. The firefighters appealed, but the city promoted 15 firefighters based on the new scoring method before all the appeals could be heard, the lawsuit alleges.
"They were really angry," Albrecht said. "These guys never cease to be amazed at what the city will do in these situations."
Firefighter Philip Reeves took the test after a year in Iraq as a National Guard pilot who battled sandstorms and other dangers to move the mortally wounded. He studied for the test, hoping for a promotion to lieutenant, while readjusting to civilian life and renewing his relationships with his wife and children.
"It's damn hard," Reeves said. "The dynamic of your family changes when you're gone."
Reeves, 50, said he did well enough on the test to rank 18th, but his name disappeared from the promotional list when it was rescored with greater weight given to the oral portion because minority candidates performed poorly.
"I was shocked," Reeves said Thursday. "You invest a lot of heart and soul into this process."
Reeves left the department in disgust. He now works as an instructor pilot with the National Guard in Massachusetts, a job that entails a 100-mile commute from his home in Wilton, Conn.
Three of the 12 firefighters who are suing did get promoted under the revised list, but joined the lawsuit based on the principle involved, Albrecht said.
Jacobs said most of those promoted were white. Applying the new weighting benefited some white firefighters and hurt others, as it did for black and Hispanic firefighters, he said.
Jacobs acknowledged that the move was unusual, but said officials reluctantly rescored the exam to comply with the law.
"It was a good-faith effort to carry out the law without damaging any body's prospects for succeeding with the test any more than was absolutely necessary," Jacobs said. "We think we did the right thing when we did it."
The original weighting resulted from union negotiations, Jacobs said. That process was flawed, he said, contending that it should be been based on an analysis by exam experts.
Ronald Mackey, past president of the Firebird Society of Bridgeport, which represents minority firefighters, said past tests in Bridgeport gave the higher weight to the oral part of the test and resulted in a diverse group of candidates.
"Why all of a sudden did the city decide to change those rates?" Mackey asked.
Mackey said the city had the right to rescore the test but he said he also has concerns with how it was done because of the lack of minority candidates moving up in rank.
The Bridgeport case was even more egregious than New Haven, Albrecht said, because Bridgeport officials promoted firefighters based on the new scores while New Haven canceled the test and no one was promoted.
City attorneys declined to comment.
The Supreme Court ruling poses a problem for Bridgeport, said Bernard Jacques, an employment law attorney in Hartford.
"I think there is no question Bridgeport's life just got more complicated," Jacques said. "Unless Bridgeport can explain why it changed the criteria and that explanation is anchored in job relatedness of the change, they are headed for a problem. The mere fact that the numbers don't come out the way you would expect them to come out, it's not a good enough reason."
Bridgeport officials could argue that they realized they had a better alternative that was not discriminatory, said Jon Bauer, a University of Connecticut law professor who is an expert on employment discrimination law.
Reeves said he does not expect the promotion based on his experience in Iraq, but because of his original score. Becoming lieutenant is tough because of the competition and is a key promotion for climbing the ranks to captain and assistant chief, he said.
"I loved the fire job and I loved working in the city of Bridgeport for the fire department," Reeves said. "And I miss it every day. You just don't put that down easy."
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