Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
City to hire 6 rejected white firefighters
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/...e_firefighters/
The Boston Fire Department has agreed to hire six men who were passed over in favor of minority group members with lower test scores, marking the first time the city has voluntarily agreed to hire rejected white applicants since a federal appeals court declared its affirmative action plan unconstitutional last March.
The six white men will join four others, who challenged the department
#39;s 29-year-old affirmative action plan and won a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. All of the men had been turned down in favor of minority applicants who scored lower on a state
wide
civil service exam.
"This was a recognition by the city that the time has come
to do away with the minority hiring preferences and judge everyone on an equal footing regardless of their race," said Mark J. Ventola, the lawyer for the six men who had filed suit in August. "It's a trend I'm hoping will continue."
City officials, though, insisted that their decision last week to hire the men is not a sign that Boston will hire dozens of other white men who also were rejected for firefighting jobs despite high test scores.
A Globe analysis conducted last spring found that some 70 white applicants were turned down, even though they scored better than minorities who were chosen.
"This settlement is merely a consequence of the original [US Appea
ls Court] decision," Seth Gitell, spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said yesterday. "It applies only to the six plaintiffs in this particular case."
According to Ventola, the c
ity will put
on a new firefighter class in March that will be made up at least in part by white men previously rejected for the job.
Besides Vent
ola's clients -- Gerard Ahern, William Berrio, Martin Conneely, Steven Fairneny, Kevin Meehan, and Michael Norton -- the class will also include four plaintiffs from the original court case -- Sean O'Brien, C. Roger Kendrick Jr., Joseph Sullivan, and Robert Dillon, Ventola said.
Last summer, city officials balked even at hiring the four original plaintiffs, relenting only after being ordered to by a federal judge.
The men are now working in a Boston Fire Department support unit, but will not officially become firefighters until the next class is hired.
Despite the city's assertion that the agreement does not set a precedent,
lawyers who are filing two other suits hope their clients may also be added to the March firefighters' class.
Edward Cooley, who filed suit in October in federal court on behalf of five wh
ite applicants who
scored 99 on the 2000 civil service test, said he hopes the city will move quickly to hire his clients also.
But he said lawsuits should be unnecessary.
n"I don't see why I even had to be retained," said Cooley. "The ruling handed down by the First Circuit Court of Appeals was clear: The hiring practice had fulfilled its objective, and the continued application constituted a violation of their constitutional rights.
"The city had it within its ability to figure out the other people who were affected, the people who hadn't brought suit, and should have done what was necessary to make it right for them."
A fourth suit is expected to be filed next week.
The NAACP filed suit in the early 1970s arguing that the city's hiring an
d recruiting practices discriminated against minorities.
While there had been dramatic increases in the city's minority population -- the city was 23 percent minority at the time of th
e NAACP lawsuit -- only 1
percent of the fire department was black or Hispanic.
The firefighting force is now 40 percent black and Hispanic, while the two groups represent slightly more than 38 percent of the city's population.
nSince the court order, the city has hired one minority group member for every white applicant.
In most years, nearly all of the slots set aside for white applicants have gone to veterans or children of firefighters killed or disabled at work. Those applicants are given a special preference and need score only 70 to jump to the top of the list.
As a result, other white applicants with perfect or near perfect scores have been shut out. Since fewer blacks and Hispanics apply and fewer are veterans or the children of fallen or disabled firefighters, they have cons
istently been able to land jobs with lower test scores.
In April 2001, five white applicants challenged the policy for the first time since 1989, when it was upheld by the US Supreme C
ourt.
In March the appeals
court found that the Police Department was discriminatory because it had already achieved racial balance.
Karen Miller -- head of the Boston Society of Vulcans, an association of minority firefighters -- called the city
's recent decision to hire the six men "insane."
"I think it's a form of discrimination," she said. "There have been minority candidates who have been bypassed over the past couple of years for bogus medical reasons -- what about them? Why aren't they being hired?"
And, she said, why not eliminate the other preferences, for veterans and children of fallen or disabled firefighters? Those preferences favor white applicants, she said.
In a department that was nearly all white when the court order was iss
ued in 1974, she predicted the effects will be dire.
"I think you're going to see very low numbers of candidates of color coming through the door," Miller said. "
;We won't maintain the diversity it t
ook so long to achieve."
A lawsuit challenging a nearly identical policy in the Boston Police Department was filed last month in federal court.
*************
What is truly amazing is that this is the liberal bastion of bean town!
T.N.B.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/...e_firefighters/
The Boston Fire Department has agreed to hire six men who were passed over in favor of minority group members with lower test scores, marking the first time the city has voluntarily agreed to hire rejected white applicants since a federal appeals court declared its affirmative action plan unconstitutional last March.
The six white men will join four others, who challenged the department
#39;s 29-year-old affirmative action plan and won a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. All of the men had been turned down in favor of minority applicants who scored lower on a state
wide
civil service exam.
"This was a recognition by the city that the time has come
to do away with the minority hiring preferences and judge everyone on an equal footing regardless of their race," said Mark J. Ventola, the lawyer for the six men who had filed suit in August. "It's a trend I'm hoping will continue."
City officials, though, insisted that their decision last week to hire the men is not a sign that Boston will hire dozens of other white men who also were rejected for firefighting jobs despite high test scores.
A Globe analysis conducted last spring found that some 70 white applicants were turned down, even though they scored better than minorities who were chosen.
"This settlement is merely a consequence of the original [US Appea
ls Court] decision," Seth Gitell, spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said yesterday. "It applies only to the six plaintiffs in this particular case."
According to Ventola, the c
ity will put
on a new firefighter class in March that will be made up at least in part by white men previously rejected for the job.
Besides Vent
ola's clients -- Gerard Ahern, William Berrio, Martin Conneely, Steven Fairneny, Kevin Meehan, and Michael Norton -- the class will also include four plaintiffs from the original court case -- Sean O'Brien, C. Roger Kendrick Jr., Joseph Sullivan, and Robert Dillon, Ventola said.
Last summer, city officials balked even at hiring the four original plaintiffs, relenting only after being ordered to by a federal judge.
The men are now working in a Boston Fire Department support unit, but will not officially become firefighters until the next class is hired.
Despite the city's assertion that the agreement does not set a precedent,
lawyers who are filing two other suits hope their clients may also be added to the March firefighters' class.
Edward Cooley, who filed suit in October in federal court on behalf of five wh
ite applicants who
scored 99 on the 2000 civil service test, said he hopes the city will move quickly to hire his clients also.
But he said lawsuits should be unnecessary.
n"I don't see why I even had to be retained," said Cooley. "The ruling handed down by the First Circuit Court of Appeals was clear: The hiring practice had fulfilled its objective, and the continued application constituted a violation of their constitutional rights.
"The city had it within its ability to figure out the other people who were affected, the people who hadn't brought suit, and should have done what was necessary to make it right for them."
A fourth suit is expected to be filed next week.
The NAACP filed suit in the early 1970s arguing that the city's hiring an
d recruiting practices discriminated against minorities.
While there had been dramatic increases in the city's minority population -- the city was 23 percent minority at the time of th
e NAACP lawsuit -- only 1
percent of the fire department was black or Hispanic.
The firefighting force is now 40 percent black and Hispanic, while the two groups represent slightly more than 38 percent of the city's population.
nSince the court order, the city has hired one minority group member for every white applicant.
In most years, nearly all of the slots set aside for white applicants have gone to veterans or children of firefighters killed or disabled at work. Those applicants are given a special preference and need score only 70 to jump to the top of the list.
As a result, other white applicants with perfect or near perfect scores have been shut out. Since fewer blacks and Hispanics apply and fewer are veterans or the children of fallen or disabled firefighters, they have cons
istently been able to land jobs with lower test scores.
In April 2001, five white applicants challenged the policy for the first time since 1989, when it was upheld by the US Supreme C
ourt.
In March the appeals
court found that the Police Department was discriminatory because it had already achieved racial balance.
Karen Miller -- head of the Boston Society of Vulcans, an association of minority firefighters -- called the city
's recent decision to hire the six men "insane."
"I think it's a form of discrimination," she said. "There have been minority candidates who have been bypassed over the past couple of years for bogus medical reasons -- what about them? Why aren't they being hired?"
And, she said, why not eliminate the other preferences, for veterans and children of fallen or disabled firefighters? Those preferences favor white applicants, she said.
In a department that was nearly all white when the court order was iss
ued in 1974, she predicted the effects will be dire.
"I think you're going to see very low numbers of candidates of color coming through the door," Miller said. "
;We won't maintain the diversity it t
ook so long to achieve."
A lawsuit challenging a nearly identical policy in the Boston Police Department was filed last month in federal court.
*************
What is truly amazing is that this is the liberal bastion of bean town!
T.N.B.