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Fire Department diversity gets priority
Two black candidates are offered jobs. They, along with two other candidates, still must pass background checks.
By SHANNON TAN
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 21, 2003
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LARGO - The city Fire Department has offered jobs to two African-Americans under a revamped hiring process aimed at increasing diversity.
Currently, the department has three black and three Hispanic firefighters and paramedics. There are 119 employees.
After a fire lieutenant was dismissed last year for using a racial slur, officials looked at ways to increase the number of minorities within the department.
"Some of the applicants were scoring lower on the aptitude test but doing better in the oral interviews," said City Manager Steven Stanton.
So this year, the agency chose the top 30 applicants from the written test and the top 30 from the interview portion.
The result: 52 potential firefighters out of 104 applicants. Four blacks, 2 Asians and four Hispanics were among the initial group who applied for the positions.
"It gave us a very diverse pool of personnel," said the deputy fire chief, Jeff Bullock.
Two black men, one white female and one white male were offered jobs last month. They will still have to take a polygraph test, undergo extensive background checks and pass a physical examination.
"We didn't have to make any special exceptions; we didn't lower the criteria," said Stanton. "We took the very best applicants and also generated a diversity benefit as well."
The Fire Department pays for firefighter EMTs to go through paramedic training, so applicants aren't required to be paramedics.
"If we didn't have enough paramedics, we would have only one minority eligible for hire, a Hispanic male," Bullock said.
The city also reimburses the tuition for city employees who undergo fire and EMT training. Diversifying the city's work force is not an easy job in a city that is more than 92 percent white.
Other incidents of discrimination have put the city in an unfavorable light.
The city has settled two lawsuits filed by a former firefighter and a job applicant who claimed they were discriminated against by the Fire Department. Also, a Fair Housing study found bias against minorities renting apartments in Largo.
Stanton has asked the Fire Department to develop outreach programs in neighboring Ridgecrest, which is nearly 81 percent black.
"We do have a substantial minority population right down the road," said Stanton. He hopes that after children find out what it's like to be a firefighter, they will want to be one, too.
- Shannon Tan can be reached at [email protected] or 445-4174.
Two black candidates are offered jobs. They, along with two other candidates, still must pass background checks.
By SHANNON TAN
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 21, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LARGO - The city Fire Department has offered jobs to two African-Americans under a revamped hiring process aimed at increasing diversity.
Currently, the department has three black and three Hispanic firefighters and paramedics. There are 119 employees.
After a fire lieutenant was dismissed last year for using a racial slur, officials looked at ways to increase the number of minorities within the department.
"Some of the applicants were scoring lower on the aptitude test but doing better in the oral interviews," said City Manager Steven Stanton.
So this year, the agency chose the top 30 applicants from the written test and the top 30 from the interview portion.
The result: 52 potential firefighters out of 104 applicants. Four blacks, 2 Asians and four Hispanics were among the initial group who applied for the positions.
"It gave us a very diverse pool of personnel," said the deputy fire chief, Jeff Bullock.
Two black men, one white female and one white male were offered jobs last month. They will still have to take a polygraph test, undergo extensive background checks and pass a physical examination.
"We didn't have to make any special exceptions; we didn't lower the criteria," said Stanton. "We took the very best applicants and also generated a diversity benefit as well."
The Fire Department pays for firefighter EMTs to go through paramedic training, so applicants aren't required to be paramedics.
"If we didn't have enough paramedics, we would have only one minority eligible for hire, a Hispanic male," Bullock said.
The city also reimburses the tuition for city employees who undergo fire and EMT training. Diversifying the city's work force is not an easy job in a city that is more than 92 percent white.
Other incidents of discrimination have put the city in an unfavorable light.
The city has settled two lawsuits filed by a former firefighter and a job applicant who claimed they were discriminated against by the Fire Department. Also, a Fair Housing study found bias against minorities renting apartments in Largo.
Stanton has asked the Fire Department to develop outreach programs in neighboring Ridgecrest, which is nearly 81 percent black.
"We do have a substantial minority population right down the road," said Stanton. He hopes that after children find out what it's like to be a firefighter, they will want to be one, too.
- Shannon Tan can be reached at [email protected] or 445-4174.
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