A proposal to give city residents an advantage on civil service exams — which would affect upcoming fire and police recruitment — met overwhelming public support at a public forum Thursday. Not a single person stood up in opposition, not even fire union President Patrick Egan (pictured), who expressed reservations about the idea in the past. The city’s police union president remains against the idea, though.
In anticipation of fire and police force recruitment drives, the Civil Service Commission is considering changing the rules so that New Haven residents get extra points on written exams. The proposed preference points would affect all applicants — not just fire and police — taking civil service exams for entry-level jobs with the city.
Earlier this week, the Black and Hispanic Caucus took a stance in favor of preference points, noting that the city’s minority residents could stand to gain from the change.
Thursday evening, a crowd filled the ground floor room of 200 Orange St. for a public forum on the topic. A little over a dozen people from New Haven and surrounding towns — police officers, a fire commissioner, several aldermen — got up to speak their minds. Not one opposed the proposal.
Those who spoke said they feel better being policed by people who live in, and are invested in, the city. Board of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield spoke of how, growing up in the North End of Bridgeport, he knew the local cops “as friends and neighbors.” “We weren’t just people who they dealt with at arm’s length,” he said after the meeting.
Goldfield gave economic reasons too: Noting a recent proposal to build a tower of high-end condos, he said the city is “in danger of becoming a city of the very wealthy and the very poor.” With jobs like those at the Winchester factory disappearing each year, the city must make an effort to remain “a source of good, middle-class jobs.” To that end, “it seems to me that [resident] preference makes a lot of sense.”
One person — Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark — voiced some reservations. “First and foremost, I think we should have the best” applicants, “the most hard-working and most qualified,” she said after the meeting. She said she’d favor the concept of hometown advantage: If two candidates are equally matched, then “there’s no question you should give preference to those who are from New Haven,” she said. But she argued for more moderate preference points — five or 10 rather than 20, for example.
James Segaloff, chair of the Civil Service Commission, said he’d gone into the meeting with an open mind and came away with a strong message from the crowd. “You couldn’t help but walk away feeling public opinion was for [hometown preference].” While he found it “prudent not to reach a final conclusion tonight,” he took note that those who spoke at the forum were “100 percent in favor of residency.”
Segaloff hasn’t yet said how many preference points would be given out. Many other towns offer five extra points, he said. Indeed: The Civil Service Commission voted in 1989 to give city residents a five-point advantage on all entry-level tests except for fire and police, he said. The regulations were never amended to reflect that change, however, said Segaloff.
The matter will next be addressed at a public hearing on Oct. 10.
If the changes are made in time, they will affect recruitment drives for fire and police officers. The test acts as a preliminary screening: Aspiring cops, for example, must also take an agility test, psych exam, polygraph test, and an oral exam before a panel of top police brass.
Before this year’s recruitment drive, residency points haven’t been a factor, because the police and fire entrance tests were pass/fail. Then a Naugatuck man filed a lawsuit claiming the pass/fail exam violated the city charter. He won the suit, so the test will be scored on a point scale.
Police union President Sgt. Louis Cavaliere, who wasn’t at the meeting, said by phone Thursday he opposes a hometown advantage. By doling out preference points, “you’re not really looking for the most qualified individual — you’re looking for someone who lives in New Haven,” he said.
“It’s almost like saying that the people of New Haven are going to score lower. If what they’re trying to attract is minorities, there’s many qualified minority candidates all across the state of Connecticut.” If recruiters seek more New Haven cops, he suggested a recruitment drive that targeted New Haven.
Cavaliere also noted the preference points wouldn’t ensure cops would be from New Haven, or even stick around town. Applicants could crash at a family member’s house in the city, briefly establish residency, then “the very first week in academy, they can move out of New Haven.”
Two other officers at the forum, however, spoke in favor of hometown preference.
Sgt. Luiz Casanova, Fair Haven district manager, said he would have liked to be there to speak, but couldn’t. “I just think you need folks in this community to police this community. You can’t bring folks from another part of the world [i.e. a quaint shoreline town] to police a world they don’t know very well.”
Fire Union President Patrick Egan, who told the Register earlier this week he opposed preference points — “I think that the citizens of New Haven, with respect for their public safety positions, want the best candidates for the job” — softened his stance Thursday.
Egan attended the forum but didn’t speak. “Issues like these need to be approached soundly and civilly,” he said after the meeting. He said the matter was too “preliminary” for him to take a stance. Anyway, he noted: “Anytime there’s been a change, it always ends up in a courtroom.”