The latest round of oral tests for entry-level firefighters, which drastically cut down the applicant pool, has reignited a debate over the city’s effort to eliminate patronage from the hiring process and create racial balance on the force.
The city fire department’s currently recruiting for 26 vacant entry-level positions. Through a revised testing process the city’s trying out for the first time this year, an outpouring of over 1,300 candidates was whittled down to 226 last week as the results of oral exams were mailed out. The new process emerges in the wake of a court case that struck down the city’s old pass/fail method, which accommodated patronage by allowing top brass to pick and choose from a large pool of undifferentiated applicants.
The city’s new ranked test, which it touts as a non-discriminatory improvement on past practices, has drawn heat, including from Fire Union President Patrick Egan (pictured above at right), who says all the people he knows failed the test.
Underlying a battery of recent complaints — on how the test was weighted, the high failure rate, suspected inconsistencies in the process — lies a history of debate over how to encourage minority applicants, standardize the process, and end patronage.
The Whittling
Of an impressive 1,300-plus original aspiring firefighters who entered the civil service process, a total 832 passed the written test and were called back for an oral exam on March 5 before a panel of interviewers.
Results from the orals were sent out last week: Of the 770 who took the test, only 226 passed, according to Assistant Fire Chief Ron Dumas (pictured), who learned the figures from human resources.
Egan said the 71 percent failure rate “smells bad.” He said he’s been getting calls left and right from people who failed the test. “I don’t know anyone who passed.”
Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts said the test was “intentionally rigorous.” The city knew it had to whittle down a large list to fill only 26 vacancies (at a maximum), so it designed a test accordingly.
Besides the high failure rate, “what’s really throwing people for a loop,” said Egan, is how the test was weighted.
The testing process changed after a Naugatuck man filed a lawsuit claiming the pass/fail exam — which enabled police brass to choose from a wide pool of successful candidates, enabling nepotism — violated the city charter. The result: A judge ruled the final list must be ranked, and candidates chosen from that list.
Egan knew the list would be ranked. Applications stated the rank would be based on an applicant’s “final score” after taking the agility, written and oral tests. Egan interpreted “final score” to mean a combination of the written and oral components. So did “everyone else I talk to,” he said.
To Egan’s surprise, the city has produced a ranked list based solely on the oral component (with points added for being a city resident or veteran).
The computation drew scrutiny at a reportedly contentious Board of Fire Commissioners meeting earlier this week. “The commissioners wanted explanation of the process as it relates to weights and scoring,” reported Dumas, the assistant chief.
Hill Alderman Jorge Perez agreed with Egan that “public perception” was that the ranking would be computed by a combination of the scores. “If you don’t believe me, let’s have a public hearing.”
The city doesn’t see it that way.
Smuts (pictured at left, with Perez) said the city followed standard practice: An “overwhelming majority” of fire departments that aren’t allowed to do pass/fails base the ranked lists 100 percent on oral exams, he claimed (with points added for being a city resident or veteran).
At the heart of the debate: The value of the oral test as a tool to building a diverse, but qualified force.
Oral Exams: Two Views
While the recent police recruitment drive combined both the written and oral scores into the “final score,” the fire department is different, said Smuts. “A police officer has to do a lot of written reports as part of their job.”
“Oral tests are the best way of testing the qualities that we want to identify in our recruits, regardless of extraneous factors, like their ability to construct an essay, or their level of education.”
In the past, critics have charged that written tests favored well-connected, white applicants who had access to study groups and could seek advice from friends on the force.
“The union and the administration have different opinions on the merits of oral tests,” Smuts said.
Egan argued oral exams add subjectivity. “The whole point of civil service is to take out the subjectivity, take out the politics in the hiring process.”
Tom Ude, City Hall’s top lawyer, dismissed this charge. “I’m not sure what he means by ‘subjective.’ There are points that are expected to be made, and answer keys that are given to the graders — that’s what it’s based on, not subjective impressions based on the people taking the exam.” Ude said the oral exam “gives people who express themselves differently the chance to express themselves in their own words.”
Unfortunately for the union, entry-level tests aren’t bargainable. Union members must accept the city’s testing process, or bring the whole matter back to court.
Meanwhile, Perez has his eye on a few suspected inconsistencies in the process. He and Egan argue the orals should’ve been tape-recorded to enforce fairness and enable review. Perez said he’s considering calling for an aldermanic review of the process: “The appearance of incompetence has landed us into trouble in the past.”