Rotating drum may have been ordred in vain.
Fire Lt. Samod Rankins: All 99 first-placers deserve a fair shot.
Ninety-nine prospective firefighters who tied for first place in a civil-service test were ready for a lottery Wednesday night to determine whether they’d win job offers — until a last-minute appeal quashed the action.
The lottery was going to take place in a room on the first floor of the 200 Orange St. municipal office building.
It would determine the order of names listed on a new prospective hiring list for entry-level city firefighters.
A city official had ordered a rotating drum and ping-pong balls numbered 1 – 99 for the event. The names of 99 firefighters who all scored 100 on a civil-service test were to be matched with those 99 balls.
The event was going to be webstreamed so people could watch it live. One watch party was planned for Delaney’s Restaurant and Tap Room in Westville.
Then, hours before the event, a fire lieutenant and 31 of the 99 applicants filed a legal challenge to the process. And the lottery was postponed.
Now officials will go back to square one in trying to figure out a vexing civil service question: What’s the fairest way to offer once-in-a-lifetime career opportunities when as many as nine times too many people tied for first place in the test for the job?
Meanwhile, the department has been needing to beef up ranks in order to cut down on overtime.
In one sense, “this is a good problem to have,” observed the Rev. Steven Cousin, president of the Board of Fire Commissioners. He noted that 90 percent of the 100-scorers live in New Haven.
Those applicants were helped by the fact that city residents get 10 points added to their scores (up to a total of 100). Military veterans get another 5.
Meanwhile, at most 20 – 25 slots will be open for new firefighters. And as many as 10 of those could go to people who already made the list through a test for paramedics.
“We want to make sure this process is fair and equitable across all parties. We want to make sure we do our diligence to make sure we are within legal bounds,” Cousin said.
Faced with so many extra tied top-scorers, the board at first considered going in alphabetical order. So the 100-scorer named Ismail Abdussabur would get the first offer. Dion Younger would get the 99th slot.
Cousin said that commissioners concluded that would be unfair. “We shouldn’t punish somebody because their name is Younger. You can’t control except by birth what your last name is.”
Commissioners looked at how other departments have handled similar situations. One solution— going by order of social security numbers — seemed similarly unfair. So they settled on the lottery idea in order to make it completely random.
City human resources chief Stephen Librandi notified all the candidates in an April 20 letter describing the lottery, in which each of them would be assigned a number from 1 to 99.
“Using a process similar to what is used by the Connecticut State Lottery, 99 individually numbered balls will be placed in a rotating drum,” Librandi wrote. “A representative of the Fire Commission will then withdraw the balls one at a time. The person whose name corresponds with the number on the first ball drawn will be placed first on the eligibility list to receive a conditional offer of employment,” on down through the 99 names. Librandi then listed the url and passcode for watching the lottery, scheduled for this Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Thomas Breen Photo
Rev. Steven Cousin: “We shouldn’t punish somebody because their name is Younger.”
Lt. Samod Rankins of the Firebirds Society disagreed with the random approach. He had helped some of the applicants study for the test. He concluded that everyone who worked hard and succeeded should continue to have a shot to go through the entire vetting and hiring process.
Rankins lined up 31 of the 100-scorers who agreed with him. He hired East Haven Attorney Patricia Cofrancesco. And he became the first named plaintiff in a legal challenge filed Wednesday by Cofrancesco.
The complaint names the city, the Board of Fire Commissioners, and the Civil Service Board as defendants. The complaint argues that the lottery would violate the rules for hiring as laid out in the city charter as well as rules for amending civil service procedures.
On the final page, the complaint seeks to have any actions taken as a result of the lottery, including hiring or amending of the eligibility list, be declared null and void. It also asks a judge to order the city to “adhere to the already Existing Eligibility List” for firefighters.
For now, in light of the lawsuit, the fire commission is pausing the process to determine how to proceed next.
In a conversation with the Independent Wednesday, named plaintiff Rankins was asked how he believes the process should unfold.
He responded that the city should extend offers to all 99 firefighters who tied for first place on the test. Based on past experience, some of the candidates would probably decline the offer, perhaps because they had found other employment since taking the exam.
Then, Rankins said, the remaining candidates should take the agility test. It’s possible the pool would shrink further after that.
Next would come background checks, which might weed out more of them. As might the subsequent medical exam and interview with the chief.
At that point, the city could decide how to proceed based on a smaller pool of candidates, which may or may not exceed the number of open slots, Rankins argued.
That’s the process he and other members of the department went through when they became firefighters, he said. These candidates deserve the same opportunity, he argued. “Their future careers would not depend on luck” this way.
When the fire commissioners originally discussed this approach, before deciding on the lottery, concerns were raised about the cost of vetting so many potential firefighters, as well as the time involved. The police department conducts the background checks; officers get paid overtime to do so.
Thomas Breen Photo
Chief Alston: Delays in seating class will cost taxpayers.
“Any additional time in the selection and seating of the class will increase monies to be paid by the taxpayers,” Fire Chief John Alston Jr. said.
Rankins said he intends to ask the Board of Alders to hold a public hearing on the process.
“All these people want,” Rankins argued, “is a fair opportunity to move forward.”