Merit Matters President Paul Mannix released the following statement in response to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordering that an official monitor be put in place to prevent discrimination in the hiring of New York City firefighters. The order requires the city to take remedial steps to fix discriminatory hiring practices and puts the court monitor in place for at least the next 10 years to make sure those steps are taken.
In his recent Order, dated October 5, 2011 directing, among other things, that a Monitor be appointed to oversee various aspects of hiring in the FDNY Nicholas Garaufis wrote that the city “chose to ignore” and was not “facing hard facts” about the issue of minority representation in the FDNY. I submit that it is the Judge (and too many in the media whom I have personally made aware of certain relevant facts) who is ignoring facts because those facts do not support his view of this lawsuit, a view that in my opinion may be a preconceived one not fully supported by the “hard facts”.
How can I make such a claim? I have attempted to present numerous relevant facts to this judge but was answered with a visit to my home by Federal Marshals instead (detailed on our website in a post dated 9/27/11). In the recent Order it is shown that the DCAS Deputy General Counsel has described the “DOJ and Federal Court (as)…mean SOB’s”. Actually, I view the visit as an attempt to intimidate me into silence and the DOJ and Federal Court in this attempt as awkward, pathetic, inept, comically totalitarian- and ultimately ineffective. From the bench, Judge Garaufis alluded to other efforts of mine when he took over the questioning of Commissioner Cassano who was called as a witness in court. He asked Commissioner Cassano about his opinion of letters that were written by “senior FDNY officials”, and even revealed in court that he had taken to downloading information from the Internet while researching this case- but he ignored me and the facts I could furnish. Not to worry, though- I will provide some of the facts he sought to avoid below.
In order to entice people of color and women into joining the FDNY, the city of New York has:
- Complied with a 1973 quota for blacks that resulted in blacks comprising nearly 8% of the firefighting ranks. The incorrect point included in the Order on page 8- that since that quota order the percentage of blacks has “held steady at around 3%”- would not have been made had the judge accepted my offer of help. In addition, on page 19 this quota is called a “failed remedial order”; if so, who is responsible for its failure?
- Spent over $20 million on recruitment since the 1980s
- Established a Fire Cadet program
- Established an Explorer program
- Extended established filing periods for tests so more minorities could sign up. This has been done repeatedly, most recently last month.
- Geared tests towards factors that would enable minority and women applicants to compete for and enhance their chances of being considered for positions as firefighters. The last test (2007) was designed to get as many applicants as possible to pass.
- Established city residency credits to benefit minority applicants, even applying the credit retroactively to a test given two years earlier.
- Established a Pass/Fail Promotion test from EMS titles to Firefighter to increase the number of minority and female firefighters.
- Given a test on which credit was given for wrong answers.
- Established a high school whose mission is to get female and minority students interested in firefighting
- Celebrated with one of the original female firefighters, Linore Simmond, when she was awarded the Isaac Liberman Public Service Award for her contributions to FDNY minority recruitment efforts. This was awarded in 1994 and came with a $3,500 cash award- does Paul Washington continue to claim that recruitment efforts in the past (this was approximately 18 years ago) were pitiful? Does that mean this award earned by an African-American woman was, in truth, not earned?
- Appointed Battalion Chief Phil Parr, so highly regarded he was recently a finalist to be Fire Commissioner, to head the Recruitment Unit. Again I ask- does Paul Washington think the appointment of this African-American was a pitiful effort? And, if so, why did Washington turn down the chance to run the Recruitment Unit himself when it was offered to him?
- Worked with the NY Sports Club in establishing a program to help females pass the physical
- Established a Fire Service Fellowship at John Jay College
- Made “a Hell of an effort” to bring as many people of color into the FDNY according to Doug White when he, an African-American, was Commissioner of Personnel under Mayor David Dinkins. Mr. White is currently an Assistant Commissioner in the FDNY and still very involved in its minority recruitment effort.
That is quite an impressive list. New York City sure has a funny way of intentionally discriminating against minorities.
Here are more facts that the judge is not interested in relating to the FDNY Personnel Review Board (which would meet to consider hiring candidates with problems such as past arrests). The criticism of this entity was that only white candidates had friends and family members making phone calls to it on their behalf, but consider that Doug White testified the Vulcan Society would often call him for candidates as well. Again, Mr. White is a former city agency Commisssioner and currently a high ranking member of the FDNY administration and therefore a very good friend to be able to call- which the Vulcans were not shy about doing.
Sherry (also identified as Patricia) Kavaler gave the testimony about the PRB that led to most of the reporting implying whites had an unfair advantage over blacks, but a very relevant statement she made in a deposition has been buried. “Race has never been an issue”, she said, in all the years she’d sat on the Board. Considering that Doug White also sat on that Board, and most assuredly would have blown the whistle on any discrimination based on race, Ms. Kavaler’s statement seems very important. I can’t imagine the judge is not aware of it; maybe some intrepid reporter will start doing his job and ask him about this or include it and Doug White’s statement in his stories.
In an attempt to ensure that race would never be an issue at PRB hearings, Donay Queenan, an African-American FDNY civilian employee, testified that pictures of candidates would not be available during the reviews but Judge Garaufis, no doubt as part of the broad authority given to courts under Title VII, has brought the “pictures” back into the consideration process by requiring applicants to indicate their race and gender on the application for the next test. He explains away this offensive requirement by writing in the Order requiring it that “the demographic information will not be used in determining who is hired for the job”. This could not have been written with a straight face as earlier in the same Order it states, “The demographic data collected by the city from applicants for past firefighter examinations have been central to the court’s findings of disparate impact and disparate treatment liability in this case”. Let me simplify what this all means- demographic information will not be used to determine who gets hired for the job unless it is needed to determine who gets hired for the job.
Adding insult to injury the same Order contains the following: “While the race/ethnicity options are arbitrary, and are unlikely to be anything other than rough approximations of the ways applicants are likely to identify themselves…”. So despite the concession it is arbitrary, the Court wants this information anyway and we should trust it will not be used to determine who is hired. Additionally, an accompanying Order mentions a “Penalty for Misrepresentation” (of race, gender, etc.) that carries disqualification and even criminal sanctions; how could this be enforced when by the judge’s own admission the race/ethnicity options (and even, increasingly throughout society, gender) are “arbitrary” and only “rough approximations” of how a person describes themselves? Further, if this demographic information will not be used in determining who is hired for the job why is there a Penalty for Misrepresentation?
Related Articles
