Neb. fire officer urges leniency for applicants

By Kevin Cole and Jennifer Palmer
Omaha World-Herald

OMAHA, Neb. — A black Omaha fire captain said he would like to see some allowances made for youthful indiscretions when scrutinizing applicants.

If that were the case, Clifton Wells said, the Fire Department might have an easier time recruiting candidates, including minorities.

"The problem is getting on the job," Wells said. "The young blacks who pass the tests then have to go through the background checks. Oftentimes things that happened when (they were) 15 or 16 years old are being held against them despite the fact that they are now 22 or 23 and have grown past that sort of behavior."

Wells is president of the Omaha Association of Black Professional Firefighters. The group hosted the International Black Professional Firefighters North Central Region fall conference last week at the Omaha Marriott Hotel in Regency.

Recruiting future firefighters from colleges and high schools is an important tactic other cities employ. Jeff Harris, acting executive director of the black firefighters association, said that through the schools, recruiters can often get to young people interested in becoming firefighters before they get involved in crime and drugs.

Some departments use a private firm to oversee the firefighter aptitude tests, which Harris said decreases biases and nepotism. He credited that technique with helping the Minneapolis department become one of the most diverse in the country.

The Minneapolis Fire Department is about 18 percent black, about the same percentage as the community it serves.

Blacks make up about 7 percent of the Omaha Fire Department, while the community is about 8 percent black. Minorities as a whole currently make up 14 percent of the 665-member Fire Department, or 93 people. The Omaha community is about 22 percent minority.

Having a diverse fire department is important because firefighters should represent the community they serve, Harris said. Fires are colorblind, he said, but firefighters do so much more than fight fires.

Capt. Marvin Ervin, vice president of Omaha's black firefighters association, and Wells would like the department to establish a "diversity audit committee" that would take nine to 12 months to examine the department's hiring and promotion procedures for minorities and women to determine if they are fair.

"We don't know if this is the answer to including more minorities in the department," Ervin said, "but it could give us some answers. We think an audit is worth a look."

Recently, the Omaha City Council voted to change hiring practices of the Fire Department and the Omaha Police Department. Instead of considering only the top-ranked candidates, the chiefs will be able to reach further down their lists to hire any qualified candidate.

City administrators have said the new procedure will give the departments more flexibility in hiring women and minorities.

Ervin said allowing larger pools of applicants to be forwarded to the chief doesn't automatically mean minorities will be chosen.

Of the 371 job candidates who passed initial firefighter tests in 2007 and are eligible for hire, only seven are black. That's less than 2 percent.

As new hires of black firefighters have dwindled in recent years, Ervin said, that has translated into fewer black candidates for promotion.

One of 62 candidates qualified for a promotion to fire captain is black, and there are no black candidates for battalion chief or assistant fire chief.

When Ervin joined the department in 1992, there were two black battalion chiefs and one black assistant chief. Now the only black battalion chief is Mark Lane, who is expected to retire soon due to health problems.

Ervin also said that six of the department's 14 black captains are in the process of retiring. They are being honored at the conference.

The city has removed gender and racial preferences from its Fire Department promotion policy as the result of a lawsuit.

"Only one or two black firefighters are being hired every two to three years," Ervin said. "At that rate, African-Americans on the Omaha Fire Department will become almost extinct."