Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
By FRAN SPIELMAN
The Chicago Sun-Times (Illinois)
If 25,000 people applied for $10.41-an-hour jobs at the new Evergreen Park Wal-Mart, imagine the crowd when Chicago holds its first firefighters entrance exam in more than a decade for a job that pays $44,838-a year.
“Tens of thousands,” said Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter.
“Much better job with a lot more benefits” than Wal-Mart, said John Chwarzynski, president of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2.
On Wednesday, City Hall launched an unprecedented outreach campaign designed to attract a record number of applicants and, more important, to change the face of a Chicago Fire Department that has a long and documented history of discrimination.
The pass-fail exam will be held May 25 and 26 at McCormick Place. Registration will open on March 29 and close on April 11.
‘FIREFIGHTERS IN ACTION’
“We not only want the best-qualified set of applicants. We also want the most diverse set of applicants. We want a Fire Department that looks like Chicago — and that means more women and minorities in the ranks. I want children in Chicago — regardless of gender or background — to see Chicago firefighters in action and think, `That could be me some day,’ ” Mayor Daley said after a Navy Pier graduation for new firefighters.
Trotter added, “If you are that little boy or the little girl [who] waved as the fire engines passed by, the Chicago Fire Department wants you. . . . I want you to answer the call.”
“Answer the Call” is the theme of the new marketing campaign.
It calls for eight recruiting teams and two “high impact teams” to fan out across the city and visit “every single church” and Boys and Girls Club.
Billboards, movie theater ads, CTA buses and trains and at least 40 bus shelters will carry the word to potential applicants. “We will recruit from libraries, YMCAs, YWCAs, McDonald’s, job fairs, concerts, community events and meetings, aldermanic offices, beauty and barber shops and even Laundromats. . . . You’ll see us at the Auto Show. . . . You’ll see us in places where you never thought you probably would,” Trotter said.
Three months ago, City Hall announced that Chicago’s first firefighters entrance exam in more than a decade would be pass-fail with successful candidates lumped into a giant pool and picked randomly for interviews, background checks and agility testing.
LAST EXAM MIRED IN CONTROVERSY
The decision to market heavily, start testing every three years and replace a disputed, 1995 eligibility list with a pass-fail pool is aimed at attracting more minorities to a 5,077-member Fire Department now 67.4 percent white, 20.1 percent black and 10.4 percent Hispanic.
The last time Chicago held a firefighters entrance exam, it was mired in controversy.
Drafted by an African American with an eye toward diversifying the Fire Department, the 1995 exam drew more than 26,000 applicants to the United Center. When the results for minorities were disappointing, the city established a cutoff score of 89 and started hiring randomly from the top 1,800 “well-qualified” candidates.
In March 2005, a federal judge ruled that the city’s handling of the exam discriminated against African Americans.
WANTED: FIREFIGHTERS:
STARTING SALARY: $44,838
EXAM DATE: May 25-26
LOCATION: McCormick Place
APPLICATION PERIOD: March 29 through April 11
WHERE TO APPLY: Chicago public libraries, Chicago City Colleges and online at www.cityofchicago.org/fire
MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS: Must be at least 19 at time of exam and have high school diploma or GED. Applicants must live in Chicago and be under age 35 at time of appointment.
BENEFITS: 24 hours on and 48 hours off; raise after six months; tuition reimbursements; generous health and pension benefits.
Source: City of Chicago