By Daniel J. Chacon
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
The Denver Fire Department, which has complained about the lack of minority hiring in recent years, will have more say in the future in deciding who gets a job.
The city plans to allow a board made up of fire department personnel to interview aspiring firefighters and make recommendations to Safety Manager Al LaCabe.
“This has been asked for, to get a little better idea of somebody individually who maybe hasn’t done extremely well in the testing process, or needs to explain other things in their life,” said Chris Olson, chairman of Denver’s Civil Service Commission.
The new board, along with the results of other hiring changes already instituted at the fire department, were discussed Wednesday by the City Council’s safety committee.
Other recommendations being considered to diversify the ranks:
* Hire two more recruiters.
* Give firefighter candidates a different physical exam called the Candidate Physical Agility Test, which Fire Chief Larry Trujillo has called “tougher and more stringent.”
* Evaluate the future makeup of the Public Safety Cadet Program, which is allotted a certain number of spots in each fire academy class.
Committee members asked for the costs of those and other recommendations for possible inclusion in next year’s spending plan.
Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth also announced that she would work with Mayor John Hickenlooper’s office and others over the next three months to come up with a plan to hire more minorities for the department, including measures that could be implemented right away.
“I’m talking about much more aggressive action here because that’s what needs to happen,” she said.
Earlier in the meeting, Wedgeworth and Olson engaged in a fiery exchange over the ethnic and racial makeup of the Civil Service Commission’s staff, which she said is composed of one black, two Hispanics and seven whites.
“You have to reflect the diversity that you basically are saying that you support,” Wedgeworth said.
“I’m not really sure how that impacts what we’re doing specifically,” Olson responded.
“I think that, Mr. Olson, you basically have to practice what you preach,” Wedgeworth snapped back.
The city, which hasn’t hired a black firefighter in six years, has been tinkering with the hiring and testing process for nearly two years.
Under the latest change, the city will conduct direct oral interviews of firefighter candidates during initial testing, which once was done but was discontinued about five years ago.
Aspiring firefighters were interviewed during other parts of the selection process, which the city will continue to do, but now interviews will be part of the formal testing process.
Those interviews will be conducted after the top candidates have passed their physical, psychological and background tests.