By Scott Daugherty
The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
Copyright 2006 Capital Gazette Communications, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
When new fire recruits are hired by the county fire department, they are required to sign a contract pledging they will work here for at least five years or pay back the county for their training.
But as the county saw almost 20 percent of their new recruits over the last two years leave for other departments and jobs, the Office of Personnel did not fully enforce that condition - costing the county at least $325,000 and maybe even $730,000.
County Auditor Teresa Sutherland said only seven of 80 former firefighters were billed from the past nine academy classes held since 2002. Only two of them have paid back any of the money.
Ms. Sutherland added that the county only bills the students for training supplies and materials, not costs of the actual training. The department estimates training at $4,500 to 10,000 per recruit, the report said.
“Maybe if we did that, it would cut the attrition rate,” said County Councilman Pamela Beidle.
Seventy-four of the 375 county firefighters hired since January 2004 are no longer with the department, the report said. Other area departments - Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George’s County - reported only 9- to 16-percent attrition rates.
County Councilman Ron Dillon agrees with his colleague. He’s fine with the department charging people for training when they quit - “I think it’s common practice” - but wants the county to stop the “subjective” enforcement.
“If they are not going to do it, they need to get rid of the contract,” he said. “That practice needs to stop.”
Chief Stuart McNicol, county fire spokesman, declined to comment on the audit Wednesday - noting that the department had not formally received the final version. After reviewing a draft provided by The Capital though, he said most of the things referenced in the audit are handled by the Office of Personnel.
Officials with the Office of Personnel were not available for comment last week and did not respond to several attrition-related questions the week before.
County Executive Janet S. Owens was on vacation Wednesday and county executive-elect John Leopold declined to comment about the audit through a spokesman.
He explained he will review it over the holiday weekend and comment later.
The county has not formally responded to the audit. County officials plan to draft a separate letter in the coming weeks, the report said.
Wanting answers
Ms. Beidle requested the performance audit of the fire department over the summer, wanting to determine whether the county was hiring qualified candidates and was complying with applicable laws and policies.
In the end, the audit - released Tuesday - reinforced that attrition is a serious problem for the department, but did not offer any conclusions as to what was behind it.
“Attrition among newly hired firefighters results in a financial loss to the County for recruitment and training costs. Further, the fire department cannot fill its vacancies as quickly, adding to the county’s reliance on overtime,” Ms. Sutherland said in her report.
She did not know why firefighters continually quit within a year or two of being hired, but recommended the fire department identify and document the underlying causes and develop a plan of action. She said the department’s current documentation of exit-interviews is spotty.
Ms. Beidle noted that some of the issues it examined are too new for statistical analysis.
“It doesn’t really tell us a lot,” she said.
The audit specifically examined how the county, in the last two years, lowered the minimum passing score for written tests, conducted oral interviews without firefighters present, modified physical ability tests to shorten the hiring process, and never required new recruits to release their medical records.
Ms. Sutherland recommended the county continue to track the progress of all firefighters hired with less than a 70 percent score on the written test - seven were hired and six are still in the academy - evaluate the cost of having firefighters conduct oral interviews, and require the review of medical records for new recruits.
Mr. Dillon said some new hires just don’t understand what it means to be a firefighter. He said in the rush to staff a “fourth shift” of firefighters - which goes into effect next month - the county may have overly relaxed its standards and started hiring people not really interested in doing the job.
He added that since there is effectively no restriction to quitting immediately after the academy, some firefighters just use the county to get training. They then transfer to a higher-paying department.
“I think it is going to take some time to work through this,” he said.
Physical tests, lawsuits
Wanting to speed up the hiring process and hire more women, the county dropped the union-endorsed Candidate Physical Ability Test in 2003. Two classes later, neither of which required physical tests for admission, the county adopted the less stringent, easier-to-administer, Cooper Physical Readiness Test.
Both exams test a person’s physical ability, but the CPAT does it with job-specific exercises learned over an 8-week mentoring program, while the Cooper test does it with sit ups and push ups. The CPAT - which costs about $25,000 to run in 2002 and 2003 - operates on a rigid pass fail system, while the county’s version of the Cooper Test - which costs about $1,500 per class - works on a sliding scale.
Ms. Sutherland found that in their rush to streamline the hiring process, the county may have opened itself to a potential lawsuit - largely because the Cooper Test is only validated for use by police departments.
“The administration has no evidence that the fitness components tested are underlying factors for performing essential or critical physical functions of the job,” the audit said. “Considering the potential cost of a lawsuit or EEOC challenge, we recommend that the administration validate whatever physical readiness or ability test it uses for pre-employment testing.”
Ms. Sutherland noted that the county also was afraid women might file a lawsuit against the county for using the CPAT. Of the 63 recruits that took the CPAT and entered the academy, only four were women. Of the 100 recruits who took the Cooper Test, 19 were women.
Shaking up
Both Ms. Beidle and Mr. Dillon hoped the audit would look at one thing it didn’t: Should the county separate fire suppression for emergency medicine.
“That is something that the transition team should investigate,” said Ms. Beidle.
Mr. Leopold announced Wednesday that Deputy Chief David Lane Stokes Sr. will take over the 795-firefighter department Dec. 4.
Currently, all county firefighters are cross trained as intermediate-level medics. But Mr. Dillon said he’s heard how some medics don’t want to run into burning buildings for a living. He added that the two jobs require very different abilities and strengths.
“It’s not so much about braun. It’s about the brains on the EMS side,” he said.
Chief McNicol said he’s heard no talk about rearranging the department. He said the transition team hasn’t really started talking.
“There hasn’t been a first meeting or correspondence or anything,” he said.
Chief Stokes was unavailable for comment, but did not mention that Wednesday morning when asked about his plans for the department.