By Joel Anderson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Atlanta firefighters again have asked Mayor Kasim Reed to enlist outside investigators to look into allegations of cheating by black firefighters on a promotion exam.
Their appeal follows a civil trial judgment against the city on Friday, when a Fulton County jury found the city’s Department of Human Resources didn’t fully investigate the allegations.
The Atlanta chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters has asked Reed to request assistance from the GBI or the state’s inspector general for a new investigation.
Jim Daws, president of the union’s local chapter, said Monday that Reed ignored the union’s request in June 2010 shortly after concerns were raised about the test results. Now that a jury has found there was evidence of cheating on the exams, Reed should take action, Daws said.
“Only then will we be able to take actions to restore full confidence in the integrity of Atlanta Fire Rescue and limit the negative consequences to those who actually engaged in corruption,” Daws said in a prepared statement.
The union sent the letter to Reed on Saturday. The city didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Three Fire Rescue employees — two white and one black — sued the city in July 2010, alleging some firefighters were given the answers to questions before they took a promotion exam earlier that year. The plaintiffs represented nearly 160 other city employees who took the same test in April 2010.
The lawsuit concerned five black firefighters who were members of the same study group and finished among the top eight highest test scorers.
According to the suit, two assistant fire chiefs and members of the Atlanta black firefighters association Brothers Combined provided exam answers to the five black fire employees before they took the test.
The lawsuit also accused the city’s Human Resources Department of conducting a “superficial at best” review of the cheating allegations.
The city has denied those allegations. Robert Godfrey, senior assistant city attorney, said Friday the city will consider an appeal.
Godfrey said the plaintiffs’ case “basically centered on the idea that you couldn’t be an African-American in 2010 and do well on a test.”
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution