By Sylvester Brown Jr.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — At first, St. Louis Fire Chief Sherman George didn’t recognize the quote:
“The bottom line is, we keep dealing with symptoms of a serious problem, but nobody wants to deal with the problem in a meaningful manner. The real problem is race, and we all know that, but nobody seems to have the courage to face that fact.”
George was speaking to one of our reporters back in 2002, more than two years after he was named the city’s first black fire chief. The department was (and still is) divided along racial lines, with two organizations representing black and white firefighters.
George vowed to mend the broken fences. But, he told me Sunday, his power to run his department has been marginalized by the mayor and George’s supervisors, appointees of the mayor.
“I could have resolved it, too. I know I could,” George said of the department’s racial tensions. “But that meant they would have had to talk to me. To listen, instead of going around me. I won’t run from what I said. It’s still about race.”
George will face disciplinary action if he doesn’t begin filling positions from a list of candidates gleaned from a 2004 promotions test. The test was contested in court due to allegations of bias, but a judge ruled it was OK to use.
George said the test was inadequate and refused to promote candidates who took the exam. The chief says the city should have allowed him to use one of several testing services he deemed to be more thorough.
“Consider my position,” George said. “I warned them about this test back in 2003. I argued that multiple choice was not the best way to access the skills of commanders. ... I gave them an alternative list that offered assessment centers and other proven ways to avoid charges of bias. They ignored me on each and every count.”
Sam Simon, who resigned Monday as public safety director, Mayor Francis Slay and officials with the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 73, the union representing white firefighters, have kept the heat on the chief. They say the judge’s ruling on the test validates the promotions and have accused George of jeopardizing public safety by allowing so many captain and battalion positions to remain vacant.
Despite the deadline, George won’t say if, or when, he will promote from the 2004 list. He says he has started the “interviewing” process but won’t discuss what that entails.
“I’m being forced to promote commanders from a list that’s four years old, with candidates that I’m not confident have been properly tested,” George said.
George’s call for a method that tests a firemen’s “emergency skills” always made sense to me. When 13 firefighters were injured in 2003, George and Simon’s investigation pointed to “ignored department procedures” and “commanders not being accountable.” If a citizen or firefighter dies because a fire commander didn’t follow protocol, the buck stops with George, not the mayor or public servants.
George suggested that I go back and review the timeline when allegations of cheating in the Fire Department emerged between blacks and whites. I did. It started around 1997.
“For 22 years prior to that date, there were no major litigations concerning promotional testing,” George said. “Why? Because we used ‘assessment centers,’ and blacks did well and were promoted. You have to ask, ‘Why did they change the test?’”
The answer may be found in a 2002 letter sent to the U.S. Justice Department from an attorney representing FIRE, the group that speaks for black firefighters. The letter questions the loss of the “assessment centers” in promotional tests. The attorney, Althea Johns, asked for the department’s intervention to ensure “fair promotional tests, which measure the knowledge, skills and abilities of firefighters.”
George has repeatedly stated that he’s more concerned about skills than race when it comes to personnel. But in a city known for stubbornly skimming the surface of racial conflicts, it’s easy to hype the stereotype of a black fire chief using any means necessary to protect mediocre black firefighters. I got a sense of this last week when Richard R. Frank, the city’s personnel director, talked about the city’s recent decision to throw out the results of a Fire Department entrance exam.
Reportedly, 70 percent of the applicants failed basic questions on the test. Officials dumped the test, deeming it flawed. Frank claimed George “suggested” the firm, Ergometrics.
George has a different account: “Frank hired that company. I hosted a conference, as I have for other companies. I didn’t recommend anybody.”
“I take full responsibility for selecting the firm,” Frank told me Monday. But, he added, George invited two of Frank’s staff members to a screening he hosted for Ergometrics and spoke highly of the company.
The issue of race has always simmered inside the city’s Fire Department. Yet, in the years I have known George, I seldom heard him utter the R-word in public. Regretfully, George told me, he has to face the facts:
“I feel like I shouldn’t have to address things this way — in black and white, you know. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It’s not me. But how do you address it without saying it?”
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