By Bill Johnson
Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
I wanted to know what it all meant.
I wanted clear words beyond the bureaucratic mumbo jumbo that, if you listened really hard, seemed to suggest an end to the civic embarrassment that comes from failing to hire a black firefighter in six (count ‘em) years.
Denver Fire Department Chief Larry Trujillo was both gracious and patient as he sat me down in a vacant headquarters office. The chief smiled warmly as he picked his words.
The city’s Safety Committee agreed a week ago to recommendations that could salve the department’s hiring drought. The process that, during the past five years, discarded numerous qualified applicants of every race would be reformed.
To Larry Trujillo, the most effective change will be allowing a board composed of department personnel to interview prospective firefighters during initial testing.
The idea is to prevent a sole written test from knocking out an otherwise highly qualified candidate.
“The written test is such a moving target,” Larry Trujillo said, “and it kept us from looking at the whole candidate.”
He gives an example of a candidate who tests extremely well but couldn’t pass a physical agility test if his own house were on fire.
“We’ve only been testing the A people,” he lamented. “Hell, I was a B person, No. 45 on the list. I have always said, ‘Let’s look at the whole candidate.’
“Now, maybe, it will happen. I pray. I pray.”
The department began using the written test as a filter about five years ago. Perhaps it is only coincidence that no black firefighter has been hired since.
“Interviews by firefighters will make all the difference in the world,” Larry Trujillo said, almost giddy, thinking of the change. “As a result, there is going to be diversity in this department. There is no doubt in my mind.”
He knows, too, that some in the community will charge that the system is being softened to allow quotas for minorities - to let in those unqualified to be Denver firefighters.
The mere suggestion of such a thing makes him clearly agitated.
“I’m raising the standards,” he said. “The academy is 23 weeks of pure, unmitigated mental and physical demand. Anyone who graduates from our academy will deserve to be here, regardless of race or gender.
“I’m still in great shape, and, I’ll be honest, I doubt I could get through it. I’ve told our academy I do not want them to send me one man or woman who is not qualified to serve and represent the Denver Fire Department, regardless of the color of their skin.”
He told me about the past spring, when online applications for the department became available.
One thousand people applied in 24 hours.
“It would have been 3,000, if we hadn’t shut the doors,” he said.
When the day of testing arrived, he said, some applicants slept overnight on the street, just so they would not miss their time to report.
“I had people (who missed the online application deadline) crying to me,” Larry Trujillo said. “There was nothing I could do.
“People want this job or, at the very least, the opportunity to test for it - I’m not even talking about getting the job.”
He believes it goes back to a sense people have of wanting to help others. And that is the problem with the current testing rules, he said.
“The difference between a man or a woman getting, say, a 97 on (the written test) and an 87 is about 800 people,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean those who got a 97 were better. And that’s been my frustration the past five years. I’ve always believed we should look at the total candidate. We’re going to be able to do that now.”
I asked him about Chris James, a black firefighter I wrote about last November who applied for and was promoted to engineer on the department’s prestigious Rescue One fire crew, a promotion Larry Trujillo took away when two longtime union firefighter representatives who’d applied filed a grievance.
An arbitrator last week upheld James’ promotion.
“He won,” the fire chief said. “The guy is skilled, a firefighter any captain would want in his station. I am happy for him. The (promotion) procedure was flawed. A new one went into effect last week that will avoid a similar problem.”
I knew of the arbitrator’s decision only because of a phone call from some unhappy firefighters who didn’t like it.
I called Chris James.
He is just trying to get along. All he would say is he was happy with the decision.
Beyond that, he said, I should speak with the chief.