Diversity worries set off alarms

April M. Washington:

In the past six years, Denver has hired 272 firefighters. Fifty were Hispanic, two were American Indians, two were Asian, 10 were women and 203 were white males. Five black firefighters were hired in 1999 and 2000, but none since.

In all, the department has 916 firefighters. Of those 54 are black, 196 are Hispanic, 14 are American Indians, nine are Asians, 37 are women and remaining 606 are white males.

"It's absolutely embarrassing that we haven't hired an African-American in five years," Denver Fire Chief Larry Trujillo said. "There's no excuse for it. We've done well with hiring Hispanics and others, but not as well as we would like."

The lack of diversity within the department's ranks, particularly among blacks, has become such a concern that the city's Civil Service Commission has temporarily stopped testing firefighter candidates - largely at the urging of Trujillo and Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe.

The commission is overhauling the testing process in an attempt to fix the problem, which, if not addressed, could get worse in the next few years as many minority firefighters become eligible for retirement.

"We know there's a diversity issue, and it's been especially problematic among African-Americans," said Chris Olson, president of the Civil Service Commission. "It's disturbing to us all.

Here is how they intend to "fix the problem":

Last fall, Trujillo sent a letter to the Civil Service Commission and LaCabe demanding that testing stop and steps be taken to ensure that the department's minority ranks reflect the makeup of the metro area.

Census numbers show the metro area is 11 percent black, 31 percent Hispanic and 49.5 percent female.

Against that backdrop, Mayor John Hickenlooper's administration formed a diversity task force to examine minority recruitment and hiring practices within all safety departments, including fire, police and sheriff's.

The task force is expected to release its findings and recommendations this fall.

Denver plans to implement a revised testing process in January and beef up recruitment efforts. The fire department has appointed a full-time recruiter to target minorities and women.

Some changes being proposed or already implemented:

• A consulting firm, CWH Management Solutions of Englewood, has been hired to develop new testing procedures. The company has a track record in crafting tests that have led to increased hiring of minority firefighters elsewhere.

• Applicants will be allowed to complete each step of the testing process before they are eliminated as potential hires. Currently, if they fail one segment, they are disqualified.

• The city may establish a board made up of firefighters, civil service commissioners and human resource experts to conduct interviews to better determine an applicant's overall character and suitability for the job.

• Denver may put in place a process in which candidates' past transgressions - if relatively minor - could be considered on a case-by-case basis. Now, past drug use and felony and some misdemeanor convictions result in automatic disqualification.

"The bottom line is that we are looking at a number of things we think we can change so we can attract qualified minority applicants," LaCabe said.

And of course the previous testing process was "biased":

One of those stumbling blocks was the testing process, Trujillo said.

He laid blame at the foot of the Civil Service Commission, which instituted a computerized testing system five years ago that he believes was culturally biased and crafted in a way that largely benefited white applicants.

"I can honestly tell you that I would not be sitting here as chief today with the rules that are being enforced today," he said. "Let me make it clear, I'm not sitting here advocating that we lower the standards. I'm simply trying to create a testing and hiring process that's fair to everybody."

If something doesn't change now, he said, the department will become even less diverse in the next five years. That's because one-third of black firefighters, nearly 60 percent of Hispanic firefighters and 100 percent of Asian and American Indian firefighters become eligible to retire.

The majority of Denver's minority firefighters were hired in the late 1970s and 1980s after the city was forced by the courts to integrate its safety departments.

During that time, the fire department's hiring practices were governed by what was known as the Bedan Decree. In essence, for every white applicant hired, the fire department had to hire a minority. That practice of one-for-one hiring ceased in the late 1980s.

From then until the late 1990s, Denver's hiring practices consisted of what was known as the "cattle call."

Every two years the city would publicize that it was hiring firefighters, and thousands of people would flock to the Denver Coliseum or Currigan Hall - replaced since then by the Colorado Convention Center - to take a basic written test to vie for fewer than 100 positions.

If an applicant passed, he or she would join a pool of potential candidates. Those selected to move forward were given a battery of additional tests that were no more difficult than the tests given today.

There was a key difference, however: Job candidates were interviewed by a half-dozen boards that assessed their character and judgment skills. All candidates were then ranked based on how they performed on various tests and during the face-to-face interviews.

At the time, the boards could give minority and female applicants preferential standing in the rankings. Also, the physical and agility tests accounted for a greater percentage of an applicant's overall score and rank.

Today, civil service rules give little weight to the physical and agility portion of the tests to avoid discriminating against women.

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