Chief Cassano Addresses FDNY Exam Ruling
Recruiting Minorities, Community Outreach Discussed At Expo
Firehouse.com 7/27/09
Last week a federal judge ruled
that from 1999 to 2007, the New York City Fire Department used
recruitment exams that discriminated against African-American
and Hispanic applicants.
At a Chiefs Panel held this past
Saturday at Firehouse Expo in Baltimore, FDNY Chief Salvatore
Cassano addressed the issue.
"It wasn't so much the test, but
the results of it," he said. "We had few minorities being
hired."
Cassano -- who was appointed
chief in 2006 and previously served as Chief of Operations since
September 2001 -- made the point that the city's minorities
didn't have a direct connection to the job that would lead them
to apply. He stated that many white males applied for the job
because they had a family member who currently or used to be
employed by the FDNY.
Since the case opened and the
exams were revised in 2007, he said the department took a
serious look at how it was recruiting firefighters. The FDNY
began holding events and changed its overall marketing campaign
to target minorities.
Cassano said recruiters went into
communities and explained details about the job such as how
shifts worked, the benefit program and the importance of
camaraderie in the fire service. This was a change in tactics
for a department that once focused on the excitement of the job
and the ability to be a hero to recruit applicants.
"It wasn't really all about the
bells and whistles for them," he said about minorities who were
approached at marketing events.
He said that because of those
efforts, 33 percent of the current class of recruits is made up
of minorities -- a drastic increase from years past.
The FDNY chief was joined on the
panel by Baltimore Fire Chief Jim Clack and Washington, D.C.
Fire Chief Dennis Rubin.
During the discussion, Clack
interjected that in the 1970s, the Minneapolis Fire Department
-- where he was employed for 22 years and served as chief for
just less than two years before moving to Baltimore -- was 100
percent white, 100 percent male.
He said it was difficult to shift
the culture of the department and forced him and his staff to be
proactive.
"You must have people who look
like the community they go into," he said. "(Recruiting
minorities) is not free. You can't just put an ad in the paper
and expect people who aren't familiar with the job to apply."
Rubin said he fortunately has a
department where a majority of the firefighters are minorities,
but said the biggest thing is keeping high standards for
diversity.
"I think we're really starting to
break through," he said, noting that the last class of recruits
had what he believes to be the most minority legacies in the
department's history.
The three chiefs agreed that
another issue in minority communities is the need for community
outreach by departments to further prevent fire-related
fatalities.
The FDNY has a fire safety
education unit that has handouts printed in 25 different
languages, according to Cassano.
When budgets became too tight to
fully staff the unit, the department called on retirees and used
Fire Act grants to fill its ranks.
"These people are so passionate
when they go out to events," he said.
Clack said it is extremely
important to put more resources into community outreach. He said
that unfortunately some residents see a uniform, think they are
in trouble with the law and don't open their doors.
"When there is a fire death in
their community; that is when we can get in and they'll listen
to us."
He said this has to change and
that departments need to do everything they can to stress the
importance of prevention.
When talking about community
outreach, Rubin recalled a recent program where the department
distributed and installed child safety seats to needy families.
He said that a day after one woman received the seats; she was
in a brutal car crash with her two children sitting behind her.
The woman received multiple
injuries and was taken to the hospital but would recover. The
two children were unharmed in the crash.
"It was the car seats that saved
those children's lives," Rubin said.
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