Oakland, Calif. Applicants Far Outnumber Jobs

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From Firehouse.com

KAMIKA DUNLAP

Inside Bay Area (California)

# Watch KTVU Video

OAKLAND -- After camping in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza for two days, many cold and disgruntled firefighter applicants Saturday started circulating a petition calling for a fresh hiring process.

They said the Oakland Fire Department's system for scouting new recruits is unfair, as some people had been handpicked over others. In addition, they said, the unofficial waiting lines that formed in the plaza created intense competition and overall confusion.

"A lot of people were sneaking in when others were sleeping," said Noe Leon, 22, of Fremont. He slept overnight in the plaza with six friends. "At 4 a.m., everyone got an urge to rush to the front."

Some people tried to defend their space with yellow caution tape, he added.

The department, which is trying to add another 20 firefighting positions to its current 450, recently waived its emergency medical technician requirement and said it would process only the first 1,000 applicants.

"We are moving forward with the process," Oakland fire Lt. David Brue said.

The deadline to submit applications was noon Saturday.

A multiple-choice test will be administered next Saturday to the remaining candidates. Oral interviews will be conducted Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, and physical agility tests will be given Feb. 25-29.

More than 8,000 firefighter-training applications were distributed.

Evan Rogers, 23, of San Leandro signed the petition being circulated Saturday because he said he was frustrated by the lack of organization.

"People started mosh pitting," he said. "This is not a rock concert."

Applicants' patience began to wear thin when some people were handpicked from thecrowd. Many male applicants said minority female applicants were favored.

Other applicants became upset after standing in a line for hours only to find out that theirs was not an official line.

A recording from a loudspeaker in the plaza Friday night urged applicants to go home and return at 5 a.m. Saturday, but no one wanted to lose their place in line, Leon said.

According to Brue, no "official lines" were established until between 6 and 7 a.m. Saturday.

In addition, the Fire Department, Police Department and Personnel Department helped secure and manage five entry points, allowing up to 20 applicants at a time into the building on a rotational basis.

"The closest 20 to 30 people at those entry points were being picked," Brue said.

Some of the hopefuls camping in the plaza said they were afraid to talk to the media for fear of hurting their chances with the department during the application process.

"It's not fair," said one applicant, who preferred to be unnamed. "All you have to be is 18 and breathing to apply, and this process is not giving the public the best."

This is interesting. I wonder why they don't just offer a test and then pick from the list like most big cities. Watch the included video and you will be scratching your head about how they run things out there. Just picking people at random just to hand in their application seems a little shifty.

[RescueKujo 130]

More to it. Sounds like someone screwed the pooch....

Mayor Steps in After Oakland Recruiting Debacle

CHIP JOHNSON

The San Francisco Chronicle (California)

Firefighters and prospective firefighters from around the Bay Area sounded all alarms Monday over an ill-conceived recruitment effort by the Oakland Fire Department last weekend that was criticized as a disgraceful display of patronage and foul play.

Apparently Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums agreed that the recruitment had gone haywire. After meeting with his city's fire chief, Dan Farrell, Dellums announced he would reopen the process to all applicants who were passed over on Saturday, said the mayor's chief of staff, David Chai.

About 2,000 applicants came from far and wide for a chance to apply for nearly two dozen jobs in the department, and half of them went away unsatisfied - and angry at the way the picks were made.

One of them was Mike Loomis, a firefighter from the Central Valley. He brought a sleeping bag and a folding chair and waited for the chance to be one of the first 1,000 people in line and an opportunity to land one of 23 coveted positions.

He showed up Friday morning, a day early, and thought he had a pretty good shot because by his own count, he was No. 173.

"It's just like any other test," Loomis, 23, said Monday. "You camp out the night before." Last month, he'd camped out in Stockton for a similar event, he said.

But in Oakland, Loomis discovered that being prepared, on time and first in line is no way to get ahead.

On Friday, fire officials informed applicants, including some who'd been queueing since Thursday evening, that the line they were standing in - which had stretched to three city blocks long - was not the line from which applicants would be selected.

That line would be established Saturday morning at 5 a.m. But hardly anyone left their spots in and around Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Saturday morning came, and after some shoving - and fighting - for position, Loomis watched as Farrell and a personnel manager from Oakland City Hall waded through the sea of humanity and started their own kind of search.

"They started walking through the crowd and hand-picking people," Loomis said. "There's no way to describe how they were doing it. There were guys who stepped in line at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning who got picked - and it seemed like city officials knew who they were looking for. I heard a couple of guys on a cell phone describing where they were, and they got picked.

"Had I known it was going to be like this, I never would have bothered," he said.

Karen Boyd, a spokeswoman in City Administrator Deborah Edgerly's office, said the process was compromised because people in the front of the line obtained copies of the officials' plan to establish five entry points and moved toward them.

One of a half dozen San Francisco firefighters who showed up to support friends from across the bay said they never had a chance.

An Oakland firefighter who worked the event said some colleagues standing with police officers at the entry points were visibly upset by what they regarded as an obvious display of patronage and cronyism.

"What hurt me the most was seeing black guys, regular ordinary Oakland guys, passed over for other black guys because they were connected," he said, requesting anonymity for fear of job reprisals.

And it seems there was at least a little bit of that going on as well. In some cases, Oakland firefighters wearing department-issued caps and jackets stood next to their own kids, looking to catch a glance of recognition from the chief - and ready to lobby on their behalf.

The Oakland firefighter said that at least four of the candidates selected are sons of Fire Department employees.

Officials had hoped that more locals would get in line first because of the early opening for Saturday's event. But even if they had, how do you identify an Oakland resident by appearance alone?

More importantly, being in the front of the line meant nothing. And everybody in charge should know that hiring based on physical appearance is illegal. Oakland officials know that ... don't they?

Said one city official: "I cannot imagine a worse system that these morons could have come up with."

What's most worrisome about this situation is that the Fire Department's top brass, who distributed more than 7,000 flyers announcing the event, didn't have the gumption to stand by their word.

The application form clearly spelled out that "the FIRST 1,000 applicants will be received," would-be firefighter Filip Bednarz wrote in an e-mail to dozens of city officials. "I arrived at the location stated at 3:30 a.m., anticipating a long line at the door. I was shocked and disgusted when I was informed that it didn't matter how early I'd gotten there or how much effort I'd put in."

That information was pretty disgusting and shocking to the rest of us as well, including Oakland's mayor, who intervened on behalf of fairness and did the right thing in turning this gravy train right back around.

The good news: Would-be Oakland firefighters who were issued applications but were turned away Saturday will get their chance Jan. 12, when a new recruitment event is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the city's fire training center, 250 Victory Court, Oakland.