Stamford CT FF Exam results attacked

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Stamford firefighter exam results under fire

 

By Donna Porstner

Staff Writer

The Advocate

December 21, 2005

STAMFORD -- The city dropped the passing score on the recent firefighter exam 10 points below the testing company's recommendation to ensure minorities would make it to the hiring list. But instead of using that flexibility to hire more blacks and Hispanics, officials hired their friends and relatives, top scorers on the exam say.

Applicants had to score at least a 37 -- or 47 percent of the questions right -- to pass the Aug. 6 exam.

The testing company, Firefighter Selection Inc. of Folsom, Calif., advised the city that applicants should answer at least 60 percent of the questions correctly to pass, but Director of Human Resources Dennis Murphy said he decided not to follow the recommendation because it would have prevented the city from hiring most of the blacks and Hispanics who took the test.

"I refused to use it because the racial impact was disparate," Murphy said.

By dropping the passing score to 37, the city more than tripled the number of minorities eligible for hire.

Of the 278 applicants who took the test, five minorities scored 47 or higher -- four Hispanic men and one black man. When the passing score was lowered, 16 minorities became eligible -- seven black men, seven Hispanic men, one white woman and one man who identified his background as "other."

But since their scores put them at the bottom of the list, they won't be eligible for hire until the final two years. In the meantime, the department has vacancies to fill.

In the four job offers extended to date, the commission made no distinction between applicants who scored in the 70s and 80s and those who scored in the 50s or 60s. One scored an 82 -- the second highest -- and the others scored 80, 60 and 58.

Two of the four job offers were made to sons of Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters. The mayor's nephew, Brien Malloy, Fire Chief Robert McGrath's son, Michael McGrath, and Fire Commissioner E. Gaynor Brennan's son, Christopher Brennan, were among the eight alternates.

One of the new hires -- Scott Avalos, son of Fire Capt. William Avalos -- and alternates Christopher Brennan and Michael McGrath were in the third rank, meaning they were in the group that had the lowest scores of the 120 candidates eligible to be hired.

James Romaniello of Stamford, son of Fire Capt. James Romaniello, scored an 82, the second-highest mark on the test, and was hired.

Some white men who scored high enough to make it to the top of the hiring list but were not offered jobs said they are outraged. Three white men spoke on the condition that their names would not be used. As one applicant put it, "it would be career suicide" to speak out because they would never get hired.

The men, who were in the first rank for having the top 15 scores, said they left their interviews with the impression that the new hires were predetermined.

All three said they knew they didn't have a shot at a job when they walked into the interview and the commissioners seemed uninterested. Each said they were in the room for no more than two or three minutes and were not asked personal questions.

One applicant said he was surprised that all the commissioners asked him was to verify his address and employer, which the Human Resources Department could have done over the telephone.

"I even sat with an interview coach a week before, and when I heard that, I almost fell out of my chair," the applicant said.

It was crushing to learn that political connections and ethnicity mattered more than their knowledge of firefighting, they said. For many applicants who grew up in the city, becoming a Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighter is a lifelong dream.

"All of those guys who got hired have some political connection somehow, some way. So unless you know someone, you're not getting a job -- unless you're a minority," one applicant said.

If that's how Stamford picks its firefighters, another applicant said, he doesn't want to work for the city.

"Honestly, I don't even want to work downtown any more," he said. "If they called me, I don't even know how I would respond."

Fire Commission Chairman Richard Lyons would not say what questions the commissioners asked during the interviews.

"They all had the same opportunity. They were all asked the same questions," he said. "They know what the question was."

Lyons said no one has filed a formal complaint or made allegations of favoritism to him directly.

"I haven't spoken to anyone who brought up those questions. No one has called me to complain. I'm just telling you it didn't happen," he said.

Yesterday, he declined to talk about how the new hires were chosen, but in a previous interview he said the commission emphasized the interview.

"The discussions on the hires were held in executive session, so I am not going to go into detail about the individuals and how they were hired," he said. "All I am going to say is that we used the process we have for 10 years."

The only difference, Lyons said, was that there were 120 candidates this time, compared with 40 during the last firefighter test in 2002.

"And that wasn't our doing," Lyons said. "That was done by HR."

Murphy said they changed the hiring process to allow the Fire Commission to interview all 120 candidates in the first wave because of "strong perceived unfairness" three years ago. Applicants complained because their section of the hiring list expired before they had a chance to be interviewed. Meanwhile, applicants in the second wave who scored lower were hired.

Although all applicants for city jobs are asked to disclose their race, it does not affect their chance of getting hired, Murphy said.

Being white didn't work against firefighter candidates, Murphy said.

But white candidates want to know why they were photographed on their way into the Fire Commission interview in November.

One applicant who made it to the top of the hiring list but was not offered a job questioned why they were photographed holding a card with a number on it. He was told it was to help the commissioners match names with faces after 120 interviews in two days.

Murphy and Lyons said they did not know photographs were taken.

Once the test results are in and the list is certified, hiring is in the hands of the Fire Commission, Murphy said.

"All we do in HR is certify to the commission those folks who we deem eligible for appointment based on the Charter and policies we have here," Murphy said. "Who is hired is up to the commission."

Lyons said the Fire Commission had nothing to do with the photographs.

"We did not ask for it and we did not order it. Maybe Human Resources ordered it or the department did. I don't know," he said.

Lyons said he does not know what the photographs would be used for.

One of the applicants who believes he didn't get a fair opportunity questioned how the city could hire firefighters who didn't do well on an exam for which all of the answers are in the study guide.

"If these people aren't dedicated enough to crack open a book for two months, what makes you think they're dedicated enough to run into a burning building?" he said.