“The chief and I are new on the job,” Director of Public Safety Charles Bryson recently wrote to everyone in the St. Louis Fire Department, speaking of himself and Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson.

“This represents a new beginning.”

This “new beginning” has been praised in the highest terms imaginable by Post-Dispatch editorial writer Kevin Horrigan, writing in the voice of the Post itself on the paper’s Editorial page.

The Post said that in Jenkerson’s first 100 days as fire chief, he had “made more progress toward solving the department’s long-standing promotions problems than all of his predecessors combined.”

That would be more progress in 100 days than the 24 previous fire chiefs were able to achieve in the previous 150 years.

As evidence for this startling claim, the Post listed only proposed changes to the testing process for the Fire Department. However, this testing process is overseen by the Department of Personnel, not the Fire Department.

Whatever changes the Department of Personnel intends for testing in the Fire Department, and whether or not the mayor’s office and the Post give Jenkerson credit for any such changes, Jenkerson already has established a pattern of promotions as fire chief.

It represents anything but a “new beginning.” In fact, Jenkerson has done nothing but continue to promote from a list drawn up by the Department of Personnel after tests completed in 2004.

These tests were administered against the explicit, written complaints of then-Fire Chief Sherman George and F.I.R.E., the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality.

George argued that this particular test did not adequately judge fire scene leadership, and F.I.R.E. provided documentation that multiple-choice testing favors white firefighters over black firefighters.

After Mayor Francis G. Slay promoted Bryson to demote George (who was facing a deadline established by Bryson’s immediate predecessor, Sam Simon), Deputy Chief Steven Kotraba was promoted to acting fire chief. On the day of his promotion, Kotraba began to promote from the contested 2004 list. Jenkerson has continued to follow this list in making promotions since his own promotion to fire chief.

Jenkerson, a personal friend of Slay’s, became the first battalion chief ever to be promoted to chief of the St. Louis Fire Department without first earning a promotion to deputy chief.

New, Southern

If there is a “new beginning” signaled by the promotions begun by Kotraba and continued by Jenkerson, it points towards a Fire Department overwhelmingly led by South Side white men.

Of the 32 promotions to captain made by Kotraba and Jenkerson, 30 live south of Highway 40 and only two live north of Highway 40. All six individuals promoted to battalion chief by Kotraba and Jenkerson live south of Highway 40.

The average increase in pay gained in a promotion from firefighter to captain is $14,000. That means South Side neighborhoods have received an average boost in annual salary of $520,000 (more than a half-million dollars) from these promotions to captain, while North Side neighborhoods received only a $28,000 boost in annual salary under Jenkerson and Kotraba.

The average increase in pay gained in a promotion from captain to battalion chief is $12,000. So South Side neighborhoods have received an average boost in annual salary of $72,000 from these promotions to battalion chief, while North Side neighborhoods have received no benefit in salary increases.

Overall, the transfer of wealth is $592,000 gained by South Side neighborhoods annually, while only $28,000 annually was gained by North Side neighborhoods, a difference of more than a half-million dollars ($564,000) per year. That boost to the South Side climbs to $589,000 per year after adding Jenkerson’s annual raise of $25,000 from his unprecedented promotion from battalion chief to fire chief.

“You also have to factor in the retirements plans, which are based on annual salary,” said former Chief George when confronted with these statistics.

“We are seeing the building of wealth for these firefighters’ children and their children’s children that is being denied to African-American North St. Louis.”

Indeed, with his $25,000 raise as a battalion chief promoted to fire chief, Jenkerson’s personal benefit from promotions since the demotion of Sherman George is almost equal to the sum total of raises from Fire Department promotions in all the households north of Highway 40 since the demotion of George ($28,000).

ZIP it up

The regional breakdown in South Side promotions to captain and battalion chief under Jenkerson and Kotraba by ZIP code is as follows:

? 63104, five promotions - Raymond Daniels, Carolyn Moore, Micheal Dean, Lonnie Hughes, Steve Simpson

? 63109, 14 promotions - Wayne Killingsworth, Robert Eveland, John Fischer, James Willie, James Wiseman, John Costello, Michael Barnes, Steve Rick, William Ellner, James Shepard, David Neighbors, Gregory Boschert, Dan Lemmon, Russ Richter

? 63111, one promotion - Stephen Olliges

? 63116, eight promotions - Michael Corson, Doug Loop, Ronald Moen, William Pollihan, Earl Epstein Jr., Thomas McLaughlin, Gail Simmons, Daniel Fog

* 63118, two promotions - David Washington, Richard Betts

* 63123, four promotions - Matthew Richardson, Michael Newberry, Gerald Jacobsen, Charles Hoffman

* 63125, one promotion - Duane Greer

* 63139, one promotion - William Florence.

The only two firefighters promoted by Kotraba or Jenkerson who live north of Highway 40 are Leonard Davis (in ZIP code 63112) and Quincy Lunnie (in ZIP code 63107).

New, white

The promotion numbers also show a shocking disparity when calculated by race.

Jenkerson and Kotraba have promoted 25 white firefighters to captain but only seven black firefighters. They have promoted three new white battalion chiefs, two black battalion chiefs and one Hispanic.

That means white families of new captains have gained $350,000 in annual salary increases, while black families have received only $98,000. White families of new battalion chiefs have received $36,000 while black families have received $24,000.

The “new beginning” represented by Bryson, Jenkerson and Kotraba has seen $386,000 in annual salary increases handed to the families of white firefighters, yet only $122,000 in annual salary increases for the families of black firefighters. Add in Jenkerson’s $25,000 annual raise, and the annual advantage to whites becomes $411,000 to $122,000.

The city of St. Louis has a slight numerical majority of black residents. In 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau projected city residents to be 50.5 percent black compared to 45.7 percent white.

“The results of these 2004 tests - which Chief George objected to from the beginning - have provided us with a promotions list that continues to exacerbate the racial problems in the city and the disproportionate lack of minority participation,” said License Collector Michael McMillan.

The Post and other local media have falsely reported a new supposed “memorandum of understanding” between the Fire Department, Firefighters Local 73 (the white-dominated union) and F.I.R.E. In fact, F.I.R.E. rejected the document, which was released to the media at the same time as it was released to F.I.R.E., contrary to the process the City had agreed to follow in working out a new understanding.

Instead, F.I.R.E. wrote to Slay, Bryson and Jenkerson, demanding that the City “reinstate a 50/50 hiring and institute a 50/50 diversity promotional plan through an executive order from the mayor to balance the department’s racial mix.”

F.I.R.E. has received no formal response to this demand.