With the
notorious history of racial tension among firefighters in St.
Louis, recruitment and promotion have long been gray, obscure
areas. A recent report attempts to make matters more black and
white.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality (F.I.R.E.) released a report on the “hiring, retention and upward mobility of African Americans” in the St. Louis Fire Department earlier this month.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Since 2007, African Americans have made up 22 percent of the firefighters hired and about 25 percent of those promoted, according to the report. The institute argues that these percentages do not keep up with the city’s 50 percent African-American population or 39 percent black firefighters currently employed at the department.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At this rate, the department’s diversity numbers will sharply decline in the near future.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“We found those numbers unacceptable,” said Fire Captain Abram Pruitt, president of F.I.R.E. “Now we have the hard facts to say this is what’s happening.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Black firefighters’ grievances against promotions in the department, and the tests administered to produce promotions lists, are anything but new in St. Louis or other metropolitan fire departments around the country.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In 1974, F.I.R.E. and the U.S. Department of Justice took St. Louis’ fire captain’s test to court. As a result, the city personnel department conducted and published a study, “All Business; fire service testing in a litigious environment: a case history.” The All Business report studied the department’s testing from 1974 to 1994.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In 1974, about 11 percent of the department’s 1,000 uniformed personnel were black and only two percent of supervisors were black.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Over the next 20 years, the number of black fire fighters rose to as high as 40 percent, largely because of a consent decree that mandated hiring on a 50/50 basis.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As a result of a 1980 lawsuit, the court ordered the city to work with a committee to develop a test that was acceptable to F.I.R.E., Firefighters Local 73 (the firefighters’ association, dominated by white firefighters), the Department of Justice and the city.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>However, in 2003, the courts stopped supervising the personnel department’s testing process, the report states, and the tests went back to a format that strongly favors white candidates.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The current test is largely multiple-choice, Pruitt said, on which white candidates perform much better.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The All Business report showed that the previous three-part exam tested for a wider knowledge base and produced a more diverse group of candidates. This test had multiple-choice, fire-scene and assessment-center components. The fire-scene portion asked firefighters to assess a situation and apply their knowledge to the scene. Blacks performed better than whites on this portion of the exam, Pruitt said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Former Fire Chief Sherman George – the city’s first and only black fire chief – encouraged this format when asked by the city’s personnel director. However, the personnel director chose a testing firm that George and F.I.R.E. had warned against, EB Jacobs. Its test resulted in a promotions list that overwhelming favored white firefighters. George refused to promote from the list, saying he didn’t trust that the test had adequately tested for job performance.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>George ultimately was demoted in September 2007 and resigned the next month. The F.I.R.E. report tracks promotions in the department since 2007.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The city’s current director of personnel is Richard Frank. The F.I.R.E. report offers various recommendations to the city’s Department of Personnel, including changes to the department’s testing format, discipline and recruitment process. F.I.R.E. also calls on Mayor Francis G. Slay to pass an executive order outlining the recommendations in the report.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Frank said he was unaware of the report and is “not available to respond at this time.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Frank was director of personnel when Slay promoted Charles Bryson, an African-American, to director of public safety, replacing Sam Simon, who was mired in a scandal that nearly deprived city firefighters of all their airmasks.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It was Bryson who enforced Simon’s standing threat to demote Chief George over his refusal to promote from the promotions list George said he did not trust. After George was demoted then retired, he was replaced by Interim Chief Steve Kotraba and then by Dennis Jenkerson.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Kotraba and Jenkerson made the promotions from the list created by the EB Jacobs test, which contributed greatly to the racial disparities in promotions outlined in the new F.I.R.E. report.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Jenkerson was a battalion chief when he was promoted to chief over Deputy Chief Charles Coyle, the city’s fire marshal. Coyle recently won his suit claiming he was racially discriminated against by Jenkerson’s promotion over him.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Jenkerson did not return The St. Louis American’s phone calls.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Pruitt said F.I.R.E. is undaunted by the official silence.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“We know that the community can get things done,” Pruitt said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“The community is where we have always gotten support from. When there are enough people who are tired of the status quo, things will change.”
