Rip Support of Fire Test
Accuse UFA Head Of Racial Politics

By ARI PAUL

An advocate for black firefighters last week accused Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy of "playing racial politics" in siding with the city as it defends past tests for Firefighter against Federal charges of bias.

PAUL WASHINGTON: Takes on Cassidy.

A spokesman for Mr. Cassidy scoffed at the charge by Fire Capt. Paul Washington, a past president of the FDNY Vulcan Society, saying the UFA leader was merely trying to insure that rigorous standards for the job were upheld.

Exam Suit Flashpoint

Mr. Washington made his comments during a July 17 press conference on the steps of City Hall at which Vulcans' officials and their lawyers protested the UFA's motion to intervene as a party defendant in the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that two previous exams for Firefighter had a discriminatory impact on black and Latino applicants.

The Vulcans claim that the tests have kept minority representation in the firefighting force mired at just above seven percent.

STEVE CASSIDY: Exam scores matter.

Manhattan State Sen. Bill Perkins said "racism" was the only reason he could see for the UFA's position in defense of the 1999 and 2002 Firefighter exams.

"We wonder why UFA President Cassidy would side with the city," said John Coombs, president of the Vulcans. "The testing mechanism needs to be changed."

The Vulcans believed that Mr. Cassidy's decision to intervene on the city's side contradicted his earlier positions.

Cassidy's Arguments

"Firefighters today undergo extensive training on the use of sophisticated computerized equipment," Mr. Cassidy wrote in an affidavit. "The job requires not only physical strength, but also an alert and keen mind, the importance of which should not be underestimated."

He went on to say that the UFA wished to offer evidence contrary to the Vulcans' belief that the exams in question were meaningless and that new written tests should be "pass/fail."

The Vulcans cited a letter U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel wrote to Mayor Bloomberg June 26, 2006 reporting on a meeting he facilitated between then-Vulcan President Washington and Mr. Cassidy about the current written exam, which is not at issue in the lawsuit.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow WANTS TESTING MECHANISM SCRAPPED: Vulcan Society President John Coombs claims the city's Firefighter exams are biased against minorities and don't offer a true measure of the best candidates for the job. Looking on are lawyers Richard Levy, left, and Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Urged 'Pass/Fail' Test

He wrote that "an agreement was reached with respect to the upcoming firefighter examination in that the written portion of the examination should be changed to pass/fail test with the physical examination made a bit more challenging with the applicant receiving a numerical score."

Mr. Cassidy has been vocal in the past in saying that the physical exam is more important than the written exam, a point on which the Vulcans agree. He has also said the Fire Department should recruit from the military, which he predicted would increase the number of minority applications.

Captain Washington added that Mr. Cassidy's stance regarding the lawsuit was indicative of his record even before he became the union's president.

Previous Record

In early 2002, Mr. Cassidy, then a rank-and-file Firefighter, gained media attention by circulating a petition to keep a statue that was to be erected in front of Fire Department headquarters from depicting the three firefighters who raised a flag at Ground Zero after 9/11 - who were white - as African-American, Latino and white. Captain Washington believed this activism boosted Mr. Cassidy's image among the predominantly white membership and helped him win the union's top post.

"He's playing racial politics to ensure his popularity within the union," he told reporters last week.

UFA spokesman Tom Butler rebuffed Captain Washington's claims, saying, "Historically, the UFA has always supported a merit-based system."

Lieut. Miguel Ramos, the president of the FDNY Hispanic Society, said his group had no plans at present to join the Vulcans.

"I didn't have major complaints from my membership," he said, adding that he didn't think the exams under challenge were unfair.

City Welcomes UFA

"We welcome the UFA's support in defending the City's colorblind process for selecting firefighters in a manner that assesses candidates' ability to learn all that the job entails and become the best firefighters possible," Georgia Pestana, Chief of the Law Department's Labor and Employment Law Division, said in a statement.

Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, defended the city's exams and commended the union.

"There's something of a tradition in these civil service testing cases," he said of the UFA coming to the city's side. "It's reflecting the views of its membership. It's also because these are areas [where] if there are weak links, everyone may have to put out extra effort. Everyone else is put in danger if the standards are dropped too low."

The tests, the Vulcans claimed, were filled with irrelevant and confusing questions that had little to do with one's ability to become a firefighter. The DOJ stated in its lawsuit that the disparity in passing rates between minority and white applicants, the latter of whom scored higher as a group, was statistically significant. The department is still appointing Firefighters from lists resulting from the tests under challenge.

Prior EEOC Charges

In 2002, the Vulcans filed discrimination charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the aid of the Center for Constitutional Rights. That led the DOJ to investigate the 1999 and 2002 exams, which resulted in this lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks to abolish testing that is deemed racially discriminatory. The Vulcans hope that if the government is successful, many African-American and Latino applicants who took the test will be appointed to the department.

"The government is asking that people who have been harmed by this be made whole," said Richard Levy, a lawyer for the Vulcans, at the press conference.

Mr. Levy said that between 30 and 50 percent of the firefighting forces in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago are minorities. In the case of Los Angeles, he said, the minority rate went up after the city reformed its testing procedures and it implemented a period of preferential hiring.

He contended that the litigation was the result of the Bloomberg administration's inaction to follow the examples of other cities.

"There's no will within the city and the Fire Department to use the creativity to solve this problem," Mr. Levy said. "Everyone has figured it out except for New York City."