2008 Cincinnati Fire Exam

[crazydave]

What did everyone think about the exam?

[Wentz34]

my first time taking cincy's test.. seemed like a good amount of people there.. i felt i did good but i think i should have spent more time looking through that study guide.

[crazydave]

I agree. It was much more from the study guide than it was last year. Guess we will find out in 5-6 weeks.

[CarnyTheKid]

In the paper Feb 28th it said there is a class scheduled for fall of this year. The city is trying to get some Federal money to pay for it.

For anyone who wants the article here references a class in the fall...

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...0108/902280363

In reality the city needs to do another class this year and 2 next year to be prepared for the large amounts of retirements in 2011. But money makes the world go round...

[SlightlyStoopid]

The current list for Cincinnati is only good for one year because not enough minorities made the list. This is almost the exact case about New Haven, CT's Firefighters that is going before the Supreme Court. There was no reason the City of Cincinnati should waste all the tax payers money on putting on another testing process just to meet quotas, not to mention the reverse discrimination against all the people on the current list. I think we have an excellent case to fight with the Firefighters in New Haven, CT.

[CarnyTheKid]

Go for it, the city presently is looking at cutting 5% immediately and more next year. One option was cutting 9 companies from the department. That is a lot more than 5% and probably wouldn't happen but worst case scenario it does, that's about 140 people laid off.

Also I have done some research on the DROP and how many retirees there are. Even though everyone throws out the number 100 in January 2011, by what I can tell its more around 30-40. There are not that many people on the department that had enough time to retire in 2003 and enter the drop. So not to ruin anyone's hope but I had posted earlier the 100 number because that's what I was told. That just isn't the case.

I would almost guarantee they cut some companies which may make hiring a lot off this list difficult.

[crazydave7]

Any word on the Cinci hiring process with all the budget issues going on?

[madden01]

Looks like they are going to be laying off
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story...0OMxJRGRA.cspx

[CarnyTheKid]

I would say there is a 100% chance that no one is hired from this list and possibly never finish this hiring process.

However many they layoff, they will call them back before they ever hire anyone.

[runner32]

CarnyTheKid:

In reality the city needs to do another class this year and 2 next year to be prepared for the large amounts of retirements in 2011. But money makes the world go round...

I would say there is a 100% chance that no one is hired from this list and possibly never finish this hiring process.
However many they layoff, they will call them back before they ever hire anyone.



With the recent talks about layoffs, where would that leave the candidates that are going through the process currently. Will they still complete the testing and create a new eligible list for a future class or would they do away with it all together?

[runner32]

I would say there is a 100% chance that no one is hired from this list and possibly never finish this hiring process.

However many they layoff, they will call them back before they ever hire anyone.

For anyone who wants the article here references a class in the fall...

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...0108/902280363

In reality the city needs to do another class this year and 2 next year to be prepared for the large amounts of retirements in 2011. But money makes the world go round...

Would this also impact those candidates going thru the testing process right now that applied/tested in 09? Will they still be creating a new eligible list or due to the potential lay offs will they do away with the current testing process all together?

[runner32]

Does this impact the candidates that applied in 09 and are currently going thru the process? Will they continue on with the process and create a new eligible list or will they do away with the testing all together?

[runner32]

sorry about the multiple posts....must have been a delay

[CarnyTheKid]

CarnyTheKid:

In reality the city needs to do another class this year and 2 next year to be prepared for the large amounts of retirements in 2011. But money makes the world go round...

I would say there is a 100% chance that no one is hired from this list and possibly never finish this hiring process.
However many they layoff, they will call them back before they ever hire anyone.



With the recent talks about layoffs, where would that leave the candidates that are going through the process currently. Will they still complete the testing and create a new eligible list for a future class or would they do away with it all together?

Actually there are no large amounts of people leaving in 2011. If you talk to most FFs on CFD they believe there are over 100 that leave that year. In reality there are only 35. I will explain. In 1975 the CFD had layoffs that took until 1980 to hire everyone back. Therefore the only ones who were eligible to DROP in 2011 were the ones hired in 1975 or brought back by 1978. There are presently only 25-35 of those people left on the department. The large hires started again in 1980. This meant those FFs were eligible to enter the DROP in 2005 and can stay until 2013. So no they do not need that many classes. 35 spots can easily be cut through attrition if the city wanted to do so.

As far as this current test I don't know what they will do. To save money they should stop the test. Or they could finish it and use it for the next time they are able to hire instead of starting a whole process over again. But that is up to the city. I don't want to give anyone false hope as I really don't know what they will do with this test. The city manager almost guarantees layoffs in 2010. If any are FFs, they will be hired back before anyone is hired from this list.

[runner32]

Hey Carny,

Thanks for the info. Would this be the case if the city decides to go with plan A. I checked on the website and it looks like plan B would have them doing away with 9 stations and laying off over 105 firefighters. Looks like plan A requires less of a cut, removing a couple ambulances. Just curious how this might pan out due to the fact that I think I scored pretty well and am moving forward with the oral board.

Thanks for all the info

[CarnyTheKid]

Hey Carny,

Thanks for the info. Would this be the case if the city decides to go with plan A. I checked on the website and it looks like plan B would have them doing away with 9 stations and laying off over 105 firefighters. Looks like plan A requires less of a cut, removing a couple ambulances. Just curious how this might pan out due to the fact that I think I scored pretty well and am moving forward with the oral board.

Thanks for all the info

Here is my "OPINION". Right now the city really does not have a clue what they're going to do. I do know that tomorrow they will vote on what to cut across the city for the next 6 months. That meeting is at 1:30 pm. If anything comes from it that pertains to this process I will post it here.

Right now according to the news they are not going to cut the 2 ambulances that they put into service earlier this year. It was quite a big deal that CFD has ambulances unavailable on a regular basis and that's why they put the 2 ambulances in service to begin with. They also said they will cut some 40 hour positions and overtime. Cutting those 40 hour positions will just cause them to move people back onto the Companies and prevent paying out overtime. Apparently the Department usually spends 2-3 million a year on Overtime.

As of right now the majority of our City Council has to be re-elected in November. Therefore they don't want to do anything at this point that may jeopardize their re-election. Once re-elected though, the real hard times could begin for the FD as this is the same time as the budget is completed for the next year.

If I were you I would continue in this process to the end if they do complete it. You never know what may happen. Cleveland hired a class 11 years after the process was completed. Obviously you don't want to wait 11 years for a job but it is an option at least.

I will also explain things a bit related to the Plans. Right now they want all city employees to take unpaid days off. As for the FD and PD, they are always open for business. I am not sure how they plan on accomplishing this except that they may perhaps start Browning out Companies. IF and when that starts happening that just opens the door for Companies to be cut. The city tried this in 2003 until they had a fatal fire in the first due of a browned out company. The very next day the Brown Outs stopped. I think the city in the end will try to cut companies but I don't know when that will be. Unfortunately for you, if companies are cut, less people need to be hired.

I wish I could give you more info but I do not really know the finances of the city nor where the money is going. Do your best in this process if it continues. If you scored anywhere in the 90s or upper 80s you are in a very good spot to be in the first class if it should ever take place. Scores were a lot lower than what they normally have.

The class of 1984 will be eligible to retire with 25 years on 7/15/09. Usually there are a few people who retire, but most of them will enter the DROP. That is a minimum of 3 years they must stay. The real big movement on the department will take place from 2013-2015.

[runner32]

Thanks again for all the info. Very informative. Thanks for breaking it down. I will look out for any info that you may have that comes out of the meeting tomorrow. I did score in the 90s on the written. Hopefully the process will continue on and I'll see what happens.

[Wentz34]

they have suspended the process and cancelled the oral boards.