Calling the Rochester Fire Department's last recruiting class "woefully inadequate" when it comes to diversity, City Council member Carolee Conklin held up a class photo showing one black graduate and zero women.
The department, with 515 uniformed firefighters, lags behind the city government's diversity average — 13 percent minorities for the department compared with 28 percent for the entire government.
And women? The department has seven.
Conklin isn't the only one taking aim. Mayor Robert Duffy said, "there clearly is a lot of work to be done in the Fire Department," and he promised action. "Change is never easy, nor is it without pain," Duffy said, hinting at new appointments and promotions followed by adjustments to recruiting.
Some in the department say the low numbers aren't for a lack of trying. But solutions mean doing business differently, which likely comes with a price tag. The city currently spends nothing on state entry and promotional exams, which Joseph Montesano, president of the firefighters union, said appears to favor rural and suburban volunteer firefighters already familiar with the test.
"You can't recruit minorities and throw pennies at the process," Montesano said, arguing that city budget constraints have handcuffed the department. "The problems, as I see them, don't lie within the Fire Department. They lie within City Hall."
Fire Chief Floyd Madison wants to offer a city version of the exam, with an oral component. Tutoring sessions would help, as low turnover makes high test scores imperative to get in and move up.
Full-time recruiters also might help. Ernest Flagler, a Rochester firefighter and president of the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters' Genesis Chapter, said the department must recruit year-round, rather than hang out a banner and start advertising a few months before the exam.
The department has never had full-time recruiters and eliminated positions that included recruiting and other duties three years ago as part of staff reductions caused by budget cuts. The Police Department, the only city department to grow in staff over the last 20 years, has dedicated recruiters and equals the city average with 28 percent minorities.
"We can fund recruiters for the Police Department but not for the Fire Department. Is that what you're saying, chief?" Conklin asked Madison during a budget hearing last week.
"I'm not saying that," Madison answered. "I'm saying we don't have any."
Madison has not sought to add the positions back, but the department will not test again until 2007. In the meantime, he said, the goal is to add two full-time recruiters, a woman and a minority promoted from within.
"If we're going to diversify this department," Madison said, "we've got to think more creatively. We're got to cast that net wider ... we've got to go to colleges, maybe minority and women's colleges on the East Coast. Maybe we have to recruit from other fire departments in New York state."
Madison said there also are internal hurdles. He said he has had to persuade the local Civil Service Commission not to screen out a couple of recent black recruits for minor infractions in their youth. Urban youths from tough environments "are not going to come to us with the crystal-clear records we seem to desire," he told City Council.
Republished wiht permission by The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
