SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- A group of white firefighter candidates have challenged a 25-year-old policy requiring the city to give hiring preference to blacks, even if they are less qualified.
The group of nine men claims the policy puts the public at risk and that they were passed over for jobs despite ranking higher on the Civil Service test than some of the nine black candidates hired in August, said the men's attorney, Timothy Fennell.
The city hired 23 firefighters from that class, Fennell said.
``It's really a public safety issue,'' he said Tuesday. ``Taxpayers are entitled to the best qualified firefighters the city can put on the streets.''
Fennell said some of the white candidates were bypassed despite scoring perfect on their tests. He said taking candidates from the qualifying list should be ``racially and gender neutral.''
``Unfortunately, it comes out looking like a racial issue, but we are trying to argue it is about qualifications,'' he said.
The group has filed a notice of claim, which preserves for a year its right to file suit. Fennell said his clients hope to settle without going to court and have had a ``very preliminary'' dialogue with city officials.
The men are seeking immediate appointment to the department, along with back pay, seniority and other lost benefits retroactive to August, Fennell said.
A 1980 federal consent decree required the city fire and police departments to consist of 10 percent blacks. The decree said blacks should make up 25 percent of each new class of fire department recruits until that 10 percent was met, even if it meant bypassing higher scoring candidates, Fennell said. At the time the decree was issued, the city fire department was 1 percent black.
The city presently employs about 360 firefighters and about 16.5 percent are black, according to Don Thompson, the city's acting director of personnel. However, he noted that Syracuse's black population is higher than it was in 1980.
According to the U.S. Census, blacks comprised 25.3 percent of Syracuse residents in 2000, up from 15.7 percent in 1980.
``I think the mayor is trying to make sure that our work force mirrors that of our current population,'' Thompson told The Post-Standard of Syracuse.
City officials declined further comment because of the pending lawsuit.
Fennell said the decree was supposed to be reviewed after five years but never was.
``The consent decree has continued because no one has challenged it. We are challenging it so that it gets re-examined. There was a time when affirmative action had its place, but there's no longer a need for this policy,'' he said.
