Fire Officials Cancel Interviews to Rewrite Rules

LOS ANGELES —  The Los Angeles Fire Department has abruptly canceled interviews for captain positions because department officials have failed to heed a City Council directive to overhaul the interview process in response to a critical audit that found racism and sexism pervaded the department’s hiring and promotion practices.

More than 90 firefighters had signed up for the interviews, which were scheduled to start Friday, but now will be postponed for at least two months. Fire Chief William Bamattre said he wants to draft a detailed job description for the Captain II position, and may expand the selection process from a simple interview with a three-person panel to include a practical or written examination.

Though department leaders, union representatives and City Council members said they support expanded selection criteria and a more objective process, many expressed concern that the postponement came at the last minute, leaving those applying for the position in the lurch and indicating that Bamattre may not have taken the need for change seriously enough.

“This wasn’t a surprise that they were going to have Captain II interviews, and yet they didn’t do anything,” said Don Forrest, a leader of United Fire Fighters of Los Angeles City. “You’ve got a lot of people who’ve taken a lot of time getting ready. Shame on the department for canceling at the last minute.”

Laura Chick, chairwoman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, worried about the impact on the morale of the firefighters and wondered whether department brass are dragging their feet in reforming the agency.

“If someone was giving marching orders to revise the guidelines and it wasn’t done, that’s not OK,” Chick said. “To have people waiting to test for promotion and have it changed at the last minute is not acceptable.”

Bamattre said the late cancellation “happened by accident” and he takes full responsibility. “We can do this test better, so let’s not do it halfheartedly and open ourselves to criticism again,” he said.

Moving from Captain I to Captain II provides a 5% to 6% pay raise--from about $63,000 to about $70,000 annually--as well as increased responsibility at the station house. A Captain I typically supervises an engine company and oversees three to five firefighters, while Captain IIs supervise ladder trucks and have more than a dozen people under their command, Forrest said.

A 1994 audit by the city Personnel Department found that despite 20 years of affirmative action policies, there were no blacks, Asian Americans or women in the Fire Department’s top 20 command posts, 95% of which were held by white men. Women made up 3% of the department, the audit found.

As of last summer, the 3,100-member department was 23% Latino, 11% African American and 3.5% Asian American.

Fire Commissioner Leslie Song Winner and Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, key proponents of diversifying the department, both said that delaying the interviews was essential.

“We need to do this the right way. We need to start making change. Hiring and promotions are the most important thing in that process,” Winner said. “We have to do everything we can to see that the changes take place and that we don’t go back to the status quo.”

“There were enough people that were afraid it was going to be the same old thing that it seemed smart to slow it down a little bit,” Goldberg said. “This is really an important symbolic thing. I’m sure that people are disappointed who had psyched themselves up for the test, but I think everyone will be happier in the end.”