City officials Wednesday agreed to form a working group to increase minority recruiting for the fire department, which hasn’t hired a black firefighter in more than five years.
“Everybody agrees on one thing,” City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth said after a sometimes testy safety committee meeting. “What has been going on over the last six years is not acceptable.”
Her comments followed City Council’s third discussion of minority recruiting for the fire department in recent weeks.
Council members heard from the manager of safety and the Civil Service Commission – the agencies in charge of recruiting and hiring – about recent changes to get minorities into the fire academies.
“Our targeted recruitment efforts directed by the manager of safety and supported by the commission have increased the African-Americans tested from 5.3 percent in 2001, 2004, to 12.8 percent in 2006,” civil service commissioner Chris Olsen said.
And Manager of Safety Alvin La Cabe said the city’s Public Safety Cadet Program – aimed at recruiting young applicants – has made strides in the past year.
“Using the program as it currently exists, I think we are doing a tremendous job recruiting people and bringing more minorities into the fold,” La Cabe said. “The question is going to be long-run … Will it make a drastic difference in the numbers?”
The problem, as Councilman Doug Linkhart pointed out, has been getting minority applicants all the way through the academy and onto the force.Wedgeworth went a step further, chastising the commission for a lack of accountability.
“I think part of the problem has been … this has been going on for six years and there has been total no accountability in terms of letting this happen,” she said.
She also warned that a lack of diversity within the department could become a bigger problem. Of about 50 black firefighters, nearly 15 will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, Wedgeworth said after the meeting.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
