Aurora – Aurora’s police chief and some ministers say the Fire Department union is using racist tactics to defeat a ballot measure that would strip most of the Civil Service Commission’s duties.
At a recent homeowners association meeting, fire union president Randy Rester passed out information including a newspaper article about a black city employee accused of sexually assaulting a boy whom the man met at a city-run event for children.
The seasonal parks employee was volunteering at the annual KidSpree event; the city didn’t run a background check on him. He was later found to have been a convicted sex offender.
Beneath the article, which also shows a photo of suspect Jermaine Vaden, are the following words: “This is the same underfunded H.R. division City Council wants to handle the hiring of police officers and fire fighters.”
The Rev. Thomas Mayes of the Living Water Christian Center said he was “very disturbed” after reading what Rester handed him at the Del Mar homeowners meeting Sept. 20 at Fulton Elementary School.
“I felt insulted,” said Mayes, who is black. “I felt like it had underlying motives. I think it was racism, the worst brand of racism – hidden and discreet. What they are trying to do is fear-mongering.”
Mayes said he is planning to ask the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to look into the incident.
Rester disputed any racist intentions Tuesday and said the material criticized only the human-resources department, which would take over recruiting and hiring of police officers and firefighters if the change to the city charter passes.
“It has nothing to do with racism,” Rester said. “Everybody is trying to turn this into everything that it is not. It has everything to do with the city not doing a background check on an individual they hired. … It has to do with the process.”
Aside from transferring hiring and promotions of fire and police officers to the city, the measure would extend probation periods for new hires from six months to a year. It would also cut commission terms from six years to three.
Opponents such as the police and fire department unions have said it would promote cronyism and that keeping the duties with the commission would ensure unbiased hiring and promoting.
Supporters such as the police and fire chief have said they need to have more say over hiring and promoting to diversify the ranks. About 86 percent of Aurora police officers are white, 4 percent are black and 7 percent are Hispanic. In the fire department, 85 percent are white, 3 percent are black and 5 percent are Hispanic. The most recent census numbers show Aurora is 68.9 percent white, 13.4 percent black and 19.8 percent Hispanic.
Fire Chief Casey Jones said that regardless of what happens, the Police Department will continue to do background checks on its candidates and likewise with the Fire Department. The commission merely sets standards for checks, he said.
To imply that the checks would change if the measure is passed, or that someone like Vaden would be hired as a cop or firefighter, Jones said, is “preposterous.”
Doug Houghton, vice president of the Fire Department union, said he put together the packet, which included background on the commission, what it does, and pro and con opinions about the ballot proposal.
“My intent was certainly not to make this a racial issue,” Houghton said. “I was just trying to point out how underfunded and overtaxed our human-resources department is.”
“Any claim by Randy Rester that he didn’t understand that this is racially incendiary is baloney,” Police Chief Dan Oates said. “This kind of advocacy by an association leader will taint the image of police officers and firefighters.”
