Quotas

Have you ever wondered why the government requires exams for certain government jobs? State and local governments developed the competitive civil service system, modeled on the national system, to eliminate patronage and establish hiring and promoting based on objective criteria.

The exams measure reading, writing, and reasoning, but because blacks score disproportionately lower than other exam-takers, the exams have a “disparate impact” on this group. Cities and towns are forced to deal with federal “discrimination” lawsuits as a result. Some cities, like Dayton, Ohio, eliminated the written exam altogether, while others, like New York City, will spend $3.3 million to develop and administer a new firefighters exam that will somehow improve the results of black exam-takers.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who ruled that the FDNY discriminated against blacks and Hispanics with a recruitment exam used between 1999 and 2007, and intentionally discriminated against minorities by continuing to use the exam, ordered the city to develop the new exam. From the NY Daily News:

The cost of the previous Fire Department exam, given in 2007, was $1.3 million, according to officials at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

The huge jump in cost hasn’t sat well in City Hall. “This litigation has forced some very costly mandates on the city for the development and administration of the test,” said Julie Wood, spokeswoman for Mayor Bloomberg. “We have to pay for them.”

Judge Nicholas Garaufis last year demanded that the city alter its method of recruiting firefighters and blocked the FDNY – which is 91% white – from hiring any candidates until a new test was created. The judge also mandated that the new test be created by an outside developer, instead of within DCAS – the agency that normally creates the city’s exams.

The city hired California-based PSI Services to develop and give the test, which is expected to be given in the first few months of 2012.

The requirement to hire an expensive outside consultant has sent costs soaring, City Hall insiders grumbled.

The test will also for the first time be given on a computer and be overseen by a court-appointed special master, adding to the skyrocketing costs, officials said.

Typically, DCAS’ in-house test writing team consults with agency supervisors and union leaders to develop an exam. This time, the agency is not involved with creating the test and is only coordinating communication between PSI and the FDNY.

The agency has so far paid PSI $526,000, according to a DCAS spokeswoman. Calls to PSI for comment were not returned.

The head of the Vulcan Society, the black firefighter organization that is suing the city over employment practices, believes the money is being well spent.

Speculate, readers. What sort of exam would be easier for blacks? What are the exam developers adding or removing from the exam to “equalize” the results?

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A federal court in New York is hearing testimony in a case against the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). I’ve blogged about the FDNY “bias” case several times, so I won’t reinvent the microchip. Read the background here.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that the FDNY discriminated against blacks and Hispanics with a recruitment exam used between 1999 and 2007, and intentionally discriminated against minorities by continuing to use the exam.

What was wrong with the exam? Nothing. Blacks scored disproportionately lower on it than whites.

According to black firefighters testifying in the case, white firefighters defaced a flyer announcing a memorial for black firefighters; a black firefighter found a noose around his equipment; and blacks overheard white men referring to the grunt worker of the day as a “nigger.”

Therefore, the FDNY should water down the civil service exam and enact racial quotas. What does one have to do with the other? Nothing. The solution to the name-calling and harassment would be to weed it out, but as usual, it’s cause for race-based special treatment. A watered down test would be easier for everyone to pass, so the implication is that blacks with lower scores would be hired over whites with higher scorers.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Is the city of Dayton, Ohio, setting itself up for a Ricci v. DeStefano-type lawsuit?

The U.S. Department of Justice directed Dayton to lower its required passing scores on a civil service exam for police officers and firefighters because not enough blacks passed it.

Under the old requirements, candidates had to pass 66 percent of one part and 72 percent of the other. Those low scores weren’t low enough, so Dayton dropped the passing rates to 58 percent and 63 percent. When I was in school, the first score was an F and the second was a D.

Standards reached rock-bottom, and I wondered why Dayton required the written test at all. Someone in charge must have read my mind, because the city dropped the objective written portion altogether in favor of subjective oral interviews. To be precise, the city threw out all 748 passing scores.

Should the white candidates decide to sue, would they have a case? Ricci v. DeStefano (2009) sets the tone. The city of New Haven tossed the promotion exam scores because too few minorities scored high enough to qualify. A group of mostly white firefighters sued, and the case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Among other things, the city claimed it tossed the scores for fear of disparate impact liability.

The court ruled that the city discriminated against Hispanic and white firefighters when it scrapped the exam results. Before employers decide to discriminate against one group to avoid disparate impact liability from another, they must have a “strong basis in evidence” to believe they would be liable. Score disparities alone don’t qualify as a “strong basis in evidence.” New Haven would have been liable only if the exam hadn’t been job related, consistent with business necessity, or if there was an equally valid, less discriminatory test the city refused to use.

Did Dayton’s attorneys carefully review the matter before the city tossed the results?

{ Comments on this entry are closed }