Subject: ST. LOUIS FIRE DEPT. REVERSE DISCRIMINATION

Subject: ST. LOUIS FIRE DEPT. REVERSE DISCRIMINATION

Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 17:18:11 -0800

From: (name redacted)

To: <>

Mr. Fay, enclosed is a letter sent to the local news agencies regarding our claim of reverse discrimination. So far, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KTVI FOX 2 news has expressed interest in our case. If you have any information or have any contacts that might help us, it would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

THANKS, (name redacted)

((Note: The sender attached the following Word document to his e-mail.))

January 10, 2002

To whom it may concern,

I am a 10+ year veteran St. Louis firefighter and I as well as 50 other white firefighters do believe we are being discriminated against for a promotion to the rank of fire captain by the city of St. Louis. In order for you to understand our charge, let me explain from the beginning. The dept. of personnel with the city of St. Louis hired Barrett and Associates (a testing co.) to give a battalion chiefs promotional exam approximately 5-6 years ago. Their type of testing is totally objective (multiple choice test with clear, concise answer key). The African-American firefighters have an organization called F.I.R.E., which stands for FIREFIGHTERS INSTITUTE for RACIAL EQUALITY, and they claimed that this type of test was unfair to minorities because they historically do not fare as well as whites on multiple choice tests which leads to “disparate impact”. F.I.R.E. filed a lawsuit with the city of St. Louis and Barrett and Assoc. claiming such, lost in court and appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and there too, lost. The city then ran this promotional list for battalion chiefs for approximately 3-4 years and promoted about 18 or 19, of whom there were 4 African-Americans. In May, 2000, the city used Barrett and Assoc. again to give another battalion chiefs promotional exam as well as a fire captains promotional exam. Under the NEW leadership of Sherman George, the 1st African-American fire chief in St. Louis Fire Dept. history, F.I.R.E. (who Sherman George is a life long member and staunch supporter of) members picketed city hall and the actual home of William Duffe, director of personnel, but to no avail. The tests were given, this time even making part of the examination “fill-in-the-blank” trying to appease the minorities ridiculous claims of disparate impact, and the top scorers on both tests were again in favor of whites. This time though, promotions were and still are hard to come by. Once both lists were certified on September 6, 2000, there were 11 immediate openings for fire captain but Sherman George refused to promote. Finally, after almost 2 months, these 11 positions were filled. But not before Chief George stated on 2 different occasions to numerous fire dept. personnel that he was not going to promote from the current lists because the racial make-up did not reflect the fire dept. as a whole. Rumor has it that his job was threatened by his superiors if he didn’t promote, which explains the ultimate promotions.

Now, after only 16 months of the 2 promotional lists in use, and 20 captains and 2 battalion chief promotions, the dept. of personnel has announced another set of promotional exams for fire captain and battalion chief. And it gets better. They did NOT rehire Barrett and Assoc., a proven testing co. whose tests will stand up in a court of law as fair and unbiased, but hired an African-American testing co. (Charles Blockett and Assoc.), who has never given a fire dept. examination in its entire existence.

If you approach Mr. Duffe and ask why he has decided to give another set of tests, he will state that the city charter (constitution) says promotional lists MUST run for 6 months and SHOULD run for 2 years and that is what the current lists will do. However, he won’t tell you that the charter also states that a promotional list CAN BE EXTENDED BEYOND THE 2 YEAR POINT BY THE DEPT. OF PERSONNEL. He also won’t tell you that FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS, THE DEPT. OF PERSONNEL HAS EXTENDED FIRE CAPTAINS PROMOTIONAL LISTS BETWEEN AN AVERAGE OF 5-7 YEARS AND WOULD PROMOTE UNTIL THE LISTS WERE EXHAUSTED OF ALL PASSING CANDIDATES, WHICH AVERAGED BETWEEN 70-90 PEOPLE.

I am sure that one question you may have is why have they extended the lists in the past, but not now. Well, in the past, promotional exams were subjective (essay type tests with no clear answer key), leaving room for officials to “juggle the numbers”, which I am sure they did because the numbers were always about 50%white/50%black. (A CITY OFFICIAL EVEN TESTIFIED TO THIS PRACTICE IN A COURT OF LAW.) And now, when the results are not racially diverse, the city wants to give another set of tests?

It has been said that proving discrimination is difficult because there is no key piece of evidence stating that the reason for the new set of tests is because of low minority numbers and that the city has the right to give these tests because of what the charter states. To this I reply as follows:

1. To this day, the city still hires into the fire dept. on a “one for one” quota system, 50%white/50%black, no matter how a candidate scored on the entrance exams. For example, when I was hired, I was in the top 50 out of over 800 applicants. In my fire academy class, all the white men had scored in the top 50 as well, while the African-American men had scored anywhere from 300 to 500 out of 800 people. Affirmative action or reverse discrimination?

1. A precedent was set when the dept. of personnel extended promotional lists for as long as they have and would even run the list to completion. Why are they changing it now?

*At this time I do need to tell you that our union (IAFF AFL-CIO Local 73) has for the past 30 years fought for a 2 year list, unsuccessfully though, until now? The union leaders have even stated that they also believe that the reason the city is giving these tests again is based solely on the fact that there are not enough minorities at the top of the list. But because the union has fought for years, unsuccessfully, to get a 2 year list, they cannot abandon their cause, even now. They have been trying to get Mr. Duffe and the dept. of personnel to sign a legal document stating that from now on there will be 2 year lists but Mr. Duffe REFUSES. Mr. Duffe has also been quoted saying that he is being forced to give these tests and has no plans on giving 2 year tests in the future because the expense is too great and the city cannot afford it. I thought the city was under a budget crisis because of the 9-11 tragedy? If they can afford it now, why not every 2 years?

3. The soon to be promotional exams are COMPLETELY SUBJECTIVE. The information given about the fire captain’s test states that step 1 is a multiple choice with a “pass-fail” score and it will NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE FINAL, OVERALL SCORE USED TO RANK CANDIDATES. Step 2 has an emergency scene scenario which will have several “open-ended questions” about each scenario, which is worth 50% of the final score and then a video examination with written response segment which deals with interpersonal situations, and this is worth the remaining 50% of the final score. Did you notice that the only OBJECTIVE part of the test (multiple choice) has no significance on the final ranking of candidates?

I have tried to give you as much hard evidence and useful information as possible, leaving out the “firehouse gossip”, of which I could go on talking about for another 3 hours (i.e. Sherman George’s ability to get copies of actual tests to F.I.R.E. members days before they are officially given by the dept. of personnel; Sherman George’s attempts in trying to get copies of the upcoming promotional tests). But I know that it is simply conjecture or hearsay and would not help. However, I also realize that in today’s society, a “white male” crying discrimination is hard to believe and is probably not deemed “newsworthy”. But, with the information that I have given you, coupled with your own investigation information, hopefully you will see that “reverse discrimination” is alive and well in the city of St. Louis and you will inform the citizens of St. Louis of the city’s unfair and biased actions. With all this said, I did not even mention that from a taxpayer’s standpoint, the city is literally wasting close to $1 MILLION in taxpayer’s monies. It cost the St. Louis citizens $500,000 to give the 2 tests in May, 2000; and now the city wants to spend another several hundred thousand dollars on ANOTHER set of tests not even 2 years later! Talk about wasteful government spending!

Sincerely,

A disgruntled St. Louis Firefighter

(I refuse to give my name for fear of

retaliation from my superiors)

F.Y.I. THIS SAME LETTER HAS ALSO BEEN SENT TO THE

OTHER LOCAL NEWS AGENCIES AS WELL.