That’s the mantra of those behind the FDNY lawsuit – That, “New York City’s Municipal agencies SHOULD look like New York City.”
We at Merit Matters believe and have always believed that people gravitate to certain jobs based on individual aptitude, motivations and changing social and economic parameters. For that reason, we’ve always said that ANY employer should seek to hire “the best candidates available for the job at hand.”
Some have argued that, “Many exams reward candidates who have a much higher level of basic skills (like reading comprehension) than is needed or necessary to do those jobs.”
What’s wrong with hiring the BEST out of a large group of merely “qualified” candidates?
Why go with the minimally qualified, when you can hire the best qualified? The quality of a workforce matters and in emergency services, the minimally qualified are simply NOT “as qualified” as anyone else. Reading comprehension, an aptitude with tools and physical stamina are all vital requirements and those with MORE of each are simply put, BETTER candidates than those with LESS.
Moreover, the demographic-based case against the FDNY IS, in fact an indictment of EVERY New York City agency, as a recent City Limits article noted, the FDNY is not the only and hardly the worst offender in terms of ethnic imbalance!
According to that City Limits article, “The Census Bureau, which treats race and Latino origin separately (meaning Latinos can be of any race), estimates that New York City is about 35 percent non-Latino white, 28 percent Latino, 23 percent non-Latino black and 12 percent non-Latino Asian.”
SEE: http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4038/the-whitest-city-agencies
The current composition of New York City’s workforce is 38 percent white, 36 percent black, 18 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian, according to statistics from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which, unlike the Census, DOES consider race and Latino origin to be mutually exclusive.
So the municipal workforce is slightly skewed toward whites (38% of workforce/35% of population or +3% or appx. 9% over-represented) and significantly skewed toward blacks (36% of workforce/23% of population or +13% or appx. 54% over-represented), while both Latinos and Asians are substantially under-represented!
However, several New York City agencies deviate substantially from these overall numbers. The Fire Department is 77 percent white. Several smaller departments (the Landmarks Commission, Office of Emergency Management, Civilian Complaint Review Board and Office of the Mayor) are also more than 50 percent white.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Department of Juvenile Justice is 78 percent black. The Equal Employment Practices Commission is 63 percent black and the larger agencies of Human Resources, Correction and Children's Services are all more than 60 percent black. Latinos and Asians, however, remain under-represented at most of these.
To adequately address the demographic charge facing Judge Garaufis, the entire City workforce would have to be “scrutinized and adjusted.” It must be noted that just as “few candidates from other (non-Latino white) ethnic groups were taking the FDNY Exams,” the same charge that applicants from other (non-Latino black) ethnic groups haven’t been filing for jobs in many of New York City’s other agencies either. Since the FDNY’s $20+ MILLION recruitment effort hasn’t been deemed “enough,” then it would seem to follow that when outreach and recruitment efforts fail with New York City’s other agencies, then “other remedies” will have to be looked at across the board for those agencies as well.
This, of course, is NOT what Merit Matters supports.
We believe that people apply for and gravitate to those jobs they have an affinity for, BUT a court order that would mandate that the FDNY, as a New York City agency, must “look like New York City,” then it’s clear that that order stands for every other New York City agency as well.
We agree with the findings in the above City Limits article, that non-Latino black New Yorkers are heavily over-represented in New York City’s workforce, as both Asians and Hispanics are under-represented, but we’d prefer that the inevitable changes occur organically, rather than be applied by a ham-handed government decree.
JMK
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