IGNAZIO MESSINA
The Blade

TOLEDO - Toledo City Council, in an effort to make Mayor Carty Finkbeiner save $1 million in fire department overtime costs next year, has stumbled into the controversial arena of hiring based on race.

Council voted 11-0 to urge Mr. Finkbeiner to immediately hire 11 firefighters, but the mayor balked at the advice and went one step further yesterday, saying he would veto their resolution.

Since all 11 would-be firefighters are white, the mayor said the city could not hire them because that would conflict with a consent decree that requires the city to include blacks and Hispanics in hiring.

The 11 firefighter applicants are among a class of 40 that was to have begun training at the end of 2008 but was canceled by the mayor because of budget cuts in the face of a multimillion-dollar deficit for 2009. Unlike the other 29 people who were supposed to be in the firefighter class, the 11 tapped by council have either previous firefighting experience or fire certification.

Councilman D. Michael Collins, who pushed for the resolution, said the mayor has erred in judgment.

"When [Council President Joe McNamara] and I wanted to hire a class of 40, they told us there were 11 who were already certified," Mr. Collins said. "That's when the idea was hatched to just run them through a miniacademy while they had satisfied all state requirements for training."

Mr. Collins, who is running for mayor, added, "The racial balance is going to take place when they hire the next 29 to fill out what this class was defined to be, and we will maintain the integrity of the consent degree currently in federal court dealing with a diversity consideration for hiring."

In 2003, Toledo City Council settled a longstanding lawsuit charging the city with discrimination in police hiring practices.

It voted to approve a consent decree that ended almost 30 years of federal supervision of its police hiring practices.

Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, a public-interest law firm, sued Toledo in federal court in 1972, claiming police hiring practices, including the tests used to screen officer candidates, discriminated against minorities.

Federal oversight was approved in a 1974 consent decree by the late Judge Don Young of U.S. District Court.

Race in job promotions has been a national issue recently.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. were unfairly denied promotions because of their race. The court overturned a decision made by a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that allowed the city to throw out an employment test on which white firefighters did better than black coworkers.

Fire Chief Michael Wolever agreed with the mayor in that the "lateral" class of 11 new firefighters should not be hired for two reasons.

"Clearly, ever since I have been on, there has been diverse group selected to go through training for police and fire, and there has been great effort put forth, and if we vary from that now, if we change the way we do business, the concern is we will be at some risk in violation of our previous goal of making sure we maintain a diverse fire class," the chief said.

"Also, we have never advertised that if you have certain skill sets, you get a preference over someone else," he said.

Even though it could save the city $1 million in overtime in 2010 to hire the 11 from the 2008 class, Chief Wolever opposed the hiring.

"It can't be just about money. We have to consider the fairness of the process," he said.

Mr. Collins said the city's fire department overtime costs could exceed $4 million in this year -- more than $1 million greater than the budgeted amount.

Under its contract with the firefighters' union, the city must maintain a minimum of 103 firefighters on duty. If the number falls below 103 because of vacations or sick days, the department must call in other personnel to work overtime.

The city forecasts a nearly $10 million deficit for 2009. The deficit was $12.5 million before council approved a three-year contract Tuesday with the union representing the city's police patrolmen.

WilliAnn Moore, president of the Toledo branch of the NAACP, said the city should not violate the consent decree.

"Why doesn't he just hire the 40 and satisfy the consent decree if that is less than the $4 million for overtime?" she asked. "Life is not that complicated."

John Jones, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League, said he was unfamiliar with the consent decree, but said the city's commitment for diversity would not be genuine unless it makes a commitment to hire the other 29 people as firefighters.

Mr. Finkbeiner has not announced if he will run for re-election. Mayoral candidates were split on the issue.

Republican candidate Jim Moody said he would need to consult with the city's legal department before making such a decision that could potentially open Toledo to a costly lawsuit.

Mr. Moody also would look into whether the city could hire just a portion of the group of 11 and remain in accordance with the consent decree. He also questioned whether the recent Supreme Court decision could have any effect on the earlier decree.

"I would follow the lead of the legal department and the fire chief," Mr. Moody said, "and if that means we could only hire a portion of this class, then so be it."

Independent candidate Mike Bell, a former Toledo fire chief, said he agreed with Mr. Finkbeiner's assessment and that he too would not hire the 11 firefighters because they are all white.

"That decree has been there for a long time and no mayor has the ability to go against a federal decree," said Mr. Bell, the city's first black fire chief and the only minority among the field of mayoral candidates.

County Commissioner Ben Konop. a Democratic candidate, said he would not hire the 11 firefighters if he were mayor, although for different reasons.

Mr. Konop said it may be time to downsize the fire department because of Toledo's falling population and decreased tax base.

Mr. Konop said the arguments he's heard for hiring the firefighters center on the contract requirement for having 103 on-duty firefighters. He has yet to hear that the 11 are needed for safety's sake, he said.

"It doesn't match with reality tto hire more and more public workers when you have less revenue coming in, you have population loss, and job loss," said Mr. Konop, who also said that renegotiating the department's minimum staffing requirement "should be on the table."

Copyright 2009 The Blade
July 10, 2009