FDNY: Leg Up Gets a Push Back
Keeping the gene pool pure
Being hired by the City of New York to be a firefighter can be like winning the lottery as in a dream come true. For others it’s more like just winning the lottery as in the odds are heavily against you.
As far back as the Boss Tweed Machine jobs have been viewed as patronage, a gift bestowed on the loyal, usually those voting the right ticket. Recent immigrants from Ireland and southern Europe, especially Italians, were prime targets. Such jobs were coveted — steady pay at a time when reliable work could be rare, particularly for the newly arrived.
These days applicants take a written test to begin the job hunting process. It’s said that to be offered an FDNY job, an applicant would do well to have a final test score of above 100%.
That means acing the test and adding on “bonus” points awarded by the City for various reasons. These can include being a disabled veteran or the child of a parent who died on 9/11 or from causes therefrom. These are referred to as “legacy points.”
It can also include extra points for city residency.
In a recent change the FDNY will now award applicants who graduated from a city school ten bonus points.
There’s a history to these preferences — after World War II, the city provided such a bonus preference for returning GIs but it was eventually phased out as it became unpopular, perhaps because they gobbled up all the slots.
Over the decades, those long-ago immigrants and their families, often Irish and Italian, have come to dominate and effectively control FDNY hiring.
These folks represent the true legacy hires, at least as the term is understood in academia where it clearly refers to the children of past attendees getting a spot because of family connections.
Some gamed the residency bonus through bogus addresses in the city. For others, if your papa has a high enough rank, you can be hired (or retained) even if you are patently unfit for employment. It gives the lie to the idea that the system should only allow the best to enter. The process has been manipulated to maintain the status quo: a steady stream of white and male applicants, usually residing outside the City.
FDNY has an ongoing problem as Federal District Judge Robert Garaufis who oversees their operation to afford equal hiring opportunities, contends openly that the department is plagued by racism. He recently said, “I’ve lived in New York City all my life. I know what the problem is. And believe me, front and center is what happened the other day. This doesn’t have to do with politics, this has to do with race.” The judge was referring to FDNY members heckling NY State Attorney General Letita James at a ceremony.
The New York Post reports, “The scoring change was made “in consultation with” the FDNY, and “was an initiative of the mayor’s office,” said DCAS spokesman Dan Kastanis, adding that the 10 bonus points for NYC residency was first used on the police officer exam in 2021, and on the sanitation worker exam in 2022.”
The Mayor is taking credit for the change and FDNY is left in the back row, hands in pockets, an EEO bystander once again.
James Brosi, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, was outspoken on the change, saying it “gives a disproportionate advantage over the sons and daughters whose parents made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and the military veterans who served this country, protecting the rights and freedoms of all Americans.”
Brosi doesn’t even represent prospective firefighters so his vehemence is odd until you remember he does represent many of their parents and he wants to ensure their sons always have an inside hiring track.
He waves the 9/11 flag to bat down the residency bonus points — it doesn’t work and the motivation is obvious.
It’s hard to imagine any elected city official in the boroughs or the council being against the change so the politicians are likely united on what is a clever idea with merit.
Even Judge Garaufis will be happy though once again FDNY was on the decision-making sidelines.
All that won’t change the FDNY knuckle-draggers from howling in protest.
Cheers.
