FDNY independent monitor sought by judge

A Brooklyn federal judge Wednesday said he would appoint an independent monitor with broad powers to oversee hiring and eliminate discrimination at the New York City Fire Department, blasting the Bloomberg administration for failing at the job.

"Though the city's use of discriminatory hiring practices has persisted through numerous changes in City leadership, the evidence . . . gives the court little hope that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg or any of his senior leadership has any intention of stepping up to the task of ending discrimination at the FDNY," U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote in a 30-page ruling.

The outside monitor will oversee the FDNY for at least 10 years and will supervise all aspects of hiring -- including recruitment, testing, screening -- as well as the department's office that handles discrimination complaints. The city and Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano opposed the court takeover. The city said it would appeal.

"The judge was not elected to run the city and you can rest assured that we'll be in court for a long time," Bloomberg said at City Hall late Wednesday.

Garaufis' ruling followed a decision last year that ordered a new firefighter test to level the playing field for minorities at the 90-percent-white department. Targeted recruitment for the new test, scheduled for January, has produced a pool of applicants that is almost 50 percent minority.

But Garaufis said continuing court oversight is needed to institutionalize change -- and repeatedly lashed out at the mayor for fighting the 4-year-old lawsuit brought by black firefighters and the Justice Department of former President George W. Bush.

He called the FDNY a "stubborn bastion of white male privilege" that was a "shameful blight" on the records of Bloomberg and previous mayors.

He accused the city of "bureaucratic blame shifting" and "accountability avoidance," quoting from Bloomberg's testimony at a deposition when he was asked if he was "responsible" for enforcing equal-employment laws.

The mayor, Garaufis wrote, responded, "I don't know what the word 'responsibility' is and I can't answer your question."

"Instead of facing hard facts and asking hard questions about the City's abysmal track record of hiring black and Hispanic firefighters, the Bloomberg Administration dug in and fought back," Garaufis wrote.

Bloomberg said the recent recruiting campaign showed the FDNY -- despite a 3 percent African-American makeup -- was moving forward.

"No previous administration has done more . . . in attracting diversity to the FDNY," Bloomberg said.

The monitor, Garaufis said, would have broad authority to oversee and audit all aspects of the FDNY's equal-opportunity responsibilities.

Among other tasks, the person appointed would try to devise a plan to reduce post-testing attrition. Garaufis said a high rate of the highest scoring minorities drop out during the lengthy hiring process because of unfamiliarity with the FDNY and its culture.

The judge asked the city and the Vulcan Society, the black firefighters group that pursued the litigation along with the federal government, to propose candidates to serve as monitor.

Vulcan Society lawyer Richard Levy praised the ruling. "The judge realized that the problem is more than skin deep, or test deep," he said.