NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk and Stamford might team up in an effort to increase the diversity in their fire departments, Norwalk Fire Chief Denis McCarthy said Friday.
The comments come one day after Stamford announced that it must discard its firefighter exam because it is discriminatory, and one day after McCarthy reportedly was on the hot seat at a Norwalk Branch NAACP meeting. McCarthy, whose job is on the line at least partly because of racial issues, said it will take a team approach to recruit minorities to the department, but Norwalk Branch NAACP President Darnell Crosland said the problems go deeper than just attracting candidates.
“I personally feel that it’s a country-wide problem that appears systemic, when you have fire departments and police departments filled with Italian and Irish men, and these positions are passed down as an inheritance generation after generation,” Crosland said in a text message. “That should never be the case, and I would feel that way even if it were a role reversal and blacks were the benefactors of such an unjust system.”
McCarthy’s contract as Norwalk fire chief runs out May 1. It is yet to be seen if the Norwalk Fire Commission will offer him a new contract. Although no one is saying what the problem is, it’s widely believed to be the racial diversity issue and accusations of racism in the Norwalk Fire Department.
McCarthy spoke to NAACP members Thursday, explaining the department’s efforts to recruit minorities. On Friday, he sent them an email, saying, “I believe we can accomplish our mutual goals by resolving our past differences and working together. I am committed to getting this right, but obviously the fire department will not be successful in this effort without active participation of the African-American community.”
Stamford intends to spend $150,000 on a new exam for firefighters after the current exam was found to be discriminatory to women and minorities, the Stamford Advocate reported Thursday night. This followed complaints that the test was too tough, the Advocate reports.
“I read the Stamford Advocate article, which indicates that they are similarly challenged regarding minority hiring,” McCarthy wrote to the NAACP. “That, coupled with Reverend Ingraham’s comments of the difficulty that the local Cadet program has in attracting African-American high school members, shows that there is much work to be done. This issue needs attention on multiple fronts, i.e. church, family, community, school, government and workplace, to achieve long-term and sustainable improvements. I am reaching out to Stamford Fire to see if there can be collaboration of efforts. If separately we are going to invest a total of $250K in recruitment and hiring, we should investigate a more comprehensive two-town contract because we are attracting potential candidates from each other’s catchment area.”
“I look forward to working with the Chapter to create a success story in Norwalk’s hiring, race relations and community,” McCarthy said.
“Recruitment and hiring a handful of minorities isn’t enough,” Crosland said. “We have to then address the promotional track, and why blacks aren’t the ones in the white shirts.”
McCarthy in the past has blamed the competitive atmosphere for the lack of minority hires, saying people come from all over the country to take the Norwalk firefighters exam.
“It is very difficult to compete if you are an inner city kid without any exposure to the fire service, to take one test in the hopes that you have finished high enough to compete against candidates that are coming from across the country,” McCarthy said in December 2013.
Pressured recently by the Fire Commission, McCarthy has begun a program to emulate the hiring practices in New Haven, where many more candidates will advance to the oral interviews instead of “failing” the written test.
“I don’t buy the notion that somehow blacks can’t past the damn test, or somehow we are just not intelligent enough to put out a fire. Hell, we been putting out fires all of our lives,” Crosland said in his text message. “Once upon a time, a black man was killed if you were caught reading a book, now we are told we can’t be a fireman because we can’t past a test. Enough is enough. We demand that more be done. This ‘go study harder and come back tomorrow’ approach to diversity is unacceptable. It is necessary and beneficial to a society that its police and fire departments reflect the community. As the chief said last night at the NAACP meeting, people don’t remember the men that stop a building from burning, they remember that nice guy who installed a smoke detector in their home, or cut them out of a car after an accident. Those nice men come in all colors, including black. Diversity is a reflection of our community, of our world. Don’t do us any favors, just do what’s right.”
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