Washington addresses minority representation in civil service jobs
Washington addresses minority representation in civil service jobs
{child_byline}By Katie Anderson
Staff writer
kanderson@observer-reporter.com
{/child_byline}
The city of Washington is working on initiatives to improve and increase the recruitment and hiring of minorities into civil service jobs and other city positions.
Councilwoman Monda Williams said after citizens approached her and raised concerns to council recently about the lack of minority representation in city jobs and government, she was determined to make sure the city takes steps to address the issue.
“I’ve always been passionate about issues relevant to disadvantaged populations,” she said in an interview. “Because I’m an African-American woman and a product of that community, this is something that I’ve always been passionate about. Once the citizens came to the forefront and brought this to us, I saw it as an opportunity to take action and respond to what the community is saying the issues are.”
The city’s deputy finance officer, Susan Koehler, said that of the 115 current city employees, minorities hold three full-time positions and 15 part-time positions. She said about half of the 115 jobs are civil service positions, which require state testing as part of the hiring process.
City council held a discussion last month about ways to recruit minorities into those positions, specifically in the fire and police departments.
“We were specifically addressing the conversation around employment opportunities for minorities,” said Williams. “We have some ideas in place.”
Williams said she wants to explore funding and scholarship opportunities to help prepare potential applicants for the state’s required agility and written tests for the fire and police positions. She also said it’s imperative for the city to reach out to students “while they’re young to make sure they know these opportunities are available to them.”
Since civil service positions rely on competitive, state-regulated tests, Williams said one of the issues she’s seen is that even when the city has minority applicants, they need to score high enough or higher than other applicants on those tests to be a competitive candidate. She said the city needs to find ways to get minorities the tools required to pass the tests with high scores.
“I suggest we start to prepare our young people earlier,” she said. “When there are minority applicants, they’re not passing the civil service exam with numbers that put them in a competitive standing. We have to start figuring out what are the challenges and what is causing this to happen.”
The process for getting a police or fire position with the city includes the state’s written civil service exam, an agility test and an interview process. Those who fail the agility test or get lower than 70 percent on the written test are out of the running, and those with the highest scores automatically go to the top of the hiring list.
Washington police Chief Robert Wilson said he has to have at least three police applicants pass the tests and interviews before he can present the list to city council for hiring approval. He said veterans also get an additional 10 points added to their scores and typically get preference over nonveterans.
Wilson said the last time he solicited applications, he received only six, and by the end of the testing and interview process, only two applicants were left on the list for hire. Since the department has to have at least three to present to council, he’ll have to start over with the application process, and the two applicants that passed will have to retest.
“It’s disappointing when you give the applications out for two weeks and you only get six applicants,” he said.
Cliff Cochran, a retired steelworker, is a city resident who has been consistently bringing the issue of minority representation to the attention of city and county officials. He insists that the city needs to hire minorities in the police department immediately since they have about 30 officers and no minorities.
“When it comes to paying taxes, our money goes toward those civil services to operate, but when it comes to hiring, our faces are not there,” Cochran said. “Their excuse that they’re always giving me is that they can’t find any to hire – I don’t buy that story. I didn’t buy it in the 1970s, and I’m definitely not buying it in 2018. We have families to feed and kids to raise, but we’re just not getting hired.”
Cochran said he wants to see the city reach out to larger municipalities like Pittsburgh and Harrisburg to see if they have minorities on their civil service application lists who would be interested in positions in Washington.
“I want to see minorities there,” he said. “If there are jobs, I want to see African-Americans there.”
Mayor Scott Putnam said the city intends to do just that, by contacting municipalities in the Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cleveland and Philadelphia areas for their lists of civil service applicants. Putnam said he understands the importance of having minorities on the police force because “some black victims, black witnesses might feel more comfortable talking to a black officer. Similarly, we have a female officer, and some of our female victims feel more comfortable talking to a female officer.”
Wilson also spoke about the importance of having minorities on the force. He said he sent letters to the NAACP of Washington and Pittsburgh letting them know they were soliciting applicants this month, because he might have two vacancies in the department later this year.
“Your police department should mirror the community,” he said.
Wilson said he hopes to receive a much larger pool of applicants by the March 9 deadline, with a larger number of minority applicants. Both he and Councilman Joe Manning said a lower number of applicants seems to be a theme for police departments across the country.
“It’s important to understand that the reason we had to give another civil service test for the police department this year is because we didn’t have many applicants at all, minority or not,” Manning said. “It’s a difficulty recruiting anybody, because in the climate we live in now, not many people want to be police officers.”
Manning, who’s in his third four-year term on council, said this is not the first time the issue of minority representation within the city has been brought up.
“We’ve been down this road,” he said. “I’ve tried in the past to take proactive steps to help this along.”
Manning said that years ago he had outlined a plan for a scholarship fund for minority students to prepare them for civil service testing and to pay for their applications. He said the students would need to meet academic, community engagement and volunteering criteria in order to receive the scholarship.
He said that because he could not create the scholarship in an official government capacity, he pitched the idea to the NAACP. He said they were supposed to “take it from there” and find someone to administer the program and privately fund it.
“They seemed to like it,” he said. “I had the whole thing written out and determined what the cost was. I don’t know why, but it was one of those things that never got legs.”
Williams said that type of program needs to be revisited and that the city needs to focus on a “proactive and positive and strategic way to address the concerns of minority life.”
She’s already started working with Citizens Library to increase minority programming with workshops and dialogue “directly relevant to black lives.” She said they’re looking into possible African-American trivia, a documentary and book series, cultural video viewings for multiple age groups, and presentation or speaking opportunities for minorities in political roles to address the importance of civic engagement.
“I believe that I have support from my colleagues,” she said. “We all agree that this is a concern, and we plan to take action. The challenge will be in maintaining similar support from the community. Will there be equal commitment and participation and solidarity in this effort? That’s what I’m asking the community.”