Dean Lovelace’s Dept. of Justice “Consent Degree” will cost Dayton $$$
Latest news on the forced intervention by the Department of Justice as distributed by the FOP chairman Randy Beane to the members of the union. This is complex litigation, and it’s not absolute that Beane’s interpretation is entirely correct, but, the reality is, no one knows how you can enforce a ruling that says “If you ever thought of being a Dayton Police Officer” you should be entitled to get a big check from the City if you are a minority.
Here is what Lt. Beane sent out in 2 e-mails:
We received the court decision from Federal Court Judge Rose in regards to the Consent Decree. Judge Rose ruled against us and in favor of the City. What does this mean?
1. Two officers currently on the department who are referred to as “Delayed Hire Claimant” will received $18, 900 each and will have their seniority adjusted to the constructive hire date of May 14, 2007. They will receive retroactive pension credit.
2. Five African Americans who failed the Civil Service test who are referred to as “Priority Hire Appointments” will be hired and given back pay. They will be given seniority ahead of the last two classes that graduated.
The Fire Department must hire 9 “Priority Hire Appointments”
There are several strings attached to our hiring process in the future too numerous to mention.
I am disappointed in the ruling as it relates to our seniority issue. However, I am appreciative to Judge Rose for his quick decision in this matter. This opens the door for the City to immediately start the hiring process, if they want to.
This decision will cost the taxpayers in excess of $450,000.
Number 2:
I have had a few questions posed on the Consent Decree that I will try to answer.
The way I read the decision is that **** and ******* will be moved up on the seniority list so this will affect the current bidding process. However, that is a decision management is going to have to address.
The “Priority Hires” will have to go through the background process and the Academy. My interpretation, and it could be wrong, is that if a Priority Hire does not pass the background, the next lower scoring applicant will be selected until we have 5 that pass the background and can be placed in the Academy.
The entire hiring process has to be reviewed by the Department of Justice and once a test is given, they will review the Eligibility List to determine if the Disparate Impact issue has been resolved. If not, I believe they could invalidate that Eligibility List.
There will be a lot of questions concerning logistically how this process will occur that I just don’t have the answers to. For example, I would assume a Training Officer for these 5 Priority Hires would have to more seniority than the people they are training or the Training Officer would be training the “senior officer”.
Regardless of the pathetic minority hiring process employed by the City of Dayton, the consent decree has been an issue for 20 years- one that has been pushed by Dean Lovelace (who at one time thought that we had to split the city into voting districts so he could get elected, but forgot all about it after he got elected).
I even stuck my foot in my mouth with the unions making an alternative suggestion on how to force integration and change in the safety departments, but you’ll have to search to find that on your own (and it’s on this site somewhere….).
The reality is, Dayton is facing a huge number of forced retirements, but has no mechanism available to hire right now because of this decree.
Thanks Commissioner Lovelace. It’s costing us taxpayers a bunch.
Sad. Simply sad. No other way to describe it. A sad ruling for the Unions. And whether they realize it or not, a sad ruling for the City and for African-Americans in general.
If I were a black male, I’d be offended and embarrassed about this whole ordeal.
And if I were Dean Lovelace, I’d crawl under a rock. Because he basically just got the US Government to say “ok fine, they’re dumber, give them some extra help.”
This is an enormous step backwards for race relations in the City of Dayton.
One can only hope that in the unfortunate event Dean Lovelace’s home is ever on fire, by the luck of the draw he gets an engine staffed by the firefighters who couldn’t pass the test – regardless of the color of their skin.
How on earth do our commissioners bungle around so blatantly.
With leadership like this, one wonders if Dayton will ever recover? What a slap in the face of the minorities who have EARNED their positions. I can only imagine the embarrassment they are feeling. I have talked to a few police/fire persons and they told me, if a person can not pass the test, then they have NO business doing the job.
Good luck Dayton, you need it!
This (the quoted part below) is the truly sad part… It’s not good if other officers don’t “like” you, not to mention how they’ll feel about other officers who (maybe) aren’t really “qualified”. Nonetheless, from what I’ve heard, the testing process isn’t the problem. African-Americans simply don’t apply for the job(s).
What I cannot get over is how the previous tests were discriminatory towards blacks only. I mean, if you were Hispanic, you were not discriminated against, even if English happened to be your second language. It is as if African Americans are the “only” minorities that count in this decree. How is that not racist in and of itself?
I agree with Brad, this isn’t a step forward, this is a band aid on a cancerous tumor. Dean Lovelace is a disgrace, he is the most Afrocentric person I have ever seen. If it does not deal with the black community then he has no interest in it. How does someone like that get elected? My prediction is as follows, the city of Dayton will pay heavily for all of these horrible, unfair hiring practices. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a dozen or so employees that will not see their five year anniversary. Ultimately, the racial make up of the police and fire departments will get a slight blip increase in minorities but will not be sustained.
A question for David, do you know the racial make up of all city of Dayton employees? Why is diversity only important in police and fire, why not public works or street maintenance? What is the total number of african american employees city wide verses other races? It would be interesting to find out.
@Jeff (not Daytonology)
I don’t know the makeup of other departments. The reality is- the safety forces have been run like a frat house- even women have had a hard time in both. It comes from lame leadership that is terrified of Unions. If we hired a City Manager with a backbone- these problems would be long over- but, since the politicians won’t mess with their bread and butter unions- we have a stalemate. Lovelace just doesn’t have the brains to see what the real problem is- that the safety forces are a good ole boy network, and he can’t acknowledge it.
If the police and fire dept are controlled by Civil Service, how are they part of the “good ole boy” network? From my understanding, they have very little to do with the hiring practice. In fact, I can’t remember the last time the head of Civil Service was someone other than an African American.
uhhhhhhh… what?
I’d be interested to hear how the police and fire departments are “good ole boy” networks.
Initial appointment to the job is through Civil Service testing….. then later, promotion throughout all the ranks is also through Civil Service testing…..
So when exactly does this “good ole boy” network kick in as part of the process of one’s career?
And when it comes to diversity, police and fire unions have had members volunteer for job fairs, volunteer their time to make promotional videos for recruitment geared towards minorities, etc….
Arbitrarily calling police and fire “good ole boy” networks makes me think you have far less understanding of these departments than I had hoped. You sound like an uninformed outsider just making guesses and assumptions. That’s the type of thing I expect on the Dayton Daily News message boards, not here.
How are the safety forces being run like frat houses? I signed up, took a civil service test, completed all phases of the hiring process and completed the acadamy. I didn’t learn a secret handshake, no backroom deals to be made, it was very cut and dry. There is no good ole boy network but I guess an outsider would make that assumption based on what they see on the street. The hiring practices are sound, they just don’t hire blacks in the numbers that they want. A better question might be, why if a black athelete is picked over a white athlete nothing is said but if a white officer is hired over a black officer then racism or a “good ole boy” network exists? In sports, you pick the best athelete, in safety forces, you hire the best candidate. The one who scores the best on the exam and other scoring components. So we can dummy down the tests, have consent decrees or have dual lists but trust me, no one gets this job because of who they know, everyone must go through the same process, regardless of race or gender.
Sorry Gents, the number of lawsuits and settlements within the departments says something isn’t right. I’ll just say 1 name: Barbara Temple.
Case closed.
Please explain how the firing of Barbra Temple was because of the good ole boy network.
@Hudson I’m saying it was a million dollars error- due to adverse working conditions.
The standards set, the testing qualifications seem to be set to a different standard than what every other police or fire department uses. Why do we have to run our own academy? Why can’t we hire lateral transfers? The whole system is set to be self-contained and self-regulated.
The simple solution is get out of the academy training business- and hire anyone who has passed the Ohio Peace officers training program. Then check them out on the job- just like normal employers.
Barbara Temple was a reverse race discrimination case, not a sexual harassment case, as you imply with your statement of adverse working conditions. She was fired in order to be replaced by an African-American male major.
Thanks Sue…
David, your comments of a good ole boy network are totally unsubstantiated. The example you give is a case that a white female won based on racial discrimination. The facts is that the Dayton fire/Police have zero to do with who gets hired. In fact, if a applicant is “voted” down by them, the applicant can appeal and Civil Service can override the recommendation made by the police/fire departments.
A little investigation shows that all terminations must go through the City Manager’s Office and Civil service. So it appears that the “good ole boy” network has to work with what is supplied by the city. The point I’m trying to make is that I find it both funny and ironic that the City was found to be discriminating against minorities when in fact the hiring practice is set and controlled by the city and civil service…which again led/managed by minorities.
Read this, it’s mind numbing!
http://www.cityofdayton.org/departments/law/Pages/consentdecreenotice.aspx
Knowing that Africa is the birthplace of hominoids and of civilization itself, would not that make all of us in the United States African-Americans?
“The simple solution is get out of the academy training business”
Wrong again. The best solution would be to expand our training academies into a revenue generation tool. Much like is done with the Dayton Fire Dept. maintenance complex, which was recently cited by outside consultants as one of our strengths.
Why just give everything away (dispatch, training, etc.) when we can do it best? I’ve seen the fire service from both inside AND outside the Dayton Fire Department. And trust me, we can do it best.