PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT 100 Chemke Steet Site 350 Mari HG! FAN G04 MEMORANDUM To: David Hilton, Chief Fire Department FROM: Shelia Buckner Personnel Director: DATE: May 8, 1992 SUBJECT: Fire Department's Affirmative Action Program In 1988, the United States Department of Justice conducted an investigation of hiring practices in the Cobb County Police and Fire Departments. One positive outcome of the investigation was the adoption of a comprehensive affirmative action (AA) plan by the Board of Commissioners in 1989. Jay Schaudies, the labor attorney who wrote the AA plan, included very specific mandates regarding hiring practices under the goals and timetables section. Several comments from this section are: ‘A review of hiring practices in the Fire and Police Departments has revealed that blacks and females are substantially underutilized when compared to their availability in the County served by these departments. ... If the County continues to hire according to past practices, it is presumed this statistical trend will remain relatively unchanged. Increased recruitment activities alone do not appear to be sufficient to effect a change in these numbers. "As vacancies occur, however, we will exert every effort to recruit, employ, and advance minorities and females." "In meeting the immediate need for twenty-nine new firefighters, the County will endeavor to fill ten percent (108) of the jobs with black candidates and ten percent (10%) with female candidates. Thereafter, hiring needs will be greatly reduced for several years, but the County will endeavor to fill the jobs at a rate of twenty-five percent (25%) black candidates and twenty-five percent (25%) female candidates for the next five years. Sheila L. Buckner TIRECTORMemo: David Hilton Page 2 In July, we will be administering the Firefighter selection test; this test will not be given again until July, 1993. According to our records, there will be a total of 49 vacancies for the position of firefighter that can be filled during FY92. I feel that we need to make every effort to encourage as many blacks and women as possible to take the test. This means that we have less than two months to undertake a major recruitment effort geared specifically toward blacks and women. our recruitment plan, in preparation for the upcoming firefighter test in July, includes the following: * Send test notices to Cobb and other counties * Send test notices to Department of Labor contacts in Cobb and Douglas counties, and statewide * Send test notices to the Cobb Chapter of the NAACP and to other black leaders in the community * Send test notices to various radio stations and newspapers in south Georgia (get list of contacts fron Extension Service) * Send test notices to black and female applicants who achieved passing scores on the following tests but not hired: police officer, deputy sheriff, correctional officer, emergency operator trainee * Meet with charles Spann, minority recruiter for the Police Departnent, to get suggestions from him and obtain cost for radio ads on minority stations * Place test notices on cc? buses * Place ads in black publications (Daily World, Atlanta Tribune) as well as newspapers * Send test notices to Community Relations Council, of which Rick Brun is a memberMemo: David Hilton Page 3 I think it would be beneficial if the Fire Department could also play an active role in the recruitment of blacks and women. We will be glad to work with you and make this a joint effort. If you would like to meet with us to review your recruitment plan, please let me know. We now have a prime opportunity to get closer to our AA goals. Achieving these goals will require your cooperation and support, as well as a mutual effort of us working together to reach a common goal. Attachment (1) cc: Mack Henderson Sam Young