City cop protests Civil Service test

YOUNGSTOWN -- An 11-year-veteran city police officer has asked a Mahoning County judge to throw out a recent Youngstown Civil Service Commission examination and results that would determine which patrol officers are promoted to detective sergeants.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, patrol officer Aaron I. Coleman, 39, alleges that the exam's drafters had little or no experience in preparing such exams and that several of the exam's "correct answers" are incorrect.
He further alleges that the exam was never reviewed to find errors or to determine if it is an appropriate measure of applicants' qualifications.
Coleman's lawyer, Sarah Thomas Kovoor, said that several people had complained about that exam. They alleged that answers were different from those given in a textbook. She said those who drafted the test used no testing guidelines and had no training.
Coleman, who was appointed to the force March 1, 1990, requests that a judge declare the exam "null and void" and ban the commission from certifying results.
"If you let it happen, people are going to be promoted on the basis of that exam, which isn't valid," Kovoor said.
Assistant Law Director John McNally and Jennifer Labatte, CSC administrator, both declined to comment this morning.
The exam was given Feb. 23, the lawsuit says, and was drafted by commission members in January. Results have not been announced.