Law director told panel that hiring minorities must go by the rules

A white man scored higher on a civil service exam than three minorities who were hired.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city's law director told the Human Relations Commission last month that without a consent decree, deviating from civil service rules to hire minorities isn't permitted.
Law Director Iris Guglucello's comments are contained in the minutes of the commission's February meeting. Members of the commission quizzed her about police hiring in light of a civil lawsuit against the city that charges reverse discrimination.
Youngstown attorney Dennis Haines filed the lawsuit on behalf of James Conroy, a white former city police officer who was fired, rehired in a settlement and then resigned in 2001. Conroy took the police civil service test in 2003 and was ranked No. 6.
Conroy and other high-scoring white men were passed over in favor of a black man, white woman and black woman who ranked No. 10, No. 13 and No. 127, respectively, on the civil service exam. The three were hired as patrol officers in June 2005.
Haines said the Ohio Revised Code requires the civil service commission to send the hiring authority -- the mayor -- the names of the top 10 candidates. The lawyer said the city failed to follow civil service rules, and he wants the city to be enjoined from making the three hirings permanent.
The lawsuit is pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The city has retained outside counsel, Neil D. Schor, to defend the police hirings. Guglucello has referred questions to Schor, who has declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
In the city's answer to Conroy's complaint, Schor wrote that the police appointments were made under section 124.90 of the Ohio Revised Code: The waiver of laws to avoid federally prohibited discrimination. The waiver, passed as an ordinance by city council, permits the legislative authority of a municipality to suspend or alter the appointment rules for minority hiring.
No reason
Guglucello told the Human Relations Commission last month that section 124.90 allows deviation from standard hiring practices but the reason has to be that federal law requires it. She said the city doesn't have a reason to deviate because a federal consent decree that required minority hiring expired years ago, according to commission meeting minutes.
William M. Carter, director of the Human Relations Commission, asked Guglucello to see whether the city's commitment in the consent decree for minority hiring had been met. He suggested that not attaining the goals could be used as justification for deviating from civil service rules, according to the meeting minutes.
Guglucello answered that she didn't believe reaching the minority hiring goals would supersede expiration of the consent decree but suggested it would be something to raise in the Conroy lawsuit as a possible defense.
The law director told the Human Relations Commission that the lawsuit has expanded into a discrimination action under the 14th Amendment. The amendment provides equal protection under the law. A violation would occur, for example, if a state prohibited an individual from entering into an employment contract because he or she was a member of a particular race.
Guglucello also told the commission that a new police civil service exam is now in play and must be dealt with.
Council, as it did in 2003, enacted an ordinance before the December 2005 civil service test that allows it to suspend or alter the appointment rules for minority hiring. In 2003, then-Law Director John A. McNally IV approved the ordinance; Guglucello approved the one passed three months ago.
Of the 108 men and women who took the test in December 2005, 48 passed. Two white women scored in the top 20 but no blacks.
meade@vindy.com