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US panel applauds change in YPD hiring policy
YOUNGSTOWN
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, critical of Youngstown’s policy on hiring police officers, is praising the city’s decision to overhaul its longstanding practice.
The city’s civil-service commission voted Wednesday to eliminate dual hiring lists — one for white men and the other for minorities and females.
Rather than the dual lists, the commission will have one list and offer jobs to those who score the highest on written and physical-agility tests.
“I am greatly encouraged by the civil-service commission’s vote earlier this week to eliminate the use of their discriminatory dual-list hiring system,” said Abigail Thernstrom, the commission’s vice chair. “This is a victory for civil rights. It protects all citizens regardless of their race, ethnicity or gender.”
Prompting the change was a federal appeals court declaring the use of two lists — one for white men and the other for minorities and women — by Shreveport, La., to be unconstitutional, Mayor Jay Williams said.
“The city of Youngstown takes seriously its obligation to maintain a qualified and diverse work force,” the mayor said. “Differing, and sometimes even conflicting, court decisions throughout the years have often made our mandate difficult. However, I believe we have risen to the occasion and have improved our hiring practices to better afford opportunities to our constituents.”
Thernstrom praised the mayor and commission “for recognizing that the courts have become increasingly hostile toward the use of race and/or gender in making hiring decisions, even when the intent is to overcome presumed prior discrimination.”
Minorities and women haven’t scored as well on the written tests as white males, but that doesn’t mean they’re not qualified, Williams said.
For several years, the city would hire one minority or woman for every two men they hire in the police department.
The new policy equally weighs a written test and a physical-agility test. The physical test used to be given only to those who received a score of at least 70 percent on the written exam.
The new policy eliminates a minimum passing grade.
The written test for those wanting to be police officers will be given Feb. 5. A date for the physical test hasn’t been scheduled. About 340 people signed up by Friday’s deadline to take the test.
Williams also plans to take the steps necessary to place a charter amendment on the November election ballot asking voters to approve a proposal to give Youngstown residents 10 bonus points on civil-service tests for city jobs.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in June 2009 that residency requirements as a condition of employment were not permissible.
Though pleased with Youngstown’s new policy, Thernstrom said: “I hope we can look forward to the day when, at both the state and local level, Ohio has eliminated the use of racial criteria in employment decisions and in the award of government contracts.”