With a potential consent decree between the City of Austin and the U.S. Justice Department hanging over their heads, representatives of the Austin Firefighters Association met with DOJ officials Tuesday to discuss how the decree might affect the city’s hiring process and the impact that might have on the union. Should union officials accept the deal, it would pave the way for a resolution of the still-unsettled matter of a contract for the city’s firefighters.
However, if firefighters’ president Bob Nicks takes the city to federal court, it would be a lengthy process that could push a resolution much farther down the road. Nicks and his colleagues argue that such action would help preserve the city’s hiring of quality candidates. Still, worries about a history of discrimination – issues that led to Justice Department’s involvement – remain.
In addition, union officials could stave off what they see as certain marginalization that would come with their installment as a more minor presence at the collective bargaining table.
Nicks told the Monitor Tuesday evening that, early in the meeting, Department of Justice officials told Austin Firefighters Association representatives that the city is moving too fast in working toward a settlement. Though Nicks conceded that city officials and the DOJ could move ahead without union approval of the settlement, he added that there is some belief that the city’s legal standing “is very weak.”
The settlement is on Thursday’s City Council agenda.
As for the union’s tack, Nicks said that he was pleased to hear that the exact terms of the consent decree are not, in his words, “written in stone.” He added that he and his team are “considering all of our options” and that they plan to return to Department of Justice officials with a counter proposal.
Nicks added that his conversation with DOJ officials lent further support to union contentions that fault for the 2012 hiring process came thanks to an abbreviated test time, an administrative error. Coupled with the success of the 2013 process, Nicks believes that the union has a very strong case against the city, should Local 975 pursue the federal court route.
Nicks was clear, however, that he and his team would be willing to work with the Department of Justice, should the outcome improve AFD hiring practices.
The union’s action comes as Local 975 officials delivered sharp criticisms to local media outlets over city management’s handling of the current set of contract negotiations. As it has for several years, those discussions keyed around the hiring of firefighters, the potential of discrimination, and how the city and the union might balance all interests in assembling a fire department.
As part of the decree – an agreement that would last somewhere between four and eight years – city hiring practices would be subject to Justice Department approval, the city would be allowed to hire its 2013 cadet class (after some adjustment of test scores), and the city would be allowed to cap settlements to cadet candidates in the 2012 hiring process at $780,000.
According to union officials, it would also cement a lesser set of hiring practices in place for the foreseeable future.
Nicks and Shift B Vice President Greg Pope – who is also the union’s hiring liaison – sat down with the Monitor before their meeting with Department of Justice officials. In a lengthy interview, Nicks and Pope detailed the recent past in management-union relations, which they characterized as questionable practices by city management. Those include, say Nicks and Pope, the purposeful burial by management of a series of statistics that appear to benefit the union’s argument.
Nicks said, “In ‘09, right before Chief (Rhoda Mae) Kerr got here, we went on a nationwide hunt to find a hiring process other” than the assessment process worked up as a replacement for a straight civil service exam. “We went up to Kansas City, Mo., and found a hiring company – Morris and McDaniel – that was doing a hiring process we’d heard a lot of good things about.”
He notes that Kerr later sent a group of officers to observe the Morris and McDaniel process, and says they all came away feeling that it was a good one. Still, when it came time to bid the new hiring effort, another company – I/O Solutions – ended up the winner.
After numerous problems with that vendor, the city was able to retain the services of Morris and McDaniel for its 2013 hiring process. According to an email shared with the Monitor, that process resulted in figures that union officials characterize as some of the most diverse they have seen. According to those results, the 2013 Morris and McDaniel process produced a class that was 13 percent African-American, four percent Asian, 23 percent Hispanic, and 42 percent Anglo. The class was also 12 percent female. These numbers were considerably better than those produced by the 2012 hiring process.
Despite the $1.3 million contract associated with the Morris and McDaniel process, and what in the eyes of the union was a hiring success, city officials await the outcome of Department of Justice proceedings in order to hire the new cadet class. A source with knowledge of the situation tells the Monitor that the Austin Fire Department may be racking up as much as $1 million in overtime to cover vacancies—and that, should the union sue the city over the hiring dispute, that situation would remain until the resolution of that action.
Meanwhile, Nicks and Pope accuse management of hiding the results of the 2013 hiring process for seven months in the hopes of earning a consent decree from the Justice Department. “I think he (McDonald) sees an opportunity…to get a consent decree, and with a consent decree he probably feels he can get a sure thing, whereas – we had good results this year, can we guarantee good results next year? No,” Nicks offered.
“The huge negative in that approach is that you don’t care anything about the skill sets of people you are getting in when you do it that way.”
The Monitor has learned that the numbers were released to Council members in executive session only after union officials received them via public information request last week.
For her part, Kerr declined comment for this story through a spokesperson. “(A)t this time, we are not making comments regarding anything having to do with the DOJ, the hiring process, etc., until after the Council meeting on Thursday,” wrote Fire Department spokesperson Michelle Tanzola in an email.
Deputy City Manager Michael McDonald also declined to discuss the allegations citing ongoing litigation with the Justice Department.
When Council discusses the matter on Thursday, union officials have called for firefighters to appear in Council chambers. Council Member Chris Riley told the Monitor Tuesday that he and Council Member Mike Martinez, a former firefighters president, would request a time certain of 4pm for the item, not 6pm as originally stated here.
Monitor Editor Jo Clifton and intern Chris Thompson contributed to this story.
And we’re honored you look to us for serious, in-depth news. You know a strong community needs local and dedicated watchdog reporting. We’re here for you and that won’t change. Now will you take the powerful next step and support our nonprofit news organization?
AFA Local 975: The local union for City of Austin Firefighters.
consent decree: This refers to a document used by the U.S. Department of Justice to govern Federal oversight of the City of Austin's fire department hiring practices.
