Enhancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
On Tuesday of this week, Local 1014 joined Fire Chief Marrone and Sister Sara Rathbun from Women's Fire League and Air Ops Brother Johnny Gray of the LA County Stentorians, along with our partners from California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee (Cal-JAC), to put forward a motion which was unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) to move our entry-level written test to the Fire Candidate Testing Center (FCTC) written.
We already use the CPAT along with EMT as our required tests. The written test from FCTC is fire based. When used in conjunction with an oral interview, we will be in better shape to recruit and retain the best candidates possible. This written test is also available multiple times per month so we can always add people to the list, including using it for our FSA Internal Promotional Bridge Program. We are excited to work with the BOS and the Department to move to the gold standard of the written test process as so many other departments have done.
This work combined with efforts to secure an agreement with the Department to use the BEEP Test to assess all candidate's physical readiness to enter our Drill Tower. No BEEP, no Tower. We are also working to eliminate any "automatic - I" recycling of candidates in the tower. Any injury to a recruit in the tower should be evaluated and approved only on a case-by-case basis by the Fire Chief to ensure that injury is not being used to circumvent testing results at mid-term and finals. The physical assessment of BEEP and other evaluations will be used at 4-month and 10-month follow-ups. Combined with a robust probationary evaluation like we have seen the last year, we are building back to a process everyone can have confidence in that provides the best and most qualified candidates while providing recruitment and preparation tools embedded in a pre-test manner.
We also put forward joint support for tools to collect good data on demographics in our Department that will be used to create more effective training on the diverse culture of our membership.
Thank you to Chief Marrone for agreeing to move in this direction. We would also like to thank the Board of Supervisors, especially the movers of the motion Supervisors Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell, for their commitment to our Department and to the mission of diversity and inclusion for all our members.
If you are an active member and want to help, contact Union or Training Services. We all have an opportunity to help with what is being built and push our Department to continue to be a national leader in recruitment and hiring practices.
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