A Citizen Complaint about lack of Diversity in Fire Chief Selection....And the County's Response

A citizen has complained about the lack of diversity in the finalists for the next Escambia County Fire Chief position.  Administrator Jack Brown responded with a thorough and honest email.

The BCC received a lengthy complaint email about the process by which we are selecting our next Fire Chief--with a particularly scathing criticism about the lack of diversity in the finalist pool (all white men) and in the selection committee (no black members of the selection committee).

I think diversity is great-and America is a diverse country and that is good.  But I also believe strongly that the most qualified candidate should get the position--regardless of race--particularly for highly specialized skill positions.

Administrator Jack Brown provided a written response to this complaint.  The response was thorough, accurate, and honest.  Here is the response:

Dear Ms. DeWeese,

I hope you are well. Thanks for your inquiry.  I am always open to suggestions on how we can improve our process. Like you, I want Escambia County to be a model community where quality of life is for all not just some.

In seeking qualified and diverse applicants for the position of Fire Chief, we advertised with the following for the dates provided.:

·         Florida Fire Chief Association 2/1/2018 – 3/1/2018 (as part of this advertising package, it was additionally advertised on ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, Job2Careers, the New York Times and more).

·         International Association of Fire Chiefs 2/1/2018 – 3/1/2018

·         International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services 2/2/2018 – 3/1/2018

·         Employ Florida 2/1/2018 – 3/4/2018

·         Government Jobs 2/1/2018 – 3/4/2018

1.       What was the Demographic makeup of the committee? 3 white male, and one white female. I reached out to try to find both an African American Fire Chief and a Female Fire Chief to serve on the selection committee but didn’t receive phone calls back.  I thought about having the new Fire Chief or the female African American Battalion Fire Chief from the City on the Committee, but since we had applicants from the City Fire  

        Department, I didn’t think that was appropriate.  In retrospect, I should have asked a local African American lay person to serve on the Committee. This is one of the very few times that I didn’t do that.

The Selection Committee consists of the following people.

Janice Kilgore – Janice recently retired as the Vice President Greater Pensacola Operations at Navy Federal Credit Union. Prior to her time at NFCU, she retired from Escambia County after service as an Assistant County Administrator and the County’s Public-Safety  Director. She directed operations for the County’s 911 Emergency Communications, Emergency Management, Fire Services, and Emergency Medical Services. She is a certified emergency manager through the International Association of Emergency Mangers.

Matt Coughlin – Matt is one of my two Assistant County Administrators. Among his specific, assignments is the oversight of Public Safety, which includes, the Fire department, emergency medical, is a retired Naval Captain. His last duty station was as the Commander of NAS Whiting Field where among his other duties, he had oversight of the Navy’s largest Fire Department.

Mike Weaver – A lifetime resident of Escambia County, he served 4 years in the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. He began employment with Escambia County in 1990 as an Emergency Medical Technician. During the next 28, years  he progressed to Paramedic, Battalion Chief, Deputy Fire Chief, EMS Chief and currently serve as Public-Safety  Director since 2010. Mr. Weaver was one of the original 36 firefighters hired when Escambia County began a combination fire service. Prior to being hired as a Battalion Chief he served 10 years as a volunteer firefighter on Pensacola Beach and in Myrtle Grove.

Tuffy Dixon – Currently a member of the Destin City Council. He served as a volunteer fire Fighter in Destin from 1976 until 1983 when he became a paid fire fighter. In 1990, he was selected as the Fire Chief for Destin in served for 19 years.  He continues to work part-time for the State Fire Marshal’s Office as an accident investigator and teach classes for the Florida State Fire College.

Jack Brown – retired from the Army in 1996 as a Lieutenant Colonel and has over 20 years in local government as either a county administrator / manager or county commissioner.

2.       What is the current demographic make up of the department?

Uniformed personnel demographics

Female                 3

Male                172

Asian                    1

Black                    11

Hispanic              14

Indian                     2

Other                      4

White                143

Our ratio for female fire fighters is only 1.71% while percentage of women in the Fire Service nationally is less than 4%.  Like you, we understand that we need to encourage more women and minorities to join the fire service. Our goal is to have a department that is more reflective of our community and our community values. This will be a high priority for the new fire chief.

                           

3.       How many minorities were included in the 77 applicants? Below is the separate information regarding race that was captured for the 77 applications.

	Job Number	Gender				Ethnicity
		M	Unk	Tot		AA	AI	HL	TMR	W	Unk	Tot
Department - Public Safety Department
	2018 - Fire Chief	75	2	77		8	1	3	3	59	3	77
Total		75	2	77		8	1	3	3	59	3	77

NOTE: Based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it is illegal for an employer to use race in evaluating job applicants except when race is a necessary factor of employment. Questions regarding gender, race, religion, and national origin, either on employment applications or during the job interview are not legal. The EEOC publication titled Facts About Race/Color Discrimination states the following: “Employers may legitimately need information about their employees or applicants race for affirmative action purposes and/or to track applicant flow. One way to obtain racial information and simultaneously guard against discriminatory selection of for employers to use separate forms or otherwise keep the information about an applicant’s race separate from the application. In that way, the employer can capture the information it needs but ensure that it is not used in the selection decision.”

We follow the EEOC recommendation and the law by keeping these items separate and apart from the application that the selection committee see. Applicants are asked on a volunteer basis to disclose on a section that is not part of the application provided to the committee. Again, a person on the selection committee has no way of know an applicants age, gender, race, religion, or national origin during the short-listing process unless they have first-hand knowledge.

As you are aware we made a change at the top of the Fire Service for some of the very reasons that you point out. However, It is just as wrong to assume that all white, middle age, males are democrats or republicans as it is to assume they all have the same faults, beliefs or baggage.

4.       How many of the 77 applicants met the minimum qualifications? 37 of the applicants met the education, fire-rescue experience and management requirements

Since I have been the Administrator for Escambia County. I have hired four African American Department Heads (3 male (Horace Jones, Mike Tidewell and Mike Crittenden and 1 Female – Tonya Gant). Mr. Tidwell as you will recall was later terminated.  Mr. Tidwell’s replacement was a white woman, Ta.  My first hire as an Assistant Administrator was Amy Lovoy. A position Ms. Lovoy still holds. The Department Head of ECAT is an African American Male. His Assistant Director is an African American female. Last year Shaw Hamilton an African American male was selected as the top candidate for the vacant Assistant County Administrator but declined the position. Additionally, I just recently hired Ms. Joy Jones as our new County Engineer to replace our retiring County Engineer Ms. Joy Blackmon.

My wife earned a mechanical engineering degree and is retired from the Florida Department of Education. Both of my daughters are grown and working. I take diversity very seriously at home, on the job and our society as a whole. I reached out to try to find both an African American Fire Chief and a Female Fire Chief to serve on the selection committee but didn’t receive phone calls back.  I thought about having the new Fire Chief or the female African American Battalion Fire Chief from the City on the Committee but since we had applicants from the City Fire Department I didn’t think that was appropriate.

Ms. DeeWeese, I hope this answers some of your questions. As I stated above in restrospect it would have been better to have even a lay minority person on the selection committee.

Regards, Jack"