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City of Lexington, Virginia
Calls For Firefighter / Medic Applicants

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The City of Lexington is currently accepting applications for Firefighter/Medic. The job description and applicationare available on-line and must be returned to City of Lexington, Human Resource Office, 300 East Washington Street, Lexington, VA 24450 by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 5, 2012. Salary Range: $32,884 – $39,089.

Requirements for position of Firefighter/Medic
*Firefighter I (Firefighter II preferred)
*EMT-I or P
*Hazardous Materials Operations
*Driver Pump Operator (preferred)
*High School Diploma or GED
*Valid Current Drivers License with good driving record
*Ability to pass Background check satisfactorily
*Ability to pass required physical examination
*Current CPR
*EVOC

The Lexington Fire Department is a combination department delivering full service Fire, EMS, and All Hazards response to over 50 square miles of area serving the citizens of Lexington and Rockbridge County. We are a very busy department with a wide variety of call types and target hazards to challenge all of your skills.

Full time positions with the City include a competitive fringe benefits package including 80% premium paid family health insurance (90% premium paid individual health insurance), employer paid participation in the VRS retirement and life insurance system, and paid vacation/sick leave. Optional participation in various insurance policies available, as well as deferred compensation and flexible spending accounts for childcare and medical expenses.

Applications may be obtained at City Hall, 300 East Washington Street, and are valid for 45 days from date of submission.  Please contact our Human Resources office for additional information (540-462-3729), or e-mail: hr@lexingtonva.gov.

Learn about Lexington at http://www.lexingtonva.gov/about.html and more about the Lexington Fire Department at www.Lexingtonfire.org

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The State Capital Doesn't Think Much About Firefighters

Austin, Texas is a large fire department in a large city whose latest chief was hired on the basis that she understand that diversity is the fire department's highest priority. That was from the city manager (why a city of nearly 800,000 people has a city manager form of government is an issue for another day). So now, in one sentence, you might have an idea of what the city's political and administrative leaders think about their fire department and its purpose.

A string of embarrassments and waste have plagued the department, the latest being that the city hired Goodwill Staffing Services to staff its interview boards and grade its entrance exam. Homeless people and the like were used to interview and, in part, select who would become an Austin firefighter. This was not the city's first choice, of course; they put out a call for community volunteers to do it but they did not get an adequate response. At the risk of worsening my Chronic Outrage Fatigue, I will say that this may be the stupidest idea in the American fire service that I have heard of all week.

First, the failed plan to use community volunteers is reflective of two dumb ideas held dear by those in charge. The elected "leaders" of a lot of cities think that people should work for free when it comes to the government. (And an increasing number of citizens do, too.) A corollary to this is the belief that firefighters are amateurs and that firefighting is not only not a profession, it is an avocation. This is why so many think that call volume is a good indicator of workload and why so many more think they can rely on volunteers to cover what today constitutes the fire service's field of responsibility. Anyone who has sat on a properly empowered oral board knows that it is hard and tedious work that can have a profound impact on a department's future. So why would some random civilians with a lot of time on their hands (!) hold so much power over something that affects so many people? Because they are free and we don't have to be all that selective in hiring a bunch of hose humpers and stretcher fetchers.

This harebrained idea might have been supported by the bureaucracy in charge for another reason. A lot of public administrators are inculcated with the idea that, because the community owns the public service, it should have a participatory role in determining its future. Hogwash. When the question is whether or not to convert a playground to a spray park or if curbside recycling is the right way to go then participatory community decision making is great. When it comes to something highly technical and highly dangerous that affects everyone this is a bad idea. Community input is important and should be respected but it should not be the sine qua non of decision making. This is complicated, hard, important work; it takes many years to even recognize the questions it poses.

Second, the homeless people. That is just pathetic. It is a slap in the face to all firefighters everywhere and a complete failure to provide for the future safety of the members and the public in Austin.

Is there anything else to say?

….. Thank you, Patrick Mahoney.

For some background on the city's use of the "chronically poor and homeless" on the recent interview board, read the American-Statesman article HERE.

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15-Year Legal Battle Finalized

ON FRIDAY A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT issued the final ruling in a long court battle dating back to a 1995 firefighter entrance examination given by the Chicago Fire Department.  The Chicago Sun-Times summarizes the results:

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a 9-to-0 decision, that, contrary to the city’s contention, African-American candidates hadn’t waited too long before filing a lawsuit that accused the city of discriminating against them for the way it handled a 1995 firefighter’s entrance exam.

On Friday, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling and sent the case back to the trial court to implement what it called the "hiring remedy" the city has been stalling.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Joshua Karsh said the decision means Chicago must hire 111 African-American firefighters and adjust their pensions as if they had been on the job since 1995. Six-thousand others will share "tens of millions of dollars" in damages, Karsh said.

"The city gave a test back in 1995 that did not measure the ability to be a firefighter. It made it more than six times more likely that white applicants would be hired rather than African Americans with no job-related justification. Nothing about getting a high score on that test predicted anything about whether you’d be a superior firefighter." Karsh said.

The actual cost to the city will be about $30 million.  While many of the former applicants will opt for the settlement, there are many who will still vie to become one of the 111 who will be hired after being randomly picked.  They will still have to pass the physical fitness exam before they can be hired on.

Read the full story in the Sun-Times HERE.

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Minimum qualifications for entry are:  High school graduation or possession of a G.E.D. issued by a state department of education. Must be at least 18 at the time of application. Must possess a valid driver’s license. Must be tobacco-free and nicotine-free at the time of appointment, and be willing to sign a Conditions of Employment Agreement to not use tobacco or tobacco products on or off-duty.

All applicants must successfully complete a written entrance exam, document review, Physical Ability Test (orientation), Physical Ability Test (exam), personal interview, psychological profile, polygraph, criminal background investigation and comprehensive medical examination and cardiovascular evaluation.

Recruits must successfully complete up to 22 weeks of paid training at the Fairfax County Training Academy and a one year probationary period.

Starting salary for Firefighter/EMT is $48,877 annually.

You can fill out the application and submit it online.  CLICK HERE for the online application.

Note:  If you already possess a National Registry Paramedic or a Virginia State Paramedic certificate, the application period for Firefighter/Paramedic is always open.  Starting salary for Firefighter/Paramedic is $53,887 annually.  Click HERE for information.

Fairfax County Fire & Rescue WEBSITE.

The state firefighter eligibility list as expiring and a new examination is scheduled to create the new list and everyone who wants to take it is required to pay $200 for the privilege.  The trouble is, most fire departments have been on a hiring freeze, including Boston, and virtually nobody has been hired off the old list.

That affects people like Jason Murray who got a near-perfect score on the test, but was never hired.  Now the state wants to charge him and everybody else another $200 to start all over.

WCVB-TV Ch. 5 Boston talked to Mr. Murray and he expressed his opinion in this video report:

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IN JACKSON, TENNESSEE, A STATE COURT OF APPEALS ruled that an evolution which is part of the physical agility test required before being placed on an eligibility list, does not discriminate against women.  A suit was brought in 2005 by Teresa Hayes when she failed to complete the PA portion of the test within the alloted time because of her difficulty in picking up a  ladder and placing it on the ladder racks of a pumper.

The Jackson Sun explains:

In the lawsuit Hayes stated that a requirement that she replace a 24-foot extension ladder on the fire truck discriminated against women because of the method demonstrated to her prior to the exam.  In a demonstration of the test by a fireman, the ladder was picked up from the center and placed overhead onto the truck, according to the ruling.

According to the opinion, in 2005 Hayes struggled to replace the ladder when she grabbed it at its center and lifted it over her shoulders.  Hayes took two minutes and 19 seconds to complete the task while the men ranged from 37 seconds to 1 minute and six seconds, the ruling said.

In 2007, Hayes took the physical exam again and passed the timed exam after using another method where she hooked one end of the ladder onto the truck before lifting the other end.

The court ruled that her successful completion of the test in 2007 demonstrated that she was able to lift and place the ladder.

Read the entire article in the Jackson Sun HERE.

Lt. Tyler Abhold from the East Valley district 4 tells KNDU-TV, ”Three or four years ago we got upwards of ten [new volunteers].  This year we’re working with four.  It’s hit and miss, but it seems to kind of be progressively getting worse.”  East Valley’s gone from roughly 60 volunteers to 45 in the past few years.

KNDU-TV reported on the situation on this video:

After 56 years of serivce, the EMS branch of the township’s volunteer fire department was closed due to lack of funding and volunteers.  The squad has 5 paid medics and 10 volunteers, but has become a financial drain on the VFD.

WFMZ-TV has a video report on their last day of service HERE.

The township officials are holding a meeting tonight to discuss the situation.  The Allentown Morning Call is reporting:

Fire officials say the ambulance portion of their nonprofit has not generated the volume of emergency calls it needs to stay in business, doesn’t have enough volunteers, and isn’t getting reimbursed by insurance companies at the rate it once did.

Salisbury Township commissioners are paying a consultant $4,500 to study whether the ambulance service can be saved. In addition, the township is paying $5,000 to $7,000 for an audit of the Fire Department and ambulance company.

Read the full STORY HERE.

Meanwhile, the remaining active volunteer EMT’s are looking for a way to re-open as a separate entity.

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One of the topics that we have been covering occasionally is that of volunteer fire and EMS recruiting problems and successes.  Unfortunately, the problems have been way outnumbering the successes lately.  Recently, TV Channel 4 in Dallas, Texas, ran this news item about the dwindling numbers of volunteer firefighters in the communities north of the city:

I am in disagreement over what they are claiming their problem is, though.  True enough, their membership numbers are down.  And it’s happening all over.  But ….. are they properly identifying their real causes for it?  Unless you know just what the problem is, you cannot take remedial action to overcome it.

Early in this tv clip the narrator says flatly that membership is lacking “because of the economy.”  I think that is a lame excuse.  We are hearing the economic situation taking the blame for all kinds of failures, some accurately and some like this one, just being a convenient scapegoat.  I have seen several other dips in the economy before, a couple of times even worse than this.  But it usually doesn’t affect volunteerism at all.  If anything, it picks up as people have more time at their disposal and they seek out less expensive ways of using it.  Not to mention the obvious need to step up a little and help out in many different ways.

The vol. chief that they interview is right, however.  The younger generation isn’t showing up like previous generations did.  I believe that there is a cultural shift lately where young people are not being taught by their elders the importance of helping others and instead are wrapped up in themselves more than was usual in the past.  If you can’t encourage them to think about helping their neighbor, then how about playing to their narcissism and convincing them of the rewarding self-satisfaction that is earned by doing something that is both good and “entertaining”?

Another item that caught my attention in the video report was the situation in one of the VFD’s where they say that their active membership dropped from 12 to 3 in just one year.  Now call me cynical if you wish, because I am, but a massive defection like that didn’t come about because the price of groceries has gone up.  There’s something wrong going on in the internal affairs of the department to cause that to happen, if it did.

Not every volunteer fire/EMS company is having these problems, though.  Just over a year ago we posted an article about a vol. fire dept. in upstate New York HERE that had a waiting list of applicants so large that they had to change their by-laws to allow for an increased membership roster.  The secret is finding out the real reason why people aren’t showing up to sign up, and then targeting that cause.  Next week I hope to bring you a couple of success stories of VFD’s that are having successful recruiting drives.  And if you have a success story to share also, send me an email telling me about it.

Now let’s get this equipment checked out.  I need to get the coffee started.

photo by Richard Dean

They’ve gone public with their hiring appeal including this television story done by WALA Ch. 10:

Mobile Fire Dept. WEBSITE.
Mobile FD hiring NOTICE.