By ELIZABETH COLUCCIO
A committee of the New York City Council voted on Tuesday to propose a bill that would require more supervision of the application process in the Fire Department, paying special attention to race and gender.
The Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services voted unanimously in favor of the amendment to the FDNY administrative code, which would require the FDNY to report the ethnic and gender makeup of its applicants at all points of the process, from application to graduation from the academy.
“The information will help both the fire department and the council monitor the race and gender composition of the city’s firefighters and help ensure that it is a body of qualified, diverse individuals reflective of the city’s population,” said chairwoman Elizabeth Crowley.
Crowley spoke at length about the gender disparity among firefighters. The FDNY officially allowed women to become firefighters in 1977, but there were no female firefighters until a federal court mandated their inclusion in 1982. Then, women made up less than half a percent of the uniformed personnel, and 33 years later their situation has not changed.
On May 6, three women graduated to probationary firefighters, bringing the number of female personnel up to 48 out of a total of 10,322. There was some controversy when one of the graduates, Rebecca Wax, was reported to have been promoted despite failing the physical portion of the test. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro denied the reports.
Crowley also said the representation of ethnic groups was only a slight improvement from that of women.
“Racial and ethnic minorities have fared better than women,” he said, “but have only achieved some degree of proportional representation after multiple successful lawsuits.”
The bill was scheduled to go before the full council at a later date. The bill was likely to pass, since 41 members were signed on as co-sponsors.
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