Daley’s Affirmative Action Will Include Firefighters

Mayor Daley, who argued that the next generation of leaders in the Police Department can’t all be one color, Wednesday, added the Fire Department to his affirmative action balancing act.

Daley defended his decision to make promotions to police lieutenant based on both test scores and merit and said it will become the standard for all future police and fire promotions.

“We’ll see him in court,” said Dan Fabrizio, president of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, who has been awaiting results of the batallion chief’s exam. “What’s the drive to do a good job when you know you’re never going to get promoted if you don’t have any political clout?”

Daley said the city would not do away with written tests, but every round of promotions based on test scores alone probably will be accompanied by a smaller group – probably around 20 percent – based on merit.

“It’s basic fairness. It’s a diversity issue,” Daley said. He said he expects “a hundred lawsuits” to be filed as a result of his decision.

“You cannot have all black, all white, all Hispanic, all women or all males in the (upper) echelon of the Chicago Police Department for the next 10 or 15 years,” Daley said.

The long-awaited results of the police lieutenants exam are scheduled to be released today. The top 54 candidates on the list will be promoted. They will be joined by a racial and ethnic mix of 13 other new lieutenants whose promotions will be based on leadership and job performance.

On Wednesday, leaders of the Fraternal Order of Police and associations representing sergeants, lieutenants and captains said they plan to seek a court injunction barring the 13 merit promotions.

A news conference at union headquarters focused on nearly two dozen white female sergeants who reportedly scored well on the lieutenants exam and fear that they have the most to lose from merit promotions.

“If we did exceptional, it was because of personal sacrifice and dedication. We did it the old fashioned way. We earned it. It’s our time. Let us have it,” Sgt. Deborah M. Chiczewski said.

Union President Bill Nolan urged the 13 lieutenants to be appointed on merit to refuse their promotions in a show of solidarity with their union brethren.

“Give it up. It’ll show the mayor we want the exam to stand,” he said.

The Latin American Police Association sent Nolan a letter reminding him of his promise not to use union dues to pursue legal action affirmative action.

“By denigrating the concept of meritorious promotions, you will only pit white against black and Hispanic officers,” said the letter from association President Salvador A. Martinez.

“Minority sergeants promoted will suffer the stigma of being a `quota lieutenant’ – even if they did receive their promotion via the rank order process. They may as well wear a `Q’ on their forehead.”

Nolan later said he had no problem with meritorious promotions. “The issue is they changed the rules in the middle of the ballgame. If everyone had known up front that a certain amount would be meritorious, there wouldn’t be any beef.”

He said the union would support the Sergeants Association legal challenge but would not spend money to do so.

Contributing: Jorge Oclander, Art Golab