Dozier v. Chupka
| Decision Date | 16 April 1975 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 73-447. |
| Parties | Eddie DOZIER et al., Plaintiffs, v. Bernard CHUPKA et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio |
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Carolyn A. Watts, Columbus, Ohio, William D. Wells, New York City, for plaintiffs.
City Atty., James J. Hughes, Jr., Dale Crawford, Columbus, Ohio, for defendants.
Stephen J. Vergamini, J. Raymond Snowden, Columbus, Ohio, for intervenors.
This matter is before the Court on the amended complaint of the plaintiffs, the answers of the defendants and of the intervening defendants, and on the motions to dismiss of the defendants and of the intervening defendants.1 The plaintiffs allege that the defendants have been and are now discriminating racially when hiring firefighters onto the Columbus Fire Department.
Jurisdiction of the Court has been invoked under Title 28, United States Code, Sections 1343(3) and 1343(4), 2201 and 2202. Plaintiffs seek relief under the provisions of Title 42, United States Code, Sections 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 2000e et seq. They assert a pendent claim for relief under Ohio Revised Code, Section 4112.01 et seq.
The purpose of the trial, as the parties agreed prior to trial, is to determine whether there has been or is racial discrimination in the hiring of firefighters by the Columbus Fire Department. Plaintiffs seek preliminary and final injunctive relief, and also seek declaratory relief.
Pursuant to Rule 52 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.
1. Named plaintiffs are Eddie Dozier, Charles Wilson, Adrien Burks, Daniel Moon, John Starnes and Eddie Brown. They are black men who sought employment with the Columbus Fire Department herein Fire Department in 1973. They represent a class of past, present and future applicants to the Fire Department who applied or would have applied and completed the department's procedures for employment in 1973, had the hiring process not been terminated before its completion. As part of the hiring process in 1973, a written civil service examination was administered. The six named plaintiffs took that test.
Two groups other than the plaintiffs who also took the 1973 firefighter examination, have entered this action. These two groups of twenty-four and twenty-seven persons were granted leave to intervene as defendants herein Intervenors.
2. The defendants are employees of the City of Columbus. They participated or would have participated in the selection of applicants who would become firefighters. Defendants John Duffey, Thelma Schoonover and Walter Smith are members of the Civil Service Commission herein Commission; Duffey is its president. Raymond Fadley is Chief of the Columbus Fire Department. Bernard Chupka is the Safety Director of the City of Columbus.
3. The Commission was empowered to administer an examination from which recruits for the Fire Department would be chosen in 1973, and had administered similar examinations for the Fire Department in prior years. Ohio Const., art. xv, § 10. See also Ohio Revised Code, Sections 124.01(C), -.11(B) and -.23; Columbus, Ohio Charter, Sections 148(2), 149 and 150. The Commission, upon the basis of written examination and agility test, established a list of applicants eligible to become recruits in the Fire Department. This list of eligibles was submitted to Chupka with the recommendation of the Fire Department for selection as recruits. Whereupon, Chupka chose the recruits from among the recommended eligibles.
4. The Fire Department, whose purpose is to provide fire protection, periodically recruit new members into the force. Recently, it has recruited biennially, drawing upon applicants tested in 1968, 1970, 1972 and late 1973.
5. Most of the members of the Fire Department are white. At the time of trial there were 821 firefighters. Nineteen, or 2.31 percent of the force, were black. The Fire Department hired its first black firefighter in 1935, and maintained segregated firehouses until 1953, with blacks serving only at Firehouse No. 8.
6. In 1970,2 the percentage of blacks residing in various local areas was as follows:
Percentage
of Blacks
Area of Percentage Between
Residence Of Blacks Ages 18-34
Columbus 18.5 14.5
Franklin County 12.5 10.5
Columbus Standard
Metropolitan
Statistical Area 11.6/10.7* 9.9
The parties have stipulated the foregoing percentage of blacks in the age group of 18-34. This was apparently done in the belief that it is relevant to the age group of 20-31, the qualifying age group for those applying for positions as firefighters.
The 821 firefighters in the Fire Department at the time of trial resided in various local areas as follows:
Area of Number In Percentage
Residence The Area Of Total
Columbus 444 54.1
Franklin County 290 35.3
Columbus Standard
Metropolitan
Statistical Area 87 10.6
7. The defendants followed a procedure in recruiting firefighters in 1973 similar to that which they had done in prior years. The recruiting process was never completed in 1973. The application process did, and does, progress on the following lines.
Applicants commence the application process by taking a written, objective examination. They are required to apply a few weeks prior to this test. In 1973, applications could be tendered from September 11 to 25, and the examination was originally scheduled for September 29, although it was later rescheduled for September 29, October 1 and October 6. When one applies, he submits information on matters such as employment, education, residences, arrests and medical history.
Some applicants might be disqualified automatically, based solely on what was stated in the aforementioned application form. All the other applicants are permitted to take the written examination. The Commission conducts this examination and determines who passes it. The 1973 process did not proceed past this step.
Those applicants who pass the written examination next take a physical agility test. Firefighters assist in conducting this second test, although it is administered under the auspices of the Commission. One who passes the physical agility test is allowed to complete the rest of the hiring process, as hereafter described.
Applicants who pass the written and physical agility tests are ranked in an eligibility list. Their grade and relative rank are determined by adding the scores of the two tests and bonus points, if any, for certain kinds of military discharges.
Those on the eligibility list are subjected to a background investigation. The investigation is conducted by an officer of the Fire Department, whose major task is to verify information the applicant has previously given in response to questions asked of him in forms of application of the Fire Department. The officer is asked to subjectively judge the applicants. Applicants are interviewed by three senior officers of the Fire Department, who also subjectively judge the applicants. The Chief of the Fire Department reviews the opinions of the background investigator and the interviewing committee and makes his recommendations to the Director of Safety, who chooses from among the eligible recruits in a manner prescribed by regulation.3
Donald Werner, executive officer to Chief Fadley, assumed responsibility for recruiting in 1971. He testified how many applicants passed through each stage of the 1972 recruiting process, as is described below:
Applicants who passed the written examination
applicants able to take
physical agility examination .......... 335
Applicants who failed to appear
for physical examination .............. 16
Applicants who failed physical
agility examination ................... 32
Total remaining who passed physical
agility examination; applicants upon
whom a background investigation was
made and who were able to take a
physical examination .................. 287
Applicants who failed physical
examination ................................... 55
Applicants disqualified because of
background investigation or interview
process ....................................... 19
Applicants Commission requested
be removed from consideration ................. 3
Total remaining from which recruits
could be chosen .......................210
Applicants hired in 1972 ....................125
8. Recruiting of applicants for the Fire Department is done through formal and informal methods. Informally, and not in an organized manner, firefighters might tell friends or relatives of upcoming recruitment periods. From this segment of informed members of the community, some could be expected to apply when recruitment officially commenced. Chief Fadley testified that many firefighters had actually come to the Fire Department in this manner.
The Commission is responsible for conducting the official recruitment. The Commission notifies interested civic groups and prospective applicants of upcoming written examinations; those receiving notice have earlier expressed a desire to receive this notice. The Commission advertises in newspapers of general and minority circulation, and on radio and television stations. In 1973, the Commission advertised on a minority radio station also.
9. One hundred twenty-one of the five hundred one men who took the written examination in late 1973 were black. This was a substantial increase over prior years in the number of blacks who took the test.4 The increase in black applicants may be credited to the work done by two...
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