Pinellas Park wants to start the search over because of "uncertainties."
By ANNE LINDBERG
Published April 4, 2004
PINELLAS PARK - Citing "uncertainties" in the hiring process, city officials have withdrawn job offers to seven firefighters so they can start the search over.
An informal investigation by personnel department head Tom Owens found no intentional wrongdoing by anyone in the Pinellas Park Fire Department, but he did find "errors of omission and a general lack of quality assurance."
Owens recommended that the hiring be redone with a new selection committee headed by Chief Ken Cramer and a new set of questions for the applicants. The firefighters who had been offered jobs could be reconsidered with others who had originally applied, Owens said.
City Manager Mike Gustafson said Thursday that he planned to follow Owens' suggestions because he felt the process was "flawed."
Owens began his inquiry after city employee Dave Stiles complained when he was not offered one of the jobs. Stiles, 38, is an employee in the public works department, earning $37,044.80 as a senior streets maintenance operator. An 18-year Pinellas Park employee, Stiles also is a firefighter.
Among Stiles' allegations, according to Owens' report:
- Cramer promised Stiles a job, even telling his supervisor that "one of the things I want to do before I retire is hire Dave Stiles as a firefighter," or words to that effect.
- After Stiles was turned down in May for a firefighter job, Cramer suggested improvements. Stiles said he made those.
- Stiles said he was more qualified than the person who ranked the lowest of the seven who were offered jobs.
- As a city employee, Stiles said he should be given hiring preference.
- He said his age might have been a factor when being turned down.
- Cramer wrote a letter recommending him, and the failure to offer him a job is inconsistent with that letter.
"I was looking for answers. I wanted to know why," Stiles said Friday. "All's I wanted to do was work for that department."
Stiles said he became upset over not receiving the job when he compared his training and volunteer experience at Pinellas Suncoast Fire and Rescue with some other applicants who finished ahead of him. Stiles said he wouldn't reapply.
Owens said Cramer encouraged Stiles to become a firefighter, but "there is insufficient evidence to support Dave Stiles' claim that Chief Cramer made a commitment or a promise to hire him as a firefighter. In fact, in his interview with me . . . Dave said that fire Chief Cramer did not specifically promise him a job."
Owens found that age was not a factor in Stiles' not receiving a job offer and that city employees do not get hiring preference. Job offers are based on merit alone, Owens wrote.
But Owens did find that Stiles' numerical ranking after the interview was only 4.75 points lower than the lowest-scoring person who was offered a job.
Cramer had not scored one of the questions during the interview. Cramer was unclear, Owens said, whether the score was zero or the slot had been left blank because he was distracted.
Stiles' sheet was not the only one with blanks. Owens said 11 of 39 sheets, most of them filled out by Cramer, were left blank.
Cramer declined to comment Friday.
Owens found at least two other problems:
- The members of the interview committee had varying views of the standards required by applicants.
"Most significantly, panel members placed widely ranging values on education, with some scoring applicants higher for college-level work or a degree and others giving no additional credit," Owens wrote.
- Applicants had filled out forms inconsistently.
"Some candidates counted their training as a firefighter, EMT or paramedic as college credit while others did not," Owens wrote. "The department did not notice and correct this apparent inconsistency and, when asked, panel members said they scored applicants based on the information they provided in the applications."
This could have resulted in inconsistent scoring for the applicants, Owens said.
