Metro

FDNY commish says dept. doing all to bring in more non-whites

What minority hiring gap?

New York’s fire commissioner testified today that the nation’s largest fire department is making great progress towards in increasing the number of non-whites in its ranks.

FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano took the witness stand at a special bench trial convened to gauge ways to attract more minority firefighters to an agency where white men make up 93 percent of the ranks.

“I think I’m doing a very good job,” the fire commissioner said after the hearing.

“We recruit as many minority candidates as we can…and then it’s up to the candidates.”

Cassano cited statistics showing that in the nearly four weeks since the FDNY started taking applications for the next fire exam, more than 15 percent of those signing up have been black.

That statistic stands in stark contrast to the department’s sign-up rolls to take its last exam in 2007, when within the same time frame nearly half that number — 8.4 percent — were black, Cassano testified.

The fire commissioner also told Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis that the FDNY’s hiring process is “extremely fair” and “non-discriminatory.”

The trial grows out of a civil rights lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against the city over the racial imbalance within the FDNY’s ranks. Cassano also insisted that the FDNY doesn’t need a court-appointed monitor to oversee the department’s effort to make its ranks more diverse.

“I’ve been on the department for 42 years. I think I know what’s best for the department,” he said.