The FDNY yesterday got a temporary reprieve from the team of court-appointed monitors assigned to oversee its hiring and promotion practices.
A federal-appeals panel gave the department a break from federal hiring oversight while the judges decide on whether or not to uphold a lower court’s decision to impose far-reaching new policies on the FDNY in a bid to end years of what it found to be discriminatory hiring practices.
The temporary ban is a minor victory for Mayor Bloomberg, who last year balked at what he considered to be outside interference, telling a federal judge that the FDNY does not need special monitors to ensure that minorities in its ranks are treated fairly.
In 2011, Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis issued a sweeping ruling declaring that broader judicial oversight was necessary because of the city’s “pattern and practice of discrimination.”