A federal appeals panel today froze the activities of a team of court-appointed special monitors assigned to watch over hiring and promotion practices at the FDNY.
The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling grants a request from the city to halt the monitors’ oversight until the appellate judges decide whether or not to overturn a lower court’s decision imposing 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 represents 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 doesn’t 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 of New York’s Fire Department is necessary because of the city’s “pattern and practice of discrimination against black firefighter candidates,” as well as minorities already working for the FDNY.
He leveled scathing criticism at the city, and accused Bloomberg of choosing “to ignore” the issue.
But the city has fought back, and appealed the decision by arguing that Garaufis’ oversight plan was unnecessary, exaggerated, and intrusive.
Today’s ruling to pull the team of special monitors out of the FDNY occurs as the nation’s largest fire department gears up for its biggest hiring push in years.
The sprawling legal battle grows out of a 2007 lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, with the aim of forcing the city to hire more minorities at an agency where white men make up 93 percent of the 11,000 firefighters in its ranks.
Georgia Pestana, a senior attorney for the city, said the Bloomberg Administration was pleased with today’s development.
“We are gratified that the court granted our stay. This will enable the Commissioner to exercise hiring discretion without the court monitor’s involvement,” Pestana said.
But Darius Charney, an attorney who represents the Vulcan Society – a fraternal organization of black firefighters that sued the FDNY over discrimination – said he was concerned about the removal of the court monitors and hoped the city would abide by newly-installed reforms.
“To give [the city] complete free reign to make hiring decisions makes us very uneasy. I hope the city sees the benefit of all the reforms they had to make, and they will abide by their own policies – but you never know,” said Charney, an attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights.
At a series of hearings in 2011 in Brooklyn federal court, a litany of minority firefighters and FDNY applicants complained about the existence of an “old boys network” and a nepotism pipeline that favored hiring whites for the fire department based upon family or friendship connections – while minorities were largely overlooked.
But Pestana insisted that Mayor Bloomberg remains committed to implementing reforms.
“The City has been very clear about its serious commitment to a diverse FDNY,” Pestana said.
“The FDNY has implemented written policies for the hiring process, and has every intention to continue to adhere to them,” Pestana said.
mmaddux@nypost.com