Metro

FDNY big admits pals get personnel boost

A senior New York City fire official testified yesterday that inside connections at the highest levels sometimes smooth the way for applicants trying to become firefighters.

Donay Queenan, the FDNY’s assistant commissioner for human resources, testified in federal court that ranking members who sit on the department’s personnel review board have occasionally recommended people they know — such as relatives, friends or neighbors — during meetings called to review job applicants.

The practice — highlighted at a special trial focusing on how the FDNY can increase minorities in its ranks — again raises questions about “old boy” connections that have contributed to the department’s hiring of applicants with inside connections at an agency where white men make up 93 percent of the ranks.

Queenan testified that during personnel review board meetings these ranking officials are permitted to speak in favor of candidates they know and vote on hiring them.

But the FDNY’s human-resources head said this practice doesn’t sway the board, which instead bases its decisions on all of a candidate’s attributes.

Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis also heard that the Fire Department slashed the staff of the unit responsible for increasing the minority ranks by more than half during severe budget constraints in 2010.

mmaddux@nypost.com