Supreme Court ruling forces employers to consider promotion practices

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - In a five to four decision, the Supreme Court on Monday sided with white firefighters who claimed they were discriminated against, being denied promotions because of their race.

The case is from New Haven Connecticut, where the city tossed out a promotions exam given to 120 candidates because no African-Americans, and only two Hispanics, scored high enough to expect advancement.

The city feared lawsuits from African-Americans, and instead were sued by the white fireman who had done well on the test.

While the Supreme Court's decision has a fairly narrow focus, it does have West Michigan employers taking a closer look at the whole promotion process.

In the public sector, many promotions can be contentious, and on Tuesday Newschannel 3 learned that many local police and fire departments have set procedures that local leaders believe would stand up in court.

East Grand Rapids Public Safety Director Mark Herald admits that it's often a very difficult process hiring firefighters and police officers in his community. Facing a large pool of applicants, men and women, people of all races, sometimes of equal ability often makes it a tough call.

"Sometimes in life things don't always break your way," said Herald, "people have a hard time accepting that."

Everybody always wants a promotion, but is it deserved, that sometimes has to be determined in a court of law.

Herald says as far as his city goes, there's no problem with his city's certified testing procedures.

"Municipalities that want to do the right thing, to get the best people in these positions for the community, they want to give a validated test," said Herald.

Now that Supreme Court ruling has brought questions about how all cities and counties handle hiring and how tests should be used. Just after the New Haven ruling, city attorneys in Grand Rapids were checking the legalities of the current system in place in Grand Rapids and whether the system was inclusive rather than exclusive.

"The City of Grand Rapids will have to change nothing in response to this, we have been operating in a fashion that's been fair and open," said Mayor George Heartwell of Grand Rapids.

The cities of East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids both have pass-fail tests. They say that puts race out of the equation and ultimately weeds out those who aren't qualified in the hopes of getting a rich pool of applicants.

"We have been able to achieve good levels of diversity," said Heartwell, "not great, not what I'd like to see, good levels of diversity in our workforce."