Report Defends Pasadena Minority Hiring

The city’s affirmative action efforts place it on a par with other California cities that have large minority populations, according to a city report released last week.

The report, by Affirmative Action Director Ramon Curiel, was prepared after black and Latino activists complained that Pasadena has failed to aggressively hire and promote minorities and women.

Curiel compared the city’s work force to municipal labor forces in Fresno, Glendale, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Pomona, Riverside, Sacramento and San Jose.

With a minority population of 53.7% and a minority city work force of 50.4%, Pasadena ranked fifth among the 10 cities surveyed in terms of population parity.

Population parity is the placement of minorities in city jobs in percentages equaling their percentage in the city’s population.

Among the four cities with a 50% or higher minority population--Los Angeles, Pasadena, Oakland and Pomona--only Los Angeles made more progress in population parity than Pasadena, the report said.

As in most of the other 10 cities, Pasadena’s minorities are not equally represented in all types of jobs, the report said. Pasadena reached parity in only three of eight federally defined job categories for all its minorities: service-maintenance, paraprofessional and office-clerical.

From his analysis, Curiel concluded that the city’s affirmative action progress “is as good as, and, in other cases, much better than other California cities with significant minority populations.”

But the city’s affirmative action efforts were dubbed as only “adequate” by Ibrahim Naeem, director of the Pasadena-Foothill Branch of the Los Angeles Urban League and one of those who appeared before the council two weeks ago.

“I compliment the city for the improvements they’ve made, but they certainly have some areas they need to work on,” Naeem said, referring to the lack of women and minorities in certain job categories.

“The city doesn’t appear to have the right commitment to give promotions and a career track to those people,” Naeem said.

The report was a response to demands made two weeks ago before the Board of Directors. The speakers addressed concerns that they said had previously been brought up and inadequately answered in August during a board meeting at the Jackie Robinson Center.

Among the demands was a request that the city expand a proposed count of Armenian-Americans to include other minority groups. The special count was recently approved by the board because the 1990 U.S. Census will not list population numbers for Armenians, a group included in the city’s affirmative action efforts.

Blacks and Latinos, who say they are typically undercounted by the Census, fear they will be shortchanged on social services if Armenian-Americans are accurately counted.

In his report, Curiel suggested that the city’s Affirmative Action Commission review the issue for later recommendations to the board, a suggestion approved by the board last week.

Curiel also addressed concerns expressed by Antonia Darder, a Latina, who questioned the city’s affirmative action commitment after she failed to secure an interview for an entry-level administrative job.

Out of 55 applicants for the position, Curiel reported that 67.9% were minorities. In addition, eight of the 10 finalists were minorities and the three final candidates were minorities.