El Monte to Settle Job Bias Lawsuit : Courts: Blacks and Asians were denied employment in Police and Fire departments, Justice Department says. The city will pay up to $330,000 compensation.

El Monte officials have agreed to pay a total of up to $330,000 to blacks and Asian-Americans denied jobs since 1985 as firefighters or police officers because of their race.

The money will go to an undetermined number of applicants who sought entry-level jobs with the San Gabriel Valley city from Jan. 1, 1985, to the present, but were discouraged from applying or were rejected for employment.

The compensation fund is part of a 28-page consent decree approved in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, resolving a discrimination lawsuit filed last November by the U.S. Justice Department.

The complaint accused the El Monte police and fire departments of pursuing and continuing “policies and practices that have discriminated against Latinos, blacks and Asians” in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

It was the third legal action taken recently by the Justice Department against cities in Los Angeles County, all of them in the San Gabriel Valley.

Pomona and Alhambra last summer resolved similar discrimination allegations with the federal agency, even though officials there denied that city policies were discriminatory.

El Monte officials, also admitting no wrongdoing, took a similar tack this week.

“It’s the city’s position that no one was discriminated against,” said Personnel Director Eric Berry.

The suit was brought by the Justice Department and not by civil rights activists who, for the most part, were unaware of the consent decree.

Tony Stewart, president of the Altadena branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, applauded the action when told of the decree. But she said the compensation should also apply to those who were rejected for jobs before 1985.

“It starts with 1985, because they (federal officials) got enough nerve, or data, to go back that far, but discrimination has been there all along,” Stewart said. “It’s not enough.” The latest consent decree revived complaints by officials in the three cities that the Justice Department singled out small suburban towns with large minority populations as easy targets for investigation.

Minorities make up more than 70% of the population in Alhambra and Pomona and more than 85% in El Monte. Yet minority representation in the police and fire departments in all three cities is small.

When the Justice Department began its investigation two years ago, blacks and Latinos constituted 16% of the 190 sworn officers in the Pomona Police Department. Only one black served on El Monte’s 107-member police force and only two blacks and one Asian-American had jobs on Alhambra’s 89-member force, according to Justice Department officials.

Meanwhile, El Monte had no blacks and only one Asian among its 66 firefighters and Alhambra had no blacks or Asians among its 68 firefighters.

“I think that’s why the Department of Justice investigated,” said Ann Wilson, Alhambra’s personnel director. “If you don’t have the numbers, then you must be discriminating.”

Wilson and other officials complained that the Justice Department failed to recognize that many city workers come from outside city boundaries.

Justice Department officials reached by phone in Washington said the government surveyed a number of cities in the county and took legal action only against those with serious problems.

Further, the officials said entry-level hires in the police and fire departments should more closely reflect minority population in the three cities because prior training is not necessary. They require, for the most part, only that candidates be 21 years of age, high school graduates and in good health.

Justice Department spokeswoman Amy Casner said the cities’ response is not surprising, because “people never like to get caught doing something that’s in violation of statutes.”

But city officials complained that the judgments have hurt municipalities already in financial straits.

Alhambra was required to set aside a $180,000 compensation fund and Pomona was required to set aside $160,000.

“We could have used the money to hire additional police officers,” said Pomona Personnel Director Browning Allen.

Officials in El Monte, where more than $200,000 in legal fees was spent on the suit, voiced similar complaints. Berry said he does not know how many discrimination victims the $330,000 will compensate. The federal government will determine those numbers and will evaluate claims filed by former applicants, the personnel director said.

Ten of those former police applicants and seven firefighter applicants deemed qualified by the Justice Department will be given priority for hiring by the city as jobs open, as part of the decree.

Further, the city is required to develop a recruitment program to increase the number of blacks in the Police Department and blacks and Asians in the Fire Department. The city is to advertise in black and Chinese newspapers and on radio during peak commuter hours.