San Gabriel : Hiring Procedures Changed

Despite objections from the city’s firefighter union, the City Council last week approved more flexible hiring procedures, allowing experienced firefighters to be selected without the written tests given to beginners.

The council on Tuesday also created a new lower salary grade for police recruits, previously paid at the same rate as trained officers while they attended the academy.

City Administrator P. Michael Paules said the new classification would save about $2,300 per police recruit. The supplementary methods for hiring firefighters would allow the city to widen its field of candidates and help minority recruitment, he said.

In an Aug. 28 letter to Paules, Greg O’Sullivan, the president of the San Gabriel Firefighters Assn., criticized the new procedures as “based on subjectiveness rather than a fair, objective series of tests.”