County Fire Dept. Seeks Diverse Pool of Applicants

In an effort to draw a more diverse pool of applicants, the Ventura County Fire Department announced Monday that it will conduct a broad-based search this week for fire training academy recruits to fill a handful of department openings.

In September, the department canceled the training academy because of a lack of minority and women applicants.

That decision rankled some firefighters, who said it smacked of reverse discrimination, but Fire Chief James Sewell said at the time that the department was merely trying to hire a work force that reflected the ethnic and gender makeup of the county.

Fire Capt. Ken Maffei, president of the Ventura County Firefighters Assn., said the decision to go back and look for more applicants was unfair to the people who applied in September.

“We had people on that list that have been on our hand crew for years and years,” Maffei said. “These are people that have been putting their neck on the line for the department fighting fires for many, many years and should have had a shot at it, but when these qualified applicants applied, they basically had the offer jerked out from under them. That’s not right.”

Department officials said their effort to cast a wider net--advertising the openings in Los Angeles and beyond--was fair.

“We’re looking for a broader base of minority and women candidates,” said Joe Luna, a department spokesman. “We’re not trying to exclude anyone, but we want to have a diverse pool to draw from.”

Participating in this training academy will be the Ventura and Oxnard city fire departments, Luna said. Neither of those departments has openings right now, but they plan to hire from the list of trainees that successfully complete the academy when positions open up, officials said.

The total number of openings has not been determined, but Luna said the County Fire Department may have as many as 12 positions to fill.

Two years ago, the last Ventura County Fire Academy attracted well over 3,000 applicants for 24 positions.

In September, before the academy was canceled for lack of minority candidates, Luna said the department received about 1,600 applicants.

“We’re expecting a lot of applicants and really, the more the better,” he said.

The county began accepting applications Monday and will continue to accept applications until the close of business on Friday, he said.

Information on the application procedure can be obtained by calling 655-0386. And applications can be picked up at the Ventura County Government Center Human Resources Department at 800 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura.

Applications can be faxed to 383-6424 or 383-6425, but applicants must assume the risk that their applications might not arrive. The department will not take calls to check if an application is complete, and incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.