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Firefighter Recruiting
By Ashley Goudeau
KVUE News
A settlement agreement between the City of Austin and the Department of Justice is expected to be pushed back again.
The council had set the vote for a consent agreement at its meeting Thursday to potentially avoid a lawsuit alleging the fire department's hiring practices discriminate against minorities. Now city leaders say the vote will be postponed until March 6.
By Robert Maxwell
KXAN News
The city clerk confirms a federal consent decree proposal aimed at modifying the way Austin’s Fire Department screens and tests future cadet candidates will likely again be removed from the council agenda immediately before this week’s meeting.
This week city staff at a Council work session agreed to request council members postpone a vote on the item as was done at the Jan. 30 meeting. The consent decree item will likely reappear at council’s March 6 meeting.
City, firefighters union headed for mediation in hiring dispute
By: Mike Kanin, republished from Austin Monitor
The Austin Firefighters Association – the union for City of Austin’s firefighters – and city management are headed to federal mediation over lingering accusations of hiring discrimination. Asked how long the mediation process might take AFA head Bob Nicks Tuesday declined to speculate.
Also, at Tuesday’s work session Council Member Mike Martinez, former head of the firefighters union, announced from the dais that city staff had requested a week’s postponement for Council ratification of a settlement with the US Department of Justice.
By Ciara O'Rourke
American-Statesman Staff
With council members poised to vote next week on a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the Austin Fire Department’s hiring practices, the Austin Firefighters Association urged the city Wednesday to wait and work with union leaders to try to reach an agreement.
By Robert Maxwell, KXAN
A six-month hiring freeze at Austin’s Fire Department shows few signs of thawing despite a new federally-motivated cadet hiring proposal headed to full city council for review later this month.
The Austin Firefighters Association is now calling for a ‘time-out’ so its team can verify the claims Justice Department lawyers first made last fall the city’s fire department cadet hiring process discriminates against African-American and Hispanic minority candidates.
