Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Sept 24 2004

Glendale Fire has plans to diversify

Department to ‘fast-track’ locals from cadet program, organize
meetings for the community.

By Jackson Bell, News-Press

GLENDALE CITY HALL – After city officials pressured the fire
department to better reflect the city’s ethnic make-up, Glendale Fire
Chief Chris Gray unveiled plans this week to diversify his staff.

Gray and other department personnel briefed the city’s Civil Service
Commission on Wednesday about the department’s recent community
outreach efforts. Those include giving fire cadets an edge over other
recruits when competing to join the force, and holding meetings to
inform locals about the force and what they have to do to join.

Many enrolled in the cadet program are of Armenian descent. Glendale
has no Armenian firefighters, even though an estimated one-third of
the city is of that ethnicity.

Commissioners gave their approval to allow the fire department – as
well as the police department – to have their cadets “fast-track”
their way on the force if they complete at least six months of work
and 600 hours of service. The cadet program is often used as a
stepping stone to becoming a sworn firefighter.

“It’s tough with open recruitment,” Gray said. “There are a series of
tests to find out who is or is not qualified for the job. But in an
interview, you really only get 15-20 minutes to look at someone.

“It’s better to bring someone into the fire service from the cadet
program because they have already done ride-alongs and have worked
alongside firefighters,” he added.

Battalion Chief Harold Scoggins, who heads recruiting and hiring,
also announced the next “Public Information Night,” a community
outreach meeting at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 27 in Glendale Fire Station 21,
421 Oak St. And Capt. Carlos Guerrero introduced “Bridging the Gap,”
a new translation booklet that allows firefighters to ask about 30
emergency response-related questions in Armenian, Korean or Spanish.

Commissioners, who recently slammed Glendale Fire officials for
lagging behind Glendale Police and other city departments in
diversity, praised Gray during the meeting for steering his staff in
the right direction.

“A month ago, I was a bit critical of the fire department,”
Commissioner Albert Abkarian said. “But not only have you met my
expectations, you have substantially exceeded what I expected to
see.”

Gray also introduced seven firefighters who were recently hired out
of a pool of about 2,400 candidates. One of them, Kevin Ku, is the
department’s first Korean-American firefighter.