PSYCH REJECTS GET DO-OVERS
Chief's nephew, 5 others, pass due to one-time policy switch

Thursday, May 03, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

If you're a candidate to become a firefighter in Jersey City and fail the psychological test, don't jump off the ladder.

Administration officials came up with a novel solution for six of the current crop of recruits who failed an initial psych test: they got to do it again.

With the city footing the bill, all six passed a follow-up psych test with a different psychologist, officials said.

One of the first beneficiaries of this policy switch - which officials say may never happen again - is Sean T. Mangan, a person several officials identified as a nephew of Fire Chief William Sinnott.

"It's the typical Jersey City-isms, which is cronyism and nepotism," said Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop about the deviation from standard practice.

Mangan and one other candidate were retested and allowed into the current Fire Academy class that graduates later this month, officials said. The four other candidates have also been retested and passed the follow-up exam, but were too late to be part of this class, officials said.

Sinnott didn't return several phone calls for comment and Mangan failed to return messages left for him at the chief's office, the Fire Academy in Middletown, and at his residence in Jersey City.

Several administration officials, including Fire Director Armando Roman, Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly and city spokesman Stan H. Eason, defended the switch in policy on the grounds the city has been consistently losing appeals brought by police officer and firefighter candidates rejected for employment.

"The mayor (Jerramiah Healy) was fully informed," Eason said. "Having been advised and acting strictly on the recommendation of the business administrator and fire director, this policy was allowed to move forward.

"It was highly unusual for six candidates to fail that test in one day," Eason added. "Ultimately it would be more cost-effective to facilitate the second test than to have to represent and defend those appeals. Invariably they are almost always overturned."

According to O'Reilly, the city has stared down 24 fire department appeals brought before the state's Merit Board over the past three years. These 24 appeals, however, cover a wide spectrum, including the written and physical tests and criminal background checks fire recruits must undergo, O'Reilly said.

Of the 24 appeals, the Merit Board upheld 11 removals, sided with the appellants 12 times, and one case is pending, O'Reilly said.

The goal of the retest is to "reduce the actual appeals," O'Reilly said. "If someone went for two (psych) tests and fails, then we won't take them."

Jersey City Firefighters Union Local 1066 President Joseph Krajnik said it's not likely the city can get away with instituting a one-time-only policy.

"Precedent makes law," Krajnik said. "A lawyer would have a field day. They would say you did it for these (candidates) and you paid the bill, so you have to do it for my client."

==========================
Doc: Test, done right, is 'objective'
Thursday, May 03, 2007

Fire Chief Armando Roman downplayed the importance of any single failed psych test, arguing that evaluations are "extremely subjective" and that he's seen otherwise qualified individuals deemed "unstable" because they held several jobs.

But Dr. Irving B. Guller, of the Institute for Forensic Psychology in Oakland, explained a proper psychological evaluation is mostly an objective instrument. Guller performs psych tests for the Jersey City Police Department and, more than 10 years ago, had a contract with the Fire Department as well.

"A person sitting across from a person can tell whether a person is hostile, evasive," Guller said. "That could be called subjective, but they are informed judgments."

In addition, Guller said, certain relationships have been well established over time. For example, people with multiple tattoos tend to be disciplinary problems. People with tremendous debt don't make good cops, because they are impulsive and show poor judgment, he said.

"That's not subjective," Guller said. "He either has or doesn't have tattoos. He either did or did not go bankrupt."

KEN THORBOURNE