A psychologist’s report on an obscure subject is complicating Jacksonville’s already-difficult position in a long court fight over whether it discriminates against black firefighters seeking promotions.
The Justice Department has sued the city since 2012, saying low numbers of black firefighters who advance in rank suggest biased testing.
The city has said its 100-question tests only measure things firefighters need to know for their jobs.
But Justice attorneys have told a judge a former city psychologist, whose work revolved around job testing, concluded job knowledge represented as little as 12 percent of the mix of attributes needed for some Jacksonville firefighters’ work.
How could that estimate affect the city’s defense?
“It weakens it enormously,” said Richard Ugelow, a former Justice Department attorney who once supervised cases in the agency’s civil rights division, the office suing Jacksonville.
Not everyone sees it that way, though. “Most written tests only cover a small part of the domain of job skills needed in firefighters’ jobs,” said Susan Carle, a law professor at American University in Washington. She said both sides will have their preferred experts, and will simply argue why their side is right.
While the outcome is far from certain, the fight is basically Jacksonville’s to lose.