The sweeping changes to the city’s personnel system that New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu pushed through three years ago may have ushered in an era of racial and political bias at the Fire Department, a new report alleges. Fire Superintendent Timothy McConnell set aside higher test scores from dozens of candidates for promotion to captain in favor of lower-ranked applicants in September 2016, according to a ruling issued Thursday by the city's Civil Service Department. Personnel Director Lisa Hudson said there were signs that McConnell engaged in “reverse discrimination” by picking lower-ranked black firefighters before higher-ranked white ones.