No ‘fee’ ride for minority recruits

The FDNY’s $10 million minority-recruitment drive has floundered, because hundreds of black and Hispanic candidates haven’t paid a $30 application fee, The Post has learned.

Normally, candidates for New York City civil-service jobs can’t take the exams unless they complete the application and pay the fee. About 45,000 peo- ple took the city’s firefighter exam last September through October.

But at the FDNY’s request, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which administers the exam, let 1,010 people take the firefighter exam without completing their applications, officials said.

As of June 28, a total of 900 would-be Bravest — including 406 blacks and 262 Hispanics — remain in limbo because they haven’t paid the application fee or obtained a fee waiver, records show. Some Bravest are stunned. “It shows that those testtakers are not serious about wanting the job,” one retired firefighter said. “If you don’t take this job with the right inten- tions, you’re going to get somebody hurt or killed.”

To give more minority candidates a chance to comply, the city set a July 6 deadline, then later extended it to Aug. 6.

The extraordinary measures are being taken because the FDNY is under a federal court order to increase minority hiring.

While 24.6 percent of the test-takers were black, it fell short of the court’s 28 percent goal.

The FDNY, DCAS and Vulcan Society, a fraternal group of black firefighters, have been sending out notices and calling the delinquents to urge them to complete the process.

“Nobody had to beg me to . . . pay a fee,” the retiree said.