Blaz zips lip on ‘bias’ move, but pol lets rip
SO MUCH FOR second chances.
City Hall remained mum Wednesday on a discrimination lawsuit filed by Andre Laurant, a black man who claims the FDNY tossed his application for failing to disclose two minor arrests — even after Mayor de Blasio backed a plan to rehire the disgraced son of a former FDNY fire commissioner with a history of tweeting racist slurs.
De Blasio was previously quoted as saying “nobody’s perfect” when asked why Joseph Cassano, the son of retired FDNY Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, would be allowed back into the department after tweeting his hatred toward blacks and Jews.
But a City Hall spokesman referred all questions about Laurant to the FDNY and the city Law Department.
Laurant’s suit notes that the charges he reportedly failed to disclose occurred more than two decades ago.
His plight, first reported in the Daily News, has caught the attention of some elected officials who are hoping the Fire Department reconsiders its decision.
“The Fire Department and the mayor have a responsibility to make sure all candidates for FDNY have the same rights and privileges to become a firefighter,” said Councilman Andy King (DBronx).
“When it came to Joseph Cassano, Commissioner (Daniel) Nigro and Mayor de Blasio said everyone deserves a second chance. Clearly, this is not the case when it comes to this young man, Andre Laurant, who had passed the written exam twice! I hope he wins his case.
“Moving forward, we need to take a look at how many people of color have been overlooked by the FDNY and the reasons,” King added.
The FDNY refused to bend on its decision Wednesday, claiming that Laurant had failed the department’s first real test.
Sources with knowledge of the case said that Laurant took the exam twice, most recently in 2013, as the FDNY was working to comply with a $98 million settlement with the Vulcan Society, the association of black FDNY firefighters that charged blacks and Latinos were subjected to disparate treatment in the almost all-male and predominantly white department.
The FDNY’s Candidate Assessment Division tossed his application for not indicating the two arrests in 1995. Both were dismissed.
Laurant appealed to the department’s Personnel Review Board — which is comprised of agency executives and high-ranking officers — and the city’s Civil Service Commission.
But they agreed with the FDNY’s original assessment, noting that Laurant had “unsatisfactory character” for “omitting information” from his application and “presenting false information,” sources said.
“(Having a criminal record) is not in of itself a disqualifier,” FDNY spokesman Francis Gribbon said. “In this case, he didn’t put it down on his application and it’s pretty explicit in the instructions.
“He failed the first test — are you truthful and honest?” he said.
Laurant’s attorney Eric Sanders found the department’s reasoning “laughable.”
“The city had to pay up $98 million for that kind of thinking,” he said.