The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Fire department seeking more diverse workforce
Official: ‘We are moving the needle, but it needs to move more’
MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown Fire Department, where 8 percent of staff are people of color, will launch a community outreach campaign to build a more diverse workforce, according to Chief Jay Woron.
Every two years, the city reports to the federal government the percent and number of persons of color and women who are employed by the city and 21 individual city departments and offices.
As of May 11, persons of color represent 15 percent of the city’s overall staffing, while the fire department has 8 percent. Women fill 26 percent of the city’s overall staffing, and the fire department has 6 percent, according to Faith Jackson, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management.
Woron said he identified improving department diversity before starting the job in October — mak
ing it a focus as he interviewed for the position last year, which Mayor Ben Florsheim confirmed.
“Chief Woron made it a priority (from the start), and he’s jumped right on top of it,” Florsheim said. “We need to do a better job. We’ve made progress, and now we need to make more, and ensure city government reflects the community it serves.”
With 40 years of fire service overall and 26 years with the Middletown Fire Department, Woron said the department was more diverse a few years ago, when persons of color made up about 30 percent of department staffing.
Then the pandemic hit, and several firefighters retired, he said, cutting the percentage of diverse staff by more than half. Four firefighters were hired in January, but they had to be selected from an already established list of potential hires that lacked diverse candidates. He said other retirements are coming, estimating there could be five to eight in the next few years.
The chief is preparing by working to expand the job applicants to include more persons of color and women. He established an internal department committee to design the recruitment campaign, which will launch in September.
Details remain to be worked out, he said, but the campaign will focus on local churches with diverse congregations, high schools, Middlesex Community College, and other organizations and venues. “We’re cultivating a mentality for the future,” he said of why students are among the target audience.
“We need to do a better job expanding the group of kids who want to be a firefighter,” the mayor said.
Woron said community outreach meetings would feature persons of color who are now fire department employees to talk about the benefits and opportunities.
In addition, Woron said he is also drawing on the expertise and experience of city council members — a number of whom are persons of color themselves.
The chief said that making the fire department more diverse will improve how it serves the Middletown community. “It helps us do our job better. It makes us better people, and makes us more attuned to the different people we meet” in the course of the department’s work.
Jackson said that while the city overall must continue to improve its diversity, she noted that progress has been made, albeit slowly. “When I came here in 1997, we were at 8 percent” (persons of color), she said. “We are moving the needle, but it needs to move more.”
This year, Jackson added, the overall city population is about 27 percent persons of color. Among the city’s 26 total administrators, four are persons of color and seven are women.
Jackson and the mayor both credited Woron with being a change agent.
Florsheim said this initiative fits well with other city-wide efforts, including the establishment of an anti-racism task force and staff training on racial justice and LGBTQIA issues.
“This is how we ensure the workforce is well-oriented to serving the community — so they are getting the highest level of service,” the mayor said.