A proposal to begin charging job seekers at City Hall a fee fell flat this week.
“There’s other ways we can save money,” said city Councilor Frank Nicastro, who heads the Salary Committee.
The salary panel killed the request because its members feared that imposing a fee for those seeking to take the police and fire tests – the first step toward getting a public safety position in Bristol – could potentially keep good people from coming forward.
Personnel Director Diane Ferguson said that charging about $12 an applicant would bring the city about $2,000 annually, an idea she said was spurred by Mayor Art Ward’s request that department chiefs look for ways to bring in new revenue to cover costs.
Many municipalities in the state charge fees for entry level police and fire tests, Ferguson said, including West Hartford, which imposes a $20 charge; New Britain, which asks for $35; and Waterbury, which socks residents for $75 and out-of-towners for $100.
City Councilor Mike Rimcoski suggested that if Bristol opted to begin imposing fees, it should ask for $10 from residents and $15 from those hailing from other towns. He said it would probably average out to about $12 per applicant that way.
Ferguson said there are about 100 applicants annually for firefighter jobs and usually a bit less for police positions.
Hitting them up for the expenses involved would be “a way to cover some of the costs for the testing,” Ferguson said.
City Councilor Cliff Block said that he worries that if the city begins requiring a fee, some qualified people won’t bother to apply.
“I don’t want to deter anyone,” Block said. “I’d like as many people tested as possible so we get the best and the brightest.”
Block said that the $2,000 or so the city might get from test-takers is “not going to make much of a difference in the budget.”
“Not the way you vote,” Rimcoski responded.
But Rimcoski agreed that the $2,000 the city might gain is “peanuts” in the big picture.
Nicastro said he had “mixed feelings” about the issue, but that Block had made a good argument for leaving the system the way it is.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
27 comments:
Way to go Art:
Implement a fee, and then waive it for your friends.
Too bad "best and brightest" wasn't a qualification for city council members....
It's rediculous to charge a fee for someone to apply to a position that barely pays a livable wage to begin with unless they work a tremendous amount of overtime. And the world wonders why there are so few people that choose to go into public service.
Classic personnel director move - pay tens of thousands to lawyers 'cuz she is scared and incapable of doing the heavy lifting with grievances and neogtations. How about an investigation on her expenses and all the lawyers she is paying, Steve?
10:57 - so get off your dead butt and run for office if you feel that you can do better - oops, then you would have to let the public know your real name, huh?
Of course, you might have already run for office and lost and lost and lost and lost and lost, like the former gop "wannabee."
And after 14 years Council members can become mayor.
which means that they would have won 7 council races and a mayoral election - point?
In theory, charging applicants to submit an application fee of even $10.00 is not necessarily a bad idea because even a simple $10.00 fee would help eliminate the serious Bristol test takers from the people who are professional test takers and don't want to be Bristol employees to begin with and are just wasting Personnel's time. On the other hand, from a financial viewpoint, I think it is a waste of time to even entertain it because the potential for revenue is so minor that it has little importance in the budget overall. A better cost cutting measure would be for Bristol to team up with other municipalities and give a combined consortium type test whereas the liability and expense is spread out over many towns and not just Bristol. Many smaller communities already do this with much success and have one large master list with applicants to cover many towns and cities. If are goal is to get better applicants, we need to get much more progressive with our out-of-date hiring practices.
Right on to poster at 11:24am. What do people see in the city's personnel director?
1:24
Point is that one does not have to be the Best and Brightest to become mayor.
Even with 14 years experience.
Clear enough??
"so get off your dead butt and run for office if you feel that you can do better"
Gee, I'd love to 10:57, but according to Mr. Minor and Mr. Block I probably wouldn't be qualified, what with my being educated here in Bristol with our "lousy" schools and all....
Who's Mark Nicastro?
3:21 - What's PAINFULLY clear is that you're still pouting over Mayor Ward's victory....but hey, if you don't have to be the "best or brightest" to become mayor, maybe you or your candidate might actually have a shot at it after all!
Mark Nicastro is the incoming chamber president. He's Frank Nicastro's brother.
"Mark" isn't Franks brother...MIKE is. Dork
I've taken numerous test to become a firefighter throughout the state of Ct. By no means will you lose any viable candidates by implenting a fee to take the test. I've spent 25.00 to 100.00. The only candidates you will lose are the ones that don’t care enough about being a firefighter or policeman because of a small fee for taking the test. This actually shows me that the personal dept of Bristol and Ferguson really don’t have a clue on how many actually take the firefighters test every two years not every year. They usually fill up Easter High's cafeteria for two tests. I've counted how many it was just over 200 applicants for one test so if my math is right over that 400 applicants @ 25.00 per = 10,000 bucks. Ms. Ferguson's position really needs to be looked at if this is what she thinks is going on. I think with the police which probably test every year they only get around 100 applicants if that.
Ward needs Fergy to mollify the unions!
Let's have a paid professional lead the city, not a party hack or a special interest lackey.
8:41 - Let's not and say we did. Bristol's doing just fine thanks!
Party hacks will select a hack that they can control and we will be no better off than we are at present.
"Party hacks?" Oh, you mean the folks that were elected by people. Well, what do they know? They're just the voters.
8:46p.m. - your optimism is only out shown by your pessimism.
11:15
Or Realism!!!
11:15
Your symtactial usage sounds very, very much like that of the mayor, Art Ward.
"Your symtactial usage sounds very, very much like that of the mayor, Art Ward."
LOL! Who are you? FBI? "Syntactical usuage"....hahaha, what a maroon! I don't know if 11:15 is Ward or not, but you sound very, very much like a self-important, paranoid little dork....Get a life! LMAO!!!
12:30p.m. - be careful, you might trip over your tongue and that would leave a bad taste in all of our mouths.
I think Ward is the one tripping over his tongue!
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