Glendale councilman calls for recruitment of more Armenian firefighters

PanARMENIAN.Net - Glendale fire officials plan to develop a recruitment strategy to diversify their ranks and make it easier for existing personnel to be promoted from within and stay with the agency.

As part of the five-year strategic plan, officials will create a recruitment committee to identify the city’s demographics and develop methods for hiring applicants who reflect those ethnic categories. They will also develop programs that would allow firefighters to learn skills from more experienced employees and give them an opportunity to promote to other positions.

Councilman Rafi Manoukian raised concerns at the meeting about the department’s recruitment process, saying former Glendale Fire Chief Christopher Gray had assured him 10 years ago that recruitment efforts would generate more Armenian American firefighters to reflect the local community.

“Ten years later, the result is zero,” Manoukian said. “Nothing is there.”

But Scoggins said the department has made progress, recruiting one woman and four Armenian American firefighters within the last decade.

And about 40% of the hires were from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including African, Armenian and Korean Americans, Scoggins said.

Among the other goals that came out of the strategy sessions: develop plans to maintain and replace facilities and equipment; streamline incident response planning; analyze workloads; and find ways to better communicate and work together with other agencies for mutual aid.

Officials also want to evaluate the effectiveness of community education programs, Glendale New-Press reported.