New York Fire Dept. Cut Bias Unit While Being Sued Over Tests - NYTimes.com: The New York Fire Department office that handles discrimination complaints shrank during a period when the federal government was suing the agency on the grounds that its hiring tests were biased, an assistant fire commissioner testified in United States District Court on Monday.
Over the objections of the city, the assistant commissioner, Lyndelle Phillips, who leads the Equal Employment Opportunity Office in the department, was called to testify by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in Brooklyn. During more than two hours on the witness stand, she described how resources in her office had dwindled since 2006.
Back then, she said, four staff lawyers reported to her; there are now two. During one period from the end of last year to early this year, she said, there was only one.
