Reports show few minorities on county payrolls

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lamendola

Affirmative action policies were established more than 50 years ago as a way to help minorities, people with disabilities, veterans and people over the age of 40 obtain equal opportunity in employment.

But despite decades of recruitment and expenditures of millions of dollars, white males continue to dominate most key, high-paying positions within Albany County, Saratoga County, Schenectady County and the city of Schenectady governments, according Equal Employment Opportunity reports filed with the federal government.

Within these municipalities, with few exceptions, minorities are absent from top executive or administrative positions, where salaries equal or exceed $70,000 annually, according to the reports. Municipalities must file the reports with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on odd years every two years. The most recent reports available are from 2009.

Saratoga County’s EEO report listed 19 people who identified themselves as minorities, out of a work force of approximately 1,200 people in full- and part-time positions.

Jack Kalinkewicz, personnel director, said the county is “probably not getting qualified candidates” for some job titles, which are governed by civil service law and have specific qualifications. But he added, “We are one of the largest employers in the county and we are accepting employment here.”

As the county’s affirmative action officer, Kalinkewicz also audits the program and handles grievances. He does not make annual reports to the county board, beyond the EEO report. He said he relies heavily on the EEO report as his main audit tool and said the county’s report is “nothing out of the usual. It has been that way since I have been here.”

Kalinkewicz added that the county has made strides toward diversification over his 30-year tenure and said he has not handled any discrimination complaints in that time.

Albany County listed 286 minorities employed in a work force of 2,541. Schenectady County had 66 minorities in a work force of 1,058, and the city of Schenectady had 28 minorities in a work force of 512. Some large departments within these municipalities, those consisting of 100 or more people, listed no minorities at all.

Support, not management

Where minorities are recorded in large numbers, their job classifications tend to reflect support positions in county-owned medical facilities, generally nursing homes. In Schenectady County, for example, of the 66 minorities on the EEO report, 17 work at the Glendale Nursing Home, in service maintenance or as paraprofessionals. The other large concentration of minorities, 13, work in the Schenectady County Correctional Facility as corrections officers. Schenectady County does have two minorities in top executive and administrative positions.

In the city of Schenectady, the largest concentrations of minorities are in the police department and public works.

In Saratoga County, the largest concentration of minorities, 10 of the 19 listed on the EEO report, work at the Saratoga County Maplewood Manor, a nursing home, primarily as paraprofessionals earning between $33,000 and $43,000.

Albany County’s minority work force is well-distributed among the various departments with minorities in top positions earning $70,000 or more.

NAACP charge

Anne Pope, chairwoman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Northeastern Region of the New York, called these figures appalling, especially those for Saratoga County. “They do have people who are qualified and they are overlooked. There is racial discrimination in employment across the board. That is really the issue and we have to step up our efforts that people of color are represented in all areas,” she said. “We have to look at where they are hired, at the upper level, at the mid-level and at the entry level.”

The Rev. Phil Grisgby, executive director of the Schenectady Inner City Ministry, said the city of Schenectady’s work force “very clearly does not reflect the city’s population and we have had no indication what the strategy is to overcome that.”

Jason Planck, a Schenectady resident and an advocate for the disabled, said employment numbers are even worse for people with disabilities, particularly in Schenectady County. “It is the worst county in the state for hiring persons with a disability,” he said.

Planck said one of the greatest barriers to employment for people both with and without disabilities is local job availability. Schenectady County has the 19th highest employment growth out of 62 counties statewide and the 61st highest rate of hiring for people with disabilities, he said.

Through the years, municipalities have adopted affirmative action plans to help diversify their work forces, generally modeled on that of the New York state Department of Civil Service. This plan seeks to have minorities in state agencies reflect the same percentages as they are represented in New York’s overall labor force.

Municipalities, however, are free to follow any strategy when it comes to recruiting minorities and the disabled, according to the state Department of Civil Service.

Albany’s plan, for example, seeks to have a work force that mirrors the demographic composition of the county, based on U.S. Census data. It also has a 55-B program, which allows the county to hire people with disabilities without their needing to take a civil service exam. The program is primarily for entry-level positions.

The affirmative action plans adopted by Saratoga and Schenectady focus on removing barriers to employment for minorities and disabled rather than on matching census demographics. Neither has a 55-B program.

Schenectady County and the city of Schenectady share an affirmative action officer, Miriam Cajuste, who follows two different plans. The city plan’s is more detailed and calls for an Affirmative Action Advisory Board to be in place; the board does not yet exist.

The various affirmative action plans have monitoring procedures, reporting mechanisms, or both. Some contain grievance procedures people can follow if they believe they are the victim of discrimination, while some do not. In Schenectady County, someone with a discrimination complaint has to file with the state Division of Human Rights.

Compliance

Grisgby said compliance is an issue. “It is a federal mandate with many state components to it, and there could be more state oversight, but I have not seen much oversight. It falls upon local citizens and NAACP to advocate for local compliance,” he said.

Added Grigsby, “The real challenge of affirmative action is to increase diversity in all levels of city employment, disability employment and minority employment. It appears to be an afterthought and it should be an integral part of government.”

According to Paula Wilkinson, affirmative action officer for Albany County, the county has met its affirmative action goals. The county’s work force is 84 percent white and 16 percent minority, compared to the county’s 2000 Census population of 83 percent white and 17 percent minority.

However, the data suggests otherwise when examined by representation by minority. The data shows that blacks comprise 12 percent of the county workforce; Hispanics, 0.2 percent; and Asians, 0.2 percent. The census data shows the county’s demographic composition is 11 percent black, 3.1 percent Hispanic and 2.7 percent Asian.

When examined by department, Albany County once again falls short in meeting its diversity targets, according to the data. Its Department of Public Works, for example, employs 123 people, 119 of them white, according to the EEO report.

Outreach efforts

Still, Wilkinson said the county continuously recruits minorities through job fairs and through other outreach methods. In 2010, she said Albany County hired 128 employees, 105 of them white and 22 of them minorities. She added “it is difficult to find qualified people.”

Wilkinson said the Albany County Legislature sets the goals “as far as what our work force should look like. If we don’t meet the goals, we continue to work toward meeting them.”

Grisgby has criticized the city of Schenectady and Schenectady County’s affirmative action plans as vague and seemingly without strategy. “In the world of affirmative action, I would think that the goal is to increase employment and diversity of a given population. And that the plan should outline a strategy to improve situation. We have never seen that strategy.”

Cajuste said she has a strategy. “We measure success by how many people take civil service exams,” she said.

This measure is more applicable because most of jobs in government are civil service, requiring a person to take a test. Choices are then limited to candidates who score within the top three. Of the 63 people the county hired in 2009, 54 came from civil service lists.

“With this program in its infancy, it would not be prudent to have targets and goals,” Cajuste said.

To prepare people to take the test, Cajuste will offer remedial classes and do outreach. She coordinated an major effort two years ago for people to take the civil services test for law enforcement careers. “The complaint in the past was they did not know about the exams or the preparation dates. We do know we want everyone to be made aware of the tests,” she said.

Cajuste said because of low turnover within Schenectady County’s work force, diversity will take time. “Preliminary studies tells us the workforce is aging, which is why we do not allow our [civil service] lists to lapse,” she said.

Cajuste said 77 percent of the work force was hired prior to December 2005, when she became the affirmative action officer. “Since 2005, the hiring matches community diversity,” she said.

Joe McQueen, spokesman for Schenectady County, added, “Our goal is to just not match the community but to improve on it.”

However, when given an opportunity to hire a minority for non-civil service positions, the county chose otherwise. Within the last year, the county filled at least two non-civil service positions — the director of Emergency Management and the STOP DWI coordinator — with white males.